We might imagine that getting a great idea is like the Greek thinker Archimedes leaping
straight out of the bath
because he'd discovered how to use water displacement to find fraudulent gold crowns.
In this story, Archimedes shouts the Greek word, "Eureka!" which means, "I found it!”
and goes running naked down the street in excitement.
That’ll make a statement!
But with writing, coming up with ideas is usually more complicated (and maybe a little
less wildly enthusiastic).
It only happens reliably if we have effective strategies for getting the juices flowing.
We compositionists call all of these idea-generating strategies invention.
The complex, messy art of creating, dreaming up, connecting and finding ideas...
that's what invention ends up being for most of us.
And it's what we're going to discuss here today in Study Hall: Composition, presented
by Arizona State University and Crash Course.
I’m Yumna Samie, let’s get started.
By picturing invention Archimedes-style, we play into the “lone genius” model we mentioned
in our last video.
We imagine lone geniuses sitting in a study somewhere, pondering the universe without
any kind of input from anyone else,
until a brilliant idea strikes them.
It seems passive, like ideas just happen to you.
I prefer the Jack London quote, “You can’t wait for inspiration; you have to go after
it with a club.”
Invention techniques are all the active things we do to go after ideas and make connections.
Remember, invention is a skill, so we can practice it and improve over time.
Invention is both systematic and recursive, qualities which impact how we practice it.
It’s less complicated than it sounds.
Systematic simply means here, that we can figure out specific steps that will, pretty
reliably, generate a few good ideas.
Recursive refers to things that repeat over and over.
Invention is technically the first step in the Writing Process,
but sometimes, our best ideas come out later, during steps like planning or drafting
or revising.
So we have to constantly come back to invention.
Remembering these qualities of invention can help us keep moving in our writing,
not waiting until we get to the “perfect” idea.
Expecting divine inspiration can sometimes create what we know as “Writer’s Block.”
Occasionally, when you sit down to write a paper or progress report or a text to your
crush,
you’ll come up with something quickly.
But plenty of other times, you’ll feel like you’re “blocked.”
But... this isn’t a super helpful way to imagine it.
If you’re blocked, you can’t move forward because outside forces are stopping you.
In reality, we are the ones who decide to stay behind the “block.”
Writer’s Block is more likely if we sit with our computer or notebook and wait for
ideas to come to us.
Imagine, instead, that we have to go exploring for ideas to get where we want to go.
Let’s discuss three useful techniques: freewriting, list-making and affinity diagrams.
First, freewriting.
Freewriting is a strategy popularized by English professor and philosopher Peter Elbow.
He wanted writers to be able to get started on projects without getting stuck on worries
about the final draft
or fears that it wouldn’t come out perfectly the first time.
The idea of freewriting is pretty simple: take a blank page or new computer document
and put your topic, issue, or question at the top.
Don’t worry about expressing it perfectly,
just jot down the core thing you are supposed to write about.
Then give yourself a time limit, say three minutes, and write without stopping for that
whole time.
I mean it when I say “without stopping.”
This means you can write things like “I sure love chocolate,”
as long as you just keep writing and trying to get back to your topic.
This nonstop writing might sound silly, but it gets you to let go of all your judgments
about your writing,
and just do the thing.
Even if you don’t have a ‘Eureka’ moment during freewriting,
you can sometimes use one or two useful things you’ve written.
Sometimes, your freewrite won’t result in any concrete ideas,
but the questions it raises can help you see what you need to reread,
or what resources you need to look up in order to know what to do next.
You aren’t “doing it wrong” if the first round doesn’t give much that you can immediately use.
The goal is to get started.
Another technique that also helps with idea generation is list-making.
List-making shares a lot with freewriting, but uses a different way of associating ideas.
Start by listing each main topic or concept that needs to be covered
and leave space beneath each one.
Then set a time limit for yourself, and try to fill in all the details,
examples, or facts that are relevant to each topic.
Don’t worry about complete sentences or thoughts,
just write ideas as fast as you can, until the time runs out or you can’t think of
anything else.
This technique gives you more ideas than you can use.
Having a whole list of ideas lets you pick the best ones, not just the first ideas you
come up with.
Making lists also lets our brains do something called “associative thinking,”
which is coming up with the next stepping-stone of thought based on
what we were originally thinking about.
We do this with grocery lists:
you might think of the eggs and milk you’re out of, and that makes you remember you have
to make brownies this week,
and so you have to add fudge to the list… mmm chocolate.
Each item you add to your list can remind you of other things that might be relevant.
Each piece of information can help you make new connections.
Creating lists can be useful in lots of ways.
Once you have a main idea for your writing project, for instance,
you can use lists to think of a bunch of relevant, supporting ideas.
These kinds of lists lead well into our last technique.
Affinity diagrams are a really helpful way to view your ideas as fundamentally connected.
It’s even more associative thinking!
Affinity diagrams can be done on paper or a chalkboard,
but a nice way to work with them is to use sticky notes.
Write your core ideas on individual notes, then give yourself a target number of other
details and concepts,
or a target time to brainstorm ideas.
Then, arrange the ideas you’ve come up with,
hopefully more than you need, on a flat surface, like a wall or a door.
You can organize them based on which concepts are most important or which concepts are dependent
on others.
Try out different ways of organizing them.
You also might put all the sticky notes that relate to each other into different areas
of the wall,
thinking about what makes one idea fit well in one place and not fit in another.
Affinity diagrams generate more ideas,
but their big benefit is giving you initial connections between ideas that can make later
writing steps, like planning, easier.
For an example of how you can combine some techniques in order to thoroughly explore
ideas,
let’s watch a Writer in Action.
Lola has to write a literature review for her Public Policy class comparing studies
of the relationship between tax rates and benefits offered by different governments.
She has learned a series of techniques that help her approach invention enthusiastically,
so she doesn’t just sit and wait for ideas to come to her.
She applies her strategy in three steps.
First, she rereads her favorite resource from class during this unit with a notepad beside her
so when she notices connections she wants to mention in the paper, she can write them down.
After she reads, she does a 3-minute freewrite, expanding on the notes she took.
When she rereads her freewrite, she realizes she’s focused a lot on healthcare as a benefit.
She then tries to write a 10-item list of examples and details relating taxes to healthcare
since her long-term process has her use a ten-item list to generate ideas.
From those 10, six seem interesting but she only finds studies relating to four of them,
so she focuses on those during the next step.
Finally, she draws an affinity diagram, arranging sticky notes into categories for each example.
Looking at her groupings, she notices a big difference between governments that charge
higher tax rates
and ones that have lower ones.
She rearranges the notes into two categories.
These three steps lead her to a thesis where she contrasts four countries
with different forms of governmental assistance for healthcare versus their tax rates.
However, as she reads more resources on the topics,
she encounters a different study that relates tax rates to government supported education,
and wants to pivot to that topic.
She knows that invention is recursive, so she doesn’t just press on with her original topic;
she adds what she now knows and comes up with a more interesting, complex paper.
Lola is a Writer In Action!
Lola was able to leap into action on her writing project because she came to the invention
step with a system already in place.
It doesn’t just work in class:
she can use it to create a YouTube video script about her favorite brownie recipes or any
other writing project that life throws her way.
Trying more than one inventional technique can increase the total ideas generated as
well as the strength of the connections between them.
Next time you’re staring at that blinking cursor in a blank word doc,
here are the highlights to keep in mind.
First, invention is messy, even when we work to make it systematic.
However, having techniques that are tried-and-true will help us reliably generate ideas.
Second, invention can happen when you want to work on it, rather than when inspiration
magically strikes.
And lastly, you can use invention at other times in the writing process too,
not just at the beginning, though, as you know, getting good ideas is a great way to start.
So yes, you’ll probably have a “Eureka!” moment here and there,
but it won’t just be because you sat in the bathtub like Archimedes.
It’ll be because you’ve figured out a systematic process that helps you twist your
brain into new shapes,
reaching creative insights over time.
Next time, we’ll take our initial ideas and start planning out how we can use them;
we’ll go from first thoughts to preparing our next steps.
Thanks for watching Study Hall: Composition, which is produced by Arizona State University
and the Crash Course team at Complexly.
If you liked this video and want to keep learning with us here in Study Hall, be sure to subscribe.
You can learn more about ASU and the videos produced by Crash Course in the links in the
description.
See you next time!