Daydream believer: the secret to great storytelling

I rarely sleep

The world is full of advice on writing. Especially during the month of November, when hundreds of thousands of people take to their laptops and chairs and challenge themselves to write 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month.

There is so much advice out there—how to outline your novel, how to structure sentences for pacing, should you or shouldn’t you have a prologue (I say yes)—that honestly it can be overwhelming.

Which isn’t to say that a lot of this advice isn’t helpful and valid. Because it is certainly the case that good writing aids storytelling. But before you ever get to the writing part, there’s the story development process which I find just as important.

Without a completely developed idea, and an interesting one, no matter how great the writing is, it’s still going to fall flat.

So, what’s the secret to great storytelling?

I personally think, first and foremost, and above everything, that daydreaming is the best tool to becoming a great fiction, science fiction or fantasy writer. And I don’t see it talked about much. Or maybe I’m spending too much time daydreaming instead of reading advice articles.

So, do you daydream? Of course you do, everyone does. But the question should be, how do you daydream? Are you the type that just lets your mind wander, to wherever it wants? Or are you one of those others. Those constant daydreamers. The ones who have a cool idea come to mind, but then you play with it, change it, and morph it until it is better? Do you dream up a cool situation, storyline, or technology and focus daydream on it until it is more complex, more complete? Do you daydream about your gem multiple times? Until it is more in-depth, more intriguing?

If you do the later, then congratulations. I think you’re on to something.

Now, I’m certainly not claiming I’m an expert on daydreaming or the science behind it (although based on what I know, it’s pretty interesting). But I’m a firm believer in the power of it.

Some of my ideas and concepts took years to fully develop enough that I wanted to put them down on paper. The result of controlled daydreaming is that your characters, concepts and ideas are much more three-dimensional. Your ideas are more clear and understandable, and your story all the richer for it. Then when you sit down to write, you write from a well thought-out position and with lively detail.

Here are my tips for controlled daydreaming.

  • Find a place where there are no external distractions.
  • Free your mind of other thoughts and ideas.
  • Focus on the idea or storyline that you would like to develop.
  • Include goals and challenges for your characters.
  • Try to break up each concept into manageable and controllable pieces.
  • Try and integrate some conflict or tension and suspense into each so everyone, you included, wants to know what happens next.
  • Do not make decisions after just one time thinking on it; do the same thing several days in a row. I find this really helps in the creative process.

Perhaps we should make the month before NaNoWriMo the official month of daydreaming and storymaking. It is, after all, the month of mischief, magic and make-believe.

Happy daydreaming and happy storytelling!

Cheers.

 

 

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