The Avenues Technique is used once the basic structure of a scene or chapter has been established with techniques such as The Core Question or Lens Illumination.
The Avenues Technique involves taking one of the identified specific ‘idea pathways’ that already cross the scene from the established narrative – leading off in the rough direction the storyline needs to take – and developing this ‘idea pathway’ by writing short passages that fashion into ‘avenues of ideas’. The final scene of the narrative materialises as these ‘avenues of ideas’ take shape, broaden, and interconnect.
How does ‘Avenues’ work?
There are two dimensions to the Avenues Technique – building on established ‘idea pathways’ – then looking for crossroads and intersections that could take the established ‘idea pathway’ in a more interesting or useful direction.
‘Avenues’ – as with all Creative Techniques – is a model that encourages the brain to approach a narrative in a particular way. Different models lead to different approaches – which in turn will enhance creativity.
‘Avenues’ encourages the writer to investigate the possibilities of one element of the storyline, picking out a single ‘idea pathway’ through a scene; concentrating solely on one ‘idea pathway’ at a time. Greater creativity in writing arises through ‘pushing the envelope’, seeing what an ‘idea pathway’ through a scene could become – as well as the different directions it take you in.
The 5 Steps of Avenues
The process moves in five steps, from one ‘idea pathway’ to a set of developed ‘avenues.’
- Idenitfy one specific ‘idea pathway’ that designates a possible way that the storyline can move forward from the established narrative.
- Find ‘idea pathways’ that could connect with or lead off from this central ‘idea pathway’. Such derivative pathways could include themes, connections, contrasts, consequences, other points of view, the occasional ‘what if’. Look beyond the obvious connections; search for the inventive and the visionary.
- Follow each ‘idea pathway’ far enough to understand where it could lead. Does it develop the plot in a purposeful manner, deepen character, or develop an important theme?
- Build the ‘idea pathways’ into ‘avenues.’ Draft a short, rough descriptive passage that ‘fills out’ the ‘idea pathway.’ Each written description passage is exploratory; it does not have to be polished to be useful.
- Now connect the ‘idea avenues’ together – and then build on the core infrastructure of ‘idea avenues’ to erect the final scene or chapter; add further depth, enhancement and enrichment to the writing.
Mapping the Common Avenues
The following is a further addition to this creative model; these are categories of creative themes that will often form connections into or out of a central ‘idea pathway.’
Ancestral
What lies behind the idea in time – history, lineage, origin.
Geographic
The world the idea sits in – the town, the valley, the economy, the weather.
Connective
A thread linking the idea to something apparently unrelated.
Contrasting
The idea set against its opposite or its foil.
Sensory
The idea explored purely through texture, colour and sound.
Character-view
The same situation seen through another person’s eyes.
Speculative
A ‘what if’ turning – a hypothetical that could harden into plot.
Thematic
The larger idea of which the specific one is a small instance.
Illustration: The Avenues Technique
The specific ‘idea pathway’ being followed is the opening to Chapter 1 of The Tailor:
Anjali’s Uncle arrives in a valley with a river running through it.
Avenue A – The Ancestral turning
Turning: Follow the idea backwards, into the family’s past.
Exploration: Tailoring running ‘as naturally as silk thread drawn by a nimble needle’ through at least five generations; the needle and loom pulling her ancestors ‘through crumpled and smooth history’.
Destination: Craft established as inheritance and destiny – the ground from which Anjali’s later wish to be ‘more than a shop that alters and repairs’ will grow.
Avenue B – The Geographic turning
Turning: Step outward into the world the idea sits in.
Exploration: The uncle arriving in a grey town at the end of a wet valley bordered by the sea; Wetledale as the valley of the Cabinet Makers, shipping durable goods by sea to bypass the treacherous mountain roads.
Destination: A fully costed world with its own economy and weather – and the sea, quietly set at the valley’s foot as the far horizon of ambition.
Avenue C – The Connective turning
Turning: Trace a single thread that links two separate parts of the idea.
Exploration: The river running ‘like a silken ribbon along the seam of the valley’, connecting the uncle’s colourful upstream workshop to Anjali’s downstream home; the river as ‘the great designer’, making a pattern and rubbing it out.
Destination: The motif that will govern the whole novella – the flow from grey valley to open sea that finally carries Anjali’s decision: ‘It is the flow of the river into the sea. I cannot stop it now.’
Avenue D – The Contrasting turning
Turning: Set the idea against its opposite.
Exploration: The uncle’s workshop – ‘a captivating circus of texture, colour, and sound’ – against the spartan furnishings of her parents’ house.
Destination: Anjali’s defining desire made visible as a pull towards colour and craft over austerity; the four-year-old setting off up the river path is that desire in miniature.
Avenue E – The Thematic turning
Turning: Rise from the specific idea to the larger one it belongs to.
Exploration: Clothing collected ‘as a philatelist collects stamps’; the discovery that ‘there is personality in every garment’, that clothing is ‘loquacious’ and gives away the nature of the person who wears it.
Destination: The book’s central premise – that clothing shapes and reveals character – which becomes the engine of the later plot, when a well-dressed thug becomes ‘a name, is a presence, is a person of note’.
Illustration: The Avenues Technique - The Completed Picture
Connecting this core infrastructure of creative avenues – and building out from each of these individual avenues – leads to the following narrative passage from The Tailor.
Anjali came from a family of tailors. Tailoring had run as naturally as silk thread drawn by a nimble needle through generations of Anjali’s family. The work of the needle and the loom had pulled her ancestors through crumpled and smooth history across at least five generations – that her grandparents had been able to determine – and possibly many more.
Anjali’s uncle first arrived as an immigrant in a grey town at the end of a wet valley, which was bordered at the bottom by the sea. A river ran like a silken ribbon along the seam of the valley and into the ruffled salt waters of the estuary.
Her uncle’s colourful workshop and the spartan furnishings of her parents’ house were worlds apart. But connecting them was the flowing textile of the river. The silver surface, the movement and the weave of the water through dark and light. [...] The river was the great designer, creating a pattern in a few seconds and then throwing it away as its waters rubbed the idea out; then moving effortlessly on to the next reflection.
There is personality in every garment. Clothing is loquacious. It cannot help but give away the nature and intent of the person who wears it. Some clothing wishes to fit in and some wishes to stand out. Clothing can be confident and determined, it can be hesitant or unreliable, it can be threatening, or it can be warm and supportive.
Avenues in Combination
Other techniques that work well in combination with Avenues.
- The Core Question – defines the problem a section of text is trying to solve.
- Cascades – when a single avenue proves rich enough to carry more weight, cascade it outward into a fully developed sequence.