Ever wondered where the term “brainstorm” comes from?” Well, for the Victorians it had a pseudo-scientific meaning, a literal derangement that might come along with an epileptic seizure; it was used figuratively, as well, to mean “a temporary loss of reason, a serious error of judgement” (all this according to the O.E.D., the best source available for going down etymological rabbit holes!) By the mid-1940s it was being used as a verb in a much more familiar way, “to analyse in a group discussion of spontaneously arising ideas”. I want to draw your attention to a few things in that O.E.D definition…
“…spontaneously arising ideas…”
In last week’s post I mentioned how easy it is to think of writing as the final product and not all the messy stuff that goes into creating that product. Brainstorming, a part of the pre-writing process (although of course it can happen at any stage when you’re writing!), is delightfully messy because it is all about letting your mind wander.
Here’s an example of one of my brainstorms, a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles. The three circles are labeled “Arachne”, “spider”, and “Proserpina”, and are meaningful to me. They might not make much sense to you though, because I wasn’t worrying, as I wrote this, about communicating my thoughts to someone else. Instead, I was focusing on getting my own ideas clear. If you look closely, you’ll see that there’s at least one question mark in there, and at least one made up word, ways that I represent thoughts to myself. Sometimes my brainstorms looks like a post-it note with a list of questions; or a piece of paper that looks a lot like a spider web, with words connected by lines; or a few handwritten sentences on a printed out draft when I’m trying to figure out where to go next. I like to start on paper, but voice memos and the Notes App on your phone are also a great tools for brainstorming. The goal is not to articulate your ideas correctly or clearly, it’s to recognize what your ideas actually are!
Here’s another example of what a brainstorm might look like. This is an early outline of the first draft of the fourth chapter of my dissertation, and you can see a bunch of topics I wanted to write about labeled 1-4. There are a few quotes from authors that I noted down, there are thoughts to myself (“p. 92 she doesn’t get grief” is obviously a personal thought and shoes that I was thinking about how to push against the scholar I was reading), there are squiggly arrows connecting ideas, there are exclamation points, question marks, and moments where I decided had to use red ink for some reason. I wrote this after reading a bunch of scholarship and after writing a chunk of my first draft. I had gotten stuck, and didn’t know what to write next– getting away from the computer (and from full sentences) helps me discover coherent thoughts and get over a bout of writer’s block.
“…analyse in a group…”
If you click through the second O.E.D link above, you’ll realize that every use of “brainstorm” as a verb provided by the dictionary involves collaboration. Contrary to the popular myths about writing being a solitary experience, one of the core beliefs of any Writing Center is that writing happens in community. Writing is a form of conversation, of communication, so it kind of can’t be solitary, can it? You’re always writing to someone (even if that someone is yourself when you write a grocery list or in a journal). The topic for next week will be collaboration in the writing process, but in the meantime, consider experimenting a little with your brainstorming– maybe that means talking through an outline with someone before you start writing, or recording yourself thinking out-loud in a voice memo as you walk across campus between classes, or drawing a word web of concepts and questions. There’s no right or wrong, so give yourself permission to do something different!
Brainstorming Beyond College Writing
Brainstorming is a tool with wide applicability. It’s a first step not only in writing, but in any sort of problem-solving or decision making endeavor. Industry careers of all sorts prioritize job applicants who think outside of the box, who are comfortable coming up with new ideas on the spot, whether or not those ideas pan out. Check out this infographic from IDEOU, an online school that grew out of a “global design and innovation company”. Brainstorming in this context is verbal, a team discussion that IDEOU defines as “an activity that will help you generate more innovative ideas. It’s one of many methods of ideation—the process of coming up with new ideas—and it’s core to the design thinking process.” That sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it!
Resources:
-The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center has a great list of different techniques for brainstorming.
-Book a session with a Writing Tutor today if you want to brainstorm together!
