A Brainstorming Exercise for Your Next Story

Brainstorm unique words to use during the story planning process.

Do you want to write a short story, but don’t know where to start? Are you having trouble coming up with names for your characters? I’ve been there before. A few weeks ago, I came up with this fun exercise to help me gather ideas. In the first part of this story, I will tell you about the brainstorming process. Then I will show you how to apply it to your story plan. Let’s go!

Step-by-Step Brainstorming Exercise Guide

1. Write down one sentence.

Choosing one sentence lays the groundwork for this exercise. Your sentence can be a greeting, an event, a season, the weather, or a hobby. Here are five examples.

• Have a nice day.
• I can’t wait to celebrate your birthday.
• Spring and fall are my favorite seasons.
• Today will be warm.
• I like to run and watch comedies.

When you think of sentences, make sure they have several different letters. Some of your letters can be duplicated, but a variety of them will make it easier to come up with words. The sentence “Have a nice day” contains 12 letters, nine of which are…