What does brainstorming look like?

When you think of brainstorming, do you think of an activity you did in elementary school or middle school where you made a web of ideas? That’s what I think of. 

In reality, brainstorming can look like anything and can happen anywhere. When I lived in NYC and first started writing for GenTwenty, all of my ideas came to me while I was on the subway, and I’d jot ideas down or write full articles on the notes app in my phone and then email them to myself (this was back in 2014 before apple was all the way synced…or at least I wasn’t all the way synced).

For my novel revisions, I tend to jot them down by hand in a specific notebook, and often I’m voice-noting my writing accountability partner ideas while I scribble. 

Most of the time, in order to brainstorm, all you need is to get out of yourself. You need to turn off distractions and set down your limiting beliefs.  Going for a walk helps, or thinking about it in the shower (why is it that the best ideas come to us when we have no way to write them down!?) and maybe even sit down to make a mind-map-brainstorm-web like we learned to in school.

Jot down any idea you have — let yourself have a moment where the sky is the limit, and no idea is bad. Make a list, a pile, whatever it looks like for you. This works for picking out ideas to write about or for specifics for an already-started project. 

Then look at what is similar and what is different. If you’re trying to figure out what to write about, you’ll see you’re more drawn to certain topics. Listen to how your brain reacts when you tell yourself you’ll write about that thing. If you get excited, lean into it. If you feel dread, lean into that and ask yourself why?

Brainstorming is always a good thing. There are no bad ideas, just not-the-right-ones-for-now.

Also, pro-tip: if you pick an idea, start working on it, and realize it’s not quite right, that’s OK too. And it’s OK to put it aside. No time spent writing is lost time.