They come from the work of pioneer researcher E. Paul Torrance. The child thinks of alternatives to the conventional way of looking at things. These processes do not occur in isolation, of course, and parents need not concern themselves with these definitions other than as a basic guide. These processes open up a whole range of creative possibilities that can occur at the spur of the moment. Visual images are excellent catalysts for either storytelling, creative writing, or other related art projects.
Children enjoy looking at photographs or magazines and talking about what they see.
Some gifted children will automatically begin inventing stories. This project can be especially fun when the focus is a book about the children. Old pictures of their babyhood and earlier years, places they have traveled to or things they have done, magazine pictures, sketches, as well as imaginary storylines will delight young gifted children. If they are too young to write or write only haltingly, parents can have the children dictate to them. After reading them, the child is asked to draw the characters in both books and the two begin discussing what they learned from the two different stories.