Developing Ideas in writing

How do writers develop ideas for writing? Writers use many techniques, and it's a bet that most of the
techniques involve writing itself. Think of a composer creating ideas for a song by playing notes on a
piano keyboard. Think of a sculptor creating ideas for a statue by shaping and reshaping pieces of clay.
Think of a quilter creating ideas for a quilt pattern by arranging and rearranging different snippets of
fabric. All creative endeavors go through preliminary stages in which creators generate ideas, discard
some, and play with others that capture their imaginations or that seem to "fit the bill." Each creator
develops ideas by getting immersed and "doodling" in the particular medium. And writing is no different.
In writer's terms, that preliminary stage of idea development is called "prewriting."

Prewriting usually is messy in terms of having ideas scattered all over the place--think of the quilter with
pieces of fabric all over the living room floor. For a lot of people, it's liberating to be messy and not
worry about logic, pattern, or final form. That's the purpose of prewriting, to be as free-ranging as
possible in generating ideas. If you're aggravated by mess, then prewriting can be thought of as pre-
planning, as a means of generating the ideas and data that will help you create the essay draft. Either
way, prewriting is a stage of idea incubation, a way to generate ideas and capture your thoughts through
writing.

Ideas for writing develop in many ways, and prewriting techniques try to reflect the different ways in
which ideas can develop. Some forms of prewriting are intended to help you bring subconscious ideas
and interests into consciousness (some forms help if you tend to draw a blank when you're asked to
"write about what interests you"):

Freewriting

Brainstorming

Clustering/mapping

Maintaining a personal journal

Other forms of prewriting are intended to help you generate your own ideas in response to others'
ideas:

Responding to a text

Maintaining a response journal

Asking questions about a subject

Making a list

Working with prewriting

Generating and Developing Ideas

For many people, the toughest part of any writing task is getting started. Here are some exercises that
help with "blank page syndrome" or "writer's block."

Listing: Brainstorm a list of possible topics. If the assignment deals with your own experience, try a list of
important events in your life related to the topic. If the assignment deals with material from a class,
brainstorm all of the things you've talked about in the class that you remember or that interest you. The
important thing is not to censor yourself at this point - write down anything that comes to mind.

Freewriting: Freewriting simply means writing without stopping for a set amount of time. Start with
shorter amounts of time (2-5 minutes) and build up "stamina" slowly. Again, as in listing, it's important
not to censor ideas at this point; simply write down anything that comes to mind. Sometimes, if you
keep your hand moving, you'll come up with details and connections that never occurred to you until
you wrote them down!

Looping: Looping is a variation on freewriting. Pick one aspect of your topic to begin writing on.
Freewrite for five minutes. Then, read over what you have written and underline the most important or
interesting idea or sentence. Start with this idea or sentence and freewrite for another five minutes.
Find your "center of gravity" sentence again. If you continue this process, you'll often find you've started
a rough draft of the assignment.

Clustering: Write the topic in the middle of the page and put a circle around it. Then, branch out from
the circle with associations and details about the topic. Write down anything you can think of, making
connections as you see fit (see "Guidelines for Selecting a Subject," next page, for an example).
Cubing: This is another way to look at one topic from many angles (like the pentad exercise). Write for
one to three minutes on each of the six "sides": Describe, Compare/Contrast (How is it like something
else? How is it different from something else?), Analyze (What parts does it have?), Evaluate, Apply
(What can you do with it? How can you use it?), Argue (for or against). All sides will not work equally
well for all topics.

Answering WH-questions: Write the five "Wh" questions (who, what, where, when, why) across your
paper. List as many questions as you can think of that a reader might ask about your topic in those
categories. Write down answers or features of your topic that might address those concerns.

Story Board: This is ideal for narrative assignments. In each "screen," sketch the stages of a story (like a
comic strip). Under the sketch, briefly define the action. In a large box below, list at least three
descriptive phrases or adjectives which clarify the action.

Invisible Writing: If you have trouble writing without constantly re-reading and editing what you've said,
this may work for you. Using a computer, turn the contrast down on your monitor so the screen is blank.
Type for at least 20-30 minutes without looking at what you've written. Then, turn the contrast up and,
ignoring typos, find out what you have to say!