How To Brainstorm Successfully (For Writers)
Brainstorming can be an important part of the creative process—if you do it right. As writers and creatives, we often find ourselves needing a space to generate new ideas.
Here are my best tips for having a productive brainstorm, whether you’re in a group or on your own.
First, know what problem you’re trying to solve.
Having a specific task for your brainstorm is going to help direct it and make it more productive. The task can be as simple as generating new subject ideas or as aspecific as needing a title for a project. The important things is to know your goal.
Second, keep it positive.
Brainstorms can get really bogged down if you just shoot down every idea that comes up. It’s useful to employ the basic rule of improv: “Yes, and” or simply, just don’t say no. If an idea comes up that you’re not sure about, try to add on to it to make it better, or at the very least just write it down and keep going.
Your going for quantity, not quality (quality comes later), so don’t shoot down any ideas until you’ve had time to consider them.
Third, set a timer.
Endlessly drumming up new ideas isn’t the goal, having a solution is. Make sure your brainstorm has a set time limit (30 minutes or less is a good ball park) so that you can move on to improving the ideas you generate.
Really, try to get a group together
Even if you’re working on a personal/individual project, brainstorming happens better in groups. Other people can tap into perspectives that you don’t have. Getting 2 to 5 people to help you brainstorm can be invaluable.
2 Strategies for brainstorming on your own
Mindmap
Mind mapping is a useful strategy for helping you explore a topic. You start with a central theme in the middle and then branch ideas off of it.
Here’s an example:
Free writing to a prompt
The “Morning Pages” (a strategy from The Artist’s Way) is one of my favorite strategies and I hear it from other writers all the time. It involves filling 3 pages with writing, without stopping. It helps clear the mind and open your brain’s creative circuits.
The most freeing thing is realizing you don’t have to do the “morning” part. One of the most consistently effective ways that I’ve found for getting around writer’s block is to give myself a prompt and free write 3 pages on it.
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About the author
Abby Bland (she/they) is a nonbinary writer who also straddles the line between comic and poet in Kansas City. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications and she regularly produces shows and teaches workshops in the KC area.