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Story Ideas — Using Bloom’s Taxonomy
By Deb
Part One
While the topic of today’s post is observing your world, that’s not the whole story. You see observing isn’t the difficult part. Rather, it’s figuring out what we have observed that is the challenge. Whether you’re looking for story ideas or you’re people-watching as you do character research, it’s not enough just to “look.” We have to see.
I think of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” where they sing, “People talking without speaking. People hearing without listening.” The same could be said for “looking without seeing.”
Part of the definition of observation that I found includes the act of taking notes and of studying the details. But there is still something missing. We can take notes and study all we want, but if we’re not interested in the subject, we risk missing important details. Furthermore, “studying” means different things to different people, since there are many styles of study.
The article that originally inspired this post, got me to thinking about incomplete explanations. You might see what I mean here in this excerpt from fictionway.com:
I’ve found that the best way to generate story ideas is to observe the world. I capture my observations and thoughts in a notebook. Once I write them down, I’m able to free my imagination in search of more ideas. I watch people interact, I pose “What If” questions and I change the familiar.
Ideas are simple, making them your own is difficult.
Read Story Starters (opens in new window)
She’s got that right. Making ideas our own is difficult. But she offers no explanation. I can’t really fault her for that. To explain something so complex and personalized is like opening Pandora’s Box. Well, no, not really. Discussing and explaining how to make ideas our own won’t release a series of woes into the world. But to cover the subject thoroughly will require more than this blog post.
So let me close this article with a video of Simon and Garfunkle performing “The Sounds of Silence.” Yes, I’m a Boomer and proud of it. This is a message that still resonates today, like all universal themes.
Related Posts
- Story Ideas – Imagination’s Influence on Perception
- Creative Writing Ideas – 3 Tips for Finding Them
- Story Ideas – Top 10 Sources of Story Inspiration
- Story Ideas from the World Around Us
- Story Ideas – Finding Something to Say
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