Section 97 Entry 0001. Date: 2004 March 04 Thursday.
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Today, when I woke up, it was really cold, so when I slid back the metal shutters (a standard feature of the architecture of modern Japanese houses) I was really expecting the snow that we had been promised by the weather forecast. But there was no snow. Instead, gray skies, a narrow strip of dry grass (my "lawn") and the world of concrete. And from that occurrence, plus a key word on the news, I got a story idea.

The key word on the news (on CNN-J, the "tweaked for Japan" version of CNN which I get by cable TV) was "snow." And the snow in question was in the troubled region of Kashmir, where they have skifields.

So at this point the story ideas should be pretty obvious. Character X gets disappointed by lack of snow, decides to go to Kashmir. Partner Y opposes this. X, then, has a desire which is in conflict with the opposing desire of Y, and what he does about it is the story arc.

A disappointment (any kind of disappointment) is a perversion of expectations, and any perversion of expectations is a powerful fictional generator.

In my case, obviously, real life accidentally served me up the novel combination that I needed to get an idea. First I got disappointed by the lack of snow and then CNN suddenly delivered a story about snowfields in Kashmir.

(Actually, that's not quite accurate - reality has been distorted to make a better story. In fact, I was lying in bed early this morning, half-asleep, when I half-heard CNN talking about snowfields in Kashmir, and it was only later that I opened the shutters and was disappointed to discover the lawn lying there, snowless, with no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in sight.

(By that time I couldn't for the life of me remember exactly what had been said about Kashmir's snowfields. Given the security situation, however, I don't imagine that the ski resorts are doing big business up there in Kashmir.)

The practical technique in a nutshell, then, for practicing writers:-

(i) Make a note of your disappointments.

("I expected chocolate on my chocolate on my cappuccino, but they've gone and put cinnamon on it!")

(ii) Find a point of reference outside your own frame of reference (otherwise, rather than writing fiction, we're into the world of confessional autobiography or, perhaps, malicious libel.)

(Seen in the newspaper recently: fungus threatens the future of chocolate production on planet Earth. Seen on CNN-J in the last ten minutes: a county somewhere in the United States has banned the use of genetically modified crops in animal feed.)

(iii) Place two (entirely fictional) characters in conflict.

(To be totally satisfied with life, X, who wants it all, must have chocolate on his/her cappuccino. X is associated with Y - a business partner, a spouse, a lover, whatever - who also likes chocolate but who is bitterly opposed to genetically modified food. And X and Y know a money source person Z - parent, business associate, whatever - who is willing to grant X and Y seed capital for a new venture.

(Now, in a world without chocolate, X wants to invest in the production of chocolate from genetically modified soybeans. Y is bitterly opposed to this idea, and the money from Z will only be forthcoming if X and Y are in agreement.)

End of today's entry - more story ideas from real life later.