Using Relational and Connotative Listing to Stimulate Your Writing.

I am primarily a poet, although I’ve written and published some short fiction as well. The technique for stimulating inspiration that I’m going to present has been useful (and, I believe, successful) for me in coming up with “flows” of thought. Essentially, both techniques can “play” together, but there are some important differences between them.

First, in what I’m calling “Relational Listing” — the technique is really not much different from “Brainstormng” (and if you decide there’s no real difference—fine). The difference I see is in the purpose, the intent. Usually one “brainstorms” ON a given topic (perhaps assigned or perhaps self-initiated), possibly doing a “question brainstorm” prior to one that provides answers or already-known information and relationships.

For example: if the topic is “The American Civil War,” the person who initially lacks information about that conflict might write down: “when,” “where,” “why,” “who,” “what,” and “how” (the Journalist’s Questions). As knowledge is gained through investigation and research, the “answers” might start appearing (maybe on the reverse side of the “paper” or a different digital list or even a “cluster diagram” or “mapping” (which is the way I usually go with a brainstorm, so that relationships can be shown beyond a simple listing of words/ideas.

Answers like: 1861–1865; American, of course, but much of the fighting east of the Mississippi; The institution of slavery, debate about states rights vs. federalism, etc; United States vs Confederate States of America in rebellion against the USA after secession; the exact nature of important events, battles, acts of Congress, etc.; modern weapons and the advent of modern warfare—iron ships, rifled muskets, trench warfare, etc.

But my concept of a “Relational Listing” is more like a “Creative Storm” or “Story Prompting List.” It would include plural starting points—possibly set up as separate listings—based upon the elements of Prose Story and/or possible Poetic Restrictions (if one is working at all with meter and rhyme, for example). So, basic PLOT patterns (using ANY of the many and various previously developed theories or researches: The Hero Pattern (Campbell, Raglan, etc.), Polti’s 36 Situations, Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots, ideas from Thompson’s Motif Index of Folk-Literature, etc. might be stimuli for a listing of ideas for YOUR PLOT. Just so, headings for CHARACTERS: protagonist, antagonist, helpers, hinderers, major, minor, “round of flat” [Forster], foreground, background, primary, secondary, tertiary, dynamic, static [arc-ed or arc-less?], etc. The same for SETTING, NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW, and maybe for THEME—if the intent is to edify or present some hoped “enlightenment” beyond the basic mission of ENTERTAINMENT.

In writing poetry, this “Relational Listing” can serve a two-fold purpose: 1) to get a set of words/ideas that relate to the subject and/or theme of the poem to be (I write mostly Narrative or “Atmospheric/Descriptive” or “Dramatic” poems much more often than self-expressive Lyrics. AND I write mostly “Speculative Poetry,” in my case primarily in the genres of Weird, Horror & the Supernatural, Science Fiction, and Fantasy).

So, to illustrate with an example or two: if I decide to do a poem about a werewolf (and I’ve done several), my listings would include such things as: “fangs,” “claws,” “transformation,” “full moon,” “blood,” “slay,” “kill,” “night,” “curse,” “pentagram,” etc. Not only might these terms suggest a plan for a narrative/descriptive poem, BUT 2) doing “double duty,” each of these words would be separately listed as the “head” of a “rhyme list” (since I’m a traditional verse poet) and—to pick one word— “kill” would head a list (using my built-in rhyming dictionary — we all have them: simply go through the alphabet from A to Z and your “word hoard”/vocabulary —resulting in: chill, bill, dill, fill, fulfill, gill, hill, Jill, mill, nil, pill, quill, rill, sill, till, ’til, until, thrill, will AND any others that might come to mind. From this example list, I would see potential in: CHILL, FILL, FULFILL, HILL, MILL, QUILL, RILL, ’TIL, THRILL, UNTIL, and WILL—although I certainly wouldn’t use all of even these in a single poem, although I see them as RELATING to the concept I have in mind. Similarly, a poem set on Halloween [pagan Samhain] would prompt a different and specific list, or one set in a colony on Mars, yet its own list.

The “Connotational Listing” has more to do with STYLE and, specifically, CHOICE OF WORDS, LEVEL OF DICTION, USE OF DIALECT, etc. This would have to do, of course, with whatever NARRATIVE VOICE is being used—3rd person (from whom we—usually—expect proper grammar and often more formal diction) or 1st Person having to do with whomever CHARACTER is to be speaking or in whose mind we see thoughts. [2nd Person is another matter entirely, and I’ll have a separate set of thoughts to present later on that rare form of narration.] The “load” of emotional charge on every word used is important. Beyond the DENOTATION and specific, dictionary meaning of words are the “shades of meaning” as we usually call them, the CONNOTATIONS of positive, negative, or neutral “charge” attached to the word. This technique would be used more in the PROOFING and REVISING stage of a piece of fiction or poetry that has already been “hammered out.” The plan would be to REPLACE or DELETE imperfect word choices and, especially find “perfect” words for one’s purpose (Yes, I know, always far more easily said than done). But essentially, a trip to the Thesaurus (or one’s built-in thesaurus) and a mulling over of synonyms in a potential listing is the key.