Helps inspire students to generate unique ideas for writing creative short stories.

1. DeCubellis Creative Writing Incongruent Juxtaposition&Freewriting Methods for Short Story Idea Generation “I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw Or heard or felt came not but from myself; And there I found myself more truly and more strange.” From Wallace Stevens’ “Tea at the Palaz of Hoon

2. DIRECTIONS: In a moment you will be viewing photographs that create tension by presenting two or more unlike things in unexpected ways.

3. PURPOSE: The exercise is meant to help inspire in you ideas for your upcoming short story. You will use freewriting to do so.

4. HINT: If at first you are uninspired by the photo and can’t think of what to write, try viewing it in different ways.

6. Reversal

7. Thought-shots

8. What happens next?

9. What caused this?

10. Who stands to benefit?

12. Freewriting Expect to write a lot of repetitive, unrelated thoughts such as, “I can’t think of what to say,” or “This is stupid,” or “Purple monkey dishwasher.”

13. Freewriting Non-stop writing keeps the floodgates of your mind open. Eventually some gold will sift through.

29. Follow-Up Now that you have finished, reread your freewritings and circle the gold. Use these to help you generate unique short story ideas. “I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw Or heard or felt came not but from myself; And there I found myself more truly and more strange.” From Wallace Stevens’ “Tea at the Palaz of Hoon