You’ll find below a technique for interacting creatively with the new chaos of AI online.
It’s helpful for choosing formats for publishing your work, for artistic insight and human resonance, and for story-building in other professions and life planning.
The idea is to isolate elements of classic story structure and deepen (humanize) them individually. Each one becomes a key, as on a piano, worthy of being fully tuned by itself, to stimulate the desired resonance when it taps the inner strings of the mind and heart.
In these fractionated times, when quality long-form stories are harder to conceive and maintain – as event horizons keep shrinking – writers everywhere are considering 100-word stories and 1,000-word flash fiction. Yet when I tried these forms, I felt as lost in the whirlwind of memes and hot-takes as I frequently feel on the web.
So I returned to literary greats, to remember the feelings of extended coherence. What a jolt to sense that their magic rose from strings of gem-like stories, whole worlds in a sentence or two, with resonance across space, time, and circumstance.
Creatively, to enjoy the satisfactions of a long imaginal immersion, plus the immediate need for completion of Something, I broke a modified hero’s journey into 21 elements. When I focused on each separately, I was delighted to notice the online morass organizing itself in my mind’s ear into 21 possible narrative elements – lyrics to a literary song I was writing. I loved the shift into feeling creatively in charge, not bewildered.
To capture these notes as they sounded, I created 21 index cards. Whenever a news blip feels inspiring or tragic or scary, I have a place to categorize and express my reaction that’s useful, proactive – as the core of micro or flash fiction, whether standalone or part of an eventual long-form work.
In the spirit of a prompt, knowing any writer could create unique cards, maybe several sets for different storylines, here’s a place to start. I’ve used the second-person “you” so the list works for self-inquiry or for interviewing a (different) draft fictional character – in sequence or in a deck of flash cards. Affixing the movable cards to a wall or board can illuminate a long-form work or offer clues for ways to structure it.
Here’s one draft of one writer’s questions (yours may differ):
1. What do you want – materially, conceptually, emotionally?
2. How might achieving those material objectives affect your thoughts and feelings? How are your conceptual views shaping your choice of material outcomes and the feelings you want to have? How are your feelings altering your perception of material desires and conceptual goals?
3. Why are those desires and objectives personally Important – arising from open or hidden memories, current pains and pleasures, and/or visions of possible futures?
4. How are your desires and objectives in harmony with your current context (settings, cultures, relationships, events)?
5. How are your desires and objectives in conflict with your current context (settings, cultures, relationships, events)?
6. What might you have to sacrifice in pursuit of your objectives?
7. What losses or damage – to yourself, your near-and-dear, your community – might result from failure to achieve your objectives?
8. What primary adversary opposes you? Why? How?
9. How will you go about trying to achieve your objectives – now, soon, eventually?
10. How might you fail?
11. How might your actions have unintended consequences?
12. What character flaws might be revealed or accentuated by pursuing your objectives?
13. What hidden or forgotten strengths or virtues might surface in pursuit of your objectives?
14. How might you directly challenge the adversary?
15. How might you evade or bypass the adversary?
16. How do you imagine you might be changed – individually and in relationships – by challenging the adversary?
17. How do you imagine you might be changed – individually and in relationships – by evading or bypassing the adversary?
18. How do you imagine you might be changed – individually and in relationships – by achieving your objectives?
19. How do you imagine you might be changed – individually and in relationships – by failing to achieve your objectives?
20. How do you imagine your surroundings might be changed by your achievement of your objectives?
21. What problems do you want to solve by conceiving storylines piece by piece?
Photo Credit: Pixabay