25 Prewriting and Invention Techniques that will

ROCK Your Writing World

1. Pre-writing workshop
Collaboration at its finest. Bring your ideas to the table. Leave your
inhibitions at the door. No idea is a bad one, perhaps just a little
underdeveloped.
2.

Teacher showing students his/her own writing

Self-explanatory. Look what I done!

3.

Examining student models

Not the person, the paper. Save that for health class.

4.

Sense-scrambling activities
Blindfold students (no funny business) to rely on other senses.
Students must provide their own blindfolds, dont want to spread lice.

5.

Pantomime
Like charades only more insightful.

6.

Talking Aloud
Like what your grandmother does, only not as creepy. Talk alone
about the ideas swimming in your head.

7.

Role-playing
Looking to spice up your pre-writing? Clear your mind, find a
partner, and act out the ideas.

8.

Brainstorming

The rain falls heavy, the thunder claps. Instead of singing in the rain,
think!
9.

Clustering/Mapping
Bubbles arent only for kids! Map out your ideas and explore
arrangement.

10.

Freewriting
Kick back, relax, and just let it all flow!

11.

Sketching story/cartooning
Draw ideas on paper, with chalk, with a LiteBrite, you name it!

12.

Journals
Dear Diary, I am looking for my ideas. Ive seemed to have left them
somewhere, perhaps in you?

13.

Heuristics
Interrogation to get to the bottom of your subject/topic.

14.

Web Design for Rhetorical Invention

Stimulate invention through the combination of multiple strategies
into one. Wow, what a mouthful.

15.

PowerPoint Presentations
Orally present ideas with a POWERFUL PowerPoint backdrop. Use
graphics, charts, clipart, and words to describe main ideas.

16.

Outlines
Formal, informal, computer, paper, whatever is appropriate for the
occasion. List ideas in chronological order.

17.

Outlining in Excel

Type main points in Excel cells, click on them and be taken to the
Great World of Microsoft Word where you will explore the main
points deeper.
18.
a.
b.
c.

Three-finger technique
Whats going to happen?
Order of events?
How will it end?
Asking these three questions will POINT you in the right direction!

19.

Creating a fictional character

For creative writing, flesh out that clich archetype of yours!

20.

Play-dough Creation
Use your fingers to shape your ideas. Literally!

21.

Graphic Organizers
Venn diagrams, flow charts, webs, oh my!

22.

Meditation
Om. Ponder your options. Explore yourself. Get in touch with your
felt-sense.

23.

Artificial Stimulation
Sometimes your natural secretions wont do. Add caffeine, alcohol,
nicotine, or all of the above, to stimulate your ideas. Its an
invention/pre-writing cocktail.

24.

Researching
Google it!

25.

Interviewing

Learn from your elders. Speak with superiors. Or in our case, inferiors.