The pangram trigger for generating random words

About this post

Type of technique: random word generator

Post in a nutshell: pick two random letters and form words - starting with one syllable and then increasing the number of syllables.

Example: B & L = bell, balloon, bellicose, belligerent etc.


I use a pangram trigger to generate random words. My pangram of choice is:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

I will choose two random letters from the pangram. Example:

A and C

I will begin by forming the shortest words possible from the letters, thus I will consider if there is a two letter word that can be formed and then if there are three letter words that can be formed. Next I consider words of one syllable, then proceed to words of two syllables and finally list the longest words I can think of triggered by the two letters. Throughout I try to list as many words as possible.

When I use the technique I will list the pangram twice on my pad of paper/PC with the words in various order. This helps me to avoid the habit of leaning towards certain areas - and thus letters - of the pangram as I start to 'get up to speed' creatively. Thus:

brown fox jumps over the lazy dog the quick
over the lazy dog the quick brown fox jumps

Then at the start of the next piece of paper I will change the order again:

dog the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy
fox jumps over the lazy dog the quick brown

Variation

Sometimes I will list the two letters in order: A C
and sometimes I will insert a space between the letters: A_C

as these two arrangements suggest different words (Ace and Arc, for example).