You Need the Tornado Before the Idea
Blank pages are exciting.
And terrifying.
You sit down to create something new. A story. A business plan. A system. Whatever.
The page is empty. The possibilities are endless. You want your idea to fly in like a hero and save the day.
It doesn't work that way.
I Used to Wait for the Perfect Idea
I'd stare at blank pages waiting for the idea to arrive fully formed.
The right concept. The clear direction. Something I could immediately start building.
Most days? Nothing came.
Or something would show up, but it felt weak. Not hero material. So I'd dismiss it and keep waiting.
I didn't understand that ideas don't start as heroes. They start as tornadoes.
Brainstorming Is Called a Storm for a Reason
Here's what finally clicked:
The word "brainstorm" comes from the image of a tornado. Things flying everywhere. Chaos. No clear structure.
That's not a bug. That's the process.
You need the chaos before you get clarity.
When I started actually brainstorming—writing down every thought without judging it, letting ideas crash into each other, creating mess on purpose—something changed.
In the chaos, things got revealed.
Connections I couldn't see when I was trying to think clearly. Weird combinations that actually worked. Problems that needed solving that I hadn't noticed.
The storm isn't the enemy of good ideas. It's where good ideas come from.
The Pattern Shows Up Everywhere
Last month I needed to name a new product.
I didn't sit there trying to think of the perfect name. I set a timer for 20 minutes and wrote down every word that came to mind. Good, bad, stupid, weird—all of it.
Tornado on the page.
When the storm was over, I had 60 names. Most were garbage. But buried in there were three solid options I never would have found by "thinking clearly."
Same with plotting my novel. I don't sit down and try to outline the perfect structure.
I brainstorm scenes. Characters doing random things. Conflicts that might happen. Dialogue fragments. Plot points with no context.
It's chaos. A mess of disconnected ideas.
Then I step back and look at what the storm revealed. Patterns emerge. Certain scenes connect. A structure appears.
The cleanup process is where the real idea forms.
Even my morning routine started as chaos. I tried fifteen different things in random order for a month. Made a mess. Nothing worked perfectly.
But in that tornado, I learned what mattered and what didn't. The cleanup was easy once I'd seen everything fly around.
You can't clean up what you haven't made messy first.
Why We Skip the Storm
We want to look smart.
Professional. Like we know what we're doing.
Brainstorming looks chaotic. Feels inefficient. Makes you question if you have any good ideas at all.
But that chaos is the work. That's where ideas get revealed, not invented.
You can't skip to the cleanup phase. You need the storm first.
Permission to Make a Mess
The blank page is supposed to become chaos before it becomes clear.
Write down every thought. Don't judge them yet. Let the storm happen.
Good ideas don't arrive as heroes. They get discovered in the wreckage after the tornado passes.
Try This Today
Pick something you need to create.
Set a timer for 15 minutes.
Write down every single thought related to it. No editing. No judgment. Let it be messy.
When the timer stops, walk away.
Tomorrow, come back and clean up. See what the storm revealed.
What chaos do you need to create before you can find your idea?