Writing Workshop: Idea Brainstorming

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Probably one of the hardest things to just start up and do in writing is coming up with ideas. What I’m generally talking about is writing fiction, but this can also be applied to any type of writing that involves a creative process.

It’s more than just coming up with a concept to write about. W heather it’s coming up with an entertaining story, or making that next blog post. A basic idea is nothing without things to set them up and provide payoffs. These are issues that will need to be worked on throughout the life of a writing project and reworked in order to make sense to readers.

Take this for example. You might have a cool concept of a future world inhabited by creatures of mythology. Which, while some might be interesting in the world building that setting could bring. That world means nothing without a central character or plot placed in it to bring out the best in the minds of a reader.

That’s why I think this starting process is so important for writers to understand. For this part, I want to talk about coming up with the ideas themselves. Later in this series I will discuss outlining these ideas in order to create a coherent story line and put these ideas to good use.

Inspiration can happen at any time

In any creative field I’m certain we all know that you can’t force inspiration. It’s just something that comes to us, maybe even at inconvenient times. This part of coming up with ideas is the hardest because you can’t really control it. That why if you’re taking the idea of writing a novel seriously, you have to be ready at any time when inspiration strikes.

I don’t mean this in the way that you need to drop what you’re doing just to write. But rather that you should keep some way to write down your thoughts as they happen. Whether that means bringing around a small notebook and pencil, or using a note taking app on your phone, it doesn’t really matter as long as you can put your thoughts down in physical form.

Don’t rely on your memory, put it down and get back to it later is the best course of action. This should be the first step to ensuring that you get your creative ideas out there. I understand that this isn’t always feasible to do just wherever you may be. Just that this is a good plan to follow as a beginner.

Just write

I’m sure anyone that has written anything has encountered writer’s block. It’s pretty much an inevitability that this will happen to anyone that writes. I know I’ve dealt with it with many project and will have to handle it any time that I decide to sit down at my desk and write.

There’s a lot of discussion around this topic, but how does this relate to brainstorming ideas? Well sometimes even when you might have that big idea you want to form a story around. The forming part becomes the hard part. It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

It’s bound to happen no matter how inspired you may be, so how can we combat this? Well there are plenty of articles I’ve seen with dozens of tips to help, and I’d recommend at least checking them out if your stuck, there are some I agree with and disagree, but ultimately that’s up to you to determine if they help you out in your situation.

For me though, the tried and true method has always been to take a moment to clear my mind, and write without thinking. A simple idea, but effective in achieving your goals. You won’t make the best written piece you ever made in your life, but it doesn’t have to be. Initial ideas need to be “tested” to see if they’re worth exploring in the first place.

That’s why I take this approach, because an idea needs to be refined. It’s going to take multiple takes to get it write, which is why throwing anything at the wall is a legitimate strategy. You don’t even have to write about your first idea to get out of a rut. Sometimes writing something else, might be a better idea than forcing yourself down a tunnel. Creativity needs freedom to grow, so don’t be afraid to take time away from your main project.

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Be willing to throw away ideas

Seems a bit counter-intuitive for a piece about brainstorming ideas. Yet it might be the most important one here. There are two main reason why, the first being that sometimes it wasn’t a good idea in the first place.

Let’s be honest, just because you might have liked it yourself. That doesn’t mean anyone else is going to feel the same way. It might be hard to accept depending on how you felt about it yourself. Maybe you might’ve thought this was the next big idea, or it was simply just something silly you decided to try out.

Either way, a poor idea is will never make for good writing. Though you can and certainly should learn from it and try and understand why it didn’t work out. That way when something similar comes up in the future, you can spend less time before realizing that this isn’t worth your energy.

The other reason is that your time is better spent on some other idea that might be better. In economics it’s called opportunity cost. Where what you spent on one thing is something that wasn’t spent on another. Writing is a creative endeavor, and restricting it is a good way to find yourself stuck.

Even if the idea itself isn’t a bad one. You yourself may not be the one to write it. We all have different things we’re good at and that includes the different genres within fiction. It might be best to put aside one idea for one better suited for your talents. In this case it’s not really throwing away an idea, but rather storing it for later. Preferably when you’ve gained more experience that can help you explore it in a new light.

Writing Workshop is a series I hope to create as I learn more about writing. I am no expert, but I believe that I can help beginners find their words and create stories that are well made with less struggles during the process.

There are many amateur writers that I don’t believe take the time to really learn the craft and I hope that this series can at least change it, if only a little. That said, I myself am still learning and I would love to hear feedback in the comments below on how to improve myself in writing fiction as well as writing this series over time.