Some people have a knack for effortlessly coming up with good idea on the fly. For them, brainstorming is nothing more than the act of thinking about something – or maybe nothing at all – until fully formed idea pops into their brain. For most people, though, coming up with an idea is an arduous and daunting challenge. If you’re someone who has a difficult time coming up with ideas, be it for school or work, you should try implementing some brainstorming techniques to ease the process along.
Freewriting
Freewriting is your most basic brainstorming technique. It’s the best technique to use when you literally have nothing to build on and you need to come up with that initial idea that will get the ball rolling. Freewriting is simply the act of writing down whatever pops into your head without thinking about it at all. You can do it on a computer, a piece of paper or a chalkboard. The choice is yours. All that matters is you keep writing until you get something you can work with.
Bullet Points
This is a good technique to use after you’ve done your freewriting and you’ve come up with a basic idea that you can build on. It’s basically like word association. First, write down you main idea. Then start writing down other ideas and words that come to mind below it. Just keep adding whatever words and similar concepts come to mind until you start to form a better-constructed idea.
Webbing
Webbing is a lot like bullet points. If you watch a lot of crime or medical dramas, you’ve probably seen this technique, or something similar to it, used before. You start by writing your main on idea in the center of a piece of paper and draw a circle around it. Then write down other similar ideas around it. After you’ve written a handful of ideas around it, you then draw circles around those ideas and connect them to the central idea with lines. Then you go around to each of your supporting ideas and do the same thing. You can continue this process indefinitely.
Cubing
Cubing is a good brainstorming technique to use when you’re trying to decide if an idea is worth pursuing. Write down your idea. Below your idea, write down the following: a description of your idea; a comparison of your idea to something similar; something you can associate your idea to; something you apply your idea to; and analysis of your idea; and an argument for your idea and against it.
Well, now you have four different brainstorming techniques you can try the next time you hit a creative block. Hopefully these techniques will help you bring your idea(s) to life.