How To Brainstorm And Generate Awesome New Ideas Every Time!

At least, I don’t remember being very creative.

I was always a little uncertain about what I wanted to do in life. I was a dreamer but never anything that stands out to me now, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, nor did I know what my ‘passions’ were.

In the UK, in the 90’s, there was a TV show called ‘Art Attack’. I remember always wanting to make things but I never had the magic ingredient; PVA glue. My creative potential remained untapped, until I fell into the world of photography!

Some people say that creativity can’t be taught; I don’t believe it. I came from a family of engineers on both sides, my path was already laid out.

That, was the plan until I was taught how to brainstorm.

Today, you can use a pen and a notebook to work towards unleashing that potential and develop any creative ideas you might have!

There are several ways to brainstorm; the very first step, which I’m sharing with you today –

The Word Association Cloud

Find a comfortable place to sit;

so you can think clearly. I was taught how to brainstorm a topic by word association;

• Write a word down,  for example,‘Sun’.

• Come up with a word that they would associate with that word, for example,’round’.

• Write that word beside the original word. Now come up with an association for the new word.

I would have been given a brief about something like ‘still life’, so I would write a word at the top of the page and start writing.

Example:

Still life, motionless, stationary, stationery, pens, pencils, watercolour, paint, painting, palette, colour palette, pastel, spring, tulips, flowers, hydrangea, lilacs, purple, heart…

You can go on forever but sometimes you can hit on an idea that immediately evokes lots of other little images and thoughts in your head.

You can use the cloud technique to dump your initial ideas. That way you will be able to see clearly what avenue you wish to go down. You can expand your genius thoughts in extra little clouds or even create lists if you limit to four separate lists in each corner.

Word association is no longer my technique as I now have more refined parameters but that is to come!

I love to create decorative items for my home, so that’s usually my initial parameter.

In my own brainstorming sessions, I divide ‘themes’ and ‘decorative items’ into sections, list everything I can think of and then I can match up my ideas by picking one word from each column.

This technique is one of the EASIEST ways to generate new and exciting ideas. It’s the technique I use when I am working backwards – “Ok so, I need to produce a publication by such a date and this is my theme:” 

You should be able to breathe a little easier and you can use this technique for everything you want to brainstorm!

Play around with your ideas,

and most importantly, have fun! Eliminate negative thoughts.

Negative thinking has no place in your life, thoughts about your own work and your own creative process should be positive and passionate and should help to drive you forward to success!

My brainstorming can be a little messy to begin with… and then they get slightly more refined.

All you have to do is focus on one topic and start listing more ideas.

Then you can decide what materials you need and what steps you need to take to achieve your little creative goal!

Overcoming a creative rut, is one of the most difficult and disheartening aspects of living a creative life. Hopefully, brainstorming ideas for a new project can help get you out of the rut or just enhance your everyday creativity!

Do you use any other brainstorming techniques? I hope you found this article helpful!

Do you brainstorm before you begin a project?

View previous articles in this series –

How to deal with perfectionism and creativity (English)