Searching for Ideas

                If you are anything like me, your mind starts to wonder when trying to put together a story, blog, or article. It seems that so many ideas go through my mind, but when it comes to putting my thoughts on paper, the stream of thoughts seem so far away. As I meander through the forest of meaningless ideas, my wastebasket fills with nothingness.

                A worthwhile thought will make its way to the forefront of the sorting process. I can focus on it for an instant before adding supplemental thought. It seems as if this subject can go somewhere. My mind has a tendency to roam from time to time, especially when finding details to support my idea. Sometimes, in the process of adding details to the original thought, the main idea either falls apart due to either not really being that worthwhile after all or because the supplemental ideas have blurred my recollection of where I was supposed to go with the idea. The additional information was focused on so much that the original thought becomes an afterthought. Sometimes people suffer from over-thinking ideas. Or it could be a scattered brain distracted by my own ideas. This brings to mind, for me at least, images of intrigued children amazed by what adults consider everyday concepts.

                Then you have other times where it doesn’t matter how hard you focus on putting something together, you draw a mental blank. Writers consider this a mental block. How does a writer deal with a blank mind? I would imagine that time away from the pen would be in order, but most people are on strict deadlines and time away from work or the paper in this instance would be lost time and opportunity. As time passes, more stress will build as the deadline draws nearer. I guess it is back to the paper, pen, a void mind, and the drawing board.

                I’ve learned that sometimes a good game plan is what is needed to get the creative juices flowing. There are so many people, myself included, that are visual learners. Using images is a very powerful learning style. Also using images can be a good tool to initiate creativity. When using this tactic, think about an image. It could be in a magazine, on the internet, or in your head. Ask yourself questions about the images. These could be closed ended or open ended questions. I think that closed-ended questions don’t engage the mind like open ended questions do. Open-ended questions allow for multiple correct answers while closed-ended questions are relatively straight-forward and have usually one right answer. Questioning yourself in this way will get the blood flowing to the brain by making it work.

                Another way of getting the creativity rolling is by going back to basics. A simple brainstorming bubble could be a great starting point. Usually if you can come up with a topic, there is a good chance that you have some kind of stance even before doing any research or taking any steps further. Use your predetermined stance as a catalyst for further analysis. Take what you feel as correct and disprove it or validate it. Find information to do this and then question the information found. Sometimes taking a step back and analyzing your approach could be all that your brain needs.

                Sometimes it is hard to get going on a writing assignment. I think this is common for everyone. There are things that can be done to avoid a writer’s block. Using visual aids to get your mind thinking could help get your brain engaged. Then using basic practices such as brainstorming and bubble drawing could be vital for a struggling author or student preparing a speech or article. If you’re anything like me and have ideas flowing at certain times and not some much at others, it is always a good idea to keep a pen and paper handy to avoid overthinking those and forgetting where you were going with that idea. I try to not allow my scatter-brain to take over, organization is one of the tools that I try utilizing to avoid full-on chaos.