Episode 138

Tips for a Healthy Brainstorming Session

In this episode of the Writing Momentum podcast, hosts Gena and Christopher Maselli discuss how to conduct a healthy brainstorming session. They are joined by Rene Gutteridge, who shares her approach to brainstorming for her books, stories, and screenplays. The conversation touches on techniques such as:

  • asking 'what if' questions,
  • the 'yes and' approach
  • the importance of creating a positive, collaborative environment.

They also explore how brainstorming can apply to both fiction and nonfiction writing and the value of feedback from diverse groups, including family members and writing communities.

  • 00:00 Introduction and Hosts Introduction
  • 00:27 Special Guest Introduction: Rene Gutteridge
  • 01:01 Topic Introduction: Healthy Brainstorming Sessions
  • 01:47 Brainstorming Techniques and Personal Insights
  • 04:11 Collaborative Brainstorming in Writer's Rooms
  • 07:12 Creating a Positive Brainstorming Environment
  • 10:39 Brainstorming Beyond Professional Settings
  • 15:59 Techniques for Effective Brainstorming
  • 18:02 Creating Problems for Characters
  • 21:54 Conclusion and Community Invitation

LINKS:

  • Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
  • Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
  • Write with us! Join our writing membership and get your book DONE! https://wmdeal.com/wmmrene
Transcript
Gena:

How do you have a healthy brainstorming session?

Christopher:

We can help with that.

Gena:

Hi and welcome to the Writing Momentum podcast.

Gena:

I'm Gena Maselli.

Gena:

I'm here with my husband, Christopher Maselli.

Christopher:

Oh, there was a pause like you forgot.

Gena:

No, I was trying to figure out whether or not I was going

Gena:

to say Chris or Christopher.

Christopher:

Oh, okay.

Christopher:

Well, I'm, you can go either way.

Christopher:

I'm glad to be here.

Christopher:

Oh, hey, but there's someone else in the room today.

Gena:

There's somebody else here.

Gena:

One of our favorite people.

Christopher:

Rene Gutteridge.

Christopher:

Welcome Rene.

Christopher:

How are you doing today?

Rene:

I'm doing good.

Rene:

How about you guys?

Christopher:

We're doing great because we're sitting here talking with

Christopher:

you about writing and that always gets us fired up and charged up.

Christopher:

And I, I, I'm like, we just recorded another podcast and I'm all ready to

Christopher:

sit down and start writing, but I can't because now we're having to do this.

Gena:

I know if you missed it last week's podcast was what to do when you're stuck.

Gena:

So definitely check that out, if you missed that.

Christopher:

What's this week's podcast?

Gena:

Today we are talking about how to have healthy brainstorming sessions.

Christopher:

Brainstorming, like, like trying to figure out what your

Christopher:

book is about or your story is about.

Christopher:

Is that what you mean?

Gena:

Well, you could do stories.

Gena:

You could do what to do with a character who's in a certain predicament.

Gena:

You can do some kind of conflict.

Gena:

There's also, you know, there's so many elements, so many points in a

Gena:

story that need to be, um, um, that need to be explored and figured out.

Christopher:

So often what we do is we run into a problem and we're thinking,

Christopher:

okay, what do I want to have happen next?

Christopher:

And the first thing that comes to mind, we run with that and just start doing that.

Christopher:

And that's okay.

Christopher:

But could there be a better way?

Christopher:

That's the question.

Christopher:

So Rene, do you always brainstorm your books?

Christopher:

Your stories, your characters, how much brainstorming do you do?

Christopher:

Is it every facet of a book?

Christopher:

Do you have a notebook, one of those thick notebooks where you start to

Christopher:

write down all the stuff about them all?

Christopher:

What do you do?

Rene:

Yeah, I, so, I mean, just, Me personally, I spend a lot of

Rene:

time thinking about and writing down things about the character.

Rene:

Um, normally not their background, normally not their life history.

Rene:

It's, it's more about the essence of them, um, who they are and, uh,

Rene:

all the other things can be made up.

Rene:

But I've got to explore, you know, what I'm dealing with in the soul and spirit

Rene:

of the person before I set them anywhere and give them a mom and dad and all that.

Christopher:

I already want to explore that more, even though that's probably

Christopher:

another podcast, but you know, most people, when they think about writing

Christopher:

character histories, they do just that.

Christopher:

They say, okay, they're going to have blue eyes and this is the length of their hair.

Christopher:

And this is where they grew up and they start to get to all

Christopher:

those very concrete things.

Christopher:

Things, and they don't explore the characters, uh, motivations necessarily.

Christopher:

Um, so that's interesting.

Christopher:

Maybe that's another podcast we do, but that's an interesting, uh,

Christopher:

interesting take you have on that.

Rene:

Yeah, I'll drive around the city and think about these

Rene:

characters for months, you know.

Rene:

Yeah, I mean, it all starts with the characters.

Christopher:

Are you brainstorming?

Rene:

Mm hmm.

Rene:

Yeah, um, and I, you know, I get to know them, uh, I don't want to write

Rene:

about them if I don't know them, and, and I believe that the characters should

Rene:

drive the story, not the story of the characters, so I want to make sure that

Rene:

I understand how deeply I need to wound this man before he learns his lesson.

Rene:

Right?

Christopher:

We're still talking about the stories, right?

Rene:

Yeah, not my husband, just my fictional characters.

Rene:

Um, but yeah, so, but I also enjoy, you know, as I've gotten into, um,

Rene:

the screenwriting world, which I've been working in, well, for many, many

Rene:

years, but full time for 10 years now.

Rene:

There's a lot more brainstorming required with groups.

Rene:

And, uh, you get into what we call the writer's room and, you know, you're taking

Rene:

notes and you're taking other people's ideas and you're, you're having to grab

Rene:

things, you know, from the air of what people are tossing out and then figuring

Rene:

out what can work in the actual story.

Rene:

So, um, yeah, there, I've learned, even though I started off as a novelist, I've

Rene:

learned to appreciate collaborative, creative work and collaborative

Rene:

brainstorming with writer friends.

Rene:

So yeah.

Christopher:

Walk us through a creative brainstorming session.

Christopher:

You and several people that you work with are going to get together, you're going

Christopher:

to brainstorm a skit or a story, whatever.

Christopher:

How does that session, how does it work?

Christopher:

Uh, other than after everyone brings the doughnuts.

Rene:

Yes, everybody brings the virtual donuts because we almost

Rene:

always do it on zoom these days.

Rene:

Although we've done that in person, and it's a lot better in person.

Rene:

If you have a choice, do it in person, because you, because what you don't get

Rene:

over Zoom is the energy in the room.

Rene:

Um, if you can do it in person, there's a lot more energy in the room.

Rene:

You can read people's body language.

Rene:

So what I do, you know, as a screenwriter, my job isn't always to come up with the

Rene:

idea, it's often to take the idea that's been decided on and run with that idea.

Rene:

So, what I'm watching for in the writer's room is, Um, certain energy levels

Rene:

popping up when an idea is thrown out.

Rene:

You know, you can, you can hear there's deathly silence, you know, which

Rene:

I've thrown out many ideas that, you know, there's like crickets, um, or,

Rene:

you know, you're watching people go.

Rene:

Oh, yeah.

Rene:

And the same can be applied when you're brainstorming with

Rene:

friends, you know, see what.

Rene:

Everybody goes, Oh, oh, yeah, you know, and at first you might

Rene:

not think it's going to work.

Rene:

You're like, it's never going to work.

Rene:

Like, for example, the, in this last big writing room session I did

Rene:

for this screenplay we're working on, the idea was thrown out to set

Rene:

it in the 1930s and everybody in the room was like, oh, my gosh.

Rene:

I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Rene:

I mean, internally, I was just like.

Rene:

I can't no, this is a bad idea.

Rene:

Turned out to be a great idea.

Rene:

Let myself sit on it for a while.

Rene:

I was thinking more from a work standpoint of how am I going to

Christopher:

do all the research for that

Rene:

Yeah.

Gena:

My mind went straight to what would that take cost wise to

Gena:

create the set for something that's set in a whole nother time period.

Rene:

Yeah, well, those are the things, yeah, that you're, and, and, but the,

Rene:

the key to working with a creative team is to keep the positive energy going.

Rene:

So.

Rene:

You want to invite ideas, not reject ideas or get defensive.

Rene:

That's how, that's a big lesson I've learned over the last 10 years is

Rene:

bringing a negative energy will just kill a writing room just so quick.

Rene:

Um, you want everybody to feel safe throwing out ideas,

Rene:

um, including yourself.

Rene:

And then you start to, um, What's the word?

Rene:

Parcel it out and figure, figure out what you can use, what you could modify.

Rene:

I mean, there's, there's several categories.

Rene:

What can I use?

Rene:

What can I modify?

Rene:

What can I steal from?

Rene:

You know, I don't like that big idea, but I love that little piece in that big idea.

Rene:

And I'm going to take that, um, thing, you know, So just let, let it all absorb

Rene:

instead of trying to make decisions on the spot about what can and can't be used.

Christopher:

So when you say negative energy, you don't just mean bad ideas,

Christopher:

you mean, what do you mean by that?

Christopher:

Explain what you mean by negative energy.

Christopher:

Yes.

Rene:

Negative energy is, can go two ways.

Rene:

It's first of all, creating a safe environment for everybody.

Rene:

It's also, keeping yourself from being on a defensive posture.

Rene:

Um, you know, for example, I might throw out an idea, and nobody catches

Rene:

the idea, like, there's crickets in the room, nothing's happening, and I

Rene:

might feel like I need to re explain, oh, they just didn't get it, right?

Rene:

Let me say this another way.

Rene:

It's normally not that.

Rene:

It's just that the idea didn't click in the moment.

Rene:

Now, I might still use the idea.

Rene:

But I have to say to myself, why didn't that idea click in the room, you know?

Rene:

Uh, why, why didn't, I thought it was a great idea.

Rene:

Why is nobody loving this idea?

Rene:

And I have to really, really pay attention to that.

Rene:

Because, you know, at the end of the day, everything that we're writing,

Rene:

uh, in, whether it's fiction or screenplays, is commercial, right?

Rene:

We're writing to sell to readers.

Rene:

So how do we make sure that this is something that the masses will like?

Rene:

Um, or, the other thing I think of is, The masses don't like

Rene:

this, how can I change it?

Rene:

So they will.

Rene:

But either way, that first impression of your idea should be paid attention to.

Rene:

If everybody throws up their arms and goes, that's it, you know,

Rene:

don't be the one that's like, eh, I changed my mind on that.

Rene:

I mean, you know, you it's, there was something there that

Rene:

caught everybody's attention.

Rene:

So, but yeah, you just wanted to create a rich, fun environment for brainstorming

Rene:

that's sort of free from, um, Oh, too much, Oh, what's the word I'm looking for?

Rene:

Like, um, analysis in the moment, you know, or critique in the moment.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

And I think also, as you're talking, you're talking about a writer room, but

Gena:

this happens just as we're brainstorming for our books, and it can even be, I,

Gena:

I, I mean, a lot of this is, is fiction because we're saying, you know, what

Gena:

happens with this character or how can I make the, how can I kill this person

Gena:

off or whatever it might be, but it can also, even in, uh, nonfiction, you can

Gena:

brainstorm with the, well, what are some reasons for this, or what is some outcomes

Gena:

for this, or, How can I communicate that?

Gena:

So this does also work for nonfiction.

Gena:

I want to point that out, but also when we're talking about, we're not

Gena:

just talking about a writer room there.

Gena:

It can be in writers groups, but it can even be within our own

Gena:

families as we're, as writers.

Gena:

I know Chris and I have sometimes opened this up to our, our teenagers

Gena:

to say, well, what about this?

Gena:

And they will take it in a whole different direction that we didn't think of.

Gena:

This actually really creative and could be a whole different

Gena:

direction for, for the story that would have just passed us right by.

Christopher:

Yeah, they've just got a creative energy about them.

Christopher:

Their, their youth does, I think, right?

Rene:

Their youth does too.

Gena:

You know, I might not first think of maybe some of the more modern, you

Gena:

know, text messaging apps or whatever that they kind of live on, you know,

Gena:

with their friends or even some of their, you know, Fun, fun things

Gena:

they might go do with their friends that they would, that we wouldn't, we

Gena:

wouldn't do that as much, you know?

Gena:

So anyway, I just want to make sure that like, as we're talking, people understand

Gena:

that we're not just talking, you know, brainstorming can happen any place.

Gena:

It doesn't just happen among, just among professionals.

Gena:

It can happen, um, in really casual, fun environments.

Rene:

It's also helpful when speaking with adult children, the language that you

Rene:

use, you know, you throw out those what if ideas, you know, not, you should get

Rene:

health insurance, but what if you didn't have health insurance, what would happen?

Rene:

You know, those, those positive words, like, what if he was a police officer?

Rene:

You know, what, the what if questions, um, if you're providing feedback more

Rene:

than oh, you should make him a police officer, that feels very like intrusive

Rene:

to somebody's creative space, so you're, you're using language that allows for

Rene:

more input, more fun, you know, what if he's this, what if he's that, I mean,

Rene:

that's the question we all start off with in our books, you know, what if,

Rene:

There was, you know, um, even nonfiction.

Rene:

What if we explored this topic under this umbrella, you know, or whatever?

Rene:

So, um, but I do find also that now, not so much with myself, I'm allowed

Rene:

to interrupt myself, but, um, you're brainstorming with yourself and

Rene:

brainstorming with people, but when you get a chance to have people's ear, right?

Rene:

The people have come around you to help you with the book, whether it's

Rene:

your kids, whether it's your critique group, uh, whether it's just friends,

Rene:

allow them to speak more than you talk.

Rene:

Give them the room, so to speak.

Rene:

Um, you know, this is explain things as you need to, but if,

Rene:

if you don't need to, don't.

Rene:

So, like, when I'm brainstorming with friends, I'll throw out the premise of

Rene:

the book, the problem I'm trying to solve.

Rene:

And then, um, maybe somebody throws something out, you know, good idea, but

Rene:

I know it won't work instead of saying.

Rene:

That doesn't work.

Rene:

I would say, okay, what if he was a police officer.

Rene:

But he's in, you know.

Rene:

he's got this issue, you know, he has PTSD or whatever, you know, cause that's

Rene:

the, so you're leading the discussion without controlling the discussion.

Rene:

Um, you know, and just letting everybody have the floor, but you.

Rene:

That's the hardest part, because we want to explain our story and get it out there

Rene:

and tell the whole thing, but let's say you only have 60 minutes, if you've spent

Rene:

40 of it talking, then you may miss an idea that somebody has, because there

Rene:

wasn't room for it to grow and blossom and, you know, that kind of thing.

Gena:

You mentioned before, uh, that you may hear an idea from somebody and maybe

Gena:

in your mind you're thinking, Well, that whole idea won't work, but I really like

Gena:

this little nugget that they had on there.

Gena:

This little glimmer of gold that I can, I can take that.

Gena:

And if you are interrupting or shutting it down, you may not get to the glimmer.

Gena:

You may not get to the little piece of gold that's in it.

Gena:

So yeah.

Christopher:

There's two techniques we've talked about here that I think we

Christopher:

should, reiterate a little bit because they're really powerful techniques,

Christopher:

whether you're brainstorming with a group or whether you're brainstorming

Christopher:

just with yourself and a piece of paper.

Christopher:

And often when I'm plotting out a novel, I like to just have a

Christopher:

piece of paper in front of me.

Christopher:

And one of those is this what if question.

Christopher:

Ask what if this or that could happen?

Christopher:

Okay.

Christopher:

I know my main character is going to be a photographer.

Christopher:

What if they're a photographer for the school paper?

Christopher:

Right?

Christopher:

What, what if they're a photographer of families?

Christopher:

What if, when they take a picture, the person disappears?

Christopher:

Right?

Christopher:

You start to make the novel more interesting, and just asking those

Christopher:

questions, it doesn't mean you have to go with one of those, but getting

Christopher:

all those down on paper kind of gets them out of your mind, and lets you see

Christopher:

kind of where there might be a golden thread there that you can follow.

Christopher:

But the other one that you talked about just a second ago, Rene,

Christopher:

was this idea of yes and, right?

Christopher:

So someone has an idea or you yourself have an idea and instead of just shutting

Christopher:

it down and saying, no, that won't work.

Christopher:

It's yes.

Christopher:

And what if we did this too, right?

Christopher:

Yes.

Christopher:

They're a photographer.

Christopher:

And what if, they're working with a school paper.

Christopher:

Yes.

Christopher:

And what if they take a picture of their best friend and, you know, and you,

Christopher:

and you start to go down that route and you can find some very interesting

Christopher:

thoughts that you would have never come about had you not had that kind

Christopher:

of openness to just brainstorming the what if and the yes and questions.

Rene:

Yeah.

Rene:

That's good.

Rene:

The yes, and is so important, um, in the creative world.

Rene:

And, uh, I, I think we don't do that enough, really, even in our life.

Rene:

It's a really nice personality trait to be a yes and person,

Rene:

um, more fun to be around.

Rene:

Right?

Rene:

Um, so, yeah, and I was going to mention too, when you're personally brainstorming,

Rene:

and this is going to apply to fiction, um, but one of the things that.

Rene:

You want to push yourself in when it's just you is creating problems.

Rene:

So, you know,

Christopher:

I was trying to solve problems, not create them.

Rene:

Right.

Rene:

You're trying to solve problems in life.

Rene:

But in, right.

Rene:

And in fiction, you're trying to create problems.

Rene:

So when you were saying, you know, even you just gave a great example of it.

Rene:

You were, you know, saying, okay, he's a photographer.

Rene:

He's a photographer for the school paper.

Rene:

What if he takes a picture and that person disappears?

Rene:

You know, like you're, you want to create as many problems.

Rene:

And headaches for your character as possible.

Rene:

So, you know, we've, Gena and I've talked about this a lot.

Rene:

Most of us are fine, decent people who are not trying to wreak havoc on other people.

Rene:

So we find it hard to wreak havoc on our characters.

Rene:

Um, but that's what you want.

Rene:

So, in a brainstorming session, you know, if you say something you can guide the

Rene:

you know, guide the whole conversation with, I need to make his life harder.

Rene:

You know, sometimes if you're throwing out too broad of a question, this

Rene:

goes for just yourself and a group.

Rene:

If you're throwing out too broad of a question, you can just

Rene:

go get, go all over the place.

Rene:

So if you'll guide the brainstorming a little bit and say, okay, I've got

Rene:

this character, he's a police officer, he's this, he's a photographer, he's

Rene:

this, and I need to create as many problems for him in his life as possible.

Rene:

Personally, internally, externally.

Rene:

Or you might just start even smaller.

Rene:

Internally, what are his personal issues, you know?

Rene:

Okay, let's move externally.

Rene:

What can I do to make those internal problems worse?

Rene:

And, you know, then everybody sees what a masochist we all are in fiction writing,

Rene:

because we're just creating, you know.

Christopher:

And they all become very, they become entertaining

Christopher:

is what they become, right?

Christopher:

All those problems start to become this entertainment because we love to watch

Christopher:

people try to get out of their problems.

Gena:

Well, and I would even challenge, and I'm working on this myself,

Gena:

having your character choose wrongly.

Gena:

Having them, not just as you've said, Rene, having the problems happen

Gena:

to them, but have them be the one that's causing their own problem.

Gena:

They're choosing wrongly.

Gena:

I mean, it's kind of that thing where all of us have done that, where we've watched

Christopher:

No, I do that all the time.

Gena:

Where we watch it, you know, we watch a TV show and, and, or a movie or

Gena:

something, and we're wanting to scream at the, at the screen because the, the

Gena:

person is making the wrong decision and we know that it's the wrong decision.

Gena:

And we just.

Gena:

You know, there's that fine balance of not irritating the audience too much

Gena:

with their bad decisions, but there are, there does have to be that point.

Gena:

And I know Rene's challenged me with that of how can you make it where

Gena:

you're just your person chooses wrongly.

Gena:

And builds that conflict for themselves.

Gena:

Like, they're, they're their own worst enemy in some things.

Gena:

Not all the time, but they, you know, we all do that.

Gena:

At least I do, right?

Christopher:

Yeah.

Christopher:

Well, this has been another great discussion.

Christopher:

Always enjoy having you on, Rene, and, and, you know, if you're, if you're

Christopher:

looking for a writing community, Rene and Gena and I all have a

Christopher:

writing community at writingmomentum.

Christopher:

com.

Christopher:

You can go there.

Christopher:

We have a membership.

Christopher:

It's very low cost, very affordable.

Christopher:

It's just 25 a month, and in that you'll receive hundreds of hours

Christopher:

of video about training on how to write, how to get published, how to

Christopher:

market your book, that sort of thing.

Christopher:

But we've also got weekly co working sessions.

Christopher:

We have roundtables where we discuss things like what

Christopher:

we're talking about today.

Christopher:

But you can discuss it with us and not just listen.

Christopher:

We've also got critique sessions where you can submit a page of your

Christopher:

manuscript and just get some professional feedback from award winning authors.

Christopher:

And it's all good stuff.

Christopher:

It's very low cost because we just love building this community and we'd love

Christopher:

to have you there at writingmomentum.

Christopher:

com

Gena:

Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

Gena:

Thank you, Rene.

Gena:

We love having you on here.

Gena:

It's so cool.

Rene:

Thank you guys.

Rene:

Appreciate you.

Gena:

And we're so thankful for all of the people who are listening or

Gena:

watching, and we hope that you will check us out again next week, because

Gena:

we do believe strongly, absolutely, that this writing thing is not to be

Gena:

done alone, but that together, Chris?

Christopher:

Hey, we have writing momentum.

Gena:

That's right.

Christopher:

Bye.

Christopher:

Bye.

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Christopher Maselli

Christopher P.N. Maselli is a Certified Digital Marketing Professional, an award-winning children’s author of more than 50 books, a direct mail writer, and a ghostwriter for many prominent, international speakers.

“I love sharing what I’ve learned over the past 25 years,” says Chris. “We’re all in this together and hopefully what I’ve learned can benefit beginners and veterans alike.”

Chris regularly speaks at writer’s conferences nationwide and on the training portion of WritingMomentum.com, he helps put other writers on the fast track to success. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing.