Building a Process
Podcast Companion: Behind the Scenes
Hey friends!
After pecking away at “Hypnotic” from time to time since January 2021, I decided it would be my 2024 Listening Room presentation earlier this year. At a paltry 2000 words, the story was not even a first draft and had only snippets of scenes with separate author notes. I sat down in late July to start “Hypnotic” in earnest.
The development of a story from inception to publishing has taken shape over prior seasons and I wanted to share that process with you.
1. Print out and take notes on the original composition.
I explore what themes or subjects could be incorporated along with questions to answer. I may not read the story initially, only address the story’s thesis and consider the setting or even formalizing character names and profiles. These considerations are not strict and linear. I may change my mind later but the foundations are laid down.
2. Review research.
I like to approach a story from a place of knowledge even if it doesn’t end up in the text. I imagine there have been authors or actors who extensively studied a subject for only a paragraph or scene. Some fantasy is woven in with truth but the point is to be compelling, not rewrite medical text. Neurology is a specialized field and it is potentially too dense for a casual reader. There are certain things like drug dosages, side effects, and neurological deficits I want to get right, but also leave room for possibilities and suggestion.
With this project, while looking up types of hypnosis, I was able to categorize what I’d seen before and choose differently. It opened up possibilities for the text I had not considered. In addition, I learned more about what different parts of the brain did and how the main character could be manipulated. Weaving in realism starts at this step and I get a fair amount of inspiration.
3. Read the original text and take notes on needed improvements.
At this stage, I could compose a whole section of actual story if it comes to me. More than likely it’s stage directions for my future self. Focus on this. Explore that. I incorporate what research I have already gathered and might go back and forth as I pose new questions I have within the story.
For some, it spoils the magic, but I try to map out all the reveals here. I’ve read a lot of Sherlock Holmes and thought often about how to work backwards from the ending. What is so convoluted of a mystery is quite simple once put together, but the skill is in the telling.