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Brainstorming and other Idea-Generating Techniques for Writing

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Generating Writing: One Size Does Not Fit All

  • Top Down Writers need a structure or a core idea before they start writing. They may think about the writing for a while before they start.
  • Bottom Up Writers write as they think, discovering their ideas through the writing.

What’s Your Preference?

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Top Down or Bottom Up? �You be the Judge

  1. “Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.” –Ann Lamott.
  2. “I’m one of those people who doesn’t really know what he thinks until he writes it down.” –Stephen King
  3. “The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written.” --Joyce Carol Oates
  4. “Well, the first paragraph is done. Time for a brownie.”� –Marge Simpson
  5. “You don’t actually have to write anything until you’ve thought it out. This is an enormous relief, and you can sit there searching for the point at which the story becomes a toboggan and starts to slide.” –Marie de Nervaud

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Which type are you? ���Bottom up or Top down

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Top-Down Writers: Mind Mapping With XMind Cloud, Outlines

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Bottom-Up Writers

Free-writing sessions

Pomodoro Technique

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