Writing Tip: Stream of Consciousness List

Sometimes when I’m struggling with a scene and the words won’t come, I write a list of words associated with the scene.

It could be a feeling I want to invoke, an emotion of a character, something about the setting, anything goes.

What I love about this is that rather than trying to craft a section of the story with full sentences and coherent dialog and all the things that make a book, I just concentrate on individual words and they come to me. I’ve never sat down to write one of these lists and not had words show up for me.

That’s really handy when you’re feeling blocked, at least for me.

Sometimes it feels like I can’t get any words written because I can’t figure out that first word.

But with this method, I’ve already written a dozen or two dozen, sometimes more. And often, those words show up in my prose.

So if you’re struggling to find the words, open a blank document or grab a scrap sheet of paper and list some words. What do the characters see? What colors? What do they smell? What are they feeling? Hearing? Thinking? What is the mood in the room? How do you want the character to come across? What do other characters think of them?

Here’s a peek at the list I came up with this afternoon for my WIP:

Dungeon

Dark

Manic

Maniac

Unstable

Strong

Courageous

Soul

Injured

Have you ever tried this method? How’d it go?