Writing in Coffee Shops

We all have ideas, some of them great, some not so great. Some get out there and make a difference in people’s lives. Most don’t. Most ideas are never developed, generally because we just see part of it and not the whole. It might be a single line of dialog or a visual image deep in our heads or an idea we’ve had for a novel or play that’s been stuck in our heads for years.

I know people who have been talking about the same novel they’re going to write for decades. They talk for about five minutes, which works out to one or two pages of writing. I see them again in a few years and they’re talking about the same thing and they still have only one or two pages of writing.

The germ of an idea is never enough. You need an idea that’s more like a seed, something that will grow and take on form, direction and life. You do this with the story dump. The story dump is like a box into which you throw any and all ideas you have and, when it fills up, you empty it and put things together so that they make sense.

I use a hard-back notebook and pens. I can carry these around with me everywhere I go, and they never run out of batteries. But, you can use a laptop, cell phone or whatever device that fits your comfort zone.

Begin by writing down all the ideas you have so far for your novel. Get this down as quickly as possible. If new ideas come to mind, make a quick note but don’t develop anything. When you have everything written down, go through your notes and start asking questions. How does so-and-so manage to get into a job he’s obviously not qualified for? Who murdered Little Joe and why? Why did Janice do this? What was she thinking when she did it? What research will I need to back this up?

As you develop each of your ideas, more ideas will come. As you answer questions, more questions will come. Writing a story dump is like rolling a snowball down a hill. As it rolls down, it get larger and larger. The more you write in your story dump, the more you’ll have to write about.

Take your story dump to dental appointments, social events…everywhere. When you run out of things to write, go back through your notes and read them. New ideas will come. Do backstories for your characters. Sit two of your characters down in a confined space and write up a conversation for them.

Basically, the story dump is just that…a place where you dump everything that comes out of your head. Write about the characters, the plot, the settings, the mood, the themes, the story structure, everything you can think of about a specific scene, dream sequences, snippets of conversation, anecdotes, observations, topics to research, relevant news items…everything.

Go into as much detail as you want, but don’t feel obliged to push yourself to do things like write perfect conversations. At this point, you’re just getting whatever comes off the top of your head, writing quickly and mindlessly and having fun. The detailed writing comes later, after you’ve committed to the story. At this point, you’re just trying to decide if you’re really that committed to spend months or years on this idea. You’re trying to determine if you really have enough to write this story, or if this story is compelling or interesting enough that anybody would want to read it.

The best way to do a story dump is to ask questions and then answer them and let the answers go wherever they will.

After you’ve become familiar with the general idea of the story, start asking yourself what scenes you’ll need and write mindlessly about the scenes. Come back to them later and develop them more. The more scenes you write, the more scenes they’ll inspire.

If you can’t help yourself, and you ramble on for several paragraphs, then go ahead. Be random. Let your mind relax and just write what comes into your head. After a month or so, you’ll know if you have a good idea and if it’s something you can commit to for the duration.

If it isn’t, then come up with another idea and story dump it. The beauty of a story dump is that it allows you to size up your idea and decide if you can really stick with it before you spend several months writing a story that you’re never going to finish.

On the other hand, you might begin story dumping an idea and a better idea might come out of it. This is why you should treat the dump as a huge mindless writing exercise. Don’t think too deeply at this point. Don’t commit to anything. Let your thoughts wander all over the place. Nothing you do at this point is wrong. Don’t make it a brain buster. You can linger over something for a minute or two, thinking about how a character might respond to something, or what details would be necessary to make a setting real, but don’t get caught up in this. The idea is to be writing. If you can’t think of anything to write about, look back further into your previous notes and start writing more about them. The more you add to the story dump, the more you’ll release thoughts and ideas about your previous notes.

Keep writing. Tell yourself, “If I stop writing, a ten thousand pound weight will drop out of the sky and land on my beer.”

NOTE: Make labels in the margins of your story dump. If you have a character description on page one using Sarah G, then wherever you describe her in the following pages, label them Sarah G. You might even want to put extra notes like Sarah G – conversation with X, or Sarah G – on catwalk. (HINT: You might want to write in a heading as you finish each session of writing in your story dump.)

EXERCISE

Using the four scene elements below, write a story dump. Write down anything that comes to mind…even if you begin to digress.

• Character: Adam’s dog died this afternoon.
• Setting: Queen Street was deserted.
• Mood: Something wasn’t quite right.
• Plot: The victim’s throat had been cut from ear to ear.

When the Idea Box Is Full

This is going to be different for everyone. At some point, you have to stop story dumping and start arranging all those disparate ideas into something coherent, something that is plotted. Sorry…not going to get into that in this workshop. It’s just not that closely tied into the coffee shop thing. However, I’ve written five novels using the storyboard method. Click here to learn about storyboarding: https://biffmitchell.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/storyboarding.pdf.