2.4 Planning: Brainstorming Ideas

Brainstorm a list of first experiences

Vid 4.1: What is a Process?

Good writers follow the writing process to compose text. The writing process is a series of steps that writers follow to create a written work1.

The writing process includes five stages: Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, and Publishing1.

In this lesson, we will focus on the planning stage of the writing process.

1. What is Planning?

During the planning stage, we brainstorm ideas. When brainstorming, we put on our thinking caps! Brainstorming involves thinking creatively and forming new and exciting ideas to create our own stories.2

Brainstorming is like making a big pot of soup.
You gather all the different ingredients like thoughts, ideas and inspirations, and blend them together to get that delicious, satisfying and unique flavour3.
You can add a spoonful of adventure, a pinch of humour, and a sprinkle of imagination to make your soup (story) even tastier.

The big idea here is to create a list of as many ideas as you can think of to spice up your story.

2. Why is it Important to Plan?

Planning helps us:

Focus on the writing topic
Create a list of original ideas
Encourage a fresh flow of ideas before solving a problem or writing.

You can easily plan using these steps5:

1 Gather materials to capture your ideas:

a notebook, or sticky notes
some pencils, crayons, or colourful markers
These materials can help you capture and organise your ideas.

2. Pick a Topic or Theme:

Begin by choosing the topic or theme for your graphic novel. It can be about friendship, honesty, a journey, or any other interesting idea that excites you.

3. Use a Brainstorming Graphic Organiser:

You can use a story map, a plot diagram, or a mind map to plan the characters, setting and plot in your fictional story.

Characters: Think about the main characters in your story. What are their physical and personality traits?
Setting: Visualise where you want your story to take place: is it in a palace, a magical island, a school, a village, or a futuristic town?
Plot: Think about the beginning, middle and end of your narrative.

4. Visualise the panels:

Picture each scene in a graphic panel. Visualise how it will look. Imagine the setting, characters, and main events. Think where the narration or dialogues will be placed in speech balloons, thought bubbles, or captions.

Below are two examples showcasing the planning stage of a graphic novel using two distinct types of organisers.

Stage 1: Planning/Brainstorming

1. Using a Graphic Organiser6

2. Using a Plot Map6

To revise and summarise brainstorming of a graphic novel, watch the video below:

Vid 4.2: How to write graphic novel ?

Glossary

extinct: a species that doesn’t exist anymore
dodo: an extinct flightless bird that was native to the island of Mauritius
sanctuary: a place where birds or animals are cared for and protected
flamingo: a type of bird with long legs, long curved neck that are famous for their pinkish or red feathers
phoebastria albatrus: a rare species of seabird
hummer: motor vehicle
terrible: extremely bad
millionaires: people who are very rich
foiled: defeated

Summary:

Writers use the writing process to compose a graphic novel.
During the planning stage, writers brainstorm to generate ideas to write about.
When brainstorming we:
- use graphic organisers/mind maps to write down ideas
- choose a theme/topic
- decide on the character(s) and setting
- create a plot for our story
- consider the elements of a graphic novel and their use

References

1 Teaching Elementary School Students To Be Effective Writers. The Institute of Education Sciences (2018) (link)

2 What is brainstorming? Twinkl (2014) (link)

3 Brainstorming: A Big Pot of Soup. Samantha S Bell (2014) (link)

4 Brainstorming: Pressbooks.Pub (n.d.) (link)

5 Writing Process: Academic Writing Success (2020) (link)

6 Science Adventures with the Thunderbolt Kids Chp. 5: Siyavula and the Shuttleworth Foundation (n.d.) (link)

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