Creativity Sparks the Writing Practice

 


Creativity Sparks the Writing Practice by Deborah Lyn Stanley

Brainstorming is a technique for generating ideas and creative solutions. It’s a wonderful way to grab a bundle of topic and story ideas. Several pathways can be used for group or solo gathering.

Creativity of any kind is helpful.
* Do you love art? Check out paintings from the masters online.
* Do you stitch or work with yarn? There’ are lots of videos on YouTube.
* Do you paint or draw? A walk-in nature is sure to inspire!
* Ever wished to paint? Check out Facebook groups or Pinterest.

My first experience of brainstorming happened during a company training session. A problem was presented and discussion began, guided by a facilitator.  Throughout the discussion, ideas written on small pages lined the walls. Each participant was encouraged to contribute, no idea is too quirky to build upon. When each member is involved in developing solutions, it’s more likely to find a solution.

Four Techniques have been used for Effective Brainstorming:
1.    Starbursting focuses on forming questions instead of answers, beginning with who, what, where, when, and why.
2.    Mind Mapping may be the most classical approach and the one seen most often. The written goal is noted in a center circle, with lines branching out to subtopics, and again for subcategories. Circled notes continue as ideas continue to form.
3.    Blind Writing is free-form writing, forcing you to put pen to paper for a minimum of 10 minutes to open up fresh ideas. The one rule is that you must keep writing for those 10 minutes.
4.    Reverse Storming is idea generation in the opposite, gathering ideas of how I can stop a goal from succeeding. It helps to uncover fresh approaches.

For additional information see:  https://www.edrawsoft.com/MindMap-Examples.php
 

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts.
Visit her My Writer’s Life website at: https://deborahlynwriter.com/   
Visit her caregiver’s website: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/

Mom & Me: A Story of Dementia and the Power of God’s Love is available:
https://www.amazon.com/Deborah-Lyn-Stanley/
& https://books2read.com/b/valuestories

 


 



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3 comments:

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Deborah Lynn, I took a class from master instructors at UCLA. UCLA offers all their instructors classes like these to give them more tools for their incoming Writers' Program instructors. One of them featured many of the suggestions you wrote about here. I am telling you this because the story illustrates how blogs like #WritersontheMove let authors feed their writing careers with little time and no expenses! Thank you!
Hugs,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
https://howtodoitfrugally.com

deborah lyn said...

Oh thanks much Carolyn! Wonderful encouragement for all writers!

Linda Wilson said...

Deborah Lynn, you article offers terrific options for brainstorming a story, article, or nonfiction book. I have used these through the years, which I learned in the reading program I taught to elementary students. Mind mapping is my favorite as I like to write from an outline, and laying out my ideas in a map (of clouds, my favorite), not only helps me think of up ideas but puts them in the beginning of the order they will appear later. Great article, I enjoyed it!

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