Like any art, writing takes practice! Writing practice can come in many different forms from description practice to super short story writing. Finding the form that works the best for you will require trial and error! Here in this blog post today I’ll be doing some short story writing based off some random sentences. These sentences are ones I wrote down when I thought of them. Please feel free to use them to get your creative juices flowing as well. I will be sharing an excerpt of one of my short stories to show how descriptive words are helpful when not over done over on my Ko-fi page this week as well.
Before we move on into the blog, if you want to see more of my writing processes check out my Ko-fi! All my writing and art related posts are organized there and I update it daily, unlike here.
Introducing: Random Sentences
The most daunting part of short story writing is picking a topic (which I covered here). While that struggle is still applicable, it should be easier to pick a sentence that stands out to you. The trick with writing short stories with random sentences is to not go in with any expectations. Essentially you want to treat this exercise like a brain dumping session! Write down the first thing that comes to mind and roll with it, this isn’t the place to allow your overthinking to get in your way.
On the image list above I’ve already written a short story based on ‘vampire cactus’. While that wasn’t exactly a sentence it was specific yet vague enough to make this list, so we’re going to ignore that and focus on two of the three left. I think for this excise I’m going to pick ‘where time goes to die,’ and ‘Airplane turbulence that leads to a crash,’.
Now that those are picked we’re going to do a quick jot down of ideas that could be used for either of these. I’m not going to be writing the entire short stories here but rather showing you how I set myself up for the best possible version of the story I could write. For me that includes making bullet point ‘beginning’ sentences that are easier to build upon. I’ll show you a few examples starting now.
Short Story Crafting:
Where time goes to die: This was one of the weirder thoughts that I had that could have multiple story ideas to me. It’s out of the box, suspenseful/horror inducing and plays on a few fears/phobias. All depends on how you do it. Some idea’s listed below:
- “No one knows how long they’d been stumbling around in the dark. The only sounds were the shuffle of drunk footsteps and harsh breathing. The inhale of the onset of panic lead to the exhale of stale air. These cave systems were notorious for their winding nature and thin air. For the dark that crept up stealthily and distorted time, laid it to rest and never bothered to tell you.”
- “Immortality was the only curse that allowed one to watch the clock stop ticking, to see your world come to a screeching stop while the rest of the universe continued to speed past. How could you mourn something that you wanted to end in the first place? Where were the handcrafted tombstones poets always lamented about? Where was the mourning over burying your own time, of watching the flow of it come to a sluggish halt?”
Airplane turbulence that leads to a crash: This came about from my fear of flying during a flight. Ironically unironic if you ask me.
- “The next violent dip of the plane had her eyes widening wildly, her mouth stretched into an agonized smile. This couldn’t get any worse but what could you do if the plane fell? Strapped into a metal bird with no control over your own speed and trajectory. Another dip and the cabin erupted into screams, her hands gripping the seatbelt painfully tight. What bliss it is for creatures not meant to fly to fall. To plummet.”
- I was heavily inspired by Icarus for this. Something about falling that always makes me think of that myth.
Final Thoughts:
Short story writing through the use of random sentences really allows you to rely on your imagination. How can you turn a weird, whacky or incomprehensible sentence into an understandable story? The possibilities are endless and with a little practice can become a fun excise for some. It’s one of my favorite ways to try to combat writers block and generate some new story/poetry ideas.
I hope you found this blog helpful and if you do use any of the sentences above I’d love to see your work. Happy writing everyone!
