Miguel Cisneros Saucedo asked David Putnam:

How would you manage to transition between a pure concept brainstorm and writing your first draft?

David Putnam Great question.
I assume your talking about writing a novel. I give a class on how to write a novel and it seems to be well received. Happy to do as a zoom if enough folks are interested.
When I start a novel, I take the kernel of an idea and work it until I have enough for a scene. The scene is always designed how best to display the character, not in how best to tell the story.
Then I decide on the theme. For example in a recent book Bruno had a child and that massive responsibility stole his bold, and fearless attitude that keeps him from handling things like he used to. So the theme is the loss of mojo and his search to find it. This is the backbone of the book. Then I pick two plot lines that run side by side. In this case was a baby that was snatched from a young mother. The other is Bruno's mother who has returned after 45yrs, Bruno doesn't even remember her. She back and bilking Bruno's dad out of his life's savings by going on a gambling spree.
I then scene sequence using these three threads and weave them tighter and tighter until they all come together at the end.
This is the basic idea in how I do it. It's a little more complicated. I have 16 precepts of writing I follow very strictly so I never get lost or have writers block.
Hope this helps
Please ask any questions you like, always here to talk about writing or reading.
d.

flag