In our previous post, we went over 3 ways to overcome writer's block. Should any of those fail we have one last technique that always seems to work every time. We call it the Dartboard Approach. Some describe it as throwing ideas against a wall and seeing what sticks, but it is really much more than that. The nice thing about this technique is that it requires that you use both sides of your brain collectively; imagination/randomization and logic.
It is very simple but quite effective. How does this work? Here we go:
The Dartboard Approach requires 4 things. Occupation, situation, emotional state, and location.
Start like this. Randomly think of 4 occupations and write them down. Now randomly think of 4 situations. Do not try to lock them down to a location just yet. Randomly choose 4 emotional states and write these down. Now randomly choose 4 locations. You can be as specific or vague as you like with this one, but specific might be best. If it helps you can keep each list verticle.
Now what you need to do is to match each of areas checking off the one's you have already used. Logic starts to come into play as you match these items. Once you have matched each of these areas, more logic is involved to find your sequence of events to tell your story properly. See below.
As you can see, when properly done, you will come up with something extremely unique. There is a good chance that you may have not come up with something as fun and unique as this without this technique.
I've never had a Dartboard Approach not work for me. Give it a shot!
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Check out these previous posts as well:
The Secrets to Overcoming Writer's Block
The Top Ten Tips When Writing for the Entertainment Medium
Types of Story and Why it Matters
Character Types Will Make Or Break Your Story
The Importance of Plot and Subplot
