Why We Need to Brainstorm (and 4 Methods to Try Out)

I have a confession to make. I hate to write.

Let me take that back: I love the idea of writing. I love writing when I know what I’m doing. I just hate, hate, hate, hate staring down at an open, empty word document or a crisp, clean, blank, lined piece of paper, pen hovering expectantly in my hand, the emptiness mocking my lack of language. I’ve been a writing consultant for three years now, and I still forget to engage in one of the most basic tools I prescribe for other writers who, like me, avoid the blank-page-showdown like fruit cake at Christmas (pretend it’s not there, so you can’t see its stolid inappropriateness).

It can be hard to get started writing because it isn’t like changing the oil. When I’m changing the oil, I can get into the swing of things. I purchase the new oil and the filter. I get out my drip pan. I have to get under the car and twist off the old oil filter and watch the old black filth drain out of my car. There are steps, there is a process… there’s a mechanism to get me started.

Starting to write can feel abrupt. It’s almost as if I had car trouble on a remote stretch of highway,  without cell phone signal, and with a limited knowledge of cars. There I am, looking up and down the highway, and I decide to pop the hood of my car and look into the engine.

And then I stare at it.

And it stares back at me.

And I don’t know what I’m thinking.

That’s what it is like to stare at that blank page.

  

However, starting to write is not as hopeless as the scenario I described.  With writing, we have a step called “brainstorming.” What I forget is to rummage through my knowledge of the tools I have available. I need to remember that  “outlining” is only one tool when it comes to brainstorming and planning out my paper. Outlining, it seems to me, implies I should know what I'm doing before I begin. In my world, since I don’t know what I need to write, how can an outline help me write my paper? 

So, beyond outlining, here are a few different types of brainstorming we can use.

Mind Mapping

A number of mind mapping programs exist out there on the internet. The pen and paper method can be called “webbing” or creating spider webs, or even clustering. They might look like this:

While I do end up writing quite a bit, I tend to be a visual or hands on learner, and creating mind maps has helped me a lot (when I remember to do them). I use a program on my iPad called iThoughts HD, but I have also found that writing topics or themes on index cards and then laying those notes out around me helps in the same way.

 

Bonus: Mind mapping is a great time to use different colored pens or markers and to get in touch with the ol’ inner child.

Free Writing

An oldie but a goodie. Time yourself - 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 20 minutes for the ambitious - and just write. You can even write “I don’t know what to write,” until something breaks through. Then when you finish writing, try to make bullet points out of that free write.

Consulting Tip: We can have writers do this for 3-5 minutes during consultations and then help them make bullet points out of what they wrote. It’s a really good exercise for negotiating your own thoughts.

Challenger

This technique is a little different. Try to challenge the assumptions about your topic (or for non-academic writing, about your whole genre!). Let's say I’m writing a paper that I think is on how college students use social media to procrastinate. I could “challenger brainstorm” with some challenge questions such as:

• What is social media?
• Why is it social media?
• Are they really procrastinating?
• Could the time off from thinking help the thinking process?

These questions can help fuel my ideas for my paper.

Consultants: This technique is great when working with a writer as long as you inform them that this is a brainstorming technique to help generate thinking. Otherwise your questions could be interpreted as being less than helpful.

SWOT Analysis

Business students are probably familiar with this technique. A SWOT analysis is traditionally used to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats internally (strengths and weaknesses) and externally (opportunities and threats) of an organization or business. However, we can apply the same concepts to approaching different papers. For example, under weaknesses, I could put what I don’t know or arguments I'm not sure of, and threats can be arguments I believe to be true but could be quickly undermined without more support or research.

The Community Tool Box has a great example of how to lay out your brainstorming in a SWOT Analysis.

Brainstorming in a SWOT Analysis

Digging through my toolbox more frequently and using more of the tools at my disposal give me a better feel for writing as a process I know how to do. Consultants (and writers), what brainstorming methods have you tried? What has worked and what hasn’t? Comment with your input!