Fountain of Knowledge

I do something similiar, but at the same time entirely different. I have a hard time writign about bad personal experiences and translating them to fiction - the psychological drain is high. What I do instead is just 'brain dump'. I write exactly what I'm thinking as the thoughts flow and just put it all on paper. Nine times out of ten I just delete it when I'm done, but by then it's given me a focus for my thoughts and I've usually managed to make a more rational sense of them.

I do the same thing when I have a big story idea and can't seem to make it concrete. I just start writing whatever comes to mind in a big information dump on paper. It makes me glad that I type fast. I get pages of things like "And then Tommy runs across the road...well...maybe instead he just jogs because he's not really a runner."

I've actually gone back and read these later when I go to pick up a story again and they remind me what the plot is supposed to be and where it goes.