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No Things but in Ideas - About My Writing Process

Of the many things New Jersey poet William Carlos Williams is famous for, one of them is the quote "no ideas but in things," which encapsulates the belief that, in poetry, images and symbols work best to create themes and deeper meaning. 

That's all well and good in poetry, but I've found the opposite to be true when coming up with ideas for stories: I have nothing without my ideas. In other words, I've found it's important to have a concept when coming up with new ideas for writing, something to give the narration a point, a direction.

Pitching Books to Myself


The best way I can describe this is like selling myself a book that hasn't been written yet (or at least that I haven't written yet). I write down a few high-concept sentences, as if to prove to myself that there's something worth exploring there. Here's an example for a book I've recently finished writing:

It's a dystopia, but in its earliest stages so that we can see how a typical society gets there. A blend of science fiction and realistic fiction, it will follow a group of teens growing up amidst these societal changes so that they're balancing the drama of exploring their own identities while also figuring out their place in this new system. And we'll expose cyclical economic systems that keep poor people poor by creating a lack of social mobility.

In the above example, it's not about creating a character-driven or plot-driven story, nor is it about creating a story where the ideas come first (as in Ayn Rand's books). It's more about me thinking about the book's placement, where it belongs, and what conversations it will be a part of.

Some others:

A Mystery book where there is no mystery, but the main character / detective refuses to accept that. After the death of someone close to the main character, they go on a campaign to catch a killer, believing there is some sort of conspiracy. What they realize is that, sometimes, people die and it's really just that simple. The book is more about dealing with grief than solving the mystery.

It turned out that this book already came out. Ali Benjamin wrote it. It's called The Thing About Jellyfish, and it's amazing.

A Fantasy book that counters popular patriarchal mythology tropes. The chief deity is feminine; the betraying character is male, which is motivated by his jealousy of her Creation. A full range of sexualities, genders, and skin color is included in the creation story (it is naturalized, not considered deviant). Darkness is not synonymous with Evil.

This will be my next project.

So that is my process, what is yours? Do you start with a concept? With a character arc? With a world? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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