Brainstorming Techniques

One of the best ways to ensure that such writing situations are less frequent is through one of the brainstorming techinques for writing called freewriting where you sit down with a blank sheet or several sheets of paper. Just write whatever comes into your head whether it is related to your topic or not. Write about how you have no ideas about this topic, what kind of day you had, how you want to redecorate your living room, anything at all. You can time the session or fill an entire page or pages the choice is yours. When you are done, you will find you have more ideas than you know what to do with.

Breakdown is an example of brainstorming techniques for writing. Write your topic at the top of a page. Then divide the topic into sections such as subtopics, questions and themes then list them below. Continue by breaking down the subtopic into subtopics, questions and themes.

Listing and bulleting is among the brainstorming techniques for writing. Make a list about the topic you have. List all related phrases, questions, sources, and keywords. If you can think of anything else, add that to the list also. Take each one of the items and create another list.

You can also use one of the brainstorming techniques for writing called Cubing. Cubing is when you look at your topic from six different sides. Use these six ways: describe it, compare it, associate it, analyze it, apply it and argue the pros and cons of it. Analyze the answers for any connections and notice if there seems to be a theme appearing.

Here is an example of brainstorming techniques for writing called Similies. Make up sentences using the topic. For example, (topic) is like (unrelated word), (topic) was like (unrelated word), (unrelated words) are like (topic) and (unrelated words) were like (topic). By doing this you will start to see new ideas.

Clustering/Mapping/Webbing is similar to using freeform and is one of the brainstorming techniques for writing. You can expand on the topic by writing keywords in the middle of a blank sheet of paper. Draw a circle around it and branch off in as many different directions as possible. Connect them all to the topic, then branch off again. Do this as many times as you need to.

One of the more popular among the brainstorming techniques for writing is Parts. This is where you look at the how the whole, the parts and the parts of parts are related. Take a blank sheet of paper and using the left and right margins, make a list and write "whole" on the left and "parts" on the right. Next line "part" on the left and "parts of parts" on the right. Next line "part" on the left and "parts of parts" on the right. Repeat the last one more time. Now it can get a bit tricky but write how these labels can apply to the topic and its subtopics, keywords, etc. Make conclusions about the relationship, connections, etc.

Using these brainstorming techniques for writing should help you quickly clear that writer's block.