Ideas From the Page
IF you are stuck for a writing idea grab the nearest book to you and play a little writing game. Open it at random and write down the words that start each line on that page.
Now you have a list of words like this:
go
but
to
Peter
be
sweaty
he
ran
belch
of
horrid
Miss
No
Sick
this
and
definitely
You can remove repeats or made up objects/names that are specific to the story.
There are several things you can now do with this list to get yourself writing. The first is what I call the dot to dot method – you start with a sentence containing the first word, then you write until you can include the next word and the next. Often with this exercise you can find yourself writing away having forgotten the list! If this happens be really happy, do not try and make yourself stick rigidly to the list.
Secondly you can do response writing from each word. Set yourself a timer and do five minutes on each, from these writings you may find the gem of a story – go with it 🙂
Or you could pair up words like – sweaty Peter – who is sweaty Peter? Why is he sweaty. Make character profiles of the names in the list – write their story.
Posted: Tuesday, January 21st, 2014 @ 8:27 am
Categories: Inspiration.
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