Playing With Words

This entry was written on Dec 15, 2008 by our Journal Guru Lael Johnson

This is a post about writing a journal entry, based on choosing some words and putting them into sentences. You can repeat this exercise several times, as a way to warm up before you start to work on a writing project or you can use it as a warm up before you write in your journal. That's your choice. I like using it as a warm up to regular writing or just to write for the sake of writing practice. I don't find it that easy to just start writing an article when I'm facing a blank page, so this is a good exercise to use in that situation.

I enjoy playing with words, so it's simple for me to use this just as an exercise in writing. It helps my brain relax. I signal my brain that I'm not just 'working on my writing' I'm also going to have some fun exploring where my writing goes when I group certain words together or whatever.

So choose five words at random and write them down in your journal or your document.  Set your time for about three minutes. Then try to write as many sentences as you can including those five words. You may add words to create a complete sentence, but make sure to use all five words in each sentence that you write. When the timer goes off, stop.

Now reread your sentences and see how they sound. Did you find anything new? surprising? odd?  or unique in any of the sentences. Did you find a sentence that intrigues you? Do you want to write more about that topic? If you do find one that captures your interest, then set you timer for three minutes and write a few more sentences so that you create a paragraph on that topic.

If you don't find an intriguing sentence, then repeat the first part of the exercise and see what happens. If you need help with choosing words, use a dictionary or a Thesaurus to give you a boost.

Keep working with this exercise and see what happens as you practice using different words in different sentence combinations.