Beginning a writing assignment is what's called prewriting — the first phase, in which you think and plan, gather ideas and information, and consider various formats to organize your writing. Prewriting occurs before you put your pen to paper.

So at this prewriting stage of the game, how do you get ideas? Well, you could try the method used by one of the world's most prolific writers, Agatha Christie, who used to sit in her bathtub and munch on apples while plotting her bestsellers. What? You say apple eating doesn't appeal (pun intended) to you? Don't worry; this chapter has plenty of other suggestions.

Just remember that one method of prewriting may not work for you all the time. If it doesn't, try another one. Use whichever technique (or combination of techniques) that helps you think clearly and keep track of your ideas. And keep in mind that you're not being graded for the way you jot down your ideas; you can be as sloppy and (gasp!) ungrammatical as you like, as long as you're able to decipher your work later on.

Keep in mind that you'll probably come up with a number of ideas that you'll eventually discard. That doesn't matter. What does matter at first is getting your thoughts on paper. After you do that, you can go back and decide which ones are keepers.

One way to generate ideas is to keep a journal. If you know for a while beforehand that you want to — or have to — write about a particular subject, try keeping a journal about your topic. Whenever ideas come to you, jot them down in your journal. Don't worry about writing in complete sentences;just write enough so that you'll know later what you meant. When the time comes for writing your first draft, you'll already have a number of ideas, so you can go back to them and decide which are the best to use.

A Free and Easy Format: Freewriting

Freewriting is one of the most effective methods of cultivating ideas. Begin by writing your topic at the top of the page. At first, your topic may be so general that you might not have a clear idea about what direction you want to take. That's not important at this point. All you're going to do in freewriting is just (surprise!) write. Write anything related to your topic — words, phrases, or complete sentences, whatever scraps of thought come to mind. Give yourself a time limit of about ten minutes (at this stage, you'd probably be wasting time with anything longer than that).

Because you've got only ten minutes, you should not:

• be concerned with spelling or punctuation

• go to the time or trouble of grouping your ideas

• bother erasing anything

• worry even if you digress from your topic

• stop if you're in the middle of a thought and you can't think of a specific word. Just write ??? or XXX or some other shorthand; then go on and get the rest of the thought on paper. The same holds true if you have the first part of a good idea and you can't think of how to end it. Just use your “I'll-come-back-to-this-later” shorthand and forge ahead.

If you're stumped for something to write, keep your pen moving on the paper or your fingers moving on the keyboard. You can even write something like “I don't know anything more about this topic. I don't think I can come up with another thought.” Just keep writing and chances are, in spite of yourself, you'll discover a new idea. At the end of your time allotment, stop. Look over your work. From the resulting splinters of writing, you'll see some good ideas and some that you're probably ready to toss. Decide what best fits with the direction that your work takes, and cross out what doesn't. Then go back to the ideas that seem workable and underline the key parts of them.

Now you've got a start. You can repeat the process to expand on the ideas that you like. Since you're working in ten-minute sessions, the assignment may not seem as overwhelming as it first did. Also, you won't suffer from “brain strain” and you might find that you're quite productive when you use these short writing segments.

Making a List and Checking It Twice: Brainstorming

In brainstorming — a first cousin to freewriting — you also list whatever comes to mind about your topic; you jot down words or phrases as they pop into your head; and you don't worry about spelling, punctuation, usage, or grouping ideas.

Unlike freewriting, though, you have no time restrictions. If you're interrupted in your list making, you just return to it later. In fact, sometimes there's an advantage to brainstorming in short shifts (maybe your brain can take just so many storms at a time?). Whatever length of time you have, use each stint of your brainstorming sessions to write as much as you can think of about your topic.

Here's an example: Suppose that a writer is angry with a company and wants to write a complaint letter to its customer relations department. His or her brainstorming list may look something like this: