Semantics Games

Semantics tend to just piss me off. However, on the other hand, there is a particular semantics game I am starting to play that will hopefully help push me along in my writing.

A couple of weeks ago, my youngest baby--my delightful, little 4th grader--brought home her spelling list and asked for my help. She had to write a story using all of her spelling words. So, I helped get her started. All of a sudden, I had a completely different story rolling around in my head. So, for fun, the oldest girl and I copied down Gator's spelling list, and each of us wrote a short story from that list.

This is also a 'game' posted on one of my favorite fan fiction websites. Potter Place (used to... I haven't paid as much attention lately) posts what they call 'Dictionary Drabbles.' The site owner posts 7 words and their definitions and asks for short stories to be posted using all of the words. Some of them are fairly obscure, while others are a little more commonplace. It's intriguing seeing what numerous people come up with, which tends to run a large gamut of topics.

Last week, I had an inspiring thought regarding this exercise, and the fact that I have been struggling to post new chapters for the stories I have listed at therabidreader.com.

So, I have decided that once school starts back up again, I am going to get Gator's spelling list each week and use a minimum of 5 of her words in a chapter. It doesn't matter which of the current 4 works in progress I wrote on, as long as I am completing at least 1 chapter each week.

Believe me when I say, this could get very interesting, considering some of the words that child brings home.

However, this should guarantee that I will get a few stories finished faster than what I have in the past. And, if I'm really industrious, I can grab the next 5 words and write a second chapter.

Sounds inspiring to me. It'll be nice to start seeing some of these partials become complete stories.

Blessings.