How to 3WW

Writing prompts, like Sunday Scribblings and Three Word Wednesday (3WW) are great fun. They're also a useful tool for the developing writer. Prompts force you to sit down and write something; anything. Prompts get you thinking about words, ideas, experiences and then allow your imagination to work with these. Finally, posting back to the prompt site will get a few people over to have a look at your creation and provide some comments. Make sure you return the favour. You'll learn something, every time.

One of my favourite prompt sites is 3WW, because it gives you three separate, unrelated words to think about. What are the different meanings and contexts of the three words? What do they make you think of? How can they be linked?

As an example, consider my efforts with 3WW CLXXI . The three words were drain, epic and nibble. As usual, I did a brainstorm with these words:

As I was brainstorming and linking the words, the scene came to me, and I got writing. The six-sentence story I came up with was called To the Top.The whole process, including the writing and editing, only took about 30-40 minutes.

The other thing I love about writing prompts? I almost always end up with something that I know I would never have writing without the prompt. What you write is a product of who you are, what prompts you and what you chose to do about it.

So here's your prompt: start writing. Have you tried 3WW? Has it helped you?

Update: Three Word Wednesday has a new site. Go to http://www.threewordwednesday.com/.