Brainstorming Methods

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Author:
Angelique van Engelen

In Berlin a restaurant opens for anorexics and in Buffalo a lawyer with a stutter wins a court case. When everything you're working on has gone stale and your own initially promising concepts are starting to annoy you, you need a brainstorming session to get to the missing bits or new ideas.

The papers provide ample ideas for jump starts. A stutterer in a court case or an anorexic going to a restaurant that has opened especially for them must have no problems with ideas to keep them going for at least two weeks after their memorable experiences.

Brainstorming is trix galore, right? Really, you're doing nothing new. Our mind plays on us all the time, wherever we are, whatever we do. It thinks of a stutter as its rightful body. Or of the numb anorexic craving as its self in top form.

The mind's always on a mission. Always. When faced with putting together a magazine-type product, a sales promotion concept, a new hype of some sort. It's the mind, that comes up with everything.

When brainstorming, think of the stutterer. At all cost, do NOT work on losing the stutter if you wanna speak. It's only obstructing and keeping you from the ideas labeled 'good' in the recesses you're trying to access.

Material to work with? Anything, so long as it is not defined. Space for now. Goal to achieve? An arrival point.

Very often the best ideas are the ones born in the early seconds of a session. Here at contentClix, we call it 'performance brainstorming'. Trust your instinct rather than the treacherous mind and your first utterances prove most valuable.

What DO we get at when we get at what we normally miss out on? And DO we miss out? Or does what we can't afford to miss out on catch up with us anyway?

Days that we are opening restaurants for anorexix are here. Really, since last December. How about launching something with a statement. Something like "Soon, human beings don't have to think anymore and they'll still be thinking". Sounds like a reproach to technology - it's also been said 1,000 times of poetry.

So we live in days that a restaurant caters for anorexics. A real-life manifestation of something we think of as an unviable concept made into a commercial venture, a marketable concept.

We really are so overmarketed in our entertainment that this new theme restaurant probably doesn't even stand out any more. We can go around feeding anorexics and the poor girlies probably won't feel in any way forced to eat. Solves their problem by creating a new layer in indifference on a wider scale.

Perhaps this is a consolation for those girlies with enough energy left to be on the lookout for healthier anger ventilation opportunities: of the stutterers, 80 is male.

The mind's mission RIGHT NOW is getting on target. Do you feel it coming? The next thought you're likely to produce is something to do with doing your very best and losing a stutter. A marriage of idea and form! Perhaps we nearing some arrival point. Perhaps not. We only hope we've set you off.

About the Author
Angelique van Engelen runs www.contentClix.com, an Amsterdam based freelance copywriting agency. She has lived and worked in the Middle East and London for over six years before returning to her home country, the Netherlands. Aside from writing web content, she specialises in writing sales copy, feature articles and research reports.

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Brainpower... How to Practice Creative Imagination for Problem-Solving Engaging in creative imagination is a practice that follows a specific process. To do it successfully, keep in mind that for centuries in ancient times, it was performed as a sacred ritual, with great reverence and according to explicit rules. Today imagination is no longer considered the gift of Muses, but seen as a mental function studied by scientific research. However different our approach to it may be, the process of tapping into our creative imagination today follows exactly the same steps as in the Greek religion almost three millennia ago. The steps described below will help you complete the exercises at the end of the chapter. 1. Define the Problem With Which You Need Help. This may be a project that is not progressing, a dilemma you have a hard time resolving, a difficulty you are facing regarding the future, etc. Be specific in naming the problem. Do not make a list of issues that bother you, but write in one sentence what seems to be the problem. This may be more difficult than you think, because you may have to examine several issues troubling you until you pinpoint the one that captures the essence of your difficulty. The exercises in the previous chapters should help you pinpoint this core issue. 2. Engage in the Realm of Imagination, Invoke the Helping Figures, and Open a Dialogue. Set a specific time aside, sit in a quiet, private space, close your eyes and stay silent for a few moments. Ask gently: “Who can help me with my problem of… ?” (Describe the problem as you have defined it in the first step.) Wait in silence for a few moments, as images will appear in your mind’s eye. Continue waiting until a figure appears who calls your attention. This can be anything: a person, an animal, an object, a natural element, a color, or even a hybrid of...