There are any number of
websites that will generate random numbers for you. Google
"Random number generator" for a selection. The one I use is
http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/. As well as using them
to select which Lottery numbers to choose, you can use them as an
alternative way to generate a writing prompt. Here are some of the ways in which it could
work:
- Make a list, as long as you like, of different settings, eg. a school, a hospital, a factory, an office, Mars, and so on, numbering them as you go. If you come up with 28 different settings, generate a random number between one and 28.
- Do the same for situations, genres, emotions, objects, weather conditions, character motivations, obstacles, the mode of transport your character is using, etc etc - whatever you like, anything you want to randomise for your prompt.
- Talking of characters, you can use a random number generator to generate a protagonist. Give your character a birthday. Step One: Search for a random number between one and twelve. That's the month they were born in. Step two, search for a random number between one and however many days there are in that month, not forgetting that February can sometimes have 29. You may get a "special" date, such as December 25, January 1, February 14 or indeed, February 29 which might affect your character in some way. Perhaps they are born in early September and are the oldest in their school year - or they are born in August and are therefore the youngest. Perhaps they hate that their birthday is close to Christmas, or that it's in the summer holidays so they never get the whole class singing happy birthday to them like everybody else does. The possibilities are endless, and that's before you add astrology to the mix. What star sign are they? Are they typical of it? Even if you don't believe in astrology it can be a useful way to determine a personality type for your character.
- You could go so far as to generate random numbers between one and 24 and one and 60 to get the time of their birth as well. Writers who are also astrologers will be able to work out even finer details of a character's personality with this information.
- Use the same methods to determine the date and/or time of day and, if you like, even the year when your story will be set.
- If you want to set your story in the UK, there is a way to generate a virtually random UK location. Generate a random number between 100 and 999. Stick 01 in front of it and enter this five digit number into the UK telephone search locator (http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/locator). eg. if the random number generator gives you 275, enter 01275 into the box. You will get a short list of actual places in the UK, in this case, the list includes the towns of Nailsea, Clevedon and Portishead in Somerset, plus a few surrounding villages. Pick one. If the locator tells you no results are found, try a different random number until you get a list of places. You can also use this method to come up with a random birthplace for your character. If you don't know anything about the places you get, you can look them up on Google or Wikipedia. Something about one of them might inspire you. Does the place have a landmark (eg. Clevedon Pier, a listed structure sometimes said to be haunted), a festival, a particular reputation? Does anyone famous come from there? (eg. Adge Cutler of Wurzels fame came from Nailsea.) What are the local industries? Does your character like living/coming from there?
- Another possibility is to use an alphabetical list of places, say US states, London boroughs or countries. Number them and generate a random number between one and the number of items on the list (eg 50 for US states).
- Generate a number between one and 26 to get the initial of your character's name. It's unlikely you'll be able to spell out a full name using this method. However, if you want to generate a name, you could generate a list of UK places as above and see if you can combine any of them to make a suitable name. The above example could give you Clevedon Lulsgate or Ashton Long, for example.
- You could even decide randomly how many words your writing exercise will be, or how many minutes you'll spend writing.
