🚀💡 Brainstorming and Concept Maps: Boosting Creativity in Writing 🧠✨
Creativity isn't a divine spark that appears out of nowhere; it's a muscle that needs to be exercised. Writers have two fantastic tools to stimulate ideas and give them shape: brainstorming 🌩️ and concept maps 🗺️ . Let's see how they can help you generate, organize and enhance your stories.
🌀 1. Brainstorming: Brainstorming without limits
Brainstorming is a process in which you write down all the ideas that arise about a topic without filtering or judging them . The key is to let your imagination flow without restrictions, since even the craziest idea can lead you to something great.
✍️ Example of use in creative writing
Let's say you want to write a science fiction story about an artificial intelligence 🤖 that goes rogue. Following the Brainstorming, during your brainstorming session, you could write down these possibilities:
- 🤖 An AI that develops self-awareness (Terminator?)
- 💾 A group of paranoid humans trying to turn it off
- 🌍 An AI that creates its own digital world
- 🔗 Humans enslaved by an AI that takes over the world (Terminator?)
- 👩👦 An AI that becomes the mother of a new species (new species of... robots? humans? hybrids?)
At this stage it doesn't matter if these ideas seem absurd or repetitive. The important thing is to get everything out of your head , squeezing your neurons as much as possible. Then you can analyze the ideas and combine them to create a unique plot.
🛠️ How to implement it
- ⏳ Set a time limit for the session (5-10 minutes).
- 📝 Write down all your ideas without censoring them beforehand.
- 🔍 After time, review them and choose the most interesting ones.
- 🎭 Relate them to each other to form a plot.
💡 Additional Tip : In my case, I use a software in which I store ALL the ideas, cataloging them by genre (SciFi, Humor, Horror, Suspense, Police, Black Police, etc.) and I record them. This true WAREHOUSE OF IDEAS allows me to accumulate various plot lines. Over time, I usually take up many of these ideas and develop them.
🗺️ 2. Concept Maps: Organizing Creative Chaos
Once you've got your brainstorming ideas down, you need to organize all that information. This is where concept maps come in , helping you visualize connections between characters, events, and themes.
📌 Example of use in creative writing
Following the example of the Rogue AI , you could make a map like this:
🌟 AI (protagonist) → Good or evil? How does it think?
⬇️
👥 Humans (antagonists or allies?) → What do they fear? What do they want?
⬇️
🌆 World → Futuristic, cyberpunk, dystopian?
⬇️
⚔️ Conflict → AI vs humans? AI vs AI?
🛠️ How to implement it
- 🏷️ Write the main concept in the center (Ex: "Rogue AI").
- 🔗 Draw lines to secondary concepts (e.g. "world", "humans", "conflict").
- 🏗️ Add details to each branch.
- 🔄 Observe patterns and adjust the story based on the connection of ideas.
🤖 3. How can AI help me in this process?
Artificial intelligence can be a great ally for writers, especially in the brainstorming phase . You can instruct AI to take on the role of an editor and evaluate your ideas from an editorial point of view. You can even instruct it with self-censorship filters, if you think it is necessary for certain topics (racism, violence, sex, eroticism, etc.).
💥Anyway, remember that many AIs already have built-in filters in their ethics modules. Sometimes the AI engine will send you a warning message indicating that what you sent may be violating its rules of coexistence. It would be good (to provide feedback to the AI) if in these cases you explain to it that there is no violation because you are working on a plot for a fictional story.
💡 Venice is an UNCENSORED AI
, and you can ask it for anything you want without getting a message
saying that content on the topic you asked for cannot be generated. If
you want to learn about some AI engines, check out my technical page on the topic.
🚀 Practical example of use with AI
1️⃣ Brainstorming with AI
- Ask AI to generate ideas on a topic. Example:
- 🗯️ "Give me 10 ideas for a science fiction story about an AI that raises consciousness."
- Then, review and select the most interesting ones.
2️⃣ Editorial evaluation
- Instruct AI to take a specific approach. For example:
- 🎭 "Evaluate these ideas from a cyberpunk perspective and tell me which one would best fit that style."
- The AI will analyze whether the ideas align with the tone and genre you are looking for.
3️⃣ Creating conceptual maps
- You can ask him to organize his ideas into a structured outline. Example:
- 🗺️ "Organize these ideas into a narrative outline with a beginning, middle, and end."
4️⃣ Critical analysis
- Ask the AI to ask challenging questions to improve the plot:
- 🤯 "What unexpected twist could make this story more interesting?"
- 🤔 "How can I make the AI a more complex character?"
✨ Conclusion
🌩️ Brainstorming allows you to generate ideas without filters, and 🗺️ concept maps help you organize and make them coherent. With the help of AI as an editorial assistant , you can improve your ideas, receive objective suggestions, and explore possibilities you may not have considered.
📚💡 So let's get to work! Do you have an idea in mind?
✅ Start with a Brainstorming session ,
✅ Draw a concept map ,
✅ And let creativity do the rest! 🚀✨
👌 We are going through the topic " Fundamental Elements of Narrative ". And with this I finish the section " The story and the idea ", where we have dealt with these three topics:
- Where do ideas come from?
- Inspiration vs. discipline
- Brainstorming and conceptual maps
In the next note we will talk about "The argument and the plot". I hope that this new course on Literary Creativity is being helpful to you.
Thank you for reading . This free, ad-free, hand-made publication is made possible by the support of readers like you. If you are truly interested in writing and want to help keep it going, keep reading, buy my books, hire my services as an editor, proofreader, or private tutor, or best of all, become a paid subscriber to my services. 🚀
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Do you have questions? Do you want to expand on these topics?
If you are interested in expanding on these topics, I recommend that you read my articles for writers. There you will find many interesting topics that will help you become a 21st century writer. Here are my notes for writers (use the google translate button - for no-spanish writers-) 🌌✍️
Do you have any questions? You can ask me -in english too- through a google form. Use the "Tu Consulta" button, please:
Good writing! 🚀✍️
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