(NON-)FICTION | FREEWRITING | WRITING EXERCISE
Chips: An Exercise in ‘Stream of Consciousness’ Writing
Taking a prompt as literally as possible
How do you even begin to get creative? Well, one of the easiest ways to generate an idea and maintain a flow is to do something called freewriting: a stream of consciousness word-dump for a set amount of time.
Pair this exercise with Monster Alley’s February prompts and, well…
I saw this:
February 24: Chips (the snack, or as a bit of something)
A chip off the ol’ block, fish and chips, or even a chipped tooth. What kind of story can you come up with from the word chip? If nothing else, consider this one a stream of consciousness exercise on the word ‘chip’.
Hmmm.
If nothing else, consider this one a stream of consciousness exercise on the word ‘chip’.
Heh.
Okay, then, I thought. It was clearly time for a freewrite.
Here are my results — unedited, unfiltered. You have been warned.
My Five-minute Freewrite
Chipc chip chip off the old block locking the wooden door although it’s full of chips a chip-latterned design let me goooo to the chippy there is nothing like the smell of chippy chips fattening like a dickensian Dockens goose goose
gooose called wandering visionary gold toothed pirate horned and furry like an angry viking stenage image chipped tooth has a viking from all the battles my music my violent violin playing pirates but no viking is dressed fir for the Caribbean the Car RIB be an I know that spelling there is a chip in it.
And I would sell all the gold in the Sea for a packet of Panda house chips once more the smell the softness the gooooold
I think I am hungry
But I have eaten too far way too much today
Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
Well, that was a terrifying look into my head…
No, don’t run away!
There is a point to all of this, I promise. I’m not just demonstrating the joys of autocorrect…
The Next Steps
So, you’ve already got your random word-vomit — but what’s there, exactly?
Let’s analyse it. I was taught to freewrite by hand, because I could go back afterwards and highlight/underline stand-out phrases with a different coloured pen.
Obviously, that’s more difficult when you (I) did your (my) freewriting directly on Medium.
It’s not impossible, though. All you need is one line at a time. For example…
Three New Ideas
1. a chip-latterned design
I meant to write ‘patterned’, here.
Oh, well: ‘lattern’ makes me think of both lanterns and lattices… maybe the former is shaped like a chip? And maybe the latter could be a whole door of interlaced chips!
Then, where does the door lead? Is this some strange food paradise where everything — even a building — is edible?
2. horned and furry like an angry viking | no viking is dressed fir for the Caribbean
I have an instant image of a fantasy Viking — fantasy because they didn’t actually have horns on their helmets —standing on a tropical beach.
They’re in full pillaging outfit, including a fur cloak that’s styled in the shape of a Christmas tree.
They’re angry because it’s also 28 degrees (Celsius. In Fahrenheit, that’s just over 80 degrees.)
Or not. ‘no viking is dressed fir’ could also mean that they’ve ditched the cloak…
3. I think I am hungry
Well, clearly — but let’s fictionalise this. I can easily imagine it as an opening or closing line. Okay, so there’s hunger — but why?
And then, is the speaker actually hungry? ‘I think’ can work in two ways:
- uncertainty;
- a belief (which isn’t always the same as fact).
So, whoever this character is, they might not be hungry, after all.
Oh look. We now have some characterisation to do.
The Takeaway
And so on. There are many more possibilities, here. I haven’t even started on genre.
See how many ideas can spring from only five minutes of — quite frankly — chaos?
I’ve picked out three today, but there are more. (I can find a way to feature a goose...)
What can you see in my above freewrite? What happens when you try your own?
I’d love to hear your findings. Happy writing!
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Thank you 🙂
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