The Absurd List Exercise

A few years ago, back when I lived closer to Columbus, my big sis wrote this, in permanent marker, on a dry erase board.

absurd list written on dry erase board

We have never been able to wash this off, so nearly ten years later, we still have this list tacked to the refrigerator, and it makes us laugh.

Seeing this inspires me to try a new idea as a warm-up writing exercise.

The exercise?

Make an absurd list.

It doesn’t have to have a theme like “What to Do When I Grow Up,” but if it helps you get your silly gears going, then go for it.

So I just did my free-writing list of “What to Do When I Grow Up,” and this is what I came up with:

  • Learn to Cook a Unicorn
  • Speak Cat
  • Shave my eyebrows
  • Lint-roll the dog
  • Make a sweater for the Eiffel Tower
  • High five Adolf Hitler in the face
  • Fly with the owls
  • Stretch my toes into Nickelodeon slime
  • host a Dalek tea party
  • Put sunglasses on Shakespeare’s dead body
  • arm wrestle the sun

The fun thing about the Absurd List is that it gets your creative muscles moving, and that means you’ll be more receptive to ideas and suggestions, whcih is always a good thing in creative work.

Share some of your absurd lists in the comments below!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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