Inventing; brainstorming on the meaning of a literary work

Having close-read and annotated your primary text, the next phase of the writing process, inventing, requires you to gather the many observations your close-reading has produced and shape them into core ideas and themes. This is where you begin an exciting exploration of the text, bush-whacking your way through language and theories. One of the primary goals of inventing is to generate a working theme and interpretation. A theme is central idea or meaning of a literary work. The following strategies will help you begin generating significant ideas about a literary work.

• Answer generic, fact-based questions involving plot, characters, and settings in order to test your comprehension of the work. 

• Create a bulleted list of interpretive questions about varying and important aspects of a work. Good interpretive questions are open-ended, not fact-based. They require deep thought and time.  Interpretive questions ask why or what element of a literary work is important and involve references to devices and meanings (i.e. form and content). 

• Writing a Discovery Draft will help you develop ideas and loosely organize your thoughts about the characters, settings, literary devices, and themes in a literary work. It is a cross between a journal and a first draft, and can be thought of as a free-writing, exploration. Indeed, it is a more coherent version of your journal entries synthesized together. A Discovery Draft is a very messy attempt at writing your analysis. It should not be considered a rough first draft but a means for logging your thoughts on paper. 

• Fleshing-out observations you made during close-reading in a journal is similar to writing a Discovery Draft but it demands less organization. Journals are helpful for developing several different theme options. 

•  Type up or write out significant quotes and look for patterns among them that will support your thesis.

• Film and sound bites may present you with new perspectives about the piece and stimulate your audio and visual senses. Simply hearing the text read aloud, its tone and rhythm, can lend you that EUREKA inspiration! You can visit Poets.org to listen to audio versions of hundreds of poems!     

• Parodying or writing in the author’s style is a fun brainstorming challenge. Being able to effectively mimic a writer’s style demonstrates an excellent understanding of the literature and its themes. This exercise may provoke further questions about the work’s messages. 

• Conduct light research without examining sources such as Sparknotes. Sparknotes may introduce several themes, styles of analysis, and summaries for hundreds of literary works, but reading through these resources limits your own creative interpretations. Professors hate when students use Sparknotes because they want to hear what YOU have to say! However, feel free to find historical and chronological information for your literary text by using online journals, textbooks, and encylopedias.  Wikipedia can be a good way to start gathering background information about your text, but it is another source that does not always provide accurate answers. Make sure your professor allows this kind of research.

•  Design cluster bubbles or webs in order to look at patterns in the literary work you are analyzing. You can view an image of a cluster here.

• Some students choose to begin developing their papers through interpretation by examining theme; others chart the patterns of prominent devices. It is best to select 2-3 devices to analyze in order to maintain clarity and focus.

• Now you can go ahead and generate a theme.  Remember: a theme is a central, generalized idea or message of a literary work presented in the form of a complete thought. We have adapted a handout on theme for your use.

“Inventing doesn’t have to occur while you’re sitting at your desk in front of a blank page. I like to think about the work I’m analyzing and brainstorm while I walk across campus in between classes. You can even invent while you’re working out.  Sometimes all you need is a little physical activity to get the juices flowing!” – Mary

“Inventing is my favorite part of the writing process because this is where I really get a grasp on what it is that I am going to write about. If I enjoyed the text that I read, this is the part where I get to be passionate and form ideas with the themes that stood out to me. I like to give myself at least a day or two after finishing a text before I start inventing, just so I can really absorb it all and appreciate it.” – Carli