Brainstorming exercise. Often, our first impulse is the most cliched, trite, or hackneyed response: thus the reason it jumped instantly to mind to begin with.
I had a script workshopped by some top agency execs once, and one of the pieces of advice I got was to brainstorm everything. Why is this scene in a restaurant? Because it's convenient? Because that's where this type of scene always happens? Why can't it be somewhere else? Where else might it be? Why does the bad guy have a baseball bat? Could it be a crow bar? A police baton? A baguette?
This game is EXACTLY like the "Say the first word that comes to mind..." game... EXCEPT: once you see the word, don't go with the first one. Force yourself to think of 10 words, and then put that one down.
So if I say BOOK...
you might think
Page,
Shepherd,
Hardcover,
Bookkeeper,
Library,
Borders,
Gilded ,
Life,
Paperback,
...
PUBLISHER
That's your word. Get cracking.
(you don't have to show your previous 9 as I did. That was for example purposes only).
I had a script workshopped by some top agency execs once, and one of the pieces of advice I got was to brainstorm everything. Why is this scene in a restaurant? Because it's convenient? Because that's where this type of scene always happens? Why can't it be somewhere else? Where else might it be? Why does the bad guy have a baseball bat? Could it be a crow bar? A police baton? A baguette?
This game is EXACTLY like the "Say the first word that comes to mind..." game... EXCEPT: once you see the word, don't go with the first one. Force yourself to think of 10 words, and then put that one down.
So if I say BOOK...
you might think
Page,
Shepherd,
Hardcover,
Bookkeeper,
Library,
Borders,
Gilded ,
Life,
Paperback,
...
PUBLISHER
That's your word. Get cracking.
(you don't have to show your previous 9 as I did. That was for example purposes only).