Paper Bag Words

Do you ever watch today’s TV cooking challenges and wonder what kind of dish you would have put together using all of the necessary ingredients and limited to just minutes to achieve it all?


Imagine that you are a chef on one of those cooking challenge shows. The ingredients you must use are a bunch of words. Just like the chefs, your assignment is to use all of the items given you to make a meal that is both tasty and attractive. In other words, you’ve got to combine these items and make it work for you.


Take 20 pieces of paper, write action verbs on 10 of them and nouns (proper names, pronouns, people, places and things) on the other 10. Put all 20 pieces of paper into a small paper bag and shake them up. Now reach blindly into the bag and pull out six slips of paper. Use all six words in one paragraph as a story, in other words, don’t just list the words, work them off of each other.


Don’t just list, for example, “I saw a unicorn, a frog, a chair and English scones in London.” Use your imagination freely – imagine how a unicorn and a frog can share a favorite chair in London and eat English scones while boating on the Thames River. Make it magical or dramatic, whimsical or mysterious. There is no right or wrong way to write this paragraph so long as it comes from an unfettered imagination. The sentences you write should make sense, the picture the sentence paints doesn’t have to. Have fun with it. When you finish the first paragraph, throw all the paper slips back in and do it again.


Set aside a time everyday to simply “Free Write”; 20-minutes to one-hour is recommended. Free writing is a process where you sit and write ANYTHING that pops into your head. Don’t stop for anything, just keep writing words. Don’t worry about making sense, forget about spelling or grammar – just write. Allow your mind to wander, write anything that comes to mind. Write random thoughts. It’s okay to switch topics midstream. The freer your mind, the more the words will flow. Don’t make corrections, don’t cross anything out.


It’s possible when you are done with your free-writing session and you read what you’ve written, you might be tempted to chuck it all and call it nonsense. It’s not. You spent valuable time just stretching your mind, getting comfortable writing and you might even find a topic you want to expand on. Free writing should feel liberating and is never meant to be edited.



Writing exercise: Choose two or three catalogue ads with multiple models (ie: clothing ads with two or more models) – Take a few minutes to study the picture, imagine the relationship(s) between the models, do they look friendly or distant? Maybe they are related or maybe there is a blossoming love affair there. Write a few sentences of dialogue between the models – it can be about any topic, but make sure the words, expressions and intentions “fit” the characters.




Writing prompt: Choose a frustrating conversation, possibly even a disagreement, you had in the not so distant past. Think of the words you WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SAID. Write them down. Give yourself a free and unrestricted voice. No one will see or read these words (because you will carefully shred them when you are done). Get it all out.