Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Brainstorming

In my writing group, The Writin' Wombats, one of our members posed a question about brainstorming.  I started to write about it and quickly realized that I had a lot of related experience, some of which is relevant to writers and much which can be applied to just about any kind of project. 

In my novels, I've started both of them by doing a bit of free form brainstorming on paper.  I like to draw maps which show topics I'd like to write about and then start filling in the connections.  If a topic is dense enough in its possibilities and connections, it just might be a good candidate to build a novel around.  After brainstorming about topics, I've found it's a natural development to start building characters once you've got a nucleus of good ideas.  From there, it's not a big step to actually start writing prose or develop a chapter outline.

I really learned about brainstorming firsthand from one of my early bosses.  I'd brainstormed before this, but he was systematic about it and got me enthused as well.  It helps to have the right tools.  In his case, these were two large white boards, which virtually begged one to get out the colored markers and start putting ideas down.  One key aspect of brainstorming is to focus first and foremost on generating ideas and writing them down, then worrying about the quality of the ideas later on.  There's nothing that will shut down a good brainstorming session faster than trying to evaluate the ideas as they are being generated.  Hold off the tendency to criticize and let the ideas get out there.  Among other things, this opens up the possibilities for cross fertilization between ideas, where one idea builds on another, which leads to another and so on. 

When I had my own business, I knew I needed to do planning, but struggled to find the time.  I also needed to get out and get a bit of exercise.  My solution:  the planning walk.  I had an inexpensive tape recorder -- these days you could use an ipod -- and I'd use the walk to brainstorm about ideas for building my business.  I generated lots of useful ideas and managed to get out of the office.  

I've blogged previously about OneNote here and here, but this is another example of a tool that is very well suited to brainstorming, since you can take notes in a number of free from styles and even draw maps if that's what you'd like to do.  

So that's a few words on my experiences with brainstorming.  

Do you like to brainstorm, whether for writing or another kind of project?   If so, what kinds of approaches do you take?  Do you have any favorite brainstorming tools?  

Writer's Notebook: More on OneNote

In a recent blog post, I ruminated about the possibilities for using the OneNote software that comes with some versions of Microsoft Office 2007.  I'm pleased to say that I've been using OneNote both at work and at home, and it has really helped to declutter my life.     

So what do I mean by this?  As a writer, I've always got multiple projects going.  For example, I'm doing editing on one of my manuscripts.  Right now, I'm fine tuning the language in certain sections based on feedback from one of my beta readers.   However, the best phrases often occur to me when the word processor is not open and the computer might even be off altogether.  OneNote is a very lightweight way to take the odd scribbled notes -- from those times when the computer is down -- and file them away under a page devoted to current edits on the manuscript in process.   Later, when I'm ready to edit again, the notes are there, waiting for me to put them to use.  

In my work as a product manager, I've recently been in the throes of a product launch.  This entails a myriad of tasks and a boatload of details.  I've now covered a planning page devoted to the launch with all of these tasks, together with links to a variety of documents which have moved from draft to finished state, all safely under the watch of OneNote.  I know there are other ways of managing such tasks, but OneNote has seamlessly jumped into the breach, aiding and abetting me in this complex project, acting like the assistant  I might have had back in the days before the current lean and mean corporate era.  

My conclusion?  OneNote is the kind of software tool I've been looking for to help me organize my personal life and rely much less on scraps of paper.  I can definitely recommend it as being the most useful software tool I've encountered in recent years.   If you want to try it out, you can either buy the program standalone or get it in one of the many versions of Office 2007.  It's worth the effort.