Story Ideas – Intentional vs. Unintentional Results

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Story Ideas – Intentional vs. Unintentional Results

By Deb Gallardo

A comment on a previous article entitled Creative Writing – Do What You Love to Love What You Do (opens in a new window) caught my attention. Here is part of my response:

It’s funny, when I’m writing articles, I have an “agenda” in mind, if you will, but then I get comments from readers like you who have taken away something that I didn’t even consider, I realize (anew) that there is much more to writing than stringing words together in a good and logical order.

There’s another key element that enters the equation after my writing is done: It’s the totality of a reader’s experience brought to bear on my words. That’s why some things we read resonate and some don’t.

I’ve continued to give this thought and it occurs to me that our minds are much like filters. (Here’s where it would be so useful if I were artistically inclined. I could illustrate my point so much better than mere words – the old, “a picture is worth a thousand words” observation.)

Let’s say that my mind is colored blue. and the thoughts that come out of it blue as well. But if your mind is yellow, when you read my blue thoughts, they will mix with your yellow thoughts and come out green.

If you accept this “blue” thought that has filtered through your mind as “green,” then the color of your mind is changed subtly. If over time you continue accepting my “blue” thoughts, the color of your mind will manifest more green than yellow

Obviously this is a simplistic model, not based on scientific research, and doesn’t take into account the many other influences that make us who we are, and the impact which longterm influences, including personality, education and deep, personal beliefs can have on our mind’s “color.”

What does this have to do with story ideas?

Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.

If you write, “The cat crouched, preparing to pounce on its prey,” and your reader is the owner of a tabby kitten, the image conjured in the reader’s mind will likely emulate that pet. If, on the other hand, a lion tamer reads your words, the term “cat” will have an entirely different meaning. Likewise, if your reader is an aficionado of science fiction and recently read about cat people, then yet another image may be conjured in this reader’s mind.

As writers, we must therefore decide how much control we want to have over our readers’ thoughts. Do we want to dictate an exact image of the cat we visualized while writing, or do we leave up to the reader’s own imagination the size, color and markings of any cat they envision? Does our precise cat matter or will any cat do?

The answer to that depends on our story. If the type, color and size of cat we envision is crucial to the plot, then how we describe this cat is almost as important as the creature itself.

Our words can have their intended result, but what about unintentional results? We come back to my theory of minds as filters. The totality of our readers’ experiences combine with our words, in essence creating a slightly different story for each person who reads it. It doesn’t go as far as the concept of “Choose Your Own Adventure,” wherein the reader can choose which direction a story goes at various key points.

Yet with so much interactivity that computer users are becoming accustomed to, it’s not as foreign an idea as it might seem that each reader takes away something different from the same story.

Just something to think about, the next time you put words together that create a strong visualization. What color is your mind? What color is mine?

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