>>> Item number 27875 from WRITERS LOG9404A --- (93 records) ----- <<< Date: Sun, 3 Apr 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: EXERCISE: Weather Report: Brainstorms All Day! (10) Exercise 10. Putting it all in pieces In Strunk & White parody: 1. Set yourself a quota of alternatives (Exercise 1. Just One More!) 2. Challenge assumptions and boundaries (Exercise 2. Why? And again, Why?) 3. Challenge dominant ideas and crucial factors (Exercise 3. Get out of the dungeon and out of the shackles) 4. Break patterns into parts and reassemble in new ways (Exercise 4. Divide and Combine) 5. Try reversing the "accepted wisdom" (Exercise 5. Take a Giant Step Backwards) 6. Stretch your wings with analogy (Exercise 6. As if it were a... Duck!) 7. Try different starting points and look for missing information (Exercise 7. Look Here, then there - and please don't look behind the curtain) 8. Cultivate random stimuli (Exercise 8. Take a Chance) 9. Change labels and divisions (Exercise 9. New pigeonholes deserve new labels) 10. Put opposites, unrelated, and rejected notions to work (Exercise 10. Putting it all in pieces) What all of these methods help you to do is create new patterns of thought and challenge old patterns. By juxtaposition, random stimuli, and taking intuitive leaps, new patterns of thought are revealed. By accepting doubtful points and letting yourself be wrong, even more new patterns are likely to become available. Incidentally, we are not challenging old patterns of thought on the basis of their wrongness, nor does it matter how well justified (or rationalized) the old patterns of thought may be. The point of these exercises is to remind us to explore and collect alternatives, to search out other truths without in any way discarding those truths with which we are already familiar. Or, to put it another way, mom's grilled cheese sandwich will always taste good, no matter how many other fine foods and exotic meals we may try - but aren't you glad you don't have to eat grilled cheese for every meal? Final Exercises: Just three small ones - go back and review the rest of the exercises if you want more... 1. Reunite opposites This is simple - take opposites, or divided concepts, and consider them joined and merged. What, for example, would a democratic dictatorship look like? Can you imagine gentle hate? Brilliant darkness? Free imprisonment? Or captive freedom? There is a tendency to "splinter" experience into little categories and consider those pieces separately - this is a deliberate attempt to overcome that. 2. Unite the unrelated A related approach is taking those things that "everyone knows" have nothing to do with each other - and considering them as related. It really doesn't matter if there is a "causal chain" or other link - dream up your own reasons why the health of the elm tree outside and the mental health of the patients inside are linked. Or perhaps the condition of his shoes has a direct effect on the likelihood of winning at cards... or... 3. Re-examine rejected ideas That can't be - we know the history of science and progress practically consists of hearing the pronouncements of savants and common sense going "pop!" Yet we all constantly and consistently persist in rejecting, banning, and outlawing ideas - usually without ever taking the time to really look at them. Try this - take an idea that cannot be true. List the reasons - the negatives that make it a really dumb idea. Then take that list, and flip those negatives - consider that the exact opposite might be true for just a little while. Flip the whole list, then take another look at that "dumb idea." Does it start to look a little less impossible? In any case, don't be too hasty to reject ideas. The "stick ups" that everyone loves so much came from someone making up a batch of glue that didn't quite do the job - and taking the time to think about what it might be good for, instead of just tossing it out the back door. Maybe your great brainstorm is hiding in an idea that "everyone knows" is worthless - except you take the time to cultivate that straggling thought and figure out where it fits. That's the basics. Hopefully, some of you will try these out, and find out that those "fixed patterns of thought" aren't fixed at all. These are some ways to shake them loose and start building new ones. It certainly isn't all there is to writing stories, but I think it can be a useful tool in your toolkit. At least people won't be quite as likely to sigh and say, well, there isn't anything new here... since you took the old idea and recreated it into an IDEA!