Spill It: What is Your Secret to Brainstorming?
Welcome to the latest edition of “Spill It”. This series has been one of our most popular so I decided we’d feature another one. First off, a bit of explanation of what “Spill It” is. This is where we ask you a question and you are invited to spill the beans. Please feel welcome to express your opinion and methods. We’d love to hear them!
Moving right along, today I’d like to talk about brainstorming. Brainstorming is a very important skill for a blogger. Why? As bloggers, we’re constantly trying to think of new content that will be informative and engaging to our readers. When you know how to brainstorm effectively, your articles will fill the needs of your readers and you’ll have a balanced blog.
So now for the question…
What is Your Secret to Brainstorming?
Now it’s your turn. Spill it!
Tim Smith is a music loving blogger and designer. He’s passionate about blogging and loves to share his thoughts and experiences for the benefit of others. Find out more on his personal site. Follow Tim on Twitter: @timothybsmith.
My secret to Brainstorming is Free-writing!
Typically I will think about a topic, open up a Word Processor (I mostly write on my iPhone), and just start writing. Sometimes I will often turn off my monitor as well to prevent distraction.
In the beginning it’s mostly garbage but after a while something starts to happen and a solid idea starts to develop that I just run with.
After I’m done free writing I will save the entry and walk away from it. When I come back I find that most of the time I have a really solid idea that I can run with. The only thing I will need to do is correct spelling, grammar, and maybe a little research.
Mindmapping helps as well but I’ve found that Free-Writing is the best brainstorming tool that I’ve discovered.
For me, the best way for to get new and fresh idea to blog about is by using TweetDeck.
Through TweetDeck, I can use the search keyword function that let me to get list of tweets that contains the keyword that I decide to use.
I am blogging about WordPress for Huzzer Magazine. So, I will use the ‘Wordpress’ keyword to look for any new and fresh idea and latest WordPress related news through tweets from not only from my followers but also others.
Through this process, I can make blog post that can help others by solving their problem and elaborate further on certain topics which they have tweeted.
Thoughts flow when I’m in the water… or showering.
Also, I like to keep a journal with me at all times, or even a mini note book will do the trick. I write down different thoughts and collect them, read back a few days later and think more about it.
I think of topics and ideas at inopportune times (in the shower, in the middle of a restless sleep, etc). I always keep a small notebook and my iPhone on me to write down anything. When I’m blocked, I turn to that list and am usually able to come up with something pretty neat. This applies to both my writing and my designing.
Another thing I do is keep a list of things that annoy me – a program crashing, poor formatting of my students’ work, etc. – and come up with fixes and blog about them. I find that we ALL have something to complain about everyday, and it’s more constructive to find a fix for those complaints and share them with the world. I constantly get feedback from people thanking me for coming up with a fix that they ended up using.
Sitting in the bathroom for 10 minutes putting together things in my brain and/or standing in the shower for a hour. Probably because it’s the only alone time I get, and so yeah, I quickly put it into a notebook or in my iPhone once I get back to my room.
Although I’ll freely admit I’ve been a horrible blogger of late, when I do write, I really don’t even think about it. I just open up a new post and sit for a minute until a title pops in my mind and then I’m off… Which is odd because with anything else, the title comes last. But with blogging, it’s first in my mind and it directs what flows out of my totally unorganized brain.
Lately, I have been so bad about it that I only blog when I have something to say — news or some such thing. I love blogging . . . can someone make it so there are like twenty more hours in each day?!??