[INTRO MUSIC PLAYS]
ELENA: Hello, and welcome back to Hoo's At The Writing Center. I'm Elena,
KARISSA: I'm Karissa,
KIMBERLY: And I'm Kimberly!
KARISSA: We also wanted to acknowledge the absence of our fourth member Sarah, who unfortunately isn’t able to join us on the podcast for the rest of spring quarter, because of student employment rules that have changed, given the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’re hoping to have her back in the fall, um, when we pick up this podcast again.
KIMBERLY: Today, we are going to take a look at one of the most important and arguably the hardest parts of writing – which is starting. Whether you’re engaging in academic or creative writing, we all have our moments where thinking of even one word to write or type feels insurmountable. So: how can you get past this feeling? Will inspiration ever return? We hope that some of the brainstorming tips and tricks we’ve included in this episode can help you get over this hurdle! So, we’re just gonna go ahead and give out some tips that you guys can try out, and give some resources at the very end of the episode.
KARISSA: The first brainstorming exercise that we have for you guys is freewriting. Freewriting is a great way to let your mind wander, which can result in new inspiration or ideas on whatever you're writing about. So, the idea is to give yourself a time limit, somewhere between 5 or 10 minutes, not too short and not too long, and just write. Don’t stop writing, don’t think about correct spelling or punctuation – if you can’t think of anything to write you can literally write “I don’t know what to write” over and over and over again until a new idea pops into your head. And then you write about that, and keep going from there. When your time is up, take a break, and then revisit what you wrote during that time. There could be some new and interesting ideas that are worth exploring in your writing!
ELENA: Another brainstorming exercise you can try is clustering, which is really helpful if you’re more of like, a visual learner – and it’s helpful because it allows you to get all your ideas down on paper all at once, as well as organize them and see what connections you can make within your writing. You can start by writing down the main idea or focus of your writing, and then create branches with associated ideas that connect back to the main idea. You can continue doing this until you have a web of ideas that are all connected to each other in some way, and then at least you get the ideas all down on paper.
KIMBERLY: Our next brainstorming tactic – exercise? – are the classic 5 W’s, so: answering the questions of Who, What, When, Where, Why, and the honorary member of How can be helpful to gain a bigger picture of what you want to explore and write about. If you can’t answer one of these questions, doing more research or constructing your own creative answer can help create a more vivid idea of what your writing could entail.
KARISSA: One of my favorite brainstorming exercises is to talk to others. Sometimes it can be really helpful just to talk through your ideas to make sense of them with other people, whether it’s your friends, your professor, or a consultant at the writing center! By asking questions and explaining your ideas to someone else, it can help spark new inspiration on a topic, or even help you to find things you’ll need to look into or explain further in your writing.
ELENA: Another thing you can try to do is reverse brainstorming. So, reverse brainstorming is especially helpful when it comes to thesis [driven] papers, because the task is to create and argument surrounding a certain subject matter or topic. But, a lot of times, it can be a struggle to develop your argument. So, if you find yourself in this situation, you can ask yourself: “What is the problem? How did it occur? And what might happen if nothing is solved?” This is called reverse brainstorming because brainstorming usually asks to solve the problem, so by reversing it you're asking what caused the problem in the first place which should help assess your ideas from there and kinda figure out where you’re at!
KIMBERLY: And then the next tactic is, uh, filling in the gaps. So, if you think of writing as a journey, you can ask yourself “Where are you right now?” and “Where would you like to be?” Of course, this doesn't have to be the whole thing, it doesn’t have to be the whole paper, it can be like different stages of like, “Oh, I wanna finish my introduction” or “I wanna finish my first body paragraph.” So, asking yourself where are you right now in that section, or, uh, bigger process, and then, asking yourself again: where would you like to be? This is a way for you to fill in some ideas or steps on how you can reach point A or point B, or if it makes you feel a little less overwhelmed, you can also do A.1 to A.2 and et cetera. Uh, this is just a way for you to give yourself a little bit of a basis of how to complete the next task, to open up the next one. So, definitely an idea you can try.
KARISSA: Another place to start is by asking yourself the question, “What do you already know?” This can help as a precursor to the question, “What do you want to know?” If you know too little, then it’ll mean you wanna know more, and vice versa. This is another way to assess where you currently are, and where you hope to be, which is similar to the technique that Kimberly just talked about.
ELENA: One other thing that I think is especially helpful now, when a lot of us are kind of cooped up inside, is to just take a break. Sometimes we need a change of space or get out of our "Writer's Block" funk. And sitting at your desk is just – it’s not doing it. Whatever you do (and ideally it's safe) we encourage you to be off your phone as that can lead to some unproductivity and procrastination that’s not...really helping you out. So, some suggestions for what you could do to take a break that’s actually going to help are to listen to some songs, to walk it out – like around your neighborhood, to get off the screen for a little bit, and/or to take a power nap. You could also just eat a snack – um, I really like cooking in order to take a break, like if I’ve just been...thinking a lot, all day, I think it’s [good for your] brain. And, you could also just work on another assignment, or task, that you know you can accomplish.
KIMBERLY: I just wanna say I really – I had a lot of fun writing that one up, ‘cause I was like, hm, what can I do [Laughter], what am I doing right now that could help? The, uh, next one is challenging yourself. So, this is a similar method to “What do you know?” uh, that Karissa talked about, but it takes the stakes, uh, up a notch and really pushes you to exercise your brain. So, jot some ideas down relating to what you want or have to write about, and ask yourself: “Why does it have to be that idea?” “Why do the things you list have to be what they are, could it be something else?” Questions like these are meant to stimulate your brain and orient you to the purpose of the writing. It isn’t meant to overwhelm you with, like, “I don’t know why I’m writing what I’m writing!” but it definitely is a way to sort of reemphasize the, uh, motivation, what is driving you to write this paper.
KARISSA: Sometimes it can also help to look at your paper through different perspectives, and ask different questions in that way, so by roleplaying, uh, you can ask yourself the question: “What if you were someone else writing this paper? What would they say that would be different from what you’re going to say?” Alternatively, what if the person opposing your paper were sitting right in front of you? What would they say about your argument? Sometimes it’s helpful to view things from a different perspective, especially if it’s someone who has radically different views than you. Or, if you’re writing an argumentative paper, again, what would your opponent say, and how would you fight back?
ELENA: These are all things that you can do not online, but there’s also lots of online resources that are really helpful and that are tailored specifically to help out with brainstorming difficulties. So, one of them is Realtime Board, which is a collaborative (or you can do it on your own), online whiteboard space which utilizes virtual kinds of like, post-it notes, and you can upload images and Google docs to this, and you can then, again, work alone or with other people. Um, two other free tools for mind-mapping specifically are Freeplane and Mindmap. And those are just really good if you’re more of a visual brainstormer; it’s kind of similar to clustering where you can just, put all of your thoughts in one place and be able to visualize that. Um, going off of that, TheBrain, which is one word, is a really cool free program that mimics thought processes in order to help you organize and connect thoughts and topics. So, it’s another kind of mind-mapping, but I think, for me at least, it feels a little bit more natural. And, you can definitely find more online resources, these are just a few that have been helpful for me.
KIMBERLY: And, of course, you can always schedule an appointment with the writing center, we offer synchronous appointments so you can chat with us in real time, uh, if you have a brainstorming question, or if you just want another perspective on ideas, and all of that. So, of course we encourage you to find other brainstorming tactics, as this was only just a small list of things, and we hope this was a helpful start to some new ones, new tips and tricks, or new methods to try out if you’re currently in a writer’s block. If you’d like to see more content or have ideas for upcoming episodes, please email us at [email protected], and please check out our blog at suwritingcenter.weebly.com, and tune in next time! This has been another episode on –
EVERYONE: Hoo's at the Writing Center!
KIMBERLY: [Laughter] We’ll get there, we’ll get there.
ELENA: I feel like that one was better than the last time – but... [Laughter]
KARISSA: Yeah, that was good.
[OUTRO MUSIC PLAYS]
ELENA: Hello, and welcome back to Hoo's At The Writing Center. I'm Elena,
KARISSA: I'm Karissa,
KIMBERLY: And I'm Kimberly!
KARISSA: We also wanted to acknowledge the absence of our fourth member Sarah, who unfortunately isn’t able to join us on the podcast for the rest of spring quarter, because of student employment rules that have changed, given the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’re hoping to have her back in the fall, um, when we pick up this podcast again.
KIMBERLY: Today, we are going to take a look at one of the most important and arguably the hardest parts of writing – which is starting. Whether you’re engaging in academic or creative writing, we all have our moments where thinking of even one word to write or type feels insurmountable. So: how can you get past this feeling? Will inspiration ever return? We hope that some of the brainstorming tips and tricks we’ve included in this episode can help you get over this hurdle! So, we’re just gonna go ahead and give out some tips that you guys can try out, and give some resources at the very end of the episode.
KARISSA: The first brainstorming exercise that we have for you guys is freewriting. Freewriting is a great way to let your mind wander, which can result in new inspiration or ideas on whatever you're writing about. So, the idea is to give yourself a time limit, somewhere between 5 or 10 minutes, not too short and not too long, and just write. Don’t stop writing, don’t think about correct spelling or punctuation – if you can’t think of anything to write you can literally write “I don’t know what to write” over and over and over again until a new idea pops into your head. And then you write about that, and keep going from there. When your time is up, take a break, and then revisit what you wrote during that time. There could be some new and interesting ideas that are worth exploring in your writing!
ELENA: Another brainstorming exercise you can try is clustering, which is really helpful if you’re more of like, a visual learner – and it’s helpful because it allows you to get all your ideas down on paper all at once, as well as organize them and see what connections you can make within your writing. You can start by writing down the main idea or focus of your writing, and then create branches with associated ideas that connect back to the main idea. You can continue doing this until you have a web of ideas that are all connected to each other in some way, and then at least you get the ideas all down on paper.
KIMBERLY: Our next brainstorming tactic – exercise? – are the classic 5 W’s, so: answering the questions of Who, What, When, Where, Why, and the honorary member of How can be helpful to gain a bigger picture of what you want to explore and write about. If you can’t answer one of these questions, doing more research or constructing your own creative answer can help create a more vivid idea of what your writing could entail.
KARISSA: One of my favorite brainstorming exercises is to talk to others. Sometimes it can be really helpful just to talk through your ideas to make sense of them with other people, whether it’s your friends, your professor, or a consultant at the writing center! By asking questions and explaining your ideas to someone else, it can help spark new inspiration on a topic, or even help you to find things you’ll need to look into or explain further in your writing.
ELENA: Another thing you can try to do is reverse brainstorming. So, reverse brainstorming is especially helpful when it comes to thesis [driven] papers, because the task is to create and argument surrounding a certain subject matter or topic. But, a lot of times, it can be a struggle to develop your argument. So, if you find yourself in this situation, you can ask yourself: “What is the problem? How did it occur? And what might happen if nothing is solved?” This is called reverse brainstorming because brainstorming usually asks to solve the problem, so by reversing it you're asking what caused the problem in the first place which should help assess your ideas from there and kinda figure out where you’re at!
KIMBERLY: And then the next tactic is, uh, filling in the gaps. So, if you think of writing as a journey, you can ask yourself “Where are you right now?” and “Where would you like to be?” Of course, this doesn't have to be the whole thing, it doesn’t have to be the whole paper, it can be like different stages of like, “Oh, I wanna finish my introduction” or “I wanna finish my first body paragraph.” So, asking yourself where are you right now in that section, or, uh, bigger process, and then, asking yourself again: where would you like to be? This is a way for you to fill in some ideas or steps on how you can reach point A or point B, or if it makes you feel a little less overwhelmed, you can also do A.1 to A.2 and et cetera. Uh, this is just a way for you to give yourself a little bit of a basis of how to complete the next task, to open up the next one. So, definitely an idea you can try.
KARISSA: Another place to start is by asking yourself the question, “What do you already know?” This can help as a precursor to the question, “What do you want to know?” If you know too little, then it’ll mean you wanna know more, and vice versa. This is another way to assess where you currently are, and where you hope to be, which is similar to the technique that Kimberly just talked about.
ELENA: One other thing that I think is especially helpful now, when a lot of us are kind of cooped up inside, is to just take a break. Sometimes we need a change of space or get out of our "Writer's Block" funk. And sitting at your desk is just – it’s not doing it. Whatever you do (and ideally it's safe) we encourage you to be off your phone as that can lead to some unproductivity and procrastination that’s not...really helping you out. So, some suggestions for what you could do to take a break that’s actually going to help are to listen to some songs, to walk it out – like around your neighborhood, to get off the screen for a little bit, and/or to take a power nap. You could also just eat a snack – um, I really like cooking in order to take a break, like if I’ve just been...thinking a lot, all day, I think it’s [good for your] brain. And, you could also just work on another assignment, or task, that you know you can accomplish.
KIMBERLY: I just wanna say I really – I had a lot of fun writing that one up, ‘cause I was like, hm, what can I do [Laughter], what am I doing right now that could help? The, uh, next one is challenging yourself. So, this is a similar method to “What do you know?” uh, that Karissa talked about, but it takes the stakes, uh, up a notch and really pushes you to exercise your brain. So, jot some ideas down relating to what you want or have to write about, and ask yourself: “Why does it have to be that idea?” “Why do the things you list have to be what they are, could it be something else?” Questions like these are meant to stimulate your brain and orient you to the purpose of the writing. It isn’t meant to overwhelm you with, like, “I don’t know why I’m writing what I’m writing!” but it definitely is a way to sort of reemphasize the, uh, motivation, what is driving you to write this paper.
KARISSA: Sometimes it can also help to look at your paper through different perspectives, and ask different questions in that way, so by roleplaying, uh, you can ask yourself the question: “What if you were someone else writing this paper? What would they say that would be different from what you’re going to say?” Alternatively, what if the person opposing your paper were sitting right in front of you? What would they say about your argument? Sometimes it’s helpful to view things from a different perspective, especially if it’s someone who has radically different views than you. Or, if you’re writing an argumentative paper, again, what would your opponent say, and how would you fight back?
ELENA: These are all things that you can do not online, but there’s also lots of online resources that are really helpful and that are tailored specifically to help out with brainstorming difficulties. So, one of them is Realtime Board, which is a collaborative (or you can do it on your own), online whiteboard space which utilizes virtual kinds of like, post-it notes, and you can upload images and Google docs to this, and you can then, again, work alone or with other people. Um, two other free tools for mind-mapping specifically are Freeplane and Mindmap. And those are just really good if you’re more of a visual brainstormer; it’s kind of similar to clustering where you can just, put all of your thoughts in one place and be able to visualize that. Um, going off of that, TheBrain, which is one word, is a really cool free program that mimics thought processes in order to help you organize and connect thoughts and topics. So, it’s another kind of mind-mapping, but I think, for me at least, it feels a little bit more natural. And, you can definitely find more online resources, these are just a few that have been helpful for me.
KIMBERLY: And, of course, you can always schedule an appointment with the writing center, we offer synchronous appointments so you can chat with us in real time, uh, if you have a brainstorming question, or if you just want another perspective on ideas, and all of that. So, of course we encourage you to find other brainstorming tactics, as this was only just a small list of things, and we hope this was a helpful start to some new ones, new tips and tricks, or new methods to try out if you’re currently in a writer’s block. If you’d like to see more content or have ideas for upcoming episodes, please email us at [email protected], and please check out our blog at suwritingcenter.weebly.com, and tune in next time! This has been another episode on –
EVERYONE: Hoo's at the Writing Center!
KIMBERLY: [Laughter] We’ll get there, we’ll get there.
ELENA: I feel like that one was better than the last time – but... [Laughter]
KARISSA: Yeah, that was good.
[OUTRO MUSIC PLAYS]