Getting Writing Ideas From Silliness

Last weekend when I was looking for  ideas for my weekly writing class, I Googled "story ideas generator" and came across the following link:  Plot Generator.  I got rather carried away with this idea, and created several stories this way. I didn't save them to the site, but printed them out for myself.  I wasn't sure what to do for my class, but soon got the idea to allow the participants to write the story their own way. They come out silly, but can provide writing inspiration.

The generator allows you to type words and phrases of your choosing, or to hit a button to suggest words. They have templates for short stories, and genres such as romance, crime, science fiction, horror, paranormal romance, and mystery.  I used several of these.


I was immediately reminded of the game Mad Libs when I started playing with this site. Remember that? I played that game a lot when I was younger.  A typical Mad Libs story sheet would look something like this:



You would ask others to give words (indicated under each blank line), then read the story out loud. Everyone would laugh.