Coming up with the story Kids often ask me about where Daisy Dreamer story ideas come from, and I tell them the truth: I have a hard time coming up with stories. I can sit and stare at the computer screen for hours, trying to spin out ideas.

The only thing that ever really works is to just start writing -- even if I don't know what I'm going to write. I start with some basic idea (something like "Daisy will be visiting the world's tallest building") and then go from there, trying to figure out what is going to happen next.

Just this week, I learned again how coming up with a plot can be easy and hard at the same time. I needed to suggest a plot for the September Daisy Dreamer comic. I knew where it was going to be set, then spent all morning trying to figure out a story that made sense in that setting.

Finally, I finished writing the plot synopsis. I wrote in my email to Chickadee that I thought there must be a better story out there, but this was the best one I could come up with.

And as I wrote those words, suddenly I realized how to make the story work better. Ten minutes later I had a new plot outline.

Was the first few hours working on the story wasted? It felt like it. But it probably wasn't. I imagine my brain had to work through those bad ideas until I hit a good one.

Look for it next September.

Labels: Chickadee, Daisy Dreamer, Writing Comics

  ¶ 12:44 PM 0 comments