Shimpei Takahashi, a toy designer, used the word game Shiritori to develop some of Japan’s most popular toys, which he outlines in a 2013 TEDx Talk. What appears to be a seemingly random list of words can spark your brightest idea. It goes like this: Think of the first word that pops into your head. You can give yourself a prompt or be random. Now think of a new word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. Continue this chain until you have five to 10 words.
Now consider how the words can connect to form a new concept. If you’re writing a murder mystery for example, maybe you never considered using a train as your location, using a drawing of a rainbow left on a napkin as a clue to when the murder occurred. The ideas are supposed to be ridiculous, so don’t hold back.
