The Art of Brainstorming
An inspired writer is an unstuck writer. Hollie will share strategies for digging deeper to spark creation and lead to a richer, more unique story.
In this lecture, Hollie will delve into many facets of brainstorming. Author/writer issues, plotting, character, and craft. There will be exercises throughout to apply brainstorming to your own work, and we’ll use attendee examples to explore some techniques further.
Fred Shafer and Rebecca Makkai have both taught that brainstorming (shuffling further into that file cabinet) for characters, settings, and details can make a story more interesting and memorable. It’s a fantastic tool for every step of the writing process from pre-writing to final edits.
Oftentimes, when we are stuck, we search for an answer to a question instead of taking the time to search for a multitude of possibilities. Opening up the brainstorming process can not only find an answer but the answer.
Hollie Smurthwaite is the paranormal romantic suspense author of The Color of Trauma and The Color of Betrayal. She lives in Chicago with her husband, son, and too few pets. She is active in the writing community as a member of Off-Campus Writers' Workshop, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America, Alliance of Independent Authors, Chicago Writers Association, and a co-organizer for Just Write Chicago, a Meetup group.
