Here’s the place to create poems, stories, memoirs and creative bursts assembled from words and phrases you’ve collected or that have been left here by others.
An example I wrote from leftover bits and pieces of my writing:
He’s the tragic hero of one of her short stories, a boy who continues to move quietly through the vine-covered trails in the back of her mind. When she knew him, she kept reaching out for the kind center of his heart and finding nothing there. She rubs at the memory, understanding only now he was not hers to keep.
Related post: Get Creative With Your Leftovers
Comment, supply words and phrases for other people to use, or post your creations below:
Strangling My Muse 
Here are some words/phrases from my word pile, if anyone wants to use them:
whirlwind tour through the family tree
lost her entire life
one delicious night
floating even further away from me
phenomenon
tense drama
seaside
professors and artists
angry splinters
what horror she saved me from
best behavior
vivid movie worlds
I deserve this
long-held fantasy
I wanted to live in a world where…
staked her claim
he had us all fooled
its voice has become fainter over time
stunned at his survival
finding it all beautiful
look pretty for the photo
disguise
midnight chocolate
angry rash on my tender neck
mended the broken place
transports herself
expiration date
slices the air
crimson bead of blood
what if?
A lot of these are resonating with me — these in particular:
seaside
angry splinters
look pretty for the photo (making me tense as I type)
midnight chocolate (should have been my blog’s name)
and especially vivid movie worlds
But I can’t get to playing with them right now. What I need is a computer equivalent of the little scraps and notes I have in my files.
I’m glad they resonate with you — thanks for letting me know. I’d love to see anything you come up with, if you find the time.
–Sandy
SANDBOX CHALLENGE #6: IT’S OKAY TO PLAY WITH YOUR WORDS:
Find some words and phrases you like. Places to search for these: inside the books on your shelves, in magazines or newspapers, on the Internet, out of the mouths of people near you, from your favorite poems, anywhere else words lurk. Or grab some from my word pile above. Take phrases from several different sources if that feels right.
Piece your found words and phrases together in any way that appeals to you to create: a dreamy paragraph, a prose poem, a poignant line, a silly sentence, a haiku, anything that catches your fancy.
Feel free to add your own words as you write.
Don’t judge yourself. Be as silly as you want. Pretend you’re a little kid playing one of your favorite games. Paste wings on your words and see if they fly or if they crash in an impressive explosion.
Most importantly, make sure you’re having fun while doing this!
Share your creations below!
Hi Sandy,
Some of yours and some of mine.
[elsewhere its a different story; long haired caftan wearing woman; leathery overtanned man; divinity icon; transports herself; tense drama; fruit flavored candy.]
She notices yet another leathery over-tanned man. His accent stands out and reminds her of an all too familiar tense drama. She transports herself to another place and elsewhere it’s a different story. The long haired caftan wearing woman rummages in her box of fish shaped fruit flavoured candy. Each one another divinity icon.
That was fun thank you 🙂
Heather
Great piece, Heather! I’m glad you had fun writing it, and thanks for sharing!
–Sandy
this is the best I can do, and I used every single one of the words in my cavernously empty “search engine results” list. And added: I daydream, when gripped with, I’m no, nor, just and with clanging. Sad. And I have no words left for a title.
I daydream of SNL guest appearances
when gripped with waking apnea
I’m no rockstar synonym
nor picture of Dian Fossey
Just Supernanny poopybutt
with clanging ice machine pump
blogspot brain
Love it! I also love the fact that “poopybutt” brought someone to your blog…thanks for sharing.
–Sandy
SANDBOX CHALLENGE #8: A JUICY JUNGLE JAUNT:
Write about any kind of journey: a trip to another place, a creative jaunt, an emotional expedition. If you’d like a prompt, start with the phrase “This journey opened my/her eyes to…”
Use some (or all) of these words:
blink, create, sing, purple, juicy, tiny, write, feet, jungle, shut, speculate, amaze, ecstatic, controlled, wheel, moment, disconcerting, dessert, monotonous, melancholy, fixate, consume, beneath, recognize, dangle, sensation, doodle, persistent, tantalizing, conundrum, puncture, gooey
Or, if you prefer, don’t write about a journey. Write about anything at all using some of these words. It can be a sentence, a story, a poem, a rant…
Don’t think too hard about this exercise. Don’t take too long. Don’t be too serious. Feel free to write something very silly. Enjoy the feeling of the words rolling through your mind. Play with the phrases that arise.
Share your creations below!
Here’s mine:
I blink awake, recognizing the ecstatic singing of my fixated Muse, a persistent three AM call to create as he dangles my current task in front of my sleepy eyes: to write the tantalizing tale of a man with tiny feet consumed by a jungle of melancholy.
SANDBOX CHALLENGE #13: WORD GATHERING:
Collect 16 words during the day. Find them on signs, food and clothing labels, junk mail, bumper stickers…wherever words lurk.
Use these gathered words to write about your day in any way you choose—realistically, impressionistically, fictionally. It could be a journal entry, a poem, a scene, a movie trailer review of your day. Write about specific events, or discuss your thoughts, dreams, an alternate reality version of today….Get creative!
Share your creations below:
I did some research on piling up greativity! ( See Linkedin ‘The psychology of creativity’)
It turned out that creativity is about : Ability + Awareness + stayingpower(or Stamina.
The grappical description shows a triangle with awareness on top and ability and stamina in the downcorner. MEANING that most of our creativity can be found on the SURFACE of this triangle.Tis process is called CONCEPTUAL BLENDING. Also see http://www.brandtcorstius.eu about this.
Kind regards,
Guido Brandt Corstius
Interesting — thanks for sharing this, Guido!
~Sandy
Maybe creativity is all about :
Awareness (Aw) + Ability (Ab) + Stamina (St)–> F = Aw + Ab + St . => and all will differ in Time T + Place P + Group G.
Making : Creativity = [F = Aw + Ab + St ] # TPG (# meaning DIFFER in)
Awareness and Stamina we can teach.