Topic: An Interesting Technique for Starting

10-second review: Take any page in the dictionary and, using the words on that page, try to complete your writing task.

Quote: “What I often do nowadays when I have to, say, describe a room, is take a page of a dictionary, any page at all, and see if with the words suggested by that one page in the dictionary, I can build up a room, build up a scene.” Anthony Burgess. August 197t. p. 144.

Comment: In the process of trying this technique, I came across a number of fascinating words that suggested ideas for writing. Put this idea in your book for how to beat writer’s block. As for Burgess’s problem of describing a room, I found that, with some further research, I could do that, too. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.