Brainstorming is often described as the process of writing down all ideas, and not thinking about how good they are, or their implications. The brainstorming processes described here are a little more focused, but still encourage writing down all ideas, and either worrying about their implications later or including what the implications might be in the brainstorming process.

You can brainstorm alone, with a partner, or in a group. Each type of brainstorming has subtly different techniques, and group brainstorming works best when it has a "director". The director of a brainstorming session is a guide, and makes sure you stay more or less on topic, and also prompts more ideas by asking questions about ideas that have been brought up earlier. Partner brainstorming also works well when one of the pair takes the role of director.

When recording the ideas generated by brainstorming, my personal preference is a spider diagram, which some people call "clustering". Spiders allow you to see the relationship between ideas easily and promote on-topic thought by having all new recorded ideas related to something already there, while still leaving you plenty of room to be creative and take your ideas in new directions. A spider is started by writing the main idea you want to explore in the centre of a piece of paper, and circling it. From there, you write related ideas, questions, 5-10 word character descriptions, possible answers, and anything else relevant around the central idea, connecting the new ideas with lines. Every additional recorded idea, or node, can have more ideas linked to it, and ideas can be linked to several other, initially unrelated nodes. All nodes must be linked, through however many degrees of separation, to the central node - this ensures you stay on-topic. Spiders are frequently lopsided, with some nodes spawning an enormous number of other nodes several levels deep, while other nodes are left alone and have nothing attached. (For example, take a look at the spider I did for my NaNoWriMo entry.)

When brainstorming, always ask "what if?" and "why?" - and especially ask what would change if an idea in one of the nodes were completely reversed. When alone, make sure to pause every so often, look back at existing nodes, and ask that, then fill in the answer ideas you think up around the node that prompted the question. When in a pair or a group, the director would focus on the questions.

Brainstorming can be used not only at the beginning of a story, but at any time in the course of the story. It's especially useful when you get writer's block and have no idea where to go next, and really doesn't take long.

Brainstorming in a group

Group brainstorming is fun, but it can be hard to find a group of people willing to sit down with you and talk about your idea or story. The people you want to brainstorm with don't have to be writers; if writers, don't have to prefer your story's genre - the only requirement is that they're willing to pay attention to your description of what you know about your story already.

You, as idea originator, should not be the director or the secretary. (In a group, the director and secretary will often be the same person, and isn't expected to generate ideas, only questions about ideas. Obviously, the secretary should be able to write clearly and quickly.)

Start out by explaining your idea and what thoughts you've had about where it may go. The idea is the "body" of the spider, the thoughts you've had about it are the first few nodes around the body. If you have a story already and want to develop one aspect or break your writer's block, explain in broad strokes what's happened already and why; feel free to explain reasons for events that are not given in the story or that the characters don't know yet. Allow yourself to be interrupted with questions. And once ideas start flying, whatever you do don't sit back and listen; likewise, don't tell somebody "that couldn't work because" - instead, ask yourself honestly what would happen if you made that idea work? Would your story be improved? Answer questions and expand on ideas others provide with facts from your idea or story that you hadn't told them at the beginning. Participate as an equal who just happens to know a bit more about the subject than the others.

Brainstorming with a partner

As with group brainstorming, your partner doesn't have to be a writer, only willing to pay attention. Personally, I do partner brainstorming with my other half when we're driving, so he can't run away ;-)

With only two people, the idea flow is changed. The pressure should not be on your partner to generate ideas for you - that's a sure way to scare him or her away. If your partner is reluctant, just explain that you want to talk out your idea, and all he or she has to do is ask questions if anything isn't clear. You may or may not record all the ideas discussed in partner brainstorming, it depends on both your memory and how much you want to think about it before recording it.

Start out by explaining your idea and what thoughts you've had about where it may go. Really listen to the questions your partner asks, and never ever tell your partner "that couldn't work" - always try to answer the questions. What would happen? Some of the most surprising - and best - ideas come from questions you had never thought of, especially "reversal" questions.

Your partner may not see how talking about something you already know will help you learn something new, but sometimes just explaining will clarify things enough that you know what to do with your ideas, with no input from your partner at all. Other times, your partner will ask a seemingly innocent question that will trigger a reaction that is (to their eyes) completely out of proportion to the value of their question. Why? Well, just on the surface, it's virtually impossible for you to explain absolutely everything you know about your story, and the innocent question touched (and reacted explosively with) an idea or fact that you had neglected to mention.

If you want to try partner brainstorming but can't find anybody who is willing to listen to you for a half-hour or so, you aren't completely out of luck. While having a real live person is better, the Write On! chat room has a brainstorm bot that will fill the role of attentive listener and will ask you questions based on what you said. Her name is Calliope (the muse of epic poetry).

Brainstorming alone

This seems like the hardest kind of brainstorming, but in an odd sort of way it's also one of the easiest. For one, you don't have to co-ordinate with (or find, for that matter) other people who are willing to listen to you. You can also do this as time permits. Fifteen minutes here, ten minutes there... longer periods let you get "in the groove" and have more of your story in your head at once, but short bursts of activity also work well.

You should use your paper as a partner when working alone. In this kind of brainstorming, writing your ideas down is essential, as it is a substitute for speaking them aloud to a partner or a group. It's only partly a record; the other reason for writing your thoughts down is as a focus. The act of putting those vague thoughts you've had floating around into words that should make sense to another person, or yourself a day hence, does truly amazing things to your ideas. They clarify - you can see their shapes, their edges, their shadows and hilights so much better.

Putting nodes for facts or events in the story that you consider settled is also a good idea, because those events can affect later events, and can prompt new ideas of their own when seen beside other ideas.

You'll have to make sure to ask yourself "why?" questions and reversal questions about as many of your ideas as you can. This can be done in a separate session from the initial brainstorming, if you're limited to short times. A single "why?" or reversal question sometimes doesn't do much, and sometimes prompts a flood of ideas. And remember, don't accept the first answer to these questions that come up. Write the first answer down, and the second, and the fifth, and the tenth. Keep digging, and see where those possible answers lead you.

After brainstorming

Once you've got all those ideas sorted out and clarified, pick some that are interesting to you and look at them again. This will sometimes happen in the middle of the brainstorming session, which is fine as long as it doesn't annoy any partners you may be brainstorming with. Chances are the ideas that interest you the most won't be the first ones that came up; this is the entire purpose of brainstorming, to go beyond the immediately obvious and into the more interesting areas.

Some of these interesting ideas will be well-developed from your brainstorming session, while others will need a little more work. Either way, think about how the ideas will fit into your story (or fit together into a story if you're just starting) for a while, then write it using your favourite method, with or without an outline.

A well-developed spider node is nearly an outline in itself, just not a linear one. It has events, facts that must be presented, consequences that must happen, the characters involved, and links to other parts of the story. And despite being relatively detailed, it's not a straightjacket. It hits the high points, you can still fill in the terrain between peaks as you will.

But above all, brainstorming and writing is fun. So go have fun!