Writing Exercise: Ask for A Word
K. Wordbird Bate   A Writer's Life Coach

     One of my favorite writing exercises is easy, and you can do it anywhere. I usually go into a cafe or restaurant but it could be a library or your own kitchen table. You'll need writing equipment and one nearby, relative stranger. Get your writing instruments, sit down and then turn to a person nearby. Giving no hints, say, "Could you tell me the first word that comes to mind, so I can write about it? It can be car, cloud, blue, child. Any word at all."

     Most people will smile and give you a word; then go back to their lives. Which is what you want.

     Write that word at the top of your page.

SOCKS

     Now free write for 15 minutes about socks. Anything at all about socks.

     You will find you often begin by drifting around in your memory, from association to association. You'll write about Christmas socks, dirty socks, socks with holes in them, six toes socks, your favorite socks, missing socks... then you may move on to other thoughts about socks. Socking your brother, being socked, being soaked, soaked in the rain, how you love that, that time you and your spouse were in Atlanta and it poured and you were both soaked, thunderstorms soaking the countryside...sockets, the Red Sox.

     When you are finished you can either ask a new person for a fresh word, or do the Looping Exercise on your SOCKS writing, to further narrow and develop it.

     I often do this Exercise with a writing friend. We each use the same word we get from the waiter or waitress, we write for 15 minutes, then we read our writings to each other. There is a rule though: NO feedback. No praise, no pointers, no questions, no applause. You simply listen. There's great value in someone simply listening, without input, to what you've created. Then they share what they created from the same word. You will find that you each took completely different paths on the word, and that's part of the joy and pleasure in the sharing. You may also find it's super hard for you to listen without making comments. Or it's uncomfortable to read your writing without some reassurance or feedback.

     To be heard without any feedback has great value. This will teach you to stop thinking, "What will they think?" about your writing, and write from your heart without analyzing or writing to an audience. It teaches you to stop analyzing your friend's writing, but simply listen. And it teaches you to be able to expose your writing without input. No one will tell you, "That's so great!" or "I didn't get it." You'll have only respectful silence. You discover the beauty and freedom in that.

     Give it a whirl. Be sure the person you ask for a word has no preconceptions. The goal is to get a completely fresh and unbias word, fresh to your mind. That's why you can't provide your self your word. Usually people outside of us, especially strangers with no investment, give us words we'd never think of, or never try to write about. So you will be stretched.
     
     It's fun! It can provide you with wonderful beginnings to stories, letters, journaling, articles or books. It's also fun to simply wander through the associations and memories you have in your mind and your heart about that word.

Let Yourself Bloom!

@Kimberly Bate