What types of
creative free writing
have you tried?

One sure way to think of ideas for creative free writing is to use the concept of free association. It has the ability to shine new light on areas you never thought of considering, but at the same time, those areas that were sticking in your mind and just needed to be jarred loose.

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When you think of free association, you may think of one person saying a word to another person, and then that second person saying another word that they associate with that first word. For example, if someone says "dolphins," another person might say "fish." If someone says "tree," another person might say "evergreen." Free association can be fun in this way, because it allows you to consider ideas which may never have come to the forefront of your mind otherwise.

Another level of creative free writing or free association can stem from the words that people come up with as they play. For example, some people might consider "evergreen" only a type of tree. Others may identify it solely as being a part of the Christmas season, and others may consider it the name of a street, subdivision, restaurant, or some other place of the same name that resonates with them.

Consider all the different possibilities for words. They may have numerous meanings, pronunciations, origins, etc. that can contribute to a whole new level of meaning, and a whole new host of writing themes and ideas to add to your creative free writing.

Stream of consciousness writing is also most helpful in creative free writing.

Another take on the free association game mentioned above is to start off with any one word and make a list that follows it of words that begin with the last letter of the previous word. For example, if you start with the word "house," the next word would have to begin with the letter "e," and so on from there. Below is my list. Following it are a slew of writing themes, cliches, and ideas that can be thought of based off of any of the words that I thought of quickly. All of the words listed were the first words I thought of for the letter that was needed.

Writing
Golf
Fire
Energy
Yellow
Welcome
Epiphany
Yogurt
Talkative
Elephant
Temper
Rant
Time
Emperor
Reaction
Negate

You can let your list get to be as long or short as you would like, but make sure you are thinking of the very first word that comes to mind. If you take time considering your words, then the concept of this being one of many free writing techniques goes out the window. You need to make yourself free and open to the possibilities that exist in words. You may also notice that the list above does not necessarily have connections within it. If you see connections, great. If not, let me show you how easy it is to come up with themes for this creative free writing list. You may even find that as you go along, the themes start to mesh together and meaning comes to be understood between some of the most obscure words that you would never have considered comparable before.

Pop culture can be helpful in thinking of writing themes. The word "golf" brings to mind Tiger Woods. The scandal and intrigue surrounding him is based off of what we have learned from pop culture (and his indiscretions), and you might consider writing about some form of scandal and/or intrigue in your own writing. You do not have to include the word "golf" in your story just because that is where you got your idea. The same holds true for any of the words you come up with in your free association. They are just steppingstones -- a jumping off point, if you will -- for more thematic, interpretive writing.

The words "time" and "energy" in the list can be associated together. "Time is money," "time is a terrible thing to waste," and "killing time" are just three phrases that can be evaluated for use in a story, poem, etc. in relation to time. You also want to be sure not to take too much or little of a reader's time and energy to explain details in your writing. Make your points clear and specific enough from the get-go to ensure accuracy and capture your readers' time and energy, thereby capturing their attention.

Yellow does not only have to be thought of as a color. It can be used as you decide to create a character who is afraid of something. Maybe the character fears something too much or too little. They can be yellow-bellied. Foresee the possibilities that exist in this word and all others.

The word yogurt might implore you to add something light to your writing. Maybe you are writing in such a way that you have explored something in such an in-depth way that you need to calm the storyline down and add a humorous anecdote, or some other such innovation within your writing.

For the word elephant, you might consider the cliche about the "elephant in the room." Do not let your writing become unclear in such a sense that you never delve into your own "elephant." Make your writing clear and purposeful so readers never have to wonder when and if you will ever discuss the overarching themes you have related slightly, but not yet fully.

There are many more creative free writing techniques to consider themes that may add that extra oomph to your writing. The word "emperor," for instance, might suggest that you add a character that has a superiority complex. Conversely, you may take the opposite standpoint and add a character with an inferiority complex, or possibly one of each.

As I went through the above list and figured the themes I could come up with based off of the words, I realized that the word "negate" can relate to the word "emperor." It may seem a stretch, but the reasoning is sound. There is a character on Saturday Night Live, played by Kristin Wiig, named Penelope (here we have another instance of pop culture). Penelope has a way of negating everyone else's good fortune, thereby making them seem misfortunes, when she claims precedence and superiority, taking us back to the word "emperor." You can negate ideas in positive and/or negative ways, but Penelope always seems to make everyone else feel strangely negative about whatever they happen to be discussing. She has a superiority complex, and because of this, she makes everyone else seemingly inferior to her. Check out a clip to better understand how she reacts to others.

Not every word in the list above is outlined here in relation to the themes I garnered. See if you can come up with your own meanings and understandings for those words, and even for the words I already outlined in my own creative free writing. What different takes do you have that I may not have incorporated into my thematic interpretation? Creative free writing is great for just this reason. You are free to write as you please, in as creative a way as you would like.

Make connections between words. Just as the connection between "emperor" and "negate" seemed a stretch, it worked. Even if you have a hard time seeing the connections that someone else is making to the words on the page, it's okay. Make your own connections. That is what makes your writing unique and thought-provoking. You are giving your readers a sense of what you see, understand, believe, and are capable of creating. You are instilling in them a dose of imagination and perspective that they may not have been apt to see without you.

One more option you may consider, especially if you love board games, is to play the game Taboo. It is yet another form of a creative writing game that you can play to help you progress in your own writing. The object of the game is to get members of your team to say the word at the top of a card without using any of the "taboo" words below it that would obviously give the main word away. For example, if the word you wanted people to guess was "Christmas," you might not be able to say any of the following: "Santa," "25," "December," "tree," or "holiday." Any or all of those words have the potential to give the main word away. This game allows you think outside the box and consider new possibilities for how to express meaning logically. It is a form of free association in itself, as you are forced to come up with ideas in your own head to ensure other players understand your attempts. You may even choose to do some creative free writing based off of the words you hear as you play the game.

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