Earlier this week, we talked about crit groups. While I wholeheartedly support critique partners and groups, I’ve found another partnership works best for me.

Too often I found my critiques were simply line edits. Receiving more than one or two crits from anyone overwhelmed me, especially working against a deadline. I was wasting people’s time. Several attempts to partner with a friend one-on-one to critique never panned out. Just. Didn’t. Work.

After an ACFW conference, several of us got on line to brainstorm. Susie Warren, Tracey Bateman, Christine Lynxwiler and Susan Downs. We had a great time, but it was hard to brainstorm the deeper points in a chat room. And we never got much beyond one person’s story.

So, we’d call each and work out the story. Susie was the “head brainstormer” so if we needed help, we all called her.

Two years later, three of us ended up in an impromptu brainstorming session Sunday after the Dallas ACFW conference. We had a blast. Out of that session we had Taming Rafe, Sweet Caroline and Forever Christmas by Christine Lynxwiler.

The next year, we scheduled to stay after. We spent 7 hours brainstorming. Out of that came Nothing But Trouble, Along Came a Cowboy, Love Starts With Elle and Annalisa Daughtey’s first novel, Love is a Battlefield! We had a blast! All the ideas and craft talk bouncing around the room was exhilarating.

Here’s what we’ve learned about brainstorming.

1. Large groups are wonderful. It’s a great way to flesh out a one line idea. “I was thinking about a girl who owns an art gallery.” A tableau of people with various experiences can really help you dig out what that story is about.

2. Smaller groups get into the details. It’s hard to really plot and define characterization when there’s a large crowd. Hard to stay focused and hard to find an exact method of defining story points. So, for really hammering out your characters and plot, get with one or two people and specific set of rules and questions to be followed and asked.

3. One-on-one brainstorming. This has worked best for me. I work on an idea, doing as much as I can before arranging to brainstorm with Susie. Once I’m on the phone with her, she asks the same questions I’ve been working through. Or, she may, as has happened many times, say, “No, no, no, don’t have him be like that. . .” Don’t cry for me, I do it to her, too.

Here are some brainstorming tips and guidelines.

1. Leave your sensitive skin at home. Brainstorming is about hammering out ideas. You can’t get upset or offended if one of your partners doesn’t like your ideas. Ask why? Listen to what they are saying. Maybe you’re thinking too narrow. Maybe you’ve not explained the characters well enough. Listen to what they are saying. This is my favorite part. I love the banter, the colliding of ideas. Often we’d listen to each others ideas and one would invariably interrupt, “What? No way?” Or, “wait, wait, wait, I’ve got it.” It’s really energizing.

2. Come to the party with as much story, goals, motivation, conflict as you can. The more details you have, the more the brainstorming session can help. If you have a loose idea, you’ll spend most of the time pulling it together. If you have a tight idea, you can spend most of the time building on it.

3. Ask these questions of your protagonist(s): What does she want? What is the story question? What lie does she believe? What is her greatest fear? Secret desire? What’s her love language? Why does she want what she wants? Why does she believe the lie? What can solve her issue? What obstacles can I put in her path? How will the other characters help or hinder her? What about her career impacts her life — good or bad? How does her family and setting play into her journey?

HINT: Everything should hinder, distract or complicate her life. Her family should not be kind and sweet every time, telling her to “go for it, honey.” Her job can’t be perfect. It must cause stress. And you need these elements because the human condition is impacted by all of them. I can’t ever know how much of my mental and emotional landscape has been crafted and molded by 17 years in the corporate software world. So you characters must deal with these things as well. It’s part of their journey in the story. And make it troublesome to her! Or him.

In Love Starts With Elle, my heroine Elle is broken hearted. She’s literally lost everything. When her sister comes  to help her, she’s caring, but tells Elle to get out of bed and stop moping. She’s better off without that man. This ruffles Elle. Causes tension in the scene. See what I mean? Not every scene has to be a cliffhanger, but you want the conversation to be just this side of a full blown argument.

Back story:

Write out your characters history and bio. What has brought her, or him, to this point. Why is she doing a job she’s completely unqualified to do? Why is she angry at her mother? What secrets is she keeping from her fiance or husband?

Pile it on!

I usually add lots of complications and problems. Rather to have too many than too little. Every character has to have some kind of problem. Small to large. If I come across a comic relief character, then I’ll use them in a few scene to lighten the mood. If you find you can’t manage all the problems well, then you can remove the unnecessary ones. But it’s worse to have too few and try to add.

Working through the story:

As you brainstorm and figure out these character issues, the plot sort of comes together. Often Susie and I will come to the session with a fleshed out character as well as major plot points. THIS IS KEY: We start weaving the plot with the character.

For example: PJ Sugar wants to get over her reputation of always causing trouble. This is a character issue for her, but when she returns to her hometown in Minnesota, she finds herself involved in a mystery that plays right into her character weakness.

In Sweet Caroline, the heroine can’t say no to helping others. So, when she inherits a run down cafe that is home to a few employees and the morning breakfast routine of a couple of retired Marines, Caroline knows she can’t abandon them. The story is how she manages to find her own life calling while keeping the cafe afloat. The cafe brought out her strengths as well as her weaknesses.

Summary:

1. Come to the table with a fleshed out idea.

2. Take in all ideas and don’t get offended if the others don’t love your idea. WORK IT!

3. Weave the plot and character together so you’re fleshing out the who, what, when, where, how and WHY of the character’s journey.

4. Every character must have some kind of problem.

5. Why. Keep asking why!

6. Build a world around your character to create those complications.

7. Have fun!

An excellent benefit of brainstorming with someone is when you’re stuck, all you have to do is call! 🙂 When I’m not sure where to go next in a story, I call Susie. “Here’s what just happened. I need to go here next. How do I get there?”

We might rehash character goals and motivation. We might back up and retrace steps. She  might ask why I put the character is a certain situation. Then we plot forward. Ten minutes later, I’m back to writing.

Have a GREAT writing day!