Open Novella Journal 2024

Brainstorming - How To

Brainstorming.

Brainstorming is definitely important to doing well in ONC, but this can be daunting to a newbie to ONC, or even a young writer. After all, brainstorming is in secondary education for the United States at least treated like a boring, dreadful, tedious thing that is so structured it can feel like it kills creativity.

But the truth is there is no one right way to brainstorm and whatever method one uses needs to be the best one for writers.

For example, there are some writers who go into ONC with a story idea, even characters planned out and they then go looking for a prompt that works for it, adjusting their end game idea as need be, although there are also some who do this and forget that the prompt needs to be "still clear" and make the mistake of simply picking the prompt that closest allows them to do what they want rather than them adapting their brainstorm and ideas for the changes that would be brought about by a prompt.

Which, I actually went into ONC with an idea for a story in mind, but I found the prompt I picked actually improved the initial idea instead of taking away. Typically though this is also an idea that's been in my head for some time rather than something I go in planning on doing specifically for ONC.

Others like myself let the prompts guide us, and brainstorm ideas as we go through the prompts.

I'm also a fanfic writer, so I've an idea of what characters and tropes I like working with before going in, and I sometimes will brainstorm some basic ideas up for the fandom I like working with. It's fun, to be honest. I also like brainstorming ideas off older ideas.

Later on brainstorming becomes about coming up with a beginning, middle and end, which helps prevent writers block, then progressing to what the parts will be.

Something else that is important is to remember that plots don't have to remain the same. I actually didn't finish quite a few entries from the previous year, yet I'm grateful for this because it actually allows me quite a bit of freedom in finishing these up.

Which, if your story does get nixed, don't think of it as a bad thing. Having had stories nixed during various rounds over the years, with two during the first round, and more going forward, I actually felt this was more of a blessing as I had more freedom to do what I wanted. For last year, it means I can make some of the stories novels instead, for example, while others it allows me more time to work on a piece that is more difficult to write for some reason or another.