4 Tools To Use To Spark Creative Writing

Picture this; you sit down to write out a great story you have running inside your head but when you go to actually write it, nothing comes out. You know you have a great idea, but it does not seem to translate well from thought into physical words. Then comes the feeling of frustration because you have all these ideas. You just are not able to translate them. It can be quite annoying. Writing is something I greatly enjoy and I the notion of being unable to write down my thoughts. However, there are some tools that can be used to help put those ideas onto paper, or a computer. The following list is a few that I use on a regular basis and find useful. I hope that you might find a use for them as well.

Here are 4 tools and techniques to spark your creative writing skills:

1. Make a list of 20 nouns and verbs

Sometimes a simple solution is the best solution. Find a dictionary, whether online or a physical book. Pick random pages and make a list of twenty nouns and twenty verbs. In my case, I will make a list in the form of a school assignment I had in the first grade. Match a noun with a verb. In this situation, I add the step of creating a phrase out of the noun and verb. These sentences can be realistic, and sometimes they can be odd. Either way, it can help form a part of the story you want to tell and it can spread out from there.

2. Use a random sentence generator

In a similar way to the first possible tool, using a random sentence generator online can help. It creates different sentences, sometimes even paragraphs. You can use a general sentence generator with no discernable genre, or you can be incredibly specific, for example, a sci-fi sentence generator. I had used it on, and the first few sentences seemed normal and didn’t spark anything. Yet when I received the sentence ‘the day started out well enough before she had died’, it had caused an idea to form and I found I could write a short story about a ghost. It was quite fun for me.

3. People watching; writing dialogue as spoken

When writing dialogue, I struggle because I speak using an extensive vocabulary and that comes out in my writing. Though watching people at the mall, or overhearing conversations can allow you to learn how people speak. Sometimes there can be no context or the conversation can be a good debate. Everyone speaks differently, in their word choice, accents, and what they learned from schoolmates and family. Just listen to people and write down in the style of their speech.

4. Take song lyrics and make a short story out of it

This one is quite fun to do. A lot of artists who write their own songs are telling a story are sending a message, though that isn’t always the case. Songs are products of someone’s creativity. I like to make videos for fandoms I love, such as Stargate or Doctor Who, and I try my best to use the lyrics of a song to outline a story using video clips. I find it similar when writing things down or typing them. Each line of the song can be expanded into a full sentence or a paragraph. Some songs can create a short story or a story that can almost be classified as a novel. It can’t be done with every single song, but it can be fun to try.  Some can create interesting stories.

There are a lot of ways to spark creativity and to also overcome writer’s block. Not everyone shares the same style or tools. These are the ones that I use most commonly and find the most creativity with. Gives these ones a try and see what you can create from them. You may even find some creative writing tools that aren’t included and work better for you.

Have fun with writing!