It was a dark and stormy night …

Last August at the Stockholm Writers’ Festival, I enjoyed a writing exercise in one of the seminars I attended. There were about 30 of us in the seminar – an average sized school class – but unlike the average class (of my experience), we were all eager to try new ways of writing creatively.

The leader (Adnan Mahmutovic) started by asking us to write a short story, a description or an essay beginning with the clichéd phrase: It was a dark and stormy night …

He let us write in silence for a couple of minutes, to get into the text we were creating. Then he started to interrupt us, every so often, by reading out a random word. The idea was for us to continue writing, but to incorporate the word into our text as smoothly as possible, without stopping to think about it.

The exercise lasted for about 20 minutes.

After the exercise was over, Adnan invited a couple of volunteers to read their texts.

The point was to help us develop our ability to open up our writing to the influence of random ideas. All sorts of texts might come out of this, from stream-of-conscious reflection, to surreal fantasy, to abstract poetry and much more. Our texts might take new routes because of the random words.

Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out how I might emulate this exercise as a writer on my own.

Here’s a suggestion. It’s a three stage process and takes some time between the second and third stage.

Stage one: creating the list of random words

Preparing this text, I first made a random list of my own. I include my list below, and you’re welcome to use it, but making your own list is more fun. To make your list you’ll need a pen and paper (or anything else you are comfortable to write with). The exercise takes about 20 minutes, and you might like to set a timer.

You will need a couple of seed-words to start you off. Mine were spatchcock and headspace. The first was in my head when I woke up. I don’t know why. And I don’t know where headspace came from though I see now it shares a ‘spa‘ with spatchcock.

Write down your first two words, one under the other. Look at the last letter or last syllable of the first word. What new word comes to mind? Generally speaking, you are looking for nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs, although you can consider others. Write it down as your third word. If several words come, choose the one you like best.

Now look at the last letter or syllable of the second word. What new word comes to mind? Write it down as your fourth word.

Look at the last letter or syllable of the third word. What new word comes to mind? Write it down as your fifth word.

Repeat for the full twenty minutes.

The reason for starting with two seed words and working with each sequentially is to distract yourself. Hopefully it will keep you from drawing all your words from a single theme.

Here’s the list I made:
spatchcock, headspace, kvetch, cetacean, chiffchaff, aeonic, fang, ichor, angst (anxiety), ordinal, yellow, Alcibiades, lowland, despoil, andiron, oleaginous, ironic, ooze, cable, zeotropic, bleed, picturesque, development, question, entry, onion, trinity, onomatopoeia, itsy-bitsy, pious

Stage two: record the list

Using a recording device, record yourself reading the list, pausing for at least 30 seconds between each word. (A longer period between words will give you more time to write appropriate linking material in your story when you come to do that.)

Remember to leave a couple of minutes silence at the beginning of the recording to let yourself start writing.

Leave the recording to one side until you have forgotten most of the words you chose.

As an alternative to the recording, you might write the words on separate pieces of paper, shuffle them and place them in a pile face down on the table beside you where you are writing. Use a timer to tell you when to turn the next word over. This method interrupts the flow of your writing, but is less tech- or time-dependent.

Stage three: write your text

You will also need a phrase to start you off. Use part of any clichéd phrase you like, or maybe pick a line from a story or a poem. Here are some suggestions:

Like chalk and cheese …
The grass is always greener …
It was love at first …
Only when the clock stops does time live.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad …
I’ve found that there is always some beauty left …
All this happened, more or less.
Out of the ash I rise …
It was the day my grandmother exploded
Beware of Greeks bearing …
I write this sitting in the kitchen …

Choose your phrase, start the recording and begin writing. As each new word is spoken, incorporate it into your writing as naturally as you can. See what you produce!

If you enjoyed this writing prompt and want more, here is a link to all our writing prompts!