Both creative writers, artists and scientific problem solvers use the stream of consciousness or free-association skill. This skill is also known as gestation, mulling things over, and getting a handle on things. The process begins by letting our thoughts flow freely and then sorting out the ones useful to our problem from the many that came to mind. Often many of the random thoughts that come to mind have no apparent connection to the problem; they are merely connected like circular links in a spider's web to threads that interconnect with others and run toward the center of the problem. The free association technique begins by trying to think about nothing in a relaxed, tension-free environment. Try as we might, something always intrudes on our consciousness. It may a line running toward the center of the web or it may be a seemingly meaningless, circular line. Every thought should be written down as it comes to mind, and the task of thinking about nothing begun anew. After ten or fifteen minutes, the train of intrusive thoughts usually begins to slow down, and we can then take the list of seemingly unrelated thoughts and sort out the ones that relate to the problem. The next step of brainstorming is to take the free association / stream of consciousness list and circle the words that pertain to the problem, and connect them with "web" lines into "clusters." These crude webs and clusters can then be reconstructed into a more legible outline. (Several styles of outlining are illustrated in the Appendix 2.) This outline can then be used in the subsequent steps of problem solving. The subsequent steps of the problem solving procedure involve hypothetico-deductive reasoning and is a part of the scientific method.[4] * * * * * Problem Solving Steps. 1. Identify the problem (state the hypothesis). 2. Gather facts: three ways in the order of most reliability. A. Research -- library, Internet. B. Ask someone knowledgeable. C. Brainstorm: free association / stream of consciousness, web and cluster, outline. 3. Develop several alternative solutions. 4. Pick a possible solution and try it. 5. Evaluate the outcome. 6. Try again if necessary * * * * * _Problem Identification_ as the first step of problem solving In life, personal problems are often complicated by outside challenges. In literature, these forces are called external conflicts. The external conflict may be man challenged by nature, man embattled by society, or one man opposed by another man. In science, problems are often exclusively matters of a physical nature and the external conflict is man being challenged by nature.