83 Prewriting
As the name suggests, prewriting comes first. Brainstorming, listing, asking questions, freewriting, and looping are common activities at this stage, though you can use them at any point in your process. That is, you can repeat or retrace these steps at any point in your writing process. The goal is to take these first steps for your writing journey, like doing warm-up stretches before karate or yoga class.
Brainstorming
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines brainstorming as “the mulling over of ideas by one or more individuals in an attempt to devise or find a solution to a problem.” On your own or with a group, brainstorming means generating ideas informally and without the pressure of finding the “perfect” solution or direction. This activity takes a variety of forms for collecting the ideas you come up with: cluster maps, flow charts, Venn diagrams, and so forth. A few neat tools for these activities are MindMeister, Popplet, IdeaBoardz, SimpleMind (mobile app), and Ideament (mobile app), but there are plenty more to explore. Of course, there’s always your good ol’ paper and pen(cil) for jotting ideas on a whiteboard as they pop into your head or folks in your group share their ideas aloud.Whatever approach works for you, brainstorming is vital to the writing process because it helps get those gears turning and our thoughts organized.
Guess what else is neat about brainstorming? While it’s often pursued as a prewriting activity, you can brainstorm in the middle of your project or near the end, too, especially when we’re not sure where to go next or what to do. For instance, when we come across that ever so difficult and paralyzing feeling of writer’s block, guess what? Brainstorming can get us moving again. After all, writer-teacher Donald Murray says that writer’s block “is a natural and appropriate way to respond to a writing task or a new stage in the writing process” (1985, p. 44). In other words, it’s okay to get stuck. Take a deep breath and try brainstorming or another low-pressure activity, such as freewriting, clustering, or looping. In the same way the air typically feels fresher, clearer, and promising after a storm, after you brainstorm, your mind may feel refreshed, clear, and ready to get going and produce amazing ideas for writing again.
For a fun take on brainstorming, see this video, in which comedian and producer Bernie Mac talks about his creative process.
Listing
This activity is a kind of brainstorming in which you or your team list possible topics, examples, directions, and big ideas (little ones, too). Listing resembles outlining but is less formal and less structured than an outline might be. As with other activities in this section, the goal is to get your ideas flowing and to start writing.
Here’s a list about the Overcrowding of U.S. Prisons, done in a structured variation called a tree diagram or organization chart.
Freewriting and Freetalking
This activity is one of the most unstructured, because it