If you’ve hung around me, you know the difference between divergent thinking and convergent thinking.

  • Divergent thinking is wide ranging ideation, creativity by addition.
  • Convergent thinking is narrowing things down, making decisions, creativity by subtraction.

You probably also know that my brain is wickedly divergent and a big foot-stomping, resistant baby when I have to converge. I don’t wanna give up any of my ideas. I love them all.

If you have a lot of ideas – and many creative people do – you cannot create them all. Not in a lifetime, and certainly not all at once.

And in any story, you have to make a lot of choices. For characters you have to choose names, ages, hair color, that weird thing they do that defines them. There’s a million plot points to decide on. You might be thinking: Do they go to the store and meet up? Or does it happen in a windtunnel created by a freak storm?

In short, you have to make decisions, edits, cuts. You have to focus, streamline, choose. You must narrow, select and perfect. There comes a time when you must analyze, compose, polish and discard. You get my point.

The POINt tool is what I’m here to tell you about. It is an important arrow in my quiver. (See, here I want to make a joke about the pointyness of an arrowhead – but I digress.) The POINt tool has  changed my ability to create from beginning to end, get my ideas on paper, and then work them into a more meaningful presentation – through selecting and perfecting. (So far, in this post, you see zero evidence that I can edit, I get that!)

But here it is – an elegant decision making tool called POINt. And when you use it, not only can you arrive at decisions, you can stick with them. Bec they are really thought through, well considered. When you have a wishy washy moment (and want to go back to the windtunnel idea, for example) your brain says “NO. We’ve discussed this.” And you have. Using the POINt tool.

The POINt Tool

You list the attributes of an idea based on this formula:

  • P = pluses (it will…)
  • O = opportunities (it might…)
  • I = issues (yeah, but…)
  • Nt = New thinking (how to…)

So let’s take the example of the windtunnel. Your impish divergent thinker wants your characters to meet in a windtunnel created by a freakish storm. Remember – this is you making decisions, so all statements are subjective, by nature.

P (Pluses)

  • It will be so dramatic.
  • It will make their hair blow arround in crazy ways.
  • It will be unique. I’ve never seen a windtunnel meet-cute before.

(Notice I use the statement starter It will to guide my Pluses, and limit them to things that will actually happen in the scenario that is being weighed.)

O (Opportunities)

  • It might add a weird element of embarassment because her dress could flip up above her head.
  • It might be a great way to promote the book/movie/story
  • It might be funny and endearing

(Here, I use It Might bec even though these things could be true, you can’t be sure they’ll materialize if you make this decision)

I (Issues)

  • Yeah, but it’s stupid
  • Yeah, but then I have to do this whole lead-in presaging the freak storm
  • Yeah, but (there’s probably a million reasons not to do this idea!)

(Notice I use the Yeah, but statement starter, to help your brain find and record the issues you see with this idea/choice.)

Nt (New thinking)

Take each objection above and address it – see if it’s fixable. The first thing to do is to change the statement from Yeah, But to How To.)

  • How to make it less stupid
  • How to intro the freak storm in a good way

For each How To statement, you let yourself ideate ways to solve that problem. Is there a way to make this stupid idea brilliant? Is there a way to intro the freak storm? Does it have to be a freak storm? If the woman is a photographer, could the love interest trip and turn on their big wind machines by accident, for example? Look for ideas that can address the Issues. Now it is easier to see if the windtunnel idea might work.

Decide Decisively

So that is the POINt tool. You might take a different idea through the same process (like do they meet up in a store?) and as a result you are thoroughly weighing these options so that your decision is well-informed; the problems that will likely crop up have been solved in advance; and you won’t feel doubtful about what to write.

The newfound clarity gives you permission to playfully write the windtunnel scene – and it’ll be original and brilliant, bec you were able to bring your best, unconflicted self to writing that scene.

The POINt tool and about 56 other creativity hacks are shared in: 57 Ways to Stop Procrastinating. Get it here. (But do it now, or we all know, you’ll never get around to it.) See you in FB group. This week, we’ll talk about how we make writing decisions!