Writers: How Do You Learn Storytelling? Where and How Do You Find Your Story Ideas? (FFS)

[@iancognito6920]

I wanted to thank you fir this. Absolutely inctedible that you answered me directly like this. AND I take all your points and suggestions. Its true tha I am/was frustrated because I couldnt settle on an idea . Years ago I wrote a play that was put on at university..the idea came from a short news bulletin...I got up typed the play very quicklly and it won the competition and was put on. Everyone expected great things of me but the expectation killed my creativity ...life took over I didnt write (painted instead) ... Now older and with more free time I am trying to wake that part up again, but the habit of 'trying' brought frustration back. I will take on board what you advise .. thank so much ! came accross you because I bought my first vintage typewriter (Olympia SM3) anyway I will now subscribe to you all the best from England

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

@iancognito6920, please allow me to thank you. I was very impressed by the directness of your question. Also grateful by the opportunity it presented. Often, I feel like these videos are as much about reminding myself what i've learned as they are about sharing that with our community. Being human, I tend to have moments of doubt. Your question recalled for me that the stories are always out there, waiting for us to fulfill them. On another note, it seems your career and mine began the same way. A quick play scribbled in haste that everyone loved, and after that ... nothing. If I could venture this piece of advice: stop focusing on expectations (yours or anyone else's). Write another play. Write a shitty play rather than a "good" play. Do this deliberately. You might just surprise yourself. Wishing you all my best.

[@dadtype2339]

07/16/2024 I'm going to start dating these letters. Okay, I hope the project is going well! Miss your content Damon! And although I could stop there, I feel I must go on and bring you in my world a little bit. Happy to say I am coming up on a close of a manuscript myself, approaching page 200, all single spaced hand typed pages, and it feels amazing, just so much more real than anything written in the cold synthetic endless pages of hollow light and electric ink that is the computer. Course being a first draft it's crap, but what glorious crap it is! It feels good to pull out a Typewriter sit in front of it, been going back and forth between my 1959 Hermes 3000, love that smooth mechanical thump, thump, thump it does, and I've also been writing on my 1964 SCM Galaxie Deluxe, as it too is a work-horse machine and that crisp snap snap snap that is a familiar Smith Corona trait. And on days I just couldn't make it to the table, 70 - 80 of those pages were written from bed on my 1990 brother EP-43 thermal typewriter. And it's great to set at the table, machine ready, paper ready, a pencil, white out, and the thick folder just stuffed with story I've basically transcribed from the land of make believe into the world that needs this cruel cosmic horror escape. I've mentioned all this not in show off fashion but to say thank you, thank you for your videos here on KZbin, and all the hard work you do, your creative workshops have helped me, and I miss you, and although I know you would want me to continue on with the work, it will indeed continue, I would just like to say, I hope there is a point in which you will come back, as I'm sure my writing table isn't the only table that's missing you. I replay your videos and hear you intructing and inspiring as I work and seriously look forward to a new post of content. I'm sure I am not the only one, eagerly awaiting for you, Damon. Take a break and make a video, even if it's just an update. Miss you man! Hope this finds you well My Friend! Continuing to plug away to the end, because eventually, that Bell will sound for the last time on this work. And man, I've helped put a crap ton of wings on the Angels! 🎉

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Apologies for replying so late, @dadtype2339. I'm so glad you keep getting value out of the videos. Apologies if you feel there's been a lack in content. Things have been busy here. The Shorts I've been putting out have been gratifying to make. And instructive, I hope. I plan to put an update out soon and, if nothing else, embrace our rebranding of the channel. As far as writing goes, it sounds like you have your own process well in hand, as always. Congrats on that, and on your machines ... all of which I think are exceptional choices. Keep at it!

[@dadtype2339]

What is there to say, but maybe this, Ian, if you walk down that street, and you see no one, there's a story there too. Yes, there are far more stories than there will ever be weiters to write them all, even the vaukt of ideas I have, I'll never write them all, so I pick and choose, I usually stick with the ones that just seem to stick around. My ideas come to me by 1 of 2 ways, either from curiosity in what woukd happen if I stick people in a certain kind of situation or almost like the story is a floating Ghost and it floats right through me and I get the beginning middle and end all at once no questions asked and I love it when that 2 way happens, although it does, I just wish it was like that all the time, but I think theres something to be said about curiosity discovery stories, more creative work is involved thab the channeling method, but as cool as that is, it wont always put bread on the table if you know what I mean....its not a reliable way to create a story. I had a 14 year dry spell, not like a block, it wasn't that I didn't know what to weite I did, I had stories, I just didn't want to write, had no energy or desire to do so. But then I started up again just in 2023 in fact and I think the dry spell had helped, so maybe your creative mind and spirit just needed a break. Perhaps there are different kinds of dry spells why not their are different kinds of people. Sorry Damon Im late, I too have been finishing up a book, I'm on the back end of the Andes as I like to put it when 85k words has arrived. Trying to close it up within 15k....aiming for 94k the sweet spot. Guess it depends on what you're writing and for what I am working on I really don't think the powers to be like it going over 100k in fact uts probably not supposed to even go over 95k lol so 94k the only sweet spot lol. Hope this finds everyone well, and just keep going something has gotta give baby, and that will restart the fires of passion to fuel the creative mind, and bring forth the multi roads of dreams and story!

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Two observations: Genre and length expectations are set by the publishing community. Yes, these expectations can be broken ... any convention can be broken (I had this conversation just recently with a prospective client) ... but we'd better know why we're breaking them first plus the risks incurred by doing so if we hope to meet market demands. I'm all for breaking conventions-that's a hallmark of inimitable work. But the execution must be damn good-better than damn good-to warrant any departure. Point Two: Stephen King once likened finding stories to walking on a beach and seeing some peculiar object sticking up from the sand. To paraphrase, he said his job as a storyteller, the reason he gets paid, is to sink to his knees beside this artifact and dig it out ... no matter what shape it eventually takes, no matter its eventual size or level of complexity. If that tiny chunk of something sticking up from the sand catches our attention sufficient to beckon us over ... well, we must dig and dig and dig while the waves keep rolling, the clouds scuttle by, and the rest of the world just waddles along. Being a writer is all about living in writer's time. This in itself sometimes feels like a Herculean feat. Your comment reminded me of these points, @dadtype2339. I wish you a fine journey on the back end of the Andes.

[@dadtype2339]

@@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco Thank, you Damon, I'm sorry for the late response, I've been lost on a very dark and painful island. My condition worsened and I have degraded into Stage 4 of my disease Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, and in a sick way I feel vindicated by the fact that in stage 4, the condition begins to show itself, people can now finally see where I've been hurting, and it looks awful, but having gone nearly 10 years without a real clear indication of what or even where I was feeling like I was hurting and if I'm honest now having spent nearly the entire month of May in bed, I can at least show why. It's been awful, remembering when I use to hike 10 miles with 100 lbs of logging chain in a backpack, only to now have to use a walker and barely make 10 feet to the bathroom, but I give it hell and I keep fighting, I'm a warrior. I'm just starting now, to walk without the aid of the walker, so there is hope through the pain tunnel. I haven't felt like writing, because of the pain but I also know that I will mend and recover. It's of such levels of evil pain, that I'm actually terrified inside. Doing all I can to keep the door of 10+ pain shut and closed so as to not open it and step through or get pulled in. I got that beautiful '59 Hermes 3000 typewriter for my birthday, and I've not been able to use it, breaks my heart among other things. Just need prayers and thoughts for wellness, need to be able to walk and drive as well as sit and write. A little walking and a little sitting and BAM I'm back to bed in pain level 10 to the 100th power. There's a monster behind that door. Recovery has been slow, but beneficial. So, that's where I've been, thankfully with new medication I've finally come down to a pain level 6 and 7, way better than staying in 9 and 10 for 2 weeks. Today, Friday the 24th, I'm happy to say pain is a strong 6, it's starting off to be a good day, although still stuck in bed, and I don't feel like writing, I can say this might be a tear free day. Like That Baby Shampoo, how it reads "No more Tears!" We're gonna do our best damn it! I can now write about a character who wake up (if he even went to sleep that is) everyday in pain. My observation is unhinged. I hope this day finds you well, it's Friday and I pray it's a good day for us all!