Taco Story (A Writing Exercise)

This snipet of a short story was created using a writing technique I like to employ (usually at work) whenever I'm bored, or just can't come up with anything to write about, but I really want to write. I'll ask whoever is around me to name a person, a place, a thing, an action, a description, and a time. I then have five minutes to create a story idea from the words they have supplied.

In the following example, the words were "bodybuilder", "Queens", "taco", "bounce", "gooey", and "the Byzantine Era".

What follows, then, is an example of how a handful of seemingly unrelated words can be used to stimulate the creative process, and help one to extend beyond one's writing comfort zone.


Taco was this putz who bounced at my favorite club. He was a professional bodybuilder and had the kind of looks that made the girls turn all "gooey" inside. They'd fall all over themselves drooling at his "sinuous" arms and his "chiseled" features. To tell the truth, the guy was good looking: a genuine nightmare, if you know what I mean! Whenever he was around, a guy like me didn't stand a chance. Boy, did I hate him!

Taco looked out of place at the Hot Spot. He belonged to another place and time--like the Byzantine Era or something--not like where he was, working at some dive in Queens. He had this cool, smooth way of working his way through the club that made it really hard to hate him. And to be honest, the guy never did me wrong. He was never rude, or obnoxious or looked at me in a way that made me feel embarrassed or offended. He really was a nice guy! That's why I was such a bastard to do what I did to him. But at the time, I was in a bad place, and I really wasn't interested in right and wrong...