3 Brainstorming Techniques – Getting It Out Before Writing It Down

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For many, writing isn’t as easy as sitting down and putting words on paper. It requires a lot of forethought, organization, and patience. While you may not consider yourself a writer per se, anyone can write. As my dad always says, “If you can speak, you can write.”

Before you put your ideas on paper, brainstorming allows you to get any ideas out of your head. There is no one way and there is no right way to brainstorm. That’s the beauty of it. Whichever way that allows the ideas to leave your head in as quick a manner is best.

Here are some brainstorming / prewriting techniques that will help you get started in the writing process and can continue to help through revisions and edits.

1. Clustering/Mapping. This process allows you to put ideas down in a cluster or map format and contains ideas in visual form. Below is an example of what a cluster/map looks like from Bubbl.us (click to see a larger image). You can cluster thoughts online and can invite others to view and edit existing clusters. This is also great for brainstorming ideas in the workplace.



2. Freewriting. Just as it sounds, freewriting is writing freely. By not paying attention to organization, you will be able to get your ideas out. Once you’ve given yourself enough time to write down your words, thoughts, and ideas, you can later go on and turn them into sentences, paragraphs, and organized thoughts.



3. Listing/Bulleting/Outlining. If you have a general idea of what you’re going to be writing, listing (or bulleting or outlining) can help organize your thoughts early on. This technique will put your thoughts in paragraph form and can easily be translated to a blog post/article/webpage/etc.

Try them all out and see which one works best for you. Writing is a process that has many steps, the first of which is brainstorming.

Brainstorming your ideas allows you to get them out of your head and then write them down on paper.

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Tags: Copywriting, Marketing, Search & Marketing
Posted in Copywriting, Search & Marketing