I get stuck sometimes in my writing whether it’s an actual Writer’s Block or just unsure how I want to connect scenes together as I follow the basic outline of my novels or whether I’ve just taken a different direction entirely.

In moments like these, I go between the spontaneous writing that I do and the small outline I have. What I mean by small outline is though many of my ideas are written out on the spot, I still know the direction of plot and major events and majority of the time I know how it all ends. But often times, I’ll get stuck somewhere in the middle, especially if real life gets in the way.

So this month’s writing prompt I explored another method I’ve used to help me get unstuck. I’ve called t his the Word Web. It’s almost like we are going to play a bit of word association. This exercise is aimed to help open up different ways of describing and writing about a particular aspect of your stories.

The idea is you pick a word that directly relates to the particular scene you’re trying to write. The setting can be a great place to start and unpack your ideas. So I’m going use scenes for my first two examples.

Let’s start with: Home. If you’re a visual like me, you might want to get a blank sheet of paper and write “home” in the middle of the page to start your web. Much like a web or a mind map, we are going to draw some lines as if they’re growing out of the word “home” and with these lines (use a different colour here it helps keeps it all organised and look pretty). These lines are our Direct Connections to the word “home” things that you can touch or use to create a “home”. For example: door, window, floor, roof, etc.

Next, using a different colour, you’ll create more lines creating Indirect Connections. These ideas usually explore how the word makes you feel or what you think about in regards to it. For example, with “home”: safety, secure, warm, welcome, buildings, apartments, suburbia, etc.

Finally, using another colour, you’ll create more lines creating Figurative Connections. These ideas come in the form of perhaps idioms or sayings or metaphors and similies. For example: home sweet home, home is where the heart is, home is where you make it, the home was like a storm, etc.

After you have created this Word Web, hopefully it has given you some ideas on how to turn these words into part of your writing, may it be into a paragraphs, script, storyboard or a stanza.

Try it with the word: Trees

Here are some to get you started:

Direct Connections: leaves, bark, roots…
InDirect Connections: isolated, alone, lost…
Figurative Connections: can’t see the forest through the trees, a forest of coral…

Take about 10 minutes to put a paragraph, script, storyboard or a stanza.

You can also try it with objects:

Stone (Direct Connections. Indirect Connections. Figurative Connections.)

Or if you really want to try something a bit more challenge, trying using a word you cannot see or touch. Like:

Thought (Direct Connections. Indirect Connections. Figurative Connections.)

Now I can’t guarantee this will help all writer’s block. It hasn’t helped me in every instance, but it has given me another tool to use to open up my ideas and start to create something creative. Word Webs can be collected so if ever you come across a similar setting, object, feeling, even characters, you can relate back to the webs you weaved!

Here’s what I came up with:

Home:

There’s no place like home
unless it’s not your own
it’s not yours to say who’s in the mirror
no place to rest your head
the walls are full of storms.

Trees:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away
but no matter how much I plucked
the blood tests beckoned, the assessments, the monitors
the treatment that turned my skin to bark
that forced autumn into my veins as my leaves withered
my roots starved for sustenance though the apples leaving me wanting.

Stone:

Some say we come from the dirt
borrowed so that we may cultivate
until we are forced to return to it
earthen stone we build, worn, polished
within, without, we walk on our very selves
so why are so many eager to destroy it?

Thought:

Scattered away the hours
conferring with the doubters
that run amok in me
predicting conversations
and who all could be having them
my neuro-diverse brain.