Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series!
Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft.
Today’s Exercise is
Word Association Chain
- Objective: To bypass the internal editor and get words on the page quickly.
- How to Play:
- One person (the facilitator) provides a starting word (e.g., “ocean”).
- The next person in the circle writes or says the very first word that comes to mind (e.g., “salt”).
- The next person bases their word on the previous one (“salt” -> “wound”), and so on.
- After a few rounds, have everyone take the last 3-4 words in the chain and write a single paragraph incorporating them.
- Best for: Overcoming writer’s block, sparking unexpected ideas.
You can use any word to start this game, but here are a few to consider:
River | Key | Clock | Bridge | Hope |
Fall | Cold | Mirror | Shadow | Star |
Whisper | Bone | Fear | Anchor | Bright |
Ocean | Road | Empty | Mask | Dream |
Fire | Rust | Silence | Grow | Heavy |
Door | Secret | Stone | Lost | Echo |
City | Fly | Gold | Memory | Break |
Forest | Soft | Ghost | Power | Book |
Ship | Storm | Warm | Lie | Root |
Mountain | Hunger | Sharp | Forget | Home |
Moon | Music | Ladder | Wild | Dust |
Truth | Window | Sink | Ice | Dark |
Feather | Time | Red | Build | Castle |
Chaos | Static | Light | Train | Future |
Search | Map | Velvet | Justice | Cloud |
Float | Seed | Quiet | Luck | Garden |
Wolf | Blue | Shout | Found | Compass |
Work | Salt | Neon | Crow | Burn |
Full | War | Spider | Peace | Steal |
Loud | Sugar | Bliss | Freeze | Remember |
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