I have been asked to describe how you create a word web. The way I create a web is to write the focus word in the center of a page of paper. You can use any size piece of paper. Some of my more interesting word webs are created when I use a large piece of drawing paper. For me, there is something that clicks in when I physically write bigger. (You can do a word web on a scrap of paper – there’s nothing magic about the size.) Then I draw different length random lines out as I write words that relate to the center word. For example, if the focus word is “fun” you could have lines radiating out to the words “skipping”, “play”, “laughter”, “dancing”, “travel”, “cloud pictures” – whatever comes to your mind when you think about “fun”. Don’t edit the words that come to you. You may not have any clue how a particular word relates to your focus word. If a word pops into your mind, simply trust yourself and write it down.
The next step is to take each word you have written down and create a word web with that word (on the same page). For example, “skipping” might have words like “happy”, “free”, “simpler time”, “joy” and “sunny play” radiating from it. When you are complete your paper will look somewhat like a spider web.
When I have all of the words webbed I then begin to write. Sometimes a poem is created, sometimes it’s a string of sentences, sometimes it’s a cohesive paragraph relating to some “aha” that has come to me when I looked at all of the words on the page, and more often than not the “aha” unfolds as I write what pops into my head. There seems to be a lot of “popping into your head” in this process. The beauty of a word web is that it gets your thinking mind out of the way and lets your creative mind step forward. It’s a way to access your inner voice. Have fun creating word webs and please let me know about your experience.
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