Writing Exercise: Word Grid
Sometimes the hardest part of writing is starting. There's so much pressure to come up with a good idea that you forget there are good ideas around you all the time.
In the coming months we’ll be sharing some of the exercises we use in our workshops to introduce new ways of finding inspiration, and to relieve a bit of the pressure. (Check out last month's exercise here!)
This month’s exercise only requires a few books off your shelf.
Pick three books. The more dissimilar the better.
Pick a random number between 1-100, 1-15, and 1-10. Put the numbers in a sequence (e.g. 97-12-4).
Do this three times, so you have three sequences. The first number in each sequence is the page. The second number is the line. The third is the word. Apply each sequence to each of your books and you’ll end up with nine random words.
Write the words in a 3x3 grid. Include seemingly insubstantial words like it or the. (If all your words are it or the, or there aren’t enough lines on the page, pick the next closest word.)
Make a sentence using the words in your grid. You don’t have to use all nine words, and you're not limited to using only those words. Keep it loose. Change tenses. Add plurals. Whatever sentence emerges is the seed of your free-write.
