Writing Companion

The online Story Spinner is one of my favourite writing prompts. It’s great for people who freewrite daily but sometimes find it impossible to think of something that engages their creative mind. Story Spinner comes to the rescue by giving the creative mind complicated prompts that must be juggled into a unified story.

I don’t use Story Spinner often but save it for times when I need a kick-start in my writing.

How does it work? The site has a Story Spinner wheel:

Each time you click on this wheel, you are given information in 3 categories: a setting, a sentence to begin your piece, and 4 words to include. Here’s an example:

Setting: at a tavern

First sentence: I felt so trapped.

Words to include: rock and roll, blizzard, cruise, reservoir

The first time I tried Story Spinner, I vowed to write about whatever it gave me on the first spin. When I read what came up, it seemed an impossible task to incorporate every element. But once I started writing, my imagination grabbed the information and began spinning a ‘quest’ tale set in the Middle Ages. The characters and their activities seemed to materialise from thin air, with little thinking on my part. In fact, I found it hard to write as quickly as my mind raced along with the story it wanted to tell.

The exercise showed me that if I let my imagination off its lead, it can come up with writing that is both unexpected and engaging. Experiencing this made me more confident about my ability to create.

Variant: This activity has no rules so use it in a way that works best for you.

For example, if you try a few clicks of the Story Spinner wheel but nothing grabs your attention, try mixing and matching. Take the setting from one spin, the first sentence from other, etc.

Similarly, if some elements are so foreign that they don’t make sense to you or don’t provide a clear mental picture (e.g. ‘Cape Cod’ to non-Americans), replace them with something familiar.

However, don’t get rid of an element just because it doesn’t easily fit into your story. The idea is to stretch your imagination and find a way to make it fit!

Variant: Story Spinner is great for a writing group. It demonstrates that even when drawing upon the same pool of story elements, people create quite different stories.

Variant: Story Spinner can help you generate a non-fiction piece. Concentrate on the elements and see where the words and phrases lead you. Maybe the exercise will take you to a new topic or give you a different take on an old topic.

For example: How does knowing rock and roll lyrics and trivia provide a reservoir of information to help conversations? What cruises go into blizzard-like weather (eg to Antarctica)? Who goes on them and why? When do people feel trapped when they’re out drinking with others? Do people still use the word tavern?