The process, part 1 - Brainstorm

The writing process for The Connickle Conundrum started with a question ‘What if?’ and the inspiration, Gary Nicholls photography book, The Imaginarium. The answer to the question provided the story arc for the trilogy and The Imaginarium the genre.

Developing and plotting a story for the first part of the trilogy was a long process. The initial story had to serve multiple purposes, but mainly to establish the Victorian Steampunk world, characters, locations and science. The story itself had to standalone, but also form the first part of a much bigger narrative.

So developing the story for the second instalment, presented a different set of problems. With the foundations of the trilogy set in stone, I had to set the original characters, and some new ones, a new challenge which would also move the trilogy arc further along the road.

And so the brainstorming and research began. At this point, I must say that each writer has their own tried and trusted techniques for this part of the process, and I would never advise what I consider to be best practice. What’s perfect for one writer, may not work for another. But in my case, for this instalment I decided to stream-line the methods used for The Connickle Conundrum. Although I still used notebooks to record ideas, devise subplots, create new characters and conflicts, I also made a spreadsheet to track story beats and word count.

I also set a target word count. And for me, combining this simple step with the tracker, was a revelation, tightening the story-telling and clarifying the structure.

Because book two also introduces new concepts and ideas, I had to carry out more research into pre-history, human psychology, Victorian Manchester and computer science. Whilst many of the ideas were shelved in the plotting stage, nevertheless, they helped me to refine the overarching solution to the original ‘What if?’ question.

Brainstorming ideas, together with targeted research, clarifies the approach and makes the next stage in the process easier.

Next time… Outlining.