Creating suggestions for rehearsals can be a really difficult thing – if you are around the same people every week you can get similar ideas or the same sort of themes. Well, I have been thinking about this and how you can ‘mix it up’ and have thought of some random ways that you can bring new suggestions to this scenario. The ideas below are ways you can find new words and then write them down in a notebook ready for future rehearsals.

Wordsearches

Go and purchase yourself a quiz book and flick through to the wordsearches and have a look at the words that they are trying to make you find. Some of them will be very predictable but there will be some really random words that may make some fun scenes. I just picked up a quiz book I have near me and just discovered the words ‘alfresco’ ‘folding chair’ and ‘corkscrew’ – I don’t think I have seen many scenes inspired by these words and that’s only three out of ONE quiz!

Lyrics

Think of your favourite bands or even ones that you think have really random songs – take the time to read their lyrics and you may find some suggestions that may help out. It could be a line or even a word that stands out for a suggestion. Artists are always trying to find poetic ways to describe a feeling or emotion so they can always break boundaries to come up with words that you may not think about.

Here are few examples:

Taylor Swift – Fortnight (unusual words taken from song for suggestions) – water flowers, mailbox,  aesthetic,  treason

Olivia Rodrigo – Vampire (unusual words taken from song for suggestions) – bad news, bloodsucker, forbidden paradise, real big mistakes

Eminem – Rap God (unusual words taken from song for suggestions) – just what the doc ordered,  Rapbot, back pocket,  blueprints, underground, elevator music.

Ed Sheeran – Shivers (unusual words taken from song for suggestions) – Lipstick, engine, the party’s over, moonlit, sunlight

Books

it can be easy to just turn to a dictionary and find new words but how about using ACTUAL books? Just flick to random pages and find random words that could help a scene.

Here are a few examples:

The Word Is Murder – Anthony Horowitz (unusual words taken from pages for suggestions) – roll neck jersey (p88), A secret door (p151), hesitation (pg292), eyesight (pg 50)

The Further Adventures Of An Idiot Abroad – Karl Pilkington (unusual words taken from pages for suggestions) – panda, the flying chicken, boxing, passengers, voicemail, flip flops, giant gorilla, walrus

Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Home Cooking (unusual words taken from pages for suggestions) – egg yolk, watercress, bitter, afternoon pick-me-up, toasted rye bread.