Breaking the Writer's Block: Sparking Ideas

The more "engaged" we are with our writing, the more "engaging" our writing will be. Good writing demands our involvement. It is an active expression of our own creative ideas. It demands of us both knowledge and skill in our language, and of the utmost importance, our attention.

Remember your elementary school days and all those book reports? If you were lucky, either the book you reported on was one you loved or you hated. It is the Loves and Hates that hold our interest. Writer's block is nothing more than momentary apathy. As soon as something provokes us enough to grab our attention, writer's block dissipates. Then, because of our interest, we write again with passion. The ideas seem to flow forth like magic. That engagement comes through to our readers. Does this mean when we write with passion, everyone will love our work? Of course not; this should be evident from our own past experiences. Why do some people love Mozart, yet I find myself snoring in the concert hall whenever someone plays his music? Why do I love Henry Thoreau and others find him tedious?

The other aspect that ties in with becoming engaged in your writing is language. The more depth you add to your vocabulary, the easier it will be to express the creative ideas that come your way. Your writer's tool, language, is a fascinating fluid web of ideas communicated through words. Writing is a craft. The better acquainted you become with the tool we call language, the more skillful you will find yourself when composing your own writing. Active participation, reading, learning the use of your tool, and becoming interested in various ideas, will bring you to Engaged Writing.

Free Association

So how do we put the concepts above together and break out of our writer's apathy? Free association is one answer.

"I'm supposed to write an article, but I can't think of a thing to write about!"

We've all been in that boat of creativity stuck on the sandbar. Free association is a great way to jar the boat loose so it can continue on its journey.

In free association, you don't worry about right, wrong, spelling, grammar or form. In free association, all ideas are valid and we often find our smallest idea becomes our greatest focus. It is in editing our work that we rearrange those thoughts and ideas. With free association, we can generate the ideas so we eventually have something to write.

So what will you write about?

You can start your free association with any topic that puzzles you. Perhaps you saw something on the news that disturbed you or made you curious. Perhaps a health condition occurs in your family, which you feel ignorant of and of which you are often concerned. Perhaps your child, like mine, was fond of "stumping the parent", asking questions that you simply didn't have the latest information on. Although any topic will do, anything that causes you to have a question is the perfect way to start your free association for the purposes of your article. Think of a question right now and remember it for later.

As an example of a stumped parent type of question: What is the name of the planet in our solar system, farthest from our sun? Now, in my day, I would have answered Pluto. But now that they have downgraded this once small planet? Today, parents often find themselves in need of an updated education.

If I picked that question as my free association starting point, there are a few ways I could use it. One way is making a simple list, like a grocery list, of whatever thoughts come to mind when I ponder that question or word, "Pluto".

planets
Pluto
ice planet
small
elliptical orbits
scientists
Who named the planets?
Underworld
death
Who was Pluto?
Mickey mouse
Goofy
cartoons
animation

and so on...

Note that some of my thoughts are additional questions which took my ideas in an entirely different direction. That's great because I can then branch off in other areas. All is good and right in free association.

The next free association style is to write a paragraph instead of a list. You simply start writing all you know about the topic as quickly as you can. You ramble along, rapidly writing, not concerning yourself with form or even coherency. You just write as quickly as you can with whatever pops into your head.

After using one or both of those methods, the final step in your free association is to select from your disjointed thoughts and rambling sentences, phrases and topics which really do grab your interest. Those are the ones you concentrate on, investigate and write about. Those are the ones you'll enjoy spending your time with and remaining engaged.

The best way to learn free association is to try it so here's an exercise, which on the whole should take about one hour. You can certainly break this up into sections if you need to parse your time one it. Have fun with it! The idea is to really free up your mind. Do not worry about what ideas are going to arrive.

The following exercise looks but it could very well turn out to be one of your favorite writing inspirations, if you just let your mind flow.

Free Association Writing Exercise

Part I

I frequently use an on-line reference site called Bartleby. Not only does it have an abundance of classic literature and some great reference materials, but also an on-line encyclopedia, a thesaurus and a wonderful dictionary that has an etymology feature. For this part of the exercise you're going to hit on the first part of this article, exploring the web of words that came from a single root idea. Allow it to spark your imagination. You can then write any ideas that come to you in a well thought out paragraph or two (minimum 200 words).

Word to use for this exercise: justice

1. Go to http://www.bartleby.com/61/

2. Scroll down the page until you see SEARCH with a drop box that reads "Entry Word" with a text box next to it.

3. Change that drop box until it reads Etymology. Type the word Justice in the text box and click the search button to the right of the text box.

4. You will see a list of more than one word show up. Click on the exact word you typed in the text box. (For instance, justice will bring up "justice", "justicieary", "justiciable", etc. You should select "justice")

5. Read the entire definition of the word. Think about what you have read and its variable meanings. Then look at the section below the definition called "Etymology". Etymology traces how a word developed. At the end of the etymology description, you will see a link to the word it was derived from. Click on that word and read that definition. (For instance, "justice" will give you a link to the word "just")

6. Keep following these various links and definitions, reading and using the etymology until you reach a reference to a word in Appendix I or II. (Again using "justice" as the example, after reading the definition for "just", you will follow the etymology link the word "yewes" in Appendix I) Click on that link. This will take you to the root of the word you originally selected and will also show you other words that grew from that very same root idea.

7. Click on a few of those and read their definitions too. Think about the various relationships you have discovered. How do they relate to your original word? Do any connections surprise you? Do any thoughts pop into your head? Don't worry. I'm not teaching you linguistics here. This is not to learn what word comes from what or why. This is strictly a "stimulate the imagination" exercise. If nothing you read sparks your interest with your originally chosen word, pick another word and repeat steps 2 - 7 until you find a word that really does interest you with its odd and various relationships.

8. When you get that spark, for the next five minutes, using free association, write down the word(s) you searched on and then below that line, using the list format, simply write ideas that come to you. These can be questions, sentence fragments, words, or expressions. Don't worry about what comes to mind, just jot down your thoughts and ideas. Let your mind flow.

9. Look at what you've written down. Again let your imagination flow. Skip a couple of lines and spend five minutes writing a paragraph or two about whatever comes to mind. Don't worry about grammar, punctuation or form. Simply write.

Please remember, there is no right or wrong to this. This is a collection of your own ideas, interests and thoughts, determined by what you find while browsing. Simply have fun searching through the web of words from a single root idea and really let your imagination flow.

Part II

1. In the first paragraph of this article, in the section So what will you write about, I asked you to think of and remember a question.

2. Using the same technique you used in Part I, think about your question. For the next five minutes, use free association to allow any thoughts, other questions, ideas, words or expressions come to mind, writing them down as you go along in either list or paragraph format, whichever you liked best in the first part of the exercise.

Part III

1. Look back over the words, answers and phrases you wrote in either Part I or II and select three of them that seem most interesting to you. Make sure these three are really something you would like to investigate and write about.

2. These three phrases or ideas will be your topics for articles.

3. Spend the next 15 minutes writing a paragraph about each one of these topics. Simply write everything you know about it. Here too, do not worry about structure, spelling, grammar or right and wrong. You are still free-associating but are now focusing that free association toward one particular topic or idea. You should end up with three paragraphs: one for each of the topics you chose.

Part IV.

1. Select one of the paragraphs from Part III, the one you are the most interested in and enjoyed writing about.

2. Type ONE sentence that both states and describes that topic. This sentence should be looked upon as the hypothetical opening statement of a future article. It should clearly introduce and define the article you are going to write.

I hope this article helps you when you need to break out of a writer's block and allow you to discover non-fiction subjects and topics you will really enjoy writing about. Are you a short story writer? You'll find this concept can also work very well for writing fiction too.