Brainstorming Session: Time to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
My fingers hover over the keys. What should I write about? The weather? What I ate for lunch? The conversation I had with someone at the gym last week? All plausible, but not necessarily always riveting. If a picture or quote doesn’t inspire you, what should you write about when you want to practice your writing craft?
Why not start with some brainstorming!
Perfect! What better place to do that than in a local coffee shop. Sure you can do it anywhere, but if you are already struggling with your writing, then a change in scenery might help too.
That is exactly what I did earlier this week to kick-start some ideas for what to write about for clients. While I have been writing about trees for several years, there is always so much more to know! And shouting “Call us for your junk removal” repeatedly doesn’t equate to quality content. So I gave myself the span of a cup of coffee and the breadth of piece of paper and I came up with over a dozen different topics I could expound upon for both of them. One of which I’ve already written. Woohoo!
Benefits of Brainstorming
Sometimes taking the time to brainstorm is well worth the time put in. What can you get from it, aside from new ideas? Well;
- it reduces stress and pressure from trying to think up topics on the spot
- you may come up with other lateral ideas you can further expand upon in other articles
- you might make a leap you otherwise would not have considered
- it keeps you productive when your creative juices may be low
- it may organically boost your creativity
- rough brainstorming gives your brain a break from strict grammar rules
- you can be creative in other ways; ie. use pictures and symbols, link ideas, colour code streams of consciousness, etc.
- you can include other people in the process to come up with even more ideas
The possibilities are endless and the benefits many. What are you waiting for? Get brainstorming!
Creativity consists of coming up with many ideas, not just that one great idea.
~ Charles Thompson
April 25, 2018 @ 4:45 pm
I often find that a lack of ideas is really the mind rejecting the ideas as “weak”.
When in doubt, I just start babbling, letting random thoughts flow into the air, or onto the page, and most of them are less than stellar, but eventually I usually hit upon something interesting.
I think the key is to let go. The mind is full of thoughts, we just tend to forget most of them as quickly as we think of them.
Sometimes brainstorming can be very freeing, letting go of your control and simply riding your own stream of consciousness.
April 25, 2018 @ 5:04 pm
Absolutely Adam. Just because we have an idea, doesn’t mean it is worth following up on. You probably have something, when you suggest our brain subconsciously rejects weak ideas. But sometimes it isn’t so much the idea, rather the way we are tackling it.
April 25, 2018 @ 5:16 pm
Mmm. There’s a time and place for all things. Sometimes I embrace the random thoughts that bubble up in my mind, other times I use music and quiet places to help me focus, ignoring the random in favor of one project that I’ve chosen to work on.