What if I told you there’s a way to level-up your writing game while also having fun at the same time? Curious? Excited? Maybe a little suspicious? That’s cool. I get it. I also want to know the secret for improving my writing, for making that sale, for winning the Hugo or landing that six figure contract. Maybe you do too. In one form or another, I think we’re all looking for that magic bean or golden egg or Top 5 Secrets to improve our writing skills. That’s why we read books and attend workshops and watch YouTube videos, hoping to snare that elusive dragon and force him to share his magic so we can rule our own literary kingdom.
But this isn’t that.
I don’t have any zen in the art of writing to share with you. I can’t offer you a Top 5 magic list. I have no magic beans to sell you or gooses laying golden eggs of secrets that will suddenly make you a NY Times best selling author.
But I have a cool new writing game you can play. I play it like a game anyway, complete with fun spinning wheels and countdown clocks. Okay maybe not the countdown clocks. But you can use one if you like. A Pomodoro timer might not be a bad idea actually. The best part about this game is there are no set rules, only guidelines. If nothing else, this could be a fun way of tricking yourself into writing while having fun at the same time.
This game isn’t my invention, so I can’t take credit for it. The truth is I stole it off the internet from Kieren Westwood. He’s a writer with one of those YouTube channels I enjoy watching so much. Not only are his videos entertaining and fun to watch, but they’re also educational. And he’s a terrific writer (always a bonus when the person teaching is extremely good at what they do.)
Here’s how it works:
First, you spin the randomizer wheels for various story components. Next, you brainstorm some initial ideas. Finally, you draft the thing and whip it into shape.
That’s it. These are meant to be fast, short writing bursts. “Story Sprints,” if you want to put a name to them. I mentioned there are no rules, but I do have a few guidelines I use for myself, just to constrain the amount of time I spend on these things. I’ve done three so far, and I’ve found they can be sort of addicting. I put some guardrails up just for my own productivity, because I do have real stories I’m actually trying to finish. I target no more than 100 words per story. Micro fiction. Flash fiction at the very most, if you must. My first story was only 120 words, not bad, but my second one ballooned into 415. I was able to reign my third story back down to a more reasonable 230. Keep it short.
My other guideline is time. I don’t get much writing time in the first place, about an hour a day at the most. So I keep these games to a minimum. Maybe aim for thirty minutes. FAIR WARNING though: did I mention that these things are fun? It’s easy to get carried away. I mean, feel free to play as long as you want, I’m not the boss of you. Spend all day riding the carousel if you have the time. But at some point you’ll need to get off and do real work. I’m a buzz-kill, I know.
A Walkthrough
I’ll walk you through how I do this myself. If you want a more thorough explanation of how to do this properly, you can watch Kieren’s video.
First, the spinny hypnotist wheels. Honestly, you can probably use anything. Story dice, idea magnets, scraps of paper from a random stranger’s pocket. Literally whatever. I have an app on my iPhone called “Spin the Wheel.” (Original, I know.) The app allows you to make customized spinning wheels, which are super useful for this game. CONFESSION: This particular app has a butt-ton of frustrating ads. Probably okay if you only use it occasionally. But because I am now addicted and have been doing this every day, all week now, I paid the $6 to get rid of the ads. Money well spent, I’d say, and way cheaper than a meth addiction. Anyway, I created seven randomized wheels, one for each facet of story I want to use:
You can use as many or as few as you like. Remember, there are no rules here, it’s all just for fun. Spin each wheel and land on a genre, a character, a location, a conflict, a POV, a tense, and an ending.
Once you have your story elements, it’s time for some brainstorming. Line up your elements and start thinking about each one individually. Ask yourself questions. Write down whatever comes to mind. The super fun part about this step for me was writing down an idea that just whacked me upside the head. You’ll recognize this when it happens, because you’ll get that roller coaster flutter in your stomach, and the entire room will suddenly brighten as a light bulb goes off inside your head, and you’ll hear a little voice go, “Whoa! That’s COOL!” When that happens, highlight that passage, because you’ll definitely want to include it in your story. Give yourself maybe ten or fifteen minutes max for this activity. Remember, it’s micro fiction, a hundred words or so. You’re not writing a George RR Martin novel with this stuff.
Once you have some basic ideas written down, it’s time for drafting. Again, only give yourself ten or fifteen minutes for this. Honestly, it doesn’t take long to draft a hundred words. Four hundred…? Maybe. Just try and keep it short. Once you’re done drafting, make another pass and revise anything you want. This is just for you. You’re not gonna show it to anybody unless you want to. You probably won’t even be submitting this stuff. Okay, well, yes, I did submit my four hundred word story. I couldn’t help it. It turned out so well, and I liked it so much, I had to send it out. Maybe that will happen for you too, but it’s not necessary. Again, no rules here. Do whatever you like.
An Example
What does this look like in real life? Here’s the very first one I did. Below are the results from my spinner wheels.
And here’s my spinner summary and initial brainstorming notes. I wasn’t too thrilled about landing on 2nd Person POV. I could have excluded 2nd Person from my wheel, but I felt like that would be cheating and taking some of the fun away. The point of this game is to stretch yourself creatively, right? I’ve never written second person before and wanted to give it a try. But, you know, you do you, boo. You can see how I highlighted cool ideas in yellow. I mean, they were cool to me. No guarantee they’ll give you any euphoric feelings, but they jazzed me up pretty good.
Lastly, here’s the final story after drafting and some revisions. It won’t win any awards, but I like how it turned out. Again, it was for fun. In fact, after writing this on Monday, I was so hooked that I wrote another one on Tuesday, and another on Wednesday. Now I’m challenging myself to do one every day. At least until I get bored.
So what do you say now? Kinda cool, right? Definitely a way to stretch your creativity muscles. If nothing else, you may find this is a fun way to warm up before diving into an extended writing session. Or maybe you’ve taken a break from writing for a while and are looking for a way to jump back in. This game might be exactly what you’re looking for. Give it a try. Maybe you’ll get addicted too. Let me know how it works out for you in the comments.
