Brainstorming

I'm just at the beginning stages of this new story I'm working on. Unlike previous stories, which just kind of struck like lightning, I'm having to work at the inspiration part. This is sort of like my experience with the police procedural I just wrote, in that it was a request, not an idea that struck out of the blue. I'm using FreeMind, a free mind-mapping program, to help me with the brainstorming part. I'll just keep working through ideas and hopefully I'll spiral closer and closer until I get to the one that really works. At this point, it's kind of a hit-and-miss process. With my detective story, I actually wrote almost all of a complete story before I trashed it and started over with what I feel is a much better version. So it's messy, but hopefully, there'll be some good results.