Words from a Hat
To add an extra creative nudge in our Workday Comic project, we had each participant draw a word from a hat that originally held 100 slips of paper with semi-random words or terms. This wasn't something our rules required. It's just something we chose to do. One person drew three words for volume 1 (which worked so well for him that for volume 2 everyone chose to draw two or more). One participant who had to work from a different location chose a number between 1 and 100, and then received the corresponding word from this list. Our artists and writers were free to incorporate these words as images, text, theme, whatever struck their fancy whether literally or figuratively, prominently or peripherally. An artist who arrived without a writer and with no story in mind for volume 1 built his entire story by starting with the term he drew for volume one ("power tool").
Each word that got used for volume 1 was marked out and replaced by suggestions from volume 2 contributors. So far, we have generally resisted the impulse to make the list too goofy or weird in case that might mess up someone's serious story. The person who sadistically suggested what might have been the weirdest one so far actually wound up drawing that term himself and got stuck having to fit it into his own story.
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tasty |
crow |
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purple |
chocolate |
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Shanghai |
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chain |
wooden shoes |
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dog |
rusty |
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burn |
reflection |
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leaf |
Venus flytrap |
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stick figure |
knot |
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leak |
puppet |
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cap |
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dunk |
garden |
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peanut butter |
wig |
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family portrait |
baby |
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allowance |
shaving |
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strap |
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spare |
gravy |
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nickel |
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wonders |
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sail |
lunch |
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pound |
bent |
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shock |
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long |
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ribbon |
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box |
rung |
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lop (Lisa vol. 2) |
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king |
scum |
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nine |
sour |
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lime |
club |
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A-team |
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mug |
robe |
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scratch |
tangled |
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plunge |
doughnut hole |
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seething |
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maracas |
spatula |
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pillow |
yoyo |
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flowers |
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rice |
stain |
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pile |
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camera |
wobbly |
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fence |
hunch |
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heaven |
scrape |
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suspenders |
bob |
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pine tree |
stethoscope |
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juggle |
ice |
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bowling pin |
drum |
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wart |
wheel |
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donkey |
feet |
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Spandex (Mark vol. 2) |
coffee |
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centurion |
fire |
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spigot |
extol |
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shoestring |
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pencil lead |
nugget |
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kung fu |
mustard |
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toenail clippings |
mailbox |
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signature |
fluffy bunny |
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rotten tomato |
perpetual kitten (Justin vol. 2) |
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rotten banana |
delete (Lisa vol. 2) |
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recycle bin |
exhaust |
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herd |
stone wall (Nick vol. 2) |
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kerplunk |
tea bag |
© 2007-2008, Nick Langley