Brainstormer App for Writers

Looking for unique, exciting, unpredictable characters, plots, and settings?

Editors are, too. But it is often difficult for me to force myself beyond the ordinary and catapult my imagination to combine extraordinary elements into plausible situations that will intrigue readers and editors.

Brainstormer by Tapnik is an app designed to prick your imagination and tempt it to try something different. It features a wheel with three elements: a plot, a subject, and a setting or style. Move each wheel individually to select from the myriad of possibilities. Or (my favorite), click on the dice to let it randomly select a combination for you.

Some combinations are very unique (healing journey, undead, chef), however, I don't rule out any combination too quickly. I let it percolate in my creative juices for a while and see what happens. Even if I can't pull it together into a submittable piece, I use the combinations as a jump start for a free-writing exercise (which often does lead to a saleable piece).

Click on the settings button (the cog picture) to see three other brainstormers: Character Creator, World Builder, and Imagined Animals.

So maybe my next book will be about a majestic rhinoceros hiding in a prehistoric windmill who smuggles diamonds as part of a revolt movement.

Tech Tip: Story Starter Apps for Writing across the Curriculum

Story Starters – Ideas for Writing (an aptly named app) is published by Jarrod Robinson and costs only ninety-nine cents. This app features intriguing pictures to help kick start the creative writer within us all. Use it as a springboard for a short story, a mathematics word problem, or a discussion in any subject area.

For example the picture below could be used to:

• Write a story explaining why the crate is there.
• Write a math word problem to find the volume or surface area of the crate.
• Imagine and write about the world surrounding the crate.
• Come up with a list of practical uses for the crate.

Oflow, another ninety-nine cent app, lists over 100 methods to get your creativity flowing. View one a day whenever you need a bit of inspiration, or scan through several until the right one fires your writing neutrons into action.

And since the Oflow image mentions it, Idea Sketch, a free app from No Sleep Software, is a simple mind map making tool. Use it to:

• Brainstorm
• Free write on a topic
• Flowchart a process (order of operations)
• Categorize terms or objects (equations, quadrilaterals, fractions and their equivalents)

Have fun with these idea generators. Be inspired and imagine greater than ever before.