EXERCISE: Word Weaving with Lynne Marie

"Massaging the Muse: Exercises in Creativity to Spark Your

Imagination and Keep the Ink Flowing"

"Word Weaving"

by Lynne Marie 

            We can all recall days when we finally sit down to write and can't find a thing to write about. Days like these call for a desperate measures.  Writing exercises, such as "Word Weaving," can stretch the creative muscle and "massage the muse."

            To begin this "Word Weaving" exercise, let the page of a dictionary fall open. close your eyes and land your pointer finger randomly on a page to choose a word. Write down the word. Repeat. Pick ten words and one bonus word in this fashion. Then, challenge yourself to use ten of the words in a story excerpt or poem of no longer than 200 words.

            If you write for a specific genre, i.e., children's or medieval romance, you can choose words from pertinent resources as "The Children's Writer's Word Book," or the "Medieval Word Book."  You can even apply the exercise directly to your "work-in-progress" by relating it to those characters, if desired.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED in Writers’ Journal, Perlham, MN May/June 2002