Many people advocate free writing as a way of cutting through writer’s block. Well, it’s never worked for me, and it doesn’t seem logical anyway. If you can’t think of anything to write, how would allowing your mind to just generate stuff do any good?

An alternative technique you might try is creating “preverbs”. A preverb is a combination of proverbs: you take the first half of one proverb, and join it up to the second half of a different proverb, to see what you get. It’s a technique of “potential literature” devised by the Oulipo.

I thought I’d try it.

I created a random preverb generator. This involved selecting which proverbs to use, splitting them up, and then mixing them at random. Some of the results were nonsensical, but here are a few of the better ones:

Perfect is the enemy take care of the geese.

Marry in haste before it gets dark.

The road to hell is lost.

I think there’s quite a bit you could do with these, with a little punctuation added:

Perfect is the enemy. Take care of the geese

This is clearly a Zen saying, similar to ones like “Before Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” Or the passage in Matthew in the New Testament:

“Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. “

The enemy may well be “perfect” (transl: invincible). But there is nothing you can do about that. In the meantime, the geese need feeding.

Marry in haste before it gets dark

Either ancient folklore or a quote from a Dracula movie, this is an urgent plea to seal the knot before the forces of darkness gather. Being joined together in Holy matrimony results in a protective psychic wall enclosing the couple. I can imagine Peter Cushing, in his role of Professor Van Helsing, imploring the two hapless lovers in this way.

The road to hell is lost

A fragment from a hitherto lost play by Shakespeare:

The road to Hell is lost

But fight we must, whate’er the cost.

Exeunt.

None of this may have anything to do with what you’re writing, but you have to admit it’s a good way of unlocking some creativity. And anyway, it’s a bit of fun!