Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Why I Save Old Writing Magazines

Because sometimes one just needs a brainstorming session:


Anne-with-an-e craved just such a session to ignite some new story ideas. She found a list of writing warm-ups in an old issue of The Writer.

The timer started ticking and Anne pounded out a list of settings. Here's what she came up with. Have fun with yours!

1. A secret (government?) lab

2. An assisted living home

3. A hospital

4. A mental institution

5. Another planet

6. The future

7. 1940’s Europe

8. A submarine

9. A bakery

10. Another country

11. Pioneer times

12. The Great Depression

13. A pizza parlor

14. An ice cream parlor

15. Early 20th century

16. A forest

17. An island

18. A grocery store

19. The year you were born

20. The Civil War

21. A factory

22. A farm

23. A vet clinic

24. A school

25. A zoo

26. An operating room

27. An old attic

28. A mechanic’s shop

29. An apartment shared by two best friends

30. A convent

31. A monastery

32. A church

33. The 1700’s

34. A photography studio

35. A mansion

36. A castle

37. A national landmark

38. Your family’s vehicle

39. A classroom

40. A fancy restaurant

41. A family reunion

42. Backstage before/after/during a play

43. An alien spaceship

44. A big city

45. A writer’s house

46. A ship/cruise ship

47. A historical event

48. Your grandparent’s house

49. A back/front yard

50. A police station

51. A TV/movie studio

52. A space shuttle

53. A scary basement

54. A newspaper printing place

55. An abandoned warehouse

56. A kidnapper’s hideout

57. An orphanage

58. A tenement apartment

59. A subway/train/bus station

60. A courtroom

61. A small town

62. A poor village

63. A haunted house

64. Prehistoric times

65. Another universe

66. A quarantined town

67. The cell of a wrongly convicted criminal

68. An animal shelter

69. A Native American village

70. A doctor’s office

71. A counselor's office

72. A microscopic world

73. A cave

74. A jungle

75. The ocean

76. An opera house

77. A marine biology station

78. A politician's office

79. Hollywood

80. A residential treatment center

81. An apple orchard

82. A gold/silver/jewel mine

83. A movie theater

84. A desert

85. The Savannah

86. A knitting club

87. A book group

88. An artist’s studio

89. A shoe store

90. A park/playground

91. A fast-food place

92. Heaven

93. An old house in the British countryside

94. Jumanji (haha, fanfiction!)

95. The roof of an old building

96. A skyscraper

97. A garden

98. A waiting room

99 .An epidemic

100. An earthquake

101. A flood

102. An avalanche

103. A video game

104. A parking lot

105. The Pyramids

1 comment:

Beth said...

Oh fun! And great list! I wonder if I have that old issue of The Writer...

One brainstorm exercise I used to enjoy was to brainstorm a list of settings, a list of characters, and a list of physical objects. Then I'd draw numbers for each list, put them together, and try to write a story based on the combination. So I might have ended up writing a story set in a laundromat and involving a ballerina and a baseball bat. Always fun to get those creative juices flowing!