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PhranqenLu's Storystorm for Blueprints of Destruction
Frank and Lucy never intended on creating anything called Storystorm, nor did they have any idea they would ever come to think of their efforts as two sides of the same brain in a pseudonym-author known as PhranqenLu. They initially started off simply by wanting to brainstorm [link] like anyone else might, over any other task or effort. It wasn’t until they had been intentionally addressing the idea of writing a story that they began to realize there seemed to be two separate levels of brainstorming they were doing for this story.
Simple Beginnings; Storystorm, Page One
The original concept of Blueprints of Destruction was little more than four cities, which were collectively called Qualx, set at four quadrants (which later became known simply as “vectored”). These four cities were initially thought to be at war, in a one-against-all situation, fighting for both sovereignty as well as dominion over the raw resources. This was initially caused by what will become a “twist-beginning” for the story (as compared to a “twist-ending”, of course). Lucy spent considerable time in the early days creating an entire written and spoken language, before realizing the twelve different species would not only all speak different languages, but would often have additional dialects within their languages. This made trying to come up with entire systems of language overly burdensome.
Nearly all the earliest thoughts and ideas morphed in unexpected directions.
Definition of "Brainstorming"
One of the definitions of “brainstorming” found on Merriam-Webster.com [link] is:
noun: the mulling over of ideas by one or more individuals in an attempt to devise or find a solution to a problem.
They realized very quickly that they didn’t really have any problems to solve. They didn’t have a need for a solution because they had not figured out what the problem was. So, as they began to think of the raw steps (or what Merriam-Webster refers to as problems) for creating a story as brainstorming.
Possible Characters: Storystorm, Page Two
The writing seen here is first a list of possible character names, some of which are marked out as they are used within the story:
Xalanon Slatpostlandi
Maten Taside
Pater Bulgut
Nelian Hensoni
Schroder Fantal
Cleon Ippolito
Jeslaw Stilton
Shevus Jackowitz
Cever Resau
Laius Viso
Fipster Genscove
Quintona Benslau
These names are followed by a list of color codes, which were considered for the various levels of the city, as well as the different economic levels of citizens. The colors are followed by the brainstorm comments as follows:
"Do we want another affiliation diagram to see
where the individual lands in the working class if that is what they are
dominant in? (Later edit: We did some shuffling and added third diagram for the "Senator" section [link to be added later], which is for Conglomerate workers [link to be added later].
It was the same concept that I initially had but instead of having yellow,
black, and white is red, black, and white.)"
There are questions whether "(true) black and (true) white" should be used as colors to distinguish differences between social, economic, or political factions. Race is going to be an issue in the story, but it is literally races of vastly different species, and I want to stay as far away from the difference of "black and white" race (which could be confused for something related to the real world) as possible. The most humanoid species in Blueprints of Destruction are literally going to be a spectrum of gray to silver.
Brainstorming Ideas
Writing
Story Elements
Crafting the Narrative
Revision and Feedback
Finalization
Publication
Post-Publication
In the beginning, Frank challenged Lucy to come up with some specifics for what she wanted in the story she was considering. She knew she had a number of species, a number of characters, certain features and aspects of Qualx, and she knew she wanted a serious story which held heavy consequences to difficult circumstances.
She wanted a very clear social hierarchy system where inequality was rampant.The system would not be based solely on the race of the species, but there would definitely be some species which were more frequently exploited than others. She began creating a system within that hierarchy which would naturally bend in that direction, but perhaps in unexpected ways. Frank and Lucy both saw the value of being given randomized results and limitations.
How to Randomly Develop Characters: Storystorm, Page Three
Here is a diagram of several species (the Tijj, Siveslekk, and Tiruma) of what was a brainstorm, which obviously made it into Storystorm. It was an early attempt to create randomization based on several attributes, features, and qualities for each of the species. A lot of time and energy went into it, and it ended up developing in another direction.
Never think of effort as wasted. This system might not ever be used in Blueprints of Destruction, but it was a stepping stone to get PhranqenLu where they needed to be.
Brainstorm Vs. Storystorm
And they started to compile the ideas, devices, and possible solutions to those challenges (or “problems” if you prefer) into a composition notebook they affectionately referred to as Storystorm. Storystorm was born from the idea that the ideas which went into it were specific ideas to what they would refer to as “288”, and later as Blueprints of Destruction. If there were story ideas which could go into any story (they weren’t sold on only working toward one story, one story line, or one universal set of characters), they thought of those ideas as brainstorms. If, on the other hand, the ideas were really geared specifically for 288, and the story surrounding Blueprints of Destruction, those ideas would go into Storystorm.
Early Concept for a Tool: Storystorm, Page Four
It did not take them long to drop any ideas which were too general to fit into Storystorm. The idea of a general “brainstorm” went by the wayside relatively quickly, and Storystorm became the go-to for all their efforts. If you want the nuts and bolts of brainstorming, click here. Storystorm may not be what you are looking for, exactly. Storystorm is literally the process PhranqenLu went through to reach their story in a way which could be expressed as “discovery” rather than invention or creation (in the traditional sense). Storystorm will let you walk through the successes of brainstorming, as well as getting to see what could have been great ideas in another storyline, but which will likely never be used.
Storystorm is the path PhranqenLu actually walked, so you can see that ideas which don’t work they way you were hoping they would are not a sign that you are doing anything wrong.
Storystorm Table of Contents
Simple Beginnings: Storystorm, Page One
Possible Characters: Storystorm, Page Two
How to Randomly Develop Characters: Storystorm, Page Three
Early Concept for a Tool: Storystorm, Page Four