How I Turned 3 Random Words Into an Award-Winning Story
An unusual but effective way of beginning any writing piece
As a writer, finding new ideas can be a struggle. But maybe you’re trying too hard. Starting with something seemingly simple, something as simple as three short words, can easily spark brilliant ideas and turn into a powerful piece of writing.
One day, as I was searching for inspiration for a piece I wanted to submit to a competition, I stumbled across a random word generator. It’s since become one of my most frequently-used writing tools.
If I’m feeling uninspired or want to challenge myself, I’ll choose a few random words and try to write something inspired by or incorporating all of them. It never fails to kickstart my creativity.
Here’s how I used three random words to write an award-winning story, and how you can use this underrated technique to create your own writing.
Beginnings
All stories begin with an idea, a concept, a spark.
There are many ways to find this spark, but on this particular occasion, I just couldn’t find one. So I decided to try something different, even though it seemed silly, obvious, and uncreative. Wasn’t I a writer? Shouldn’t I be able to come up with my own ideas? I was embarrassed, but I decided to give it a go. Maybe this was the push I needed to get my creativity going again.
So, I found a “random word generator” online (I used this one) and played around with it. Soon, I’d generated a few combinations I felt I could write about:
- belong, genetic, echo
- composer, umbrella, book
- beat, cry, mechanical
- dorm, grief, responsibility
But one combination in particular intrigued me, and already I could feel my mind whirring away, starting to formulate an idea based on it. The words that had piqued my interest were squeeze, artist, error.
It had only taken me a minute or two of clicking a button and taking screenshots, but I already had the beginnings of a story. It was that easy.
I left the website and started brainstorming.
Expansion
The next step was to generate ideas based on those three words, and then to refine and clarify those ideas until I had an idea of what I was going to write.
There are heaps of different ways to develop story ideas, and different techniques work best for different people. The way I began this time was by writing the three words down then annotating them. I drew lines out, wrote ideas and questions and possibilities, always expanding, always connecting — a bit like a mind map.
Before long, I’d figured out the direction I wanted to take my piece of writing in. By thinking creatively and writing down as many ideas as possible that stemmed from those three words, I’d given myself an abundance of options to choose from.
Satisfied with my brainstorming and planning, I sat down to write.
Creation
It was time for the final and most complex stage — writing the story. I won’t bore you by explaining exactly how I wrote it, since that’s pretty self-explanatory. I just took my plans and used them to write a draft, before revising and editing it until I was happy with my story. That’s all. It’s that simple, and that complicated.
Anyway, it’s important to remember during this stage of the creative process that you’re not under any obligation to stick to your plans, or even to include the words in your writing (in fact, the only word out of squeeze, artist, and error I actually used in my piece was “error”)! They’ve served their purpose, which was to give you an idea to start with. If you stray from your plans, or the words, or your original idea, that’s absolutely fine.
Don’t restrict your creativity by locking it in a box and telling it what it can and can’t do. Just write.
Success
Eventually, my piece was finished. I sent it off and waited, then moved on to other work. It was out of my hands now — there was no use speculating. My fate was dependent on the judges.
Later, I learned that my piece had been shortlisted. I remember checking the competition’s website obsessively on the day the winners were scheduled to be announced. I never expected that my writing, my story that had begun with three humble words, would take out the top spot… but it did!
Where will your writing take you? If you start with a few random words, there will probably be many surprises along the way. Whether success for you means publication, recognition, or simply the joy of having a finished piece of writing you can be proud of, there’s no way of knowing what lies ahead other than to start.
There are, of course, other techniques you can use to gather inspiration for writing, but I often find that if I’m truly stuck, using randomly generated words is the one that’ll finally get the ideas flowing. Never underestimate the power of a few words — they might just be the beginning of something big.
