Thinking Like a Writer

This is the plain text version of The Ideas Factory, an online workshop designed to help you plan the story you want to tell before you start writing it. The full interactive version is an interactive Flash resource, you can download Flash here.

On this version, you can download transcripts for all videos and animations and notes about creative writing. Visit ‘About The Ideas Factory’ to learn more.

It shows how stories are put together and takes you through the process step by step from WHERE the story happens, through WHAT happens and WHO is involved.

Developed as an experimental project to support creative writing, it was devised by playwright and former John Murray Archive writer-in-residence, Peter Arnott in collaboration with the Learning team at the National Library of Scotland.

Peter has written an essay about the creative writing process used in The Ideas Factory. Download the Thinking like a Writer pdf (42 kB) to read an in-depth discussion of his technique for planning creative writing which has inspired The Ideas Factory.