Word association.

When you are really stuck for an idea, one method of inspiring creativity is to use word association.

The following word lists were created through class discussion, with lists of adjectives and nouns being created.

Disgusting

Desperate

Deformed

Dysfunctional

Dire

Delightful

Desolate

Demonic

Destructive

Dreary

Desk

Diamond

Demon

Deer

Donkey

Dolphin

Dustbin

Dictionary

Door

Dictaphone

Hilarious

Hysterical

Hateful

Hairy

Hopeful

Hideous

Hypercritical

Heavy

Hearty

Huge

Hillbilly

Hog

Hut

Hole

Horse

Helicopter

Hose

House

Hedge

Hanger

Pessimistic

Pedantic

Persistent

Positive

Protagonist

Prickly

Penetratable

Perfect

Prissy

Precious

Potato

Pizza

Pea

Pigeon

Pyjamas

Pineapple

Pound

Phone

Photo

Pillar


In this exercise, we defined the words to associate, with nouns and adjectives. We have a list of words from three different starting letters, D, H and P. Twenty for each, ten nouns and ten adjectives. We then had to pick one of the letters and use one noun and one adjective to make a name for our character, for example pessimistic pigeon. This was a very enjoyable way of idea generation as a class and was a very useful way of getting ideas for a character name, in my opinion this is best used in a group, as the class thought quickly when asked to quickly give give ten nouns and ten adjectives.