Active Brainstorming?

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

So I was sitting here at work, trying to brainstorm ideas for a new story instead of actually being productive.  I have a couple of concepts I want to see in the story, but I'm not sure how to tie all those things together.  My first idea was to just zone out and see what came into my head, but then I thought of a way to be more proactive than that.

How about, as a brainstorming aid, a program that displays different pictures several times a second? The pictures could be anything: buildings, people, places, math equations, fantasy art, etc.  The plan would be to just stare at the rapidly changing images until you get a flash of insight, then you could stop it and go back to the image that triggered your idea.  The pictures could be pulled from a service like Google image search (with an extremely generic term like "picture" or something).

So, how about it? Is there a name for this kind of brainstorming? Is it a good idea? What do you think?

[Neosano]

I love people with this way of thinking.

If it wont cause seizures, then yes, it's good.
Anyway you'll have to try it.
Why did you think that it'll work?

[VijchtiDoodah]

Alternatively: close your mind off to all thoughts for a few minutes. Then relax your hold and watch the images cycle past like a reservoir released.

[Graham]

I always got good idea from just driving around and night and observing things around me.

[Thinkto urself]

I like to carry around a piece of paper and put everything I think, no matter how minor, onto it in permanent pen. Eventually I get a paper covered in random scribbles short drafts with nowhere to write on. Usually at least one of them usually ends up being something.

[echo_trail]

There's a firefox extension that'll let you focus all images you find at a certain site(such as google) into one compressed imageboard. It's a really easy way to see as many pictures in one go as you want. You can even set it to show one fullsize picture at a time, in a slideshow manor, with like .3 seconds interval, should you wish it.

Of course I can't remember the name, but I had it recommended from a friend, so I'll report back in as soon as I talk to him.

[Snack]

There's a firefox extension that'll let you focus all images you find at a certain site(such as google) into one compressed imageboard. It's a really easy way to see as many pictures in one go as you want. You can even set it to show one fullsize picture at a time, in a slideshow manor, with like .3 seconds interval, should you wish it.

Of course I can't remember the name, but I had it recommended from a friend, so I'll report back in as soon as I talk to him.

I think that you mean Cooliris?

[Blacksheepboy]

Alternatively: close your mind off to all thoughts for a few minutes. Then relax your hold and watch the images cycle past like a reservoir released.

This. Observing your thoughts in any event can sometimes be rather interesting as we generally are not in complete control of our mind.

[echo_trail]

There's a firefox extension that'll let you focus all images you find at a certain site(such as google) into one compressed imageboard. It's a really easy way to see as many pictures in one go as you want. You can even set it to show one fullsize picture at a time, in a slideshow manor, with like .3 seconds interval, should you wish it.

Of course I can't remember the name, but I had it recommended from a friend, so I'll report back in as soon as I talk to him.

I think that you mean Cooliris?

That may very well be. Look into it.

[smiluu]

Try drawing a mind map.