A Few Methods for Stirring Up Story Ideas

     Sometimes you need story ideas.  Sometimes you don't know how to get them.  Here's a list of things you can do to try to get your brain moving!


1. Play The Sims

     You can laugh all you want, but I once wrote a 500+ page novel based on characters I created in the Sims 3, and the slew of crazy shit that happened to those characters after I created them.  The Sims is a great way to get your creative juices flowing--and the more expansion packs, the better.
     The Sims allows you to make your own characters (or randomize, if you need help creating the characters, too), and in order to stay interested in the sandbox gameplay you're essentially forced to make up a story about said characters, in your head and sometimes in their bios.  There are also dozens of worlds, thousands of trait combinations, and tons of character types to choose from and interact with, which can help you .
     There are so many variables in the Sims (with expansion packs, at least) that it's almost impossible not to come away with at least enough inspiration for a short story premise.
      I suggest using the Sims 3, but to each their own.

2. Read some one-shot fanfictions
 
      Whatever fandoms you might be into, I pretty much guarantee that, somewhere on the internet, there will be at least one good one-shot.  For inspirational purposes, I lean toward sadstuck, since there's a lot out there and a surprising amount of it is well-written (plus I'm a masochist and sad stories tend to resonate with me.  And I write a lot of tragedy), but one-shots of all kinds can be rife with ideas (AUs, fluff, smut, friendfics, whatever gets your mind working overtime).
      One of the best things about one-shots is that they not only deliver a concentrated punch of idea right to your brain (if you're lucky), they're also rarely longer than five or six thousand words, meaning they don't take up a lot of your time.  Longer stories, fanfic and otherwise, are great for ideas, and provide excellent insight into how to execute story and character arcs, but they consume a lot more time and energy than the shorter version.
     I also suggest fanfiction rather than short stories (though short stories are great and you should totally read as many of those as you can, too) for two reasons--one, you already know the characters, which makes it easier to immerse yourself in the story and quickens the pace of it (since you don't need to read through a description or question their personality or motives), and two, bad stories can be just as inspiring as good ones, and you're less likely to find published works that stink of amateurism.  Have you ever been reading a really bad fic with a really good premise and gotten so angry that you decided to write the same basic fic only a mILLION TIMES BETTER??????  Yeah, that's why fanfic.

3. Watch cartoons

     Cartoons are great for the same reason one-shots are great, only usually less weighted down by those pesky laws of reality--I mean, Adventure Time has KNIFE STORMS.  When was the last time you read about a world with knife storms?  Never?  I thought so.
     Sometimes the best thing for a writer is to just let go of all sense of reality, especially if you write sci-fi or fantasy, wherein anything can happen.  Cartoons are also good if you're trying to write family-friendly content, or if you need help writing child characters (or from the perspective of a child).  It can also be great for developing mythologies.  Imagine Adventure Time as a pantheon: Princess Bubblegum, creator of all Gods (through science, of course); Finn the Adventurer, God of travel and battle; Jake, Lord of Reality Manipulation; Marcelline, Queen of the underworld.  That would be pretty dope, right?

4. Go for a walk

     Exercise stimulates brain activity; it can help you retain information, recall information, and develop new ideas.  I suggest listening to music while you go out (that's how I get into the zone), but some people do find it distracting, or find that they gain more inspiration from the sounds of nature than from the rhythm of music.  Either way, it's also good to get away from all the distractions provided to you by the cozy insides of your teched-up, probably loud house.  Plus, you never know what you may encounter on your walk--maybe you'll see a skunk making friends with a bird, or some kids scaling up the side of a house, or witness the encroaching Singularity from a safe distance, any of which could be put to use on paper.

5. Take a nap

     I really really really truly do advocate that you try the radical curative powers of some good old fashioned nap.  It can refresh your mind and body, restore you to stress-point-zero, and you never know what you'll dream of while you're out.  Dreams can be quite the source of inspiration, I am told.
     I've also has some of my best ideas while perched upon that precipice between waking and sleeping, so make sure to take your notebook with you!


     Are there any other methods you use to stir up inspiration or capture ideas?  I'd love to hear them!

A List of Things People Will Say to you When you Have Tourette's

     I love it when people ask me questions about my disorders.  After all, Tourette's and Fibromyalgia aren't exactly common, and I know how important it is to teach people about such things--if you destroy ignorance today, it could save a life tomorrow.

     So when people work up the courage to ask about how things work or feel, I'm almost always thrilled!  I love teaching, I love learning, and I love open, fearless discussions about the realities of life, peeling back the layers of stigma and ignorance that do nothing but fester when left opaque and undiscussed.  Transparency, in this case, is a good thing.

     But there are certain things that are said to someone with Tourette's that don't fill me with the warm fuzzies, things which are best left unsaid.  While I'm glad that I was able to address some of the things that have been said to me before they reached the ears of anyone else in the same boat, I'd appreciate it if anyone reading this didn't make the same mistake--unless, of course, you put them in the mouths of your characters, in which case it might add a touch of realism to the story.

• "What's that disease you have?  Can I catch it?  Is it safe to drink this?"
   

       Tourette's is NOT a disease.  It's a Syndrome, a disorder, a disability, but it's not a disease or an illness, a virus or bacteria or infection.  It cannot be caught or contracted, and the worst you'll catch if you drink from my water bottle is probably a sore throat.  

  
  

   

• "Have you tried medication?"
  
  

       Yes, actually, I have.  But as I've mentioned in other posts, due to low visibility and nil fatality there aren't any medications designed specifically for Tourette's Syndrome; the best you'll find are seizure medications, many of which can be very cognitively suppressant and/or harmful to your heart.  Clonidine is just about the only medication that does neither, but it's used primarily to treat ADHD, and didn't help me at all.

       The problem with this question is multifaceted; firstly, it implies that neither I, nor my family, nor the myriad of doctors I've been to have ever considered looking into medication.  Unless you're a homeopath, trust me when I say that medication is the first thing you think about when you're diagnosed--sometimes before you're diagnosed!  The better question would be "Does medication work?," the answer to which would be no, most of the time it doesn't.
  
       The second problem with this question is that it implies that medication is necessary.  For something like Tourette's, medication can sometimes help manage tics, yes, and if you have very severe tics or a particularly misunderstanding set of peers it can put you in a much greater sense of comfort.  But because it isn't deadly, there isn't a driving need to use it if you don't want it, and most people who ask this don't really care about the comfort of the afflicted individual--they care more for their own comfort and sense of worldly normalcy.
  
• "Can't they put you in a coma?"

       People have said this to me.  Please, take a second to think about this; human beings have approached me, called me by name, and very openly and genuinely asked me if (or told me that) a medically-induced coma could be a solution.  I honestly don't know where this comes from--what would that solve?  What would it change?  I think it just links back to the prioritizing of one's own comfort above the comfort of the afflicted individual, but to a new kind of extreme--imagine if you started coughing and someone came up and told you that your cough was so annoying that you needed to be locked in a closet for an indefinite period of time.  Yeah.  Not a great feeling.  

• "I wish I had Tourette's!"

      No.  No you don't.  You really, really don't.  You don't want the stares you'll get in public, or the ableist comments from your peers, the cruel nicknames people think are funny, or the way half the population doesn't even believe that what you have is real.  You don't want the loss of bodily autonomy or the mental illnesses that usually come hand-in-hand, and you absolutely do not want to be yelled at by police officers in the driving rain, or teachers who tell you you're lying when you try to explain yourself, or substitutes that were never told about your condition.

       You just really don't want this, so don't act like you do.  I know you mean well, but you clearly have not thought this through.

• "If I had Tourette's I'd swear all the time!"
  
       Well yes, maybe you would.  Or maybe you wouldn't have coprolalia at all, like ninety percent of people with Tourette's Syndrome.
  
       I'm also often asked if I ever swear on purpose and use my Tourette's as an excuse, and the answer is always no.  Yes, I swear, and yeah, having coprolalia has made me pretty callous about it--if I'd continued to care about it after it started I'd be in a pretty bad place, so the best thing for my own mental health was to embrace the practice and take a little control back.
  
       But never once have I used my Tourette's to excuse my own words.  When you have Tourette's, there's a separation that happens in your mind.  You delineate between "Me" and "It;"  Me and It are always battling for control over mouth and body, and you feel the need to protect the Me, to take credit where credit is due.  You learn not to feel pride or shame for what It does, and instead focus your energies on how Me functions.
  
       I cannot control it when It swears at my teachers, but I CAN control it when Me swears at teachers, so Me keeps its mouth shut where applicable; I've had tics that keep me from talking and tics that keep me talking, so when dealing with Tourette's silence is as much a weapon as speech.
  
• "You're just faking."
  
       Also, see; "Tourette's is fake" and "Stop it anyway" and "No you don't" for varying degrees of ableism.
  
       This is one of the worst things you can say to someone with Tourette's--or any disorder, disability, or illness, really. With Tourette's it often connects to the comments above--people are only faking so they can swear, after all, never mind that tons of children are injured by or beat up for tics every day that have nothing to do with cursing.  Tourette's is hell enough without the disbelief that accompanies it.
  
       I've also been told stories about kids that were faking it, like it hurts my case to have someone else screw up--not that I know they screwed up in the first place.  The story I best remember is one in which my sister-in-law's stepfather walked in on some of his students talking about how "awesome" it was they got to swear in class, at which point he told them that if they ever swore in his class again they'd see their comeuppance.
  
       My question, of course, is how does he know they weren't just trying to make the best of a bad situation?  That's kind of the status quo of the disabled.  "Look at this awful thing I have to deal with!" we say, and everyone says "Shut the fuck up you whining loser!"  "Well I guess at least I don't have to do gym anymore," we mumble, curling up into a ball.

• "You don't know what it's like to lose control of your life!"
  
  
       Of all the things that people have said to me over the years, I think this one is probably the one that pissed me off the most.  A girl I had known for years turned to me in the lunch line and said this to my face.  
  
       No, I don't know what it's like to lose control of your life.  I mean, I can't control what my arms and legs do, I never know what my mouth is going to do next, my emotions might as well be tied to the movements of the Earth around the sun and the moon around the Earth, I had to give up almost half my personality in response to and in order to cope with my disorders, and for two years I had to give up my personal passions because it was too exhausting to try to juggle Tourette's, Fibro, and plays, but yeah, no, I have no idea what it's like to lose control over my life.  None whatsoever.
  
       Never fucking say this to anyone with a disorder.  Never.  
  
  
  
  
       So there's a list of a few things people might say to you when you have Tourette's.  If any of my fellow Tiquers have anything they'd like to add or share, or if anyone has any questions, feel free to comment!   I'd love to hear your stories and answer your questions.
  
       If there's anything you've thought about saying to someone you know or any questions you've thought about asking, and you aren't 100% certain that it's appropriate to ask them, don't be afraid to send me a message instead, especially if the two of you aren't that close, and I'll try to be gentle with you no matter the outcome.  I'm not trying to dissuade you from sating your curiosity, but I am trying to protect other Tiquers from the damages of thoughtlessness and ignorance.  

Things Not To Do During Camp NaNoWriMo

     The first half of Camp NaNoWriMo ended nearly a month ago, and I lost by a little more than half my goal.  I'm not proud of this, but I'm going to call it a "Learning Experience" and use it to get a blog post in.  Here's a list of nine things you SHOULDN'T do when embarking on Camp NaNoWriMo.

1. Get sick
        I came down hard with a throat virus in early April that really sent me reeling.  I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, I couldn't do much of anything.  The one thing I COULD do was write--which I did a lot of!  I got something like twelve thousand words written in one business week.
        But then I had to go back to school, and this is where I died.  I had reading to make up, worksheets to fill out, MORE reading to make up, and everything went to hell.  I was still sick when I went back, too, which meant that in addition to scrambling trying to catch up with backwork, I was also exhausted just getting up in the mornings, and my favorite thing to do was come home and sleep, which meant foregoing my daily writing for days at a time.
        Don't get sick when you do NaNo, kids.
    
2. Buy an iPad
        I've never owned an Apple product before, or even a cell phone more high tech than a basic Tracfone, but last month I decided to purchase a used iPad from my boss.  "This will be awesome," I said to myself.  "I'll be able to write my NaNo Novel anywhere I want and not have to worry about transcribing!"
        I did not, you will have inferred, understand how iPads work.
        My intentions were good, but one of the first things I did was go online and download a bunch of Apps that looked cool, and some of them actually were.  The one I wanted most to work properly, however--the word processor--was lackluster and comparatively difficult to figure out, and I ended up spending far more time trying to make my digi-self a rich famous moviestar in the coolest high school university EVER, which cost me precious hours in writing time.
        Since then I've chilled on the games (mostly), and I had a lot of fun but hindsight being 20/20 I know now that it was really a very bad idea right from the get go.  Maybe buying an iPad wasn't the problem in and of itself, but I'd say it's for the best if you not download really fun apps just before you start Camp NaNo.  Probably.
3. Start three plays
        I've never done more than one play at a time before, so I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to jump in and do three at the same time because easing your way in is apparently for chumps.  This, however, was ALSO a giant time suck on this, the month of my daughter's birth (my daughter being the manuscript, you see).  Three days a week since I've been out of the house essentially from eight in the morning to nine or ten at night, which cuts severely into the two-thousand-word-a-day goal I had set for myself.
        I don't regret this, since it's a lot of fun and also my career path, but NaNo was a bad month to START it--as I may have made clear by now, starting things is a hectic and exhausting business which leaves time for almost nothing else.  I had the same commitments this month as last, but this month it was far less taxing, simply because I'd already adjusted to it.
        Maybe just try to avoid starting pretty much ANYTHING, really, during NaNo months.
4. Get Sick
5. Get no sleep
        I have a lot of trouble sleeping most nights, but for some reason I had an especially hard time sleeping in April, which left me too lethargic and dry-minded to write much of anything at all.  Maybe it was because all of the above were tiring me out.  Because that's totally how normal biology works, right?  Yeah.
        It's really important that you get enough sleep to keep yourself healthy, especially on a NaNo month.  Writing fifty thousand words (or whatever your goal was this time around) is a terribly taxing task, and if you continually end up running on empty, your manuscript will suffer.  When your manuscript suffers, the writing gets hard to continue.  When the writing gets hard to continue, it's pretty easy to quit.  And when it's pretty easy to quit, you let the mouse in through the window and it sucks all your blood out through your palm.  And that, children, is why you never give a mouse a cookie.
        Can you tell that I'm tired as I'm writing this?
6. Get Sick
7. Get Sick
8. Get Sick
        Jesus Christ, please do not get sick on NaNo, you will regret it once you go back I promise you take care of yourself stay healthy stay hydrated sleep well don't lick peoples' noses, you don't deserve the loss of word count you are a good person you deserve a finished manuscript
9. Put it off until tomorrow
        When you have thirty days to write sixty thousand words, it's really easy to say "I'll just write four thousand tomorrow to make up for it!"  When you're tired and busy it gets even easier, and once you've pushed the deadline back once it's easier to do it again--and again, and again, and again.  Before you know it the month is up and you have almost nothing to show for it but a husk of an MS and some progress on a game you'll honestly probably delete in like a month.
        Sometimes it's unavoidable, and as I've said before, you don't need to beat yourself up about it--but you should do your best to avoid it.  When you dedicate yourself to a daily goal, do whatever is in your power to reach it as quickly as you can.  Write in the morning, write throughout the day, write when you get home from work, write, write, write, write, write.
        Because Write Is Right, and the only one you hurt by blowing off your goals is you.

How To Write Tourette's, Part Two: Character Basics

     Characters with Tourette's Syndrome are uncommon, but as our understanding of the disorder increases and awareness spreads, we're finding that it's more commonplace in real life than previously thought.  As I mentioned in this post, there the numbers were once as low as one in every thousand children, some think that the statistics might actually be one in every hundred.  As the prevalence rises irl, why shouldn't it rise in the media?

     So let's talk shop.

     How do you design a character with Tourette's?  Start with a character without Tourette's.  The disorder has a typical onset of age 7-12, but the full range extends further, and there is no "typical" case of Tourette's.  Regardless of the age, your character existed before the Tourette's, even if only in an infantile stage.  They had likes, dislikes, interests, hobbies, skills, a personality--before the Tourette's, your character was a whole person.

     Take a minute to think about how old your character was when their tics started, and what they were like before the onset.  Make a list of the things they enjoyed, the things they hated, and what they felt--their relationships, their background, their passions and opinions and lifestyle.

     Miribeth Cumberbatch, a girl in my current WIP, is an athletic teenager with a passion for body-building.  She loves to read and does fairly well in school.  She's always had trouble making meaningful connections with kids her age and tends to spend a lot of time with her mothers.  Until moving to Niloh, Miribeth never really questioned the state of the world--like many teens, she took things as they were and dealt with what problems she needed to on a day-to-day basis.  She has very few strong opinions and always tries to find the path of least resistance and lessened conflict when she can; her muscles are just for show.  Her family is poor, so she likes to do for others (in a non-monetary fashion) and she feels particularly protective of her mothers, feeling that they work hard enough to provide her with what they can.  Thus, when she senses that something would inhibit plans they're excited about or limit the options available to them, Miribeth tends to omit, stretch the truth, or outright lie.
     And she also has Tourette's.

     Reading that passage isn't terribly important, so don't feel bad if you tl;dr-ed it; the important part lies in the fact that there's a lot of shit up there, and her disorder takes up the line at the end.  Am I saying it's not a part of who she is?  FUCK no!  It colors every part of who she is, but people have a tendency to start with a disorder (or a phobia/sexuality/etc. etc.) and do the rest later, which often ends in disaster.  Maybe you already have a firm handle on CREATING the characters and you just need help doing the actual nitty-gritty shit, in which case just skip down a bit, no one told you you had to read the whole article.  But please don't just ASSUME you're one of those people, either.  If you have trouble writing/have never written a character with something "different" about them before, at least try it this way once.

     "Okay Maggie, I have my character.  Now what?"  Now you start to "filter in" the disorder.  How old was your character when they began experiencing tics?  What about when they were diagnosed?  The younger your character is when they start experiencing tics, the more used to them they're likely to become--but the less accepting their classmates are likely to be.  Depending on the child and the parents, it can also be much harder for the parents to understand that what's happening to their child isn't voluntary; young children aren't as capable of explaining to their parents that they're not in control of what their body is doing, and since many young children will lie about anything they think they can get away with, it can be hard for parents to believe it even if the child manages to express the sentiment coherently.

     When children begin onset at older ages, however, it can be seen as a purposeful attempt at being contrary, particularly if the children have contrary personalities.  Some parents don't believe in Tourette's, or will never be able to admit that something is happening to their child, but I'll touch on parental impacts later.

     The larger the gap between onset and diagnosis, the more emotional damage the child is likely to suffer at the hands of the disorder and those around them.  Without a diagnosis the child might be scared (or even terrified!), uncertain, and try to repress their tics, which rarely works and is extremely painful to do.  The child may be afraid that other people might notice, and when people do notice they're not likely to immediately react with understanding--most people don't know anything about Tourette's.

     In the time between my onset and diagnosis, I remember being terrified every time I went to play practice, afraid that someone would notice the way my neck twitched and that I'd be thrown out of the play and never allowed to act again.  I was afraid that the people I considered stage friends would think I was a freak and never talk to me again, or worse, ridicule me for something I had no control over.  I still remember crying in the bathroom of the church basement one day during a water break because we were trying to dance and I couldn't keep my head still, and I was one hundred percent convinced that I'd be found out.

     If your story involves your character at a young age, these may be experiences you'll want to touch on, but you'll want to consider them even if the character is older.  The things that other children (and parents!) do and say when you're in such a fragile state can be more adhesive than hot glue, and they can affect the future behaviors and decisions of your characters.  For instance, Miribeth's onset was at the age of seven, and her diagnosis at the age of nine.  Her tics were mostly mild, but her teachers were convinced that she was a defiant little shit, so her classmates teased her and made fun of the noises and the faces she made.  This is part of the reason that Miribeth has trouble forming deep bonds with kids her age--she can't forget that some of her classmates would call her the Grinch or ask her where her owner was when she barked, and teachers make her nervous because she had too many of them say the wrong things and ask the wrong questions.

     After diagnosis, things are different depending on the school, the parents, the teachers, the student--just as in all things, the variables make a difference.  I've also found that emotions concerning Tourette's are often in flux; the child may come to terms with their affliction following diagnosis, but they'll have days when all they can do is cry, days when they want to hit people and scream at the world, days when all they want is to be left alone or else held close--it can be an isolating experience, and it can make a child feel like a monster, or like they're broken.  Children can learn to accept their disorder and to love themselves, Tourette's and all, but it is an uphill climb, and even once it evens out, the occasion rainstorm can send you sliding right back down to your last campground, especially if the terrain (ie, the variables mentioned earlier) is unforgiving.

     In the next post on the subject I'll either dive deeper into Tourette's personal impact, or talk about parent, teacher, and comrade feelings and reactions.  I'm probably forgetting things and therefore may need to revisit this later, but the best way to figure out the personal impact of Tourette's in any given situation is to consider your character's personality and/or ask someone who has it--my inbox (or the comments section!) is always open if you have any questions, and if you have friends with Tourette's they may be quite pleased to share their experiences.  If anyone has anything they'd like to add, let me know!  The comments section is always open!

Poem: The Problem With Friendship

     To be published in an anthology entitled Beyond the Sea, with Eber & Wein publishing.



And I could take or leave
Anyone, Anyone else,
No tears, no shouts, no call;
But all you have to do is falter
And I will
Fall
     Fall
          Fall
               Fall
Until there is not falling left to do
Or cruel Gods drunk off my dependence
Lead me falling back to you.

Writing Game: Seven Minutes In (Writing) Heaven

     This is a little writing game designed to get your mind working and the juices flowing.  You can use it as a warm-up for before you start the brunt of the day's writing, or as a pass-time when you've got down-time and want to keep your writing skills sharp.  Whatever you want to use it for, here's how to play Seven Minutes In (Writing) Heaven.
   
Note:  Closet neither included nor required

What You'll Need:

3 containers of a reasonable size
Paper
At least one die
Writing materials
A stop watch or other time-telling device

Set-Up:

1.  Get all your things together in one place (always useful)
2.  Tear your pieces of paper into small slips
3.  Separate your slips into three piles
4.  Take the first pile; on these slips of paper, write the names of all the characters you might be using.  In the second pile, write down a number of locations, real, fictional, inside, outside--whatever you can think of.  In the third pile, write out a number of events or conflicts that you might want to use.
5.  Put each pile into a separate pile; shake and mix liberally

Game Play:

1.  Roll your dice.
2.  Whatever number you come up with, that's the number of characters to pick from the first container
3.  Pick one slip from each of the remaining containers
4.  Set your timer/observe the clock; you now have exactly seven minutes to write a short story using the criteria you've gathered.  With any luck, you'll produce something you can use either as a scene in a story, or at least learn a little bit more about your characters, their motivations, and relationships.

Word Count Hangman

     It can be hard to meet your word count goal.  Whether you're writing a novel, a poem, or a short story, sometimes we get hung up or frustrated, or (most insidious of all) we convince ourselves that we can "just do it tomorrow," which as many writers know is how books end up six feet under.
     To help with this process, you can check out a tricks-and-tips article here OR you can play this nifty little game I made up called Word Count Hangman.  It's like regular Hangman, only word count-ier

The Set Up:

     Print out a picture of one of the following:

          ~You
          ~Someone you love
          ~A beloved character from your current project

     I recommend option three if you're dealing in fiction, but they all work.  Just make sure that it's a full-body image, and not the original.  Cut off each of the limbs and set up a piece of cork board (or a piece of construction paper, etc.) above your writing space and get some tape or tacks together; set up the gallows, decide on your word count, and get to work!

The Game Play:

     If you miss your word count for the day, a body part goes up.  If all the body parts go up, you lose and your character/loved one is dead!  You can add your own consequences for a loss, or go up against another writing buddy to see who is the last to miss all X# of writing days (or hang the other one first, if that's what gets those fingers tapping!).
     If you have no one to compete against and want to make the game a little more interesting, add a second board; one for heroes and one for villains.  For every word count goal you MISS, your protagonist comes one step closer to their untimely demise, but for every goal met your ANTAGONIST comes another step closer to death.
     The game resets every so often, depending on your expertise: once a week for beginners, once a month for experts, and once a year for those of you who really want to murder something you love.

The Rules:

1.  Be honest.  The only person you hurt by giving yourself slack is you; if this isn't motivating enough a game for you, maybe you should give something else a try.
2.  If you're competing with someone else, make sure to discuss things like resets and limb numbers beforehand to level the playing field.
4. Possibly the most important rule of all, have fun!  What is the purpose of writing if not to enjoy oneself?

If you have any suggestions to spice up the game, just let me know!  Maybe they'll make it into version 2.0 ;)