How do you Brainstorm?

[Lunarhade]

Hi all,

So I have a question I'm curious to know different perspectives on. How do you Brainstorm? I'm a prose writer so I don't know how different it would be for other mediums, but I imagine every creative person has to brainstorm in some way. If not brainstorming, then where do you garner inspiration. I'm talking about something other than the basics like music and other works. When you're trying to create something new is there any place (website, physical location, ect.) you go to in order to get new ideas.

Originality does not exist in a conventional sense right, its mixing and reinventing, but where do you get your foundation?

[Kureshi Ironclaw]

I tend to let ideas gestate in my mind for several months before I start writing. Any interesting thing I find out or think about gets thrown into a sort of mental dossier for different stories and settings and they start connecting together. Eventually it reaches a point where I'm starting to visualise scenes and figure out a plot, and usually around this time I will sit down and write a full outline. I actively brainstorm a bit more with the outline because I have to fill in the gaps between all the cool scenes I've imagined, but it's not a cool process of brainstorming. I just sit and think really hard for a couple of hours.

For other mediums, I'm also a songwriter and I tend to avoid any active brainstorming for that unless I'm writing a song for a specific purpose. I just keep lots of ideas written down and recorded so when I get struck with inspiration I have a lot of material to draw on to make the song come together in one sitting.

[Kaj he/him]

You said not music, but music is particularly powerful for me. Some songs give me very vivid scenes, others the mood and others are like an idea generator. Like @Kureshi Ironclaw when I am working, running, or just not doing anything that requires all of my attention I am generating, modifying, and applying ideas. There is also a physical brainstorm. I sit down with a notebook and pen (no pencil, it's too easy to erase and dismiss an idea). Then put a heading at the top of the page and start writing things that apply. I draw inspiration from everything. The actions of people around me, my dreams (I try to write them down as often as I can), the motives behind someone's actions, hiking, doing gymnastics, reading, sitting with my friends and discuss a topic, eating. 

Another especially important foundation is imaginary games. I just finished my sophomore year, but I had a group of friends that from fourth grade to eighth grade we played imaginary games together. They contain the seeds for almost any fiction I have ever written. The only reason we stopped, was because, in eighth grade, we were split into multiple lunches and without the full group, it kind of died out. We almost revived it, but I moved recently which put a stop to that one. We still communicate and discuss things from those games as well as put them down into writing.

For me, just about anything provides inspiration. For me, everything is important.

Examples from one of my notebooks: