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The Never-ending Brainstorm
Taking your inspiration from a gentle breezeto a full-blown hurricane
Vincent H. O’Neil (aka Henry V. O’Neil)www.vincenthoneil.com
Mystery and Horror as Vincent H. O’Neil
The Frank Cole / Exile Mystery Series
Supernatural HorrorTheater Mystery Mystery Anthology
Military Science Fiction as Henry V. O’Neil
www.vincenthoneil.com
Purpose
Ever get halfway through writing a story and then think of a better way to tell it?
That might be because brainstorming isn’t just something we do in the planning phase:
Brainstorming is an ongoing process
Presentation Outline
• Standard brainstorming
• Developing the initial ideas
• Digging deeper
• Revisiting the story
• Other techniques
Brainstorming
• Even if you have a full-blown story in your head, ready to be written, take the time to brainstorm it
• Brainstorming lets one good idea lead to another
• It really pays off
Standard Brainstorming
• Do some research (if applicable)
• Write phrases and words on a sheet / sheets of paper in random order
• Jot down everything that comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant it might seem
• Don’t try to connect the ideas yet
Example Topic
In this presentation, the example topic is a murder mystery involving a supernatural entity (helping solve the crime, suggesting the crime, whatever)
The resulting short story, “Secret Suggestion”, can be found in my mystery anthology Crime Capsules
Brainstorming: Include everything
Ghost
Entity
Suggestion
Emotion
Past
Communication Entity helps or h
inders?
Malevolent?
Detective a psychic?
Detective enlists a psychic?
Sympathetic character?
Insane? Afraid going insane?
Gender?
Ghost’s motivation?
Moment of awareness?
Associate Some of the Ideas
GhostEntity
SuggestionEmotion
Past
Communication
Entity helps or hinders?
Malevolent?
Detective a psychic?
Detective enlists a psychic?
Sympathetic character?
Insane? Afraid going insane?
Gender? Ghost’s motivation?
Moment of awareness?
Spirit
Add Different Thoughts as They Appear
GhostEntity
SuggestionEmotion
Past
Communication
Entity helps or hinders?
Malevolent?
Detective a psychic?
Detective enlists a psychic?
Sympathetic character(s)?
Insane? Afraid going insane?
Gender? Ghost’s motivation?
Moment of awareness?
Gender?
The detective?
The victim?
The entity?
THESE ARE GOOD FORSUSPENSE; DON’T
ANSWER THEM RIGHTAWAY
DETECTIVEVISITS A
PSYCHIATRIST?
Psychiatrist?
Spirit
Synonyms
5 HumanSenses
Sight Sound
Touch
TasteSmell
Example: The Diagram Approach
Pick an aspect of the story and write out various options.In this example, we ponder the ghost’s ability to communicate
Then expand on them
5 Senses
Sight Sound
Touch
TasteSmell
Transmitted memory
Blurred visionHallucinations
Tricks of memory
VoiceSomething that reminds
detective of another case
Hot / cold
Skin crawling
Unfamiliar taste
AdrenalineMetallic
Unfamiliar smell
Smoke Cologne /perfume
Supernatural Communication
Imagined communication? Words, but not heard. Sensed, but not felt
Developing the Initial Ideas
Take the results of the first rounds of brainstorming and start exploring the different questions that they raise
Communication explored --How could the entity solve the case?
• Saw it happen
• Did something similar in life
• Figures it out from what the detective knows / learns
• Has observed a LOT of murder investigations over the years
• Maybe saw it happen but still doesn’t know who did it
• Maybe knows who did it but just won’t tell (refuses to make it easy)
Note how this opens up entire avenues for telling the story . . .
Connection -- the entity and the detective?
The Ghost and
Mr. Detective
Direct – ancestor(or is that a lie?) Indirect – used to
be a cop
Direct – can tellthe detective what it sees
Direct but unusual –this is the first detective
it’s encountered whowas receptive
Indirect – it’s attracted tomurder scenes (ghostsattracted to the things
they enjoyed in life)
What is (was) the entity?
• A murderer
• A sadist
• A cop
• A judge
• Someone who enjoyed games or puzzles
• Maybe we don’t find out this time around
Brainstorming can provideideas for later stories too
What could the entity tell the detective?
• Killer’s motive—communicate by emotion?
• Remind the detective of one suspect over and over
• Point toward a similar case in history
• A case the detective could NOT know
• Maybe the entity avoids a case the detectiveMIGHT know (which could allow the detective toignore the message, or its source, at first)
This idea leaves lotsof room to run
News stories / books /flipping pages
How does the entity communicate?
Emotion: Rage
JealousyLoveHateFear
GratificationJoy
AccomplishmentGreedDesire
Anticipation
When does it first communicate?
Crime scene?
After it’s followed the detective?
At a revisit to the crime scene?
When interviewing someone involved in the killing?
Does the entity follow the killerand feed off the dark emotion?
Did it want to communicate with the killer?
Do its suggestions become a problem forthe detective? (dark suggestions)
A whole new ideainvolving the killer
Why would it help solve the case?
Malice (chance to send
someone to jail) Jealousy – didn’t get
away with its own crimes
Likes challenges
Wants to helpEnjoys causing pain
The entity’s motivation
Likes control(torments the detective)
Note how each of these leads to a VERY different story . . .
Digging Deeper
Right about now you’re starting to piece the results together into a story line.
Don’t stop there.
The Detective
Ancestor a seer?
Able to experience the
killer’s feelings?
So focused on the case that the detective missedthe first communication?
Merely a sympathetic interrogator?
Unaware of psychic
power?
Detective’s Sensitivity
Used psychic poweron other cases?
A good detective might seek out an expert on the topic . . .
The Psychic
Says spirits pursue the
things they enjoyed in life
Suspects the detective is
someone a spirit would
find sensitive
Tells detective thatspirits feel comfortable
around him / her
Asks questions whichwould indicate if the
detective had previoussupernatural experiences
The Psychic
Could the Psychic have selfish motives?
And if the detective would go see a psychic . . .
Detective goes to a psychiatrist
• Concerned about possibly going insane
• Already saw a psychic (psychiatrist is skeptical)
• Collecting information (psychiatrist senses this)
• Discusses strange sensations (anger, jealousy)at crime scene and during interviews
• Between them, the psychiatrist and the detectivecome up with a reasonable answer for everything
Then SOMETHING happens . . .
Revisit the Story
You’re well along now. You’ve got a storyline going from beginning to middle to end. You’re even starting to fill in the blanks.
Time to reconsider.
What about those dark suggestions?
• Can’t we do more with the suggestions?
• Could the entity overdo it? Bleed-over?
• When they arrest the killer, the entity pushesthe detective to kill him / her?
• Psychic suggests that the entity couldn’t communicatewith the killer; it felt his emotion but couldn’t motivatehim / her to kill again (otherwise, why help the detective?)
Suggested earlier
At Murder Scene
Detective never felt
anything like this before
Conflicting emotions at first
Anger
Resentment
Jealousy
Does the entitywant the detective toKNOW it’s a communication?Entity trying to communicate; gauges
reaction
Emotions communicated to the detective
Wonders wherethese feelings are
coming from
The message might not be clear at first. And the entity might not know what it’s doing, either.
At the Office
Resentment toward
boss If the detective DOESN’T
like the boss, the message
might get lost
Maybe feels it moreintensely than usual,or when the boss is
trying to be nice
The Feelings Bleed Over
The detective likesthe boss, so thisis troublesome
Exploring how this would work . . .
The Widow
Maybe the detective
feels nothing at all?
Widow is actually grieving
because she cheated
Widow lies aboutthe affair
Detective notices thatit’s easy to concentrate
when interviewing the widow
Interviewing the Widow
The entity isn’tpointing the detective
at the widow
The psychiatrist can point at this to disprove the detective’s theory of supernatural communication
The PI
Just hired?
Or knows a lot?
Victim met with his lawyer aboutdivorcing his wife if the PI ended
up finding something
Complication: The Private Investigator
Hired to follow the wife
PI tells the police
the dead man suspected
his wife was cheating
An outside player, about whom the police initially know nothing, provides motive for suspecting the widow
Other Techniques
The ‘Making Of’ Approach:
Imagine you’re being interviewed on a variety of topics, (characters, plot twists, settings, events, intentions) as if it’s a ‘Making of’ featurette—what are your answers?
The ‘Making Of’ Approach
The Setting
“I imagined the town as a living thing, a bodywith a fatal illness . . .”
The Tool
“At first the gun was just the murder weapon,but then I asked, ‘Where would this averageguy GET an untraceable gun?’”
“I wanted the killing to be simple . . . elemental . . . which supported the ghostcommunicating through emotion . . .”
The Murder
The ‘Decision Tree’ Approach
Start withthe big ones
Write out the pluses and minuses of the big decisions:-1st person versus 3rd person-‘Whodunnit’ versus a story wrapped around a murder
A little laterA little more specific (once you have some ideas):
-The murder weapon: Found / not found-Witnesses: Saw but won’t talk / saw but undiscovered
Circle back and reconsider:-What if they DID find the murder weapon?-What if there were no witnesses? (Play with this;
what could happen if there were no witnesses at first, but then they found one?)
Much later
You have LOTS of choices . . .
Be the Director
• Treat each scene as live rehearsal with actors
• Get the most out of it (action, thrills, drama)
• Hit the high notes in your story
• Imagine you’re discussing a scene with actors playing the different characters
Choices, actions, revelations
• Imagine you're convincing an actor to playone of the characters
Motivations, behaviors, big moments
Research as Inspiration
• The Complete Idiot’s Guides
• YouTube (how-to’s, interviews, music)
• Online imagery (Google, Bing, etc.)
• Keep your mind open to what these sources are suggesting to you
Mystery and Horror as Vincent H. O’Neil
The Frank Cole / Exile Mystery Series
Supernatural HorrorTheater Mystery Mystery Anthology
Military Science Fiction as Henry V. O’Neil
www.vincenthoneil.com
