I recently took a 6-week online creative writing class for fun. For $99 I came away with some new ideas, dug up some old ideas and had my imagination fired up a bit.
One of the techniques for ideas taught in this class was one I learned many years ago. The Bubble Method, or "mapping". It's a simple concept that has served me very well in the past and I was glad to be reminded of it. Long story short, you start with a one-word idea in the middle of a blank page. Taking your pencil in hand, you draw lines out from the original word and just starting writing whatever word comes to your mind. You can map out from each of those words and when you've let 5 minutes go by, you should have some pretty good ideas mapped out. Don't question what you write down. Just write it down. Try it! I'm going to demonstrate it right here .....
Photograph----memories
paper----colors----camera---digital
editing----writing----writer's block------chair glue
journaling-----distractions-----coffee----sugar----cream
reading-----avoidance-----
From any of these words, I could write a whole blog post. But not today.
TAKE AWAY: Some old ideas are still good ideas!
Mind mapping is still something I struggle with for some reason. I rarely think to do it, and feel blank when I do. I'll keep trying.
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