You're 35,000 words into your novel when it happens. You know what needs to occur by the end of the chapter, but you have no idea how to get there. Or maybe you've written yourself into a corner and can't see any way forward that doesn't feel contrived. The cursor blinks mockingly. You stare at the screen. Nothing comes.

Most writing advice tells you to "just push through" or "skip ahead and come back later." But what if there's a more systematic way to blast through these creative roadblocks? Enter The Twenty Ideas Technique, a deceptively simple brainstorming method that forces your brain past its first (usually terrible) impulses and into genuinely creative territory.

What Is The Twenty Ideas Technique?

The Twenty Ideas Technique is brutally straightforward: when you're stuck on a specific story problem, you must generate exactly twenty possible solutions before you're allowed to implement any of them. Not five. Not ten. Twenty complete ideas, written down in list form.

The magic isn't in the number itself—it's in what happens to your brain as you push past your obvious answers. Your first five ideas are usually the clichés you've seen a thousand times. Ideas six through twelve feel awkward and forced. But somewhere around idea fifteen, when you're scraping the bottom of the creative barrel and getting desperate, something shifts. That's when the interesting stuff emerges.

Why This Works for Story-Level Problems

When you're stuck mid-story, your brain typically offers you one or two "obvious" solutions. These feel safe and logical, but they're also often boring—which is probably why you're stuck in the first place. Your subconscious knows these solutions won't work, even if you can't articulate why.

The Twenty Ideas Technique short-circuits this paralysis by forcing quantity over quality. You're not trying to find the right answer immediately. You're exhausting all the wrong answers until the right one has room to surface.

This technique is particularly effective for:

- Getting your character from Point A to Point B when the obvious path feels boring
- Finding motivation for a character to make a necessary plot decision
- Resolving seemingly impossible situations you've written yourself into
- Discovering what should happen next when you've lost the thread
- Creating obstacles that feel fresh rather than recycled from other stories

How to Apply It: The Step-by-Step Process

Step 1: Define Your Specific Problem

Write out your story problem in one clear sentence. Vague problems generate vague solutions. Instead of "I'm stuck," try: "How does Maya convince her brother to testify, given that he's terrified of retaliation and doesn't trust her?"

Step 2: Set a Timer for 15-20 Minutes

This creates urgency. You don't have time to judge or overthink. You're in generation mode, not evaluation mode.

Step 3: List Twenty Solutions

Number 1 through 20 on your page or document. Force yourself to fill every slot. No idea is too silly, too obvious, or too outlandish. Some of your ideas can be terrible. In fact, some should be terrible—they're clearing space for better ones.

Step 4: Keep Going When It Gets Hard

Around idea twelve, you'll want to quit. Your brain will insist you have enough options. This is precisely when you need to push harder. The discomfort means you're moving past your default thinking patterns.

Step 5: Walk Away

After hitting twenty, close the document and do something else for at least an hour—ideally longer. Let your subconscious process.

Step 6: Evaluate and Combine

Return fresh and read through your list. Often, the best solution isn't a single idea but a combination of two or three elements from different entries. Ideas 3, 17, and 19 might merge into something perfect.

A Real Example in Action

Let me show you how this worked for me recently. I was stuck with a character named Josie who needed to discover that her business partner was embezzling. The obvious solutions—finding suspicious receipts or overhearing a phone call—felt tired.

Here's an abbreviated version of my twenty ideas:

1. She finds suspicious receipts (boring)
2. She overhears a phone conversation (cliché)
3. A client mentions paying for something Josie never received
4. Her accountant flags something in quarterly reports
5. She notices her partner's sudden expensive purchases
6. A vendor calls about an unpaid invoice Josie thought was paid
7. Her partner makes a suspicious comment after drinks
8. She accidentally sees her partner's personal bank statement
9. Her college-age daughter, interning at the company, notices discrepancies
10. A disgruntled employee hints at something
...
17. She's applying for a business loan and the bank's audit reveals inconsistencies
18. Her partner's spouse makes a cryptic warning
19. She discovers they have a secret storage unit full of "inventory" that was supposedly sold
20. She finds a second set of books hidden in a shared cloud folder

The solution? I combined ideas 9, 17, and 19. Josie's daughter casually mentions seeing duplicate invoices while filing. Later, during a loan application process, these discrepancies take on new meaning, leading Josie to investigate and discover the storage unit. This felt fresh because it unfolded across several scenes, involved multiple discoveries, and gave Josie's daughter a meaningful role.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Don't stop at fifteen. You'll be tempted. Those last five ideas are often the goldmine.

Don't overthink feasibility. At the generation stage, "my character sprouts wings and flies away" is a valid entry if it gets you to idea sixteen. You're not committing to anything yet.

Don't use this for every tiny decision. This technique is for genuine stuck points, not for choosing what your character eats for breakfast.

The Freedom of Exhaustive Options

The real gift of The Twenty Ideas Technique isn't just solving your immediate problem—it's the confidence that comes from knowing you've truly explored your options. When you finally choose your path forward, you're not second-guessing yourself or wondering if there was a better solution you missed. You've done the work. You've looked at the problem from twenty different angles.

That certainty is worth its weight in completed manuscripts.

So the next time you're stuck mid-story, don't stare at the blinking cursor. Open a new document, set your timer, and start listing. By idea twenty, you'll know exactly where your story needs to go.