BRAINSTORMING
In January 2025, I started brainstorming for my fantasy story. I also tried to write first chapter.
Starting is always difficult, especially starting to write fiction after fifteen years. Seriously, this first chapter took a very long time.
I struggled with chapters one and two for some time and still wasn’t satisfied with the results.
So I decided to brainstorm the story structure first. I created a plot outline, in the form of a narrative. I sent it to ChatGPT and asked about the plot, characters, and conflict. Is it okay, or does it need improvement? Are there any details I missed?
This was my favorite brainstorming process. At some point, I’ll ask ChatGPT if there are any plot holes, if there was anything it wanted to ask me about my story, or if anything is unclear. ChatGPT would send me a bunch of questions. So, when I ask, there are things I haven’t thought of yet. Since ChatGPT was a bot, I wasn’t responsible for answering, there are no right or wrong answers, so I don’t feel pressured to answer. To answer these questions, I start thinking. This trains my brain to think, so I start thinking about why this character did something, what the cause was, and so on. I did this gradually, slowly filling in all the holes in my story.
The result? Initially, I wanted to create a trilogy, but the story kept evolving until it ended up being trilogy with a total of fifteen parts across all three stories.
I was also still considering which online novel platform to use. I started researching the requirements and what kind of stories they’re looking for. I remember reading a Q&A on Quora (if I’m not mistaken), about the GoodNovel platform. Someone said they were a writer on the platform, and the editors would ask writers to write intense romance stories because that’s what sells.
Since I couldn’t write scenes like that, I tried asking ChatGPT to write them for me, but ChatGPT couldn’t do it either. lol
I couldn’t write that scene, and neither could ChatGPT, so who wrote it? lmao
Then I thought, oh my, so I don’t fit in on any platforms.
Whatever! So I thought it would be better to pitch my story as a Wattpad Original.
Brainstorming for the first through the third stories took three months, from January to March 2025. How do I know this? Because I saved my brainstorming data in notes, so the raw data and dates are still there.