This time it was inspired by Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat” blog (which, by the way, I often refer to as “Shave the Cat”, but that’s just me).

This post is about Brainstorming & not believing in writer’s block. You can check out the Shave The Cat post here. (Yes, I said “shave” again.)

When I brainstorm, it works well with pen and paper because I tend to mind map the ideas.

But as soon as I get into free writing, scene snippets, character descriptions, my process tends to work better directly on the keyboard. I’ll get “dialed in” and ideas come directly from the subconscious (inner critic/editor disabled). Words are flying at me way faster than I could possibly handle with a pen. Longhand cramps are a bitch when I’m at 100 MPH and I’ve got a limited buffer!

I’ve discovered that my creative mojo flows directly out through my hands and into the computer, and with the critic effectively locked out of the house (no hide-a-key in a fake rock outside), I can keep pressing forward without getting hung up on typos. This is the only way I could survive NaNoWriMo (twice) and win both times.

My best advice: Everyone’s process is different. If something isn’t working for you — don’t do it that way. Try something different. Anything. And if that doesn’t work, try something else entirely different. But whatever you do, somehow keep writing.

It was written stream of consciousness which has been my writing M.O. lately. After posting it, I realized how long it had become for a blog comment & panicked for a moment, thinking that my comment might have been longer than his actual blog post. I quickly scanned up to his post and was relieved to see that my lengthy comment was “only” 50% the size of his post.

And then I thought — this is a good description of what I have been going through as a writer, and I’m sure many others can relate. This is just as suitable as a post on Creative Mojo and certainly worth sharing. Who knows, perhaps John will post a lengthy comment in return.

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When I write, there’s certainly a tendency to plot, ponder, and obsess about every detail and a desire for perfectionism that leads to a common writer past time of “not getting anything done.” How can I write something good without a killer outline?

Last fall I discovered NaNoWriMo, a challenge to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel during the month of November.
30 days.
50,000 words.
Average output needs to be 1666.66/words per day. And sometimes that .66 word is the most interesting!

I learned to shut off the critic and the thinking brain and wrote stream of consciousness. I was no longer afraid of writing something bad or going many pages in the wrong direction.

I now have more than 100,000 words. Portions need to be completely thrown out. Much of it needs some serious editing. And through this process I discovered my story and learned a ton about my characters.

More importantly, I realized that my previous efforts were focused on trying to perfect an outline before diving into the writing and in doing so, I was considering and rejecting an initial idea that wasn’t fully explored. The idea for a story beat might not have been good, and by rejecting it, I wasn’t allowing myself to explore the idea. Not allowing myself to dig deeper and mine it. Not allowing the idea the opportunity to transform into something great, or lead to something completely different that is much better.

And then I’d wonder why writing is so difficult. It turned out all I needed to do was slip some GHB into my inner critic’s drink to silence it long enough to crank out the words.

So now my current process is to take whatever idea or imperfect-not-fully-outlined-story and write it “no holds barred”. Let the vivid details come out. Let inanimate objects speak. Switch from first to third person. Let the characters do things that surprise me. And out of all that comes clarity, the outline gets reworked based on what I learned from the long form writing, which then allows for editing and refining of the story to match. The process certainly isn’t pretty, but it allows for momentum and gets me somewhere. It’s “The circle of writing.”

It was shot at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the Star Wars 30th Anniversary Celebration. Scenes were shot on the fly with convention attendees, and we weren’t entirely sure what we’d have in the end.

An interesting creative process. Step #1: Shoot. Step #2: Edit. Step #3: Write it. Totally bass-ackwards from the normal Write-Shoot-Edit sequence.

Please post comments & pass it along to your friends.

Enjoy!

– Sideshowdoug

According to Yellowstone National Park Geologist Hank Heasler, “These two gentlemen were lucky they didn’t get burned by the steam. Not so lucky, the dude that used Old Faithful for a colonic. It’s been six months and he’s still in an ass-cast.”

Workers have been reminded not to refer to Old Faithful as “nature’s bidet”.

A man was arrested after authorities were tipped off about a reckless, naked driver on Interstate 80 in central Nebraska.
He is the first person to be diagnosed with Stage 5 Nebraska Flu.

DRUNK BREAST FEEDING

A 26-year-old woman in North Dakota was arrested for breast-feeding her baby while drunk. The woman claimed she was feeding the baby “nature’s white russian”.

PAKISTANI INTELLIGENCE

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari said Monday his intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden may be dead, but he added there is no proof mainly because he has no pudding.

MR T GOES TO JURY DUTY

Last week in Chicago, Mr. T. showed up for jury duty at Cook County Circuit Court. Murdoch helped him get out of jury selection by using trash bags and a lawn chair.

EGYPT KILLS PIGS

To protect against swine flu, Egypt began slaughtering herds of pigs.
To protect against ultra-right-wing conservatives, a free first class ticket to Egypt has been offered to Rush Limbaugh.

Stephen Hawking was hospitalized on Monday because of a mysterious illness, and doctors expect him to make a full recovery.  Upon hearing this, Stephen got excited until the doctor clarified, “except for that neuromuscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis thing.”

Police defend using a taser on naked man at Coachella

This week, police defended their use of a taser on a drunk, belligerent and naked party-goer at the Coachella Music and Arts festival last week.

“Finally my friends will have a reason to make fun of me besides my last name,” said naked taser victim Johnathan Fredrick Felch.

Bear Chases Woman

In Colorado Springs a woman was chased by a bear into the street where she was hit by a car. Then the bear ran away with her pic-a-nic basket.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama acknowledged in a major economic speech that “times are still tough” and warned that a culture of “instant gratification” undermined the economy.

Said Marius Schwartz, professor of economics at Georgetown University, “I don’t understand how the entire financial system was brought down by me feeling myself in a rapid manner.”

MEL GIBSON DIVORCE

Mel Gibson’s wife Robyn has filed for divorce from her husband of 29 years. Robyn Gibson’s reason for ending the marriage — every time they had sex Mel screamed “Murtaugh”.

In response to the filing, Mel yelled, “Give me back my wife!”

PALIN VETTING

John McCain’s lead vice presidential vetter said Friday that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “impressed” in her interview, knocking the senator’s most important questions “out of the park.”

He failed to mention that the park he was referring to is Legoland.

SNAKES ON A PLANE

On Tuesday, four baby pythons escaped from a container aboard a passenger plane in Australia. By the time the plane landed it was short two passengers.

Of the remaining passengers, none complained about the food, excessive baggage fees, or the 6 hour wait on the runway.

MICROSOFT STORES

Microsoft is planning to open retail stores later this year. Even if things go well, it is expected that customers will spend a lot of time waiting outside each Microsoft store, when 10-12 times a day, it will open, close and be re-opened again.

HEIDI KLUM’S PREGNANCY

Supermodel Heidi Klum & husband Seal announced that Klum is pregnant with their fourth child. They have asked the public for privacy and also requested that once the baby is born, please don’t club baby Seal.

Obama ordered the releas of nearly a quarter of a million records from the Reagan White House. Unfortunately, 97% of Americans don’t have the equipment to play an LP.

CO-CREATOR OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS DIES

Dave Arneson, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game died after a two year battle with cancer wiped out all his hit points.

Unfortunately his saving throw was unsuccessful.

Sudan will hold its first general election in 24 years in an electoral process that starts this April and will finish in February 2010. Although it seems like a lengthy time frame, it is expected to finish before the resolution of the Coleman/Franken recount.

WOMAN DIVORCES HUSBAND FOR CLEANING TOO MUCH

A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time, doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture. The woman put up with it for over 15 years before she got sick and tired of not nagging.

Since Wednesday, the man has received 2000 engagement proposals from both men and women.

FORD, GM TO COVER CAR PAYMENTS IF BUYER LOSES JOB

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. are offering payment protection plans to help reassure consumers who may be putting off buying a new car because of worries about losing their job. Ford will cover payments of up to $700 each month for up to a year on any new Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle if consumers lose their jobs.

Said the Ford CEO, “It’s especially important to buy a new car now, because when you lose your job, your car is probably where you’re going to end up living.”

To put things in perspective, as an adult, when you lose your job, you end up living in your car, which is the same place in high school, where you used to “get a job.”

OHIO MAN CHARGED WITH DRUNKEN DRIVING ON A BAR STOOL

An Ohio man has been charged with drunken driving after crashing his motorized bar stool, which can go up to 38 mph. It was unfortunate that he crashed into a guy who was driving his motorized recliner.

The Indian car manufacturer Tata Motors announced it is taking orders for their Nano, a very small bubble shaped car that is priced at $2000, making it the world’s cheapest car, at least until the release of an even smaller and cheaper car, the Shuffle, which has an autopilot that takes you to a random destination.

ALASKA VOLCANO

A total of five explosive events were recorded at Alaska’s Mount Redoubt, sending ash columns 60,000 feet into the air. Scientists have determined the cause of the eruptions is morning sickness from a volcano that was forced to keep it’s baby for political reasons.

The father, nearby Mount Torbert is planning to drop out of the Tordrillo mountain range to join an apprenticeship program and raise the baby.

CEMETARY PLANE CRASH

Last week in Montana, fourteen people died when a small plane crashed into a Montana graveyard. The pilots have posthumously been given bonuses from AIG.

MUSSOLINI

In Italy, the MSI-Fiamma Tricolore, an Italian right wing party, want expecting parents to name their child after Benito Mussolini. It was somewhat expected, since it would be difficult to name their child before Mussolini.

GM EMPLOYEES OPT FOR EARLY RETIREMENT

About 7,500 GM employees have signed an agreement for early retirement incentives if they leave the company. They were offered $20,000 in cash and a $25,000 voucher to buy a car. Many of the employees taking the deal indicated they’d use the car voucher to buy a Toyota.

BLOCKBUSTER & TIVO PARTNERSHIP

Blockbuster and Tivo just announced a partnership to deliver Blockbuster’s library of premium digital movie titles directly to the television set via Tivo DVR’s. Blockbuster OnDemand will feature content to both buy and rent, and the service is expected to be released in the second half of 2009, just in time for Blockbuster’s bankruptcy.

POST OFFICE RUNNING OUT OF MONEY

Postmaster General John Potter told Congress on Wednesday that the post office will run out of money this year unless it gets help. Options for fixing the problem included cutting delivery to five days a week, opening your credit card statements and selling them to an identity theft organization, and increasing the cost of a first class stamp to $2,000.

NORTH DAKOTA FLOODING

In Fargo and Bismarck, volunteers are scrambling to pile sandbags to protect the area from floodwaters, which mistakenly implies that North Dakota is worth saving.

SOMALI PIRATES

On Thursday, Pirates armed with machine guns hijacked two tankers in under 24 hours, which kicks off the 2009 Somali hijackathon. For just $10 a day you can provide one terrorist pirate with an ammunition refill and help him build a better life of stealing foreign goods and holding hostages for ransom.

GOOGLE EARTH PENIS

A U.K. teenager who wanted to be spotted by Google Earth has painted a 60-foot long image of a penis on top of his parent’s house. When asked how he painted the large image he replied, “I straddled the roof and traced it.”

JOHN MCENROE DUPED IN ART SCAM

Tennis champion John McEnroe was one of many who were duped in a sophisticated $88 million art investment scam. McEnroe lost $2 million from investing in a half share of two pantings, Arshile Gorky’s “Pirate I and II”. McEnroe was extremely disappointed and said he picked the paintings because he “40-loved” them.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH RADIO SHOW

Impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich filled in as host of a Chicago radio show Wednesday which caused a widespread panic when listeners confused the show with the tone of the Emergency Broadcast System.

THIS WEEK IN STATISTICS

According to a report from the National Federation of the Blind, fewer than 10% of the 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States read Braille. Instead, a largely increasing number are opting for voice-recognition software or other technologies that allow the blind to download audible porn.