Random Bowls: Creative Writing Experimentation and Exploration

The purpose of this exercise is to stimulate the creative process and develop your writing ability. The random nature of this exercise challenges the writer to creatively and spontaneously write a story. The point is not to write a masterpiece. Therefore, do not worry about the quality of your writing. This is a time for experimentation and the exploration of your creativity and writing ability. Although this writing exercise is a creative writing technique (e.g. novels, poetry, playwrighting), it can be beneficial for developing any writing style.

I learned this technique from award winning playwright and author, Luis Alfaro. He claims he practices this simple exercise for at least ten minutes every morning.

Random Bowls

1. Designate three bowls or another type of container as "subject", "action/activity/event", and "goal/purpose" respectively.

2. Write a word or sentence fragment on a small piece of paper. Or, you can cut them out of newspapers and magazines.

3. Repeat the above step using different words or sentence fragments until you have at least several pieces of paper.

4. Place these pieces of paper in the three bowls.

5. Sit down ready to write.

6. Without looking, draw one piece of paper at random from each of the bowls so that you will have drawn a "subject", "action", and "goal".

7. Write a story based on your random subject, action, and goal.

8. Write for at least ten minutes. Write longer, if you feel inspired.

9. Practice this exercise daily or occassionally, as desired.

--Tariel Naxon