Sunday Morning Book Thread 9-13-2026 [Sabrina Chase]

Welcome to the Book Thread, Guest Poster edition! I will be your host as we explore all sorts of book-related topics. All usual Book Thread rules are incorporated by reference (pets, beverage, clothing covering the lower limbs, etc.) with the special Sabrina Chase exemption for those stylish persons preferring kilts.

As I may have mentioned previously, I am a writer. I thought the esteemed Morons of the Book Thread might be interested in some of the inner workings of the authorial process, so now it is time for some Dark Writer Secrets, or ...

Writers have lots of ideas. Ideas are cheap and plentiful. Ideas that we think we can write a good story about in the time available are...less so. The non-writing public, not seeing the whining and crying and hair-pulling we do at the computer, think it is just sitting back and thinking Big Thinks and fame and fortune arrive by cargo ship.

I have performed as a Tame Writer for high school English classes, and it is all very well to see a real breathing person who has written a book. That gets me polite interest. But what gets them enthused is when I demonstrate, right there in front of them, how to get a story idea.

What I usually do is ask them to give me three nouns. Any nouns. And then I show them the brainstorming process that gets me to a narrative that holds together as a story, including tossing out the first or even second idea, because if it was easy for me to think of then someone has probably already done it and better than I can. No, I want the unusual, oh yeah that's Sabrina for you story!

One I remember went like this:

Nouns: Seahawks, Spongebob Squarepants, and Paris (the kids were giggling with glee when they came up with these too)

What I came up with: The NFL has decreed that all team mascots must be real things, and if they are not the team merchandise will be immediately confiscated resulting in mass nudity in Seattle, because nobody has seen a Seahawk! But to the rescue comes the Cousteau society (based in Paris) seeking a mysterious being named Spongebob Squarepants and very knowledgeable about sea life, who can find an actual Seahawk to prove it is real!

They thought this was hilarious.

That said, I don't usually come up with my book ideas with the three-noun method. It's more of a writing exercise to get the writer out of the depressive fits we are prone to. My method is to create movie scenes in my head while listening to music, and create plots from that.

I will confess my Argonauts of Space series started off as revenge for Pluto getting demoted from planet to planetoid, though. I thought, "what would make them beg to call it a planet again... ooh, I know! It's really an ancient alien spaceship! Hmm. And why is it there? It got left as debris after a war." And it all sort of cascaded from there ... and because I am what is politely called a "discovery writer" (but what writers call "pantser", as in "seat of the pants") by the end of the first book I had space Neanderthals and machine telepaths and the vital importance of corn muffins. I dunno about my mind, I just visit...

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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