This all started because Gareth Powell, a really terrific British science fiction writer, suggested that we post pictures of what lurks on our desks and hash tag it as #writersdeskcompanions. I took a picture of the most interesting things on my desk — the boxes containing my gaming dice, my lovely kaleidoscope that I got on a trip to Big Sur, a crystal paperweight and the famous Dumb Stick from the Star Trek: TNG writers room.
After puzzling everyone on Twitter with this post I realized I needed to explain the origins and the purpose of the Dumb Stick. So here it is for anyone not on Twitter. So I was given this magic wand thingee as a gift when I started my first job in Hollywood on Star Trek: TNG. When we would be breaking a story we’d all normally gather in Ricky & Han’s office, pile on the couch & the floor & get to work. I would often bring this thing along just to have something to fiddle with while we worked. As I recall Ricky would often be cleaning his computer keyboard as his nervous fiddle while Ira would pace.
One day we were struggling with an episode (I don’t remember which one) when another Richard in the room at the time, held out his hand to me & said, “Give me that dumb stick.” He then made a completely off the wall, silly suggestion. We all blinked at him for a few minutes and then began to see that if we tweaked this crazy idea it might just work. After that jump start we were able to finish breaking the script. After that we all started using it. When you were holding the dumb stick you could, without any shame or embarrassment, make a really dumb suggestion. It was amazingly liberating.
I brought the concept back home to New Mexico along with the idea that the Hollywood plot break can also work really well for novels. So when we would have plot breaks for friends novels I would always make sure to bring along the Dumb Stick. George and I use it frequently (although it’s metaphorical in this time of Covid) when we are working out overarching plots for Wild Cards.
The freedom to toss out ideas and suggestions and be allowed to twist, pummel and knead them is crucial to producing a good outline whether for a novel or a script. So now I will allow the Dumb Stick to take a solo bow.
