Three Creative Exercises for Writers Tired Out From All that Thinking
by Mary Elizabeth Thompson

Writing can take a lot of thinking. Thinking is hard work. Over thinking is downright exhausting.

Over thinking can also lead to problems when the writer dwells too much on trying to be creative, trying to think of some brand-new original thought never thunk before. (Don't think too hard about that.) The problem with this is that we cannot create something out of the nothing inherent in the blank page. We can only rearrange ideas we already have into new combinations.

Think about it. (But not too hard!) Joss Whedon didn't invent petite blonde cheerleaders. Nor did he invent vampires or vampire slayers. He didn't invent stakes, apocalypses, hell, demons, gods, or high school sagas. He just combined these elements in a fresh way when he cast the petite blonde cheerleader, stereotypically a victim, as the vampire slayer, the heroine that saves the world from multiple hellish catastrophes for seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a very creative idea, but only the combination was original, not the elements.

The solution to the problem of coming up with creative combinations of ideas is two-fold. First, the writer has to ensure that she's immersed in a steady stream of fresh ideas; that is, she should read, watch movies, go for walks, tour museums, travel, and visit friends (you know, those people who sometimes call and interrupt your staring at the blank page upon which you were trying to be creative). In short, relax and flood your mind with ideas.

Second, the writer needs a physical way to manipulate and rearrange ideas into new combinations. Just thinking about them is hard work, remember? So here are three easy (and fun) ways to get those ideas out of your head and onto that page-formerly-known-as-blank.

#1. Random Words

It doesn't matter what you write about, as long as you're writing. And any subject makes an acceptable starting topic to write about. So, when you think you're out of ideas, consult the ultimate idea list: the dictionary. Or a thesaurus. Or even an encyclopedia. Any book, in fact. The heavier the better. Close your eyes and open to a random page. Drop your finger down onto a random word. Open you eyes. Write down that word. Then close the book, your eyes, and do it again. Pick 2 or 3 (0r 4 or more, if you're brave) random words and write them down.

Then, without thinking too much at all and without stopping to edit, start writing, using those randomly chosen words as waypoints. It doesn't matter what you think you know or don't know about the topic. Just write, starting with with first word and letting your ideas flow towards the next word, then to the next. Keep the pen moving for at least 10 minutes and try to incorporate all the random words into the work. Then stop and read what thoughts happened to your paper.

#2. The Random Word Shuffle

For this, you'll need two books or magazines, preferably on different topics. For example, you might pick a gardening magazine and a VCR instruction manual. Flip through the first book and find 10 nouns that are related to the topic of the book; you might pick 'flower,' 'soil,' 'mulch,' or 'weed-eater' from a gardening magazine. Write those words on a piece of paper. Then, on another piece of paper, write 10 verbs from the other book; from a VCR manual, you might choose 'program,' 'push,' 'schedule,' or 'insert.'

Look at your two lists. Combine the nouns and the verbs into new sentences, adding whatever else you want to fill out the ideas. From my example words above, I could make, "The flowers are programmed to appear each spring, pushed from the soil by a schedule not of their own making." (Ok, I cheated and used 'schedule' as a noun rather than a verb. Try not to think about it.) Start with that sentence, then move on to another, stringing in more of the words from your list, or taking off in whatever direction your imagination carries you. Spend at least 10 minutes just writing.

#3. Another Random Word Shuffle, only with Pictures

Now you'll need more than two magazines, newspapers, or other obsolete paper media, preferably with lots of pictures. And scissors. And perhaps glue stick and typing paper, if you want. Cut out any and all images that interest you. Faces that suggest characters. Landscapes that suggest settings. Even fascinating words printed in unique fonts will work. To make them easier to handle, you might want to glue the images to sheets (or half-sheets) of typing paper.

Once you have collected plenty of images, and without giving the process much thought (thinking is hard work, remember?), shuffle them around until one image particularly catches your interest. Then start writing about the image. If it's a face, perhaps you might describe what the character looks like, name her, follow her into some sort of trouble as she goes to... A landscape? Whichever one is nearest at hand. Why does she go there? What does it smell like? Is it cold? Or hot? How does she show her feelings about that place? Who does she find there? Grab another face from the piles of images. Keep writing, following the ideas where they lead through the pictures you've collected. Spend at least 10 minutes writing.

Why do I keep recommending '10 minutes'? Is there something magical about '10 minutes'? Actually, there is. That's about how long it takes for the mind to clear out all its superficial clutter. After 10 minutes of sustained writing, regardless of topic, the floodgates open and the stream of consciousness begins to pour forth words with free abandon.

But not if you're over thinking every word you try to write. Not if you won't stop trying to think of something creative. Just write. Doing these creativity exercises means you don't need to think of anything  creative; where to begin is decided. All you have to do is write. And who really ever gets tired of that?

Copyright 2004 Mary E. Thompson. All Rights Reserved.

Mary is a writer and artist living in Northern Virginia.  Most recently, her poetry was accepted by "Mausoleum: Mortis Es Veritus."  Her work has appeared at "Anotherealm.com," "Moxiemag.com," and "The Secular Web," among other magazines.  She also teaches Creative Writing at the Center for the Arts and works as a tutor for the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia.

http://www.maryelizabeththompson.net