How-to: Brainstorm

What is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is the ability to produce ideas or solutions in a certain task and it’s helpful not only in storytelling but in our everyday lives. It helps you organize your thoughts, generate more ideas, and overall makes your life easier.

Different ways to brainstorm:

There are many different ways to brainstorm and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Here is a list of my favorite way to brainstorm.

Why analysis:

The why analysis created by Taiichi Ohno is a very helpful way in the storytelling world to brainstorm ideas It sounds like what it’s called. You start to think about a very rough idea and keep asking yourself why until you come up with a better, more complex, strong idea.

Example: The dog jumps over the fence

Why?

Example: The dog jumps over the fence because he is hungry

Why?

Example: The dog is hungry because his owner is starving him

Why?

Example: The owner is starving the dog because he thinks the dog is fat

See how we went from a straightforward idea (the dog jumps over the fence) to a story where there is a complex plot and message (fat shaming the dog) Then you can build up the plot to the point where you have a very detailed story.

Freewriting:

Freewriting is the technique I normally use because its "rules" are so easy to follow.

Essentially what you do is:

1. Set a timer for 5 minutes

2. Start writing whatever comes up and out of your brain

Even if the ideas are nonsense the goal of the exercise is to get your creative juices flowing and there may be a few ideas that could lead you to a bunch of better ideas. The number one thing you should NOT do is edit. Editing can end up restricting your ideas while doing this exercise.

Mind Mapping:

Mind mapping is a process you may have heard about. It would be best if you used this strategy when you have a rough idea of your topic (ex: tigers) then start to connect other thoughts to this idea.

For example, this is a mind map I made:

As you can see this strategy works for any kind of genre (in this case I chose non-fiction) and it's really simple. You can add more and more ideas as you get them and customize or personalize the mind map however you'd like. I made this using google docs.

Conclusion:

Brainstorming is a really simple process so try to find a strategy that works for you.

Before I leave you to get brainstorming I want to make one very important point: There is no right way to brainstorm and you don't have to. If you feel none of the above strategies work for you feel free to try out others. They all work for ME but they may not work for you and that is OKAY!

Also if you already have a lot of ideas and you feel you don't need to brainstorm by all means skip brainstorming.

Creative Writing has no rules you make them. Make rules that you think are going to be helpful to YOU and no one else.

Happy writing and I hope you read next weeks blog post!