Celebrate Africa Awards 2021

Brainstorming African-themed Stories

✽ Consider themes that speak to the relationship between Africa and its diaspora in terms of home and exile and a sense of belonging and alienation. Focus on friendships, love relationships, and the complexities involved in fragmentation as part of a consequence of living across different cultures.

✽ Challenge patriarchal structures and dominance in African society.

✽ Challenge the taboos of sexuality and gender identity in African society.

✽ When deciding to write about a sensitive or politically-charged topic, write from a child's point of view. Seeing a young person's perspective of a taboo subject can soften the hard edges. It also helps demonstrate how these topics affect our young people.

✽ If writing about an African living in another country, flavor it with African music, food, clothing, and traditions. You may decide to write about an African practicing a religion that is different from the majority of their foreign neighbors. Perhaps they are judged and misunderstood.

✽ There are many African myths and gods that can be built upon. This does not mean the story must have supernatural elements, although that sounds like fun. Perhaps you can simply add these elements into the story as part of the development of your character(s).

✽ Include the varied landscapes, animals, and unique culture found only in Africa. Give your protagonist a job as a safari guide or a wildlife conservationist battling poachers. Think of lifestyles and settings that can only be found in Africa and weave them into your plot.

✽ Freewriting is a useful exercise when you're stuck for ideas. Just start writing and let the ideas flow. It doesn't matter what you write. The important thing is to put words down and see where your brain takes you. Even if these ideas end up being dead ends, figuring out what you don't want to write is just as useful as figuring out what you do.

✽ Borrow from other authors. Never steal, but use existing plot ideas, character traits you admire, or familiar settings to ignite your brain and inspire new perspectives. What would George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series look like if it took place in Africa?

✽ Traditional African stories often convey a moral lesson or caution against greed, dangerous choices, transgressions, and other misdeeds. We can often find inspiration from the stories we heard as children. Look for ways you can incorporate these morals into your story, just be sure to deliver them in an engaging way. Passion about a topic can cause a writer to unintentionally turn a good story into a lecture.

✽ Allow an unexpected character to narrate. If the story is about a wealthy couple, their house butler could relay the events that take place in the home. Or if the setting is in a busy hair salon, the salon owner might be the perfect character to dish about every customer who frequents the shop.

✽ Create a mind map. This technique uses visuals to form connections between different thoughts and information. For some, it's helpful to see how ideas relate to one another through diagrams or images rather than just text. You can do this on a sheet of paper or use a mind mapping tool online.

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We hope you have found some of these brainstorming ideas helpful. The next chapter explores the world of genres and how they can help inspire your African-theme story.