B is for Bibliomancy

Bibliomancy refers to divination by opening a book at random…or in our case, getting a bloody good idea from poking a random book with our index finger. Hell, I’m not picky, you can use your middle finger, thumb, nose, or *cough* other various appendages. It’s up to you really, but whatever fleshy prodding device you choose, thrust it and thrust it hard.

Thrust it numerous times, in numerous books.

Be a thrusting book whore when choosing your starter words.

I call them starter words because obviously luckless limb lunging is not going to be the sole means of writing your story. If it was not only would it take a bloody long time but you’d have a bloody short stump for a finger by the end of it.

The reason for plunging your digits into the nearest dictionary, or arbitrary paragraph of text, is to remove the strain from your brain by having Lady (or Sir) Luck choose your path for you.

If you sit down and try and come up with a brand new story from scratch then the possibilities are endless. But if you pluck inspiration from the finite book resting next to you, you are suddenly bound by the predetermined words you hastily scribbled onto your otherwise blank page.

Let’s try an experiment…a “live” version of the above if you will. I’m going to pick up a book (Stephen King’s ‘Full Dark, No Stars’…yes I do have a copy at work) and pick three random words from three random pages. Doing so gives me:

• Didies
• Montpelier
• Hatbox

Ok, at first glance it seems I may have picked the three worst words to form a story around, but remember these words aren’t the be all and end all of your story. They just have to give you enough inspiration to get started.

It doesn’t have to be about someone changing nappies (didies) on a train to Montpelier and throwing the uses ones into a hatbox.

It can be about a well to do upper-class assassin waiting to kill someone in a Montpelier shopping mall but being disgusted by the smell of baby changing facilities from the toilet door wafting open and closed, so he moves position to get away from it and misses his target leaving the store. The hatbox can come into the story later on when he uses it to smuggle a weapon somewhere or to transport his victim’s head back to the crime lord who wanted him dead…

See! The possibilities are endless but getting there is suddenly a lot easier because your brain isn’t stuck like a deer in headlights waiting for inspiration to flatten it onto the highway.

Try it now; pick up anything with words in it. If you’re on a computer (or phone) with no books around you then do a Google search for “random word generator”, there are plenty of them!

Let me know in the comments section if it worked for you, or if you’re still struggling trying to find a way to connect your random words.

Good luck!