Having being inundated with pitches to write and ideas to think up, I am going to start building some processes into my workflow. scripts and plugins for my brain! So I am going to start posting them up here - not the best ones obviously ; )

okay, for this one you need a friend, preferably someone who you work with everyday who you partner with. Or just a friend. Its probably important that they know nothing about what you are working on when you begin, so that they don't second guess anything.

now, get them to pick a really good idea, something that they really like. Something that they think is pretty much the most awesome thing ever, something like say, 'The good the bad and the ugly'. You must not know what this thing is until the exercise has finished.

now, get them to describe it to you, beginning vaguely, describing the concept of the idea, rather than what they are seeing in front of them. eg. its about a race towards a treasure, everyone is both friend and enemy at the same time, outlaws skimming on the surface of a war like stones on a lake. etc.

hopefully because you will have absolutely no idea what your partner is talking about, new ideas will form in your head that will spring from the words, re-interpreting the description to match your problem. Generating new ideas from misinterpreting and distorting something else.

This is not an exercise in copying someone else's idea and making it your own, it is just an exercise to get your brain thinking in another place, boiling down something that works, and rebuilding it. Its so difficult to think of a good idea when you're stuck on a linear idea path.

Try it sometime, if you find it helps you let me know.