I’m a fan of brainstorming, and one iPhone/iPad app that can help you with that is the “Idea Generator”. It suggests three random words (for example, healing, mercenary, toy). You can try combining one or more of these with whatever you are working on. Push the button and it comes up with three more words.
For instance, let’s say that I have a couple talking and the scene feels like it’s just exposition. Let’s see whether the random words can help.
Healing…what if one of them is feeling ill (maybe food poisoning) but is desperately trying to conceal it from the other person out of embarrassment or because he doesn’t want to end the conversation before he finds out the information he’s after.
Mercenary…what if one of them says at the start she will pay for both of them, and the other one takes advantage by ordering loads of the most expensive dishes, and the payer starts to realize and resent it?
Toy…what if one of them (if it’s a couple, it’ll be the man) keeps checking his phone and toying with it, but tries to act like he’s paying attention, and the other one finds this infuriating?
Of course what comes up and what could work depends on the nature of your story.
This app is free and you can find it at iTunes or the Apple apps store. Or you can be old school and make your own. Write 50 or 100 words or phrases in each of the categories, put them into three boxes and draw at random.
The same company also offers a Movie Idea Generator that gives you an adjective describing a character (jealous), the type of character (police officer) and an action (craves human brains). Will you generate terrific plots? Probably not, but it might help you warm up your brain and it’s a good for some laughs. This one is $2.99 at the time of this writing.
Or you might like the Song Idea Generator, which gives you an exclamation (Oh baby), a request or statement (get down with) and a location or object or type of person (the virtual world).
This one costs $2.99 and it's how I came up with my new hit, “Love in the Virtual World”! Of course you have to tweak things a bit…”Oh baby, get down with me in the virtual world, ‘cause in reality we both weigh twice what we say…”
I won’t go into detail about them but you can also get the Fashion Ideas Generator and the Chef Idea Generator. I intend to come up with even better song ideas by combining suggestions from the different Idea Generators. Get ready to hear Tom Jones belt out,
“Oh baby, let’s foil the murder of eggs on toast, With your looks and my gun we’ll do better than most…”
Or maybe I can persuade Tina Turner to make a comeback with,
“Polka Dot Cop, when will you give me your Kobe beef, Get your mind on your lady and off that friggin’ thief…”
I’m off to buy the mansion that will be paid for by the royalties…
(Want to be creative with the help of writing books? Get "Your Writing Coach," "You Creative Writing Masterclass" and "Creativity Now!, open each one randomly, and see what ideas the combination of the three pages prompts. What it'll prompt for me are more royalties...surely that can't be bad?)
