If you ever find yourself stuck on to how to describe one of your characters, add a force of nature in your character description. Describe how your character behaves or reacts during a bad (or good) weather.

Take for example a few movies where forces of nature were vital. Imagine how characters and plots would change if following forces of nature were taken away:

~ tornado in Wizard of Oz ~ lightning in Phenomenon (John Travolta) ~ volcanic eruption in Dante's Peak (Pierce Brosnan) ~ icebergs in Atlantic in Titanic (Leonardo diCaprio) ~ avalanche in Vertical Limit (Chris O'Donnell)

You have a deadline to honour. Time is pressing, tighter and tighter. You are hoping to come up with some topic for your project.....

However, ideas on what to write about keep eluding you.

What are you going to do in situations like these?

Today there are various software and information to start you off when finding yourself in such a rut. They all can come handy, but one sure technique to provide quick results is Keyword Brainstorming.

Let's see what this is all about and how it works in practice.

•find a quiet place and set a time limit

•take a sheet of paper and write subject keyword at top

•now, any idea that this word brings to your mind, jot it down

•don't be judgmental, and keep focusing on start keyword

•just write key words - enough to trigger your thoughts in future

•keep going as fast as you can

•jot down in a list form, without analysing for spelling, validity, etc

•derive as many ideas on paper while keeping fast pace