Apr 15th 1-2-3: The Transplant Method
1: The Transplant Method ( 3 minute read )
When writing stories I typically have impactful moments that pop into my head, and immediately I know what’s happening.
I know what’s happening, as well as why it’s so important to the characters.
What I don’t know is who the characters are, or why they are there in this moment.
Sometimes I develop the story more only to realize that I already know this character, as it might even be one from another story I have written.
Other times as I slowly develop these moments thinking backwards and forwards through the timeline of these characters, I’ll come to realize that they are people I have never met before.
This process is much like seeing, feeling, and almost intimately knowing why this moment is powerful, but the face of these characters and the world they live in are a bit foggy. So I slowly begin to ‘transplant’ ideas into their lives.
I transplant backstories, relationships, and cultures. I’ll even transplant technologies, histories, and whatever else pops into my mind that evokes something in me. I transplant whatever makes the initial moment that spawned all of this make sense, and whatever gets me most excited.
Then, much like a director in an editing room watching over all that he’s filmed thus far, I revisit what I’ve rather haphazardly thrown together. I do this frequently for quite some time, and over time some ideas that I ‘transplanted’ get accepted by the host idea. Others get rejected.
Now just for some clarity, the reason why I’ve learned to throw ideas together in a way I would describe as ‘haphazardly’ is because I’ve been doing this for quite some time, and have learned how to make certain decisions pretty early in the process of creating/writing. So my idea of ‘haphazardly’ thrown together is already constrained by those decisions. However that is somewhat of a separate concept that I will get into deeper in a future entry.
The World You Know
In some situations, as I alluded to earlier, the moment that sparked all of this building will make itself know to be some part of a story I had already been writing, but never knew this happened yet.
Now I’m sure the way I’m talking about these characters and worlds may seem a bit odd without the following detail on my approach. As I work on a story and transplant ideas over, and over again, I don’t see the work I’m doing as a ‘story being written and conceived by me’. Even though that is the case, I have found that looking at it that way leaves too many doors open for me in terms of directions I could go in a given story that are completely and utterly unauthentic to the the story itself.
Instead, as I transplant ideas into a story, I treat it more so like I’m making an assumption on how things work, or how a character is like, or how the worlds history has played out. Then while ideas slowly get accepted, and rejected from the work I treat that like my ignorance is being corrected.
In cases where I find that a ‘new’ idea is actually just a part of another story that I didn’t know yet it can be a very exciting moment for me, and I think the following steps after that are pretty clear. Just work out how to can surgically, and hygienically, transplant that whole thing into the main story it comes from.
The World You Don’t Know
Sometimes as I build out these moments of impact, and develop them further I’ll come to find that this is a whole new world with its own roster of characters.
In these situations, I just water the plant the best why I know how.
Transplant, Transplant, Transplant, … then wait and revisit.
This is a little method I’ve intuitively done since I first began writing, though I can’t say I’ve heard too many writers talk about a process like this exactly. More than likely, I’ve just not looked well enough to find one though.
In talking with my brother we’ve both found that this method for developing ideas is incredibly useful, and potent. In our many long analysis discussions, we’ve even played around with how this method can be used in some of the other art forms we dabble in.
There you have it! I nice look into my approach and process, as well as a somewhat deeper dive into a little method I’ve developed over the years.
So try it out, see how it works for you.
Now go transplant, wait, revisit, and make something uniquely YOU!
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. Grab one of your works, and transplant some new ideas into it. Do this in your mind first, and give it some time.
II. In the time after you’ve transplanted some ideas to a piece of your works, revisit it frequently. Pay close attention to what you feel experiencing your work with these new appendages. Surely, with enough time, some of these transplants will take and feel right. While others will just not feel right, and in which case you can allow it to fall off. Though all rejected ideas, concepts, or characters should be saved and put away for later use. They come in handy ;)
3: Inspirational Quotes From Others
I. “I always start with a moment—a single scene that seems charged with emotion, even though I don’t understand it yet. The rest of the novel is about figuring out why it has that emotional charge.”
-Kazuo Ishiguro
II. “Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground… The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.”
-Stephen King
III. “I have long ceased to invent. I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
Thank you so much for reading!