Introduction  Let's Brainstorm.

     You may have heard of the word "brainstorm" spoken by a teacher or other person.  What is brainstorming?  Brainstorming is a common way to express thinking prior to starting a report, essay, etc.  You may have also heard the phrase "everything but the kitchen sink."  That's an exaggeration used to express an abundance of something.  In this lesson, you will learn how to begin your story by brainstorming everything but the kitchen sink.

Lesson

     How do you get an idea for your story?  Maybe it's from a dream you had, a scene you saw in a movie or in real life.  Maybe it's from your newest favorite song.  Maybe it's from a video game your brother can't seem to stop playing.  Whatever it is inspired by, you have an idea and you can't stop thinking about anything but what you're going to do with it.  If it were me, I'd reach for the closest piece of paper and a pen.  Maybe I only know that little bit for now, but that's what the paper's for.  By the time I express the scene that played in my head, half the paper's full of messy writing and I have a new one running through my head.

     Maybe you don't do that though.  Maybe the whole thing comes to you all at once--every detail and twist in the plot, everything in one fraction of a moment.

     Either way, I encourage you to get a piece of paper out and write it down.  Think of everything you might want to use in the story and write it all down.  You don't necessarily have to start from the beginning of the story.  If you'd prefer, start with how the story ends and think of how that ending came to be.  Think of protagonists, but leave them very one-dimensional for now.  Don't give them a name, don't think of what they wear.  Don't even decide whether they'll be male or female yet.  Just think of how the story will follow them on their journey.

      Don't think that you have to do this all in one day, it's just to gather your thoughts.  Try to visualize the thing you took your inspiration from and let it play through your head again.  What was significant about that thing?  Why were you inspired by it?  Ask yourself these questions.  Maybe jot down a list of words that relate to what you're thinking.  For instance, if you were inspired by a creaky floorboard in your house, maybe write the words "floor", "creak", "noises", "horror".

      Associating words can carry you on your way to plotting out your story.  For example, you were inspired by a creaky floorboard in your house.  Maybe your protagonist will encounter the same one in your story.  Maybe the floorboard turns into more than a pesky problem when the protagonist finds a collection of letters hidden under it and a jar full of ink.  Perhaps the letters are aged and the protagonist wants to find out who wrote them and what they were doing under their floor.  Now you have the basis of the story.  All from a piece of annoying flooring in your house.

       What I am trying to stress is to write anything and everything down.  It doesn't matter if you think it's relevent or not.  Maybe it will be later in your story if it isn't immediately.  But get all your ideas out so fresh ones can take their place.