The Story Generator

The Story Generator needs no batteries.

I learned this technique once in a short story class.  It’s a bit like Mad Libs and really works when you are stuck as hell.

1. Take five 3×5 note cards and on each write an occupation:  maybe firefighter, sword swallower, lawyer or drug dealer.
2. Take another five cards and write a behavior, the stranger the better since it’ll inspire you:  maybe, collect sugar packets, put gummy bears in the sock drawer, bury the photo album.

Now, shuffle the decks individually and flip over one from each pile.  Now create a “why” sentence.  So you might get:  “Why did the drug dealer bury the photo album?”  Or “Why did the firefighter collect sugar packets?”  When you’ve got one you like answer this question through a story.  You can do this two ways:

1. Imagine this is the last event of the story, the culmination of everything that happens.  Think of your conflicts, your setting and your back story.  Why does the character do this in the end?
2. Or you can simply use this image as a starting point.  Maybe the story opens with the drug dealer burying a photo album.  As I wrote about in my post starting in the middle, you should always be dropping your reader into the thick of things.

If you don’t have note cards, don’t worry about it.  Don’t make it into an excuse for a trip to Target, which is what I’d do.  Any paper will do.