How One Key Word Will Produce Oodles Of Stories 3 Simple Methods

How can you take one single word and convert it into a story or poem? As you read through the multitude of writer’s guidelines for magazines, contests, trade journals or newspapers, they will state what the theme is for their upcoming publications. These topics include a chronological list often described by a “key” word or phrase, assigned for these upcoming issues.
There are some online ezines that create writing challenges based on “one word” to submit a story, essay or poem, in a limited amount of time using a minimum and maximum word count. Once you’ve submitted your entry, it will be read by other members and site visitors. There will be an opportunity for your fellow readers to make comments about your entry. Some of these critiques will be encouraging while others will be disappointing, so take it with a grain of salt. Don’t be overly sensitive about any negative remarks, or even suggested advice because like a rejection letter, you can constructively look at the comments, then adjust and tweak your piece if it needs to be. With a submission that may have been previously rejected, don’t throw it away because with a little editing you can possibly make it into a valuable piece to submit elsewhere. By doing this, you could open the doors to some incredible opportunities.
Here are three methods that will help you to practice the technique of taking a single word and building off of it:
1. Think about the word “water” for example and write down anything that reminds you of it.
2. Write down any experience(s) that you or someone you know had in association with that word. (ie. for water – day at the beach; caught a seven pound lobster while deep sea fishing)
3. Take the experiences that you’ve written down and compile them into a poem, article, novel, short story, documentary or newspaper filler. When looking for a genre to target, don’t think that your material has to always be a best selling novel. Look at the other writing avenues that will give you an opportunity to share your composition, increase your “clips” file and possibly make you some money.
If you go to a search engine and type in a keyword, you will find that there are a number of different subjects that address that particular word. Let’s take the word “tea” for example. The results from searching this word will list thousands of references from companies selling tea, blogs, websites featuring tea houses or lounges, acronyms using the letters (TEA) for educational, entertainment or technological organizations, article citations, encyclopedia results to several books written about tea.
If you’ve been given a writing challenge to create a submission by utilizing a “key” word, don’t limit or set yourself up for failure before you get started. If you experience writer’s block, you may have to leave it alone for a day, and come back to it later. The possibilities are endless if you allow your imagination run wild. Stay committed, do some research, compose and submit. You never know where “one” word can lead you.