Brain dumping in regards to writing (is there another kind? I’d rather not know) has always fascinated me. Generally, writers will use it to brainstorm, I however like to use it to write a scene.
There are some days I get stuck, or one of my critique partners will call me out on lazy writing (“That wouldn’t happen,” “That’s out of character for her/him,” etc.) Sometimes I’m simply stuck on what would happen. I brainstorm with my critique partners, with my husband, but nothing works.
That’s when the magic of the yellow legal pad happens.
Depending on my mood, I’ll either be in complete quiet, or I’ll have my WIP playlist going. I’ll get my favorite pen (one of these) and I’ll just start writing stuff that is happening in the scene. Moods, smells, sounds, actions, snippets of conversations. I ignore handwriting, spelling, punctuation, where it goes on the page. I just write. I’ll keep going until I have an entire page filled, and then, I have a basis for my scene.
I had to re-write almost an entire chapter, and I wasn’t feeling it. After brain dumping the whole scene came together and it’s so much richer than before.
What about you? How to do use brain dumping? How do you get un-stuck when you’re stuck?
That’s funny because, when I’m stuck, I need to do something totally unrelated to writing. It usually happens in the shower, on the treadmill, or in the car with my kids. Never at a convenient time 🙂
My brain doesn’t do well with info dumping, but if I write another scene that won’t go in my book, that helps sometimes.