TIPS: Word Webs

One creative writing exercise which can be very productive can be the use of word webs, also known as clustering. Similar to a spider diagrams, start with a word or central theme in the middle of a large piece of paper. For this example, let's choose 'Winter'. From this, draw a small line out from the central word and write the first word you associate with it. In our case, this could be 'Snow'. Then draw a line from that word and write the next word you associate with it – 'White'. Continue the process until it is exhausted. This may mean that the word at the end of the association line is completely unrelated to the one in the middle of the paper. Then start another association line, beginning with the central 'Winter' theme, and continue that to its logical conclusion. Keep adding association lines until your piece of paper looks like a giant web of words:

You can use this piece of paper as a mood board to inspire your writing, and even as a starting point for a bit of focussed freewriting; start with a word, phrase or image that surprised you and weave in whatever other images from the wordweb come to mind. It can be used as a wordbank to inform your creation of atmosphere. The words further down the association line will be further removed from the central theme, so you can avoid cliches and repetition by using these. Again, the purpose of this exercise is to have fun and inspire yourself, so get going.

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 TIPS is a series of posts looking at ways of creating and inspiring creative writing. If you try the methods described here, let us know in the comments.