Playing Around
This week had two Mondays and no Tuesdays. Weird.
A lot of people are struggling with focus and productivity right now. In some cases it just comes down to the nuts and bolts of their routine being interrupted or destroyed by change and uncertainty. In other cases its a challenge with knowing what to work on, or feeling like it’s the best use of your time, or that it will matter when it’s done.
If you’re struggling, or if you just want to mix things up, give this a shot. It won’t take long, and it might sneak your brain into word-mode. If it doesn’t, no biggie. This is just a bit of playing around for you to pass a few minutes with. You deserve those few minutes. If you typically write by hand, print this out. If you’re an on-screen writer, copy this into a fresh document.
Word Association
Write down the first two words that come to your mind for each of the following words.
Rain:
Table:
Kitten:
Piano:
Tree:
Fork:
Crevasse:
Face:
Electricity:
Moribund:
Sentence Completion
Complete each of the following sentences with whatever comes immediately to mind. If you are drawing blanks, drop the sentence opening into your phone and use the suggestions to generate a sentence ending.
It was a happy, shining morning in Bear Valley and…
Giselle, Princess of Unusual Household Objects, needed…
The Fire Nation attacked, but…
The collection of scarves, meticulously sorted by color and texture, was missing…
Everything falls down eventually, except…
Sensory Description
Randomly choose a number from 1-5, inclusive. Do the same for 6-10, inclusive. Identify the words in the word association list above that correspond to those numbers. Put all four of those words into an image search.
Take the first image that comes up and spend five minutes (set a timer!) describing the image. Try to use all the senses in your description. Feel free to describe elements that aren’t explicitly present in the image. Put down whatever comes to do. Don’t think about it too much. Don’t worry about being evocative or original. Just go. Describe it. Five minutes.