Idea Roulette: A Fun Way to Generate Ideas

Nautical Cyberpunk Sorceress! Retro Punk Pirate! Sweet Lolita Fairy! Modest Cyberpunk Astronaut! Regency Lolita Warrior! Sweet Fantasy Saytr! 1920s Punk Alien! Rococo Gothic Fairy!

What do all those ideas for paper doll have in common?

They were all randomly generated using a technique sometimes called Idea Roulette. It’s a riff on the old game Exquisite Corpse, where several people write a story each one only seeing the line right before theirs, but with the advantage that you don’t need more people. I was reminded of it from the amazing podcast called Comic Lab (I highly recommend it, though there is language and some sex talk, just FYI.)

What’s the Point?

Idea generation is one of the harder things we do as creators. We all have things we fall back on- comfort zones in our work- and the purpose of Idea Roulette is to break yourself out of those comfort zones by generating ideas you wouldn’t have thought of before and then forcing yourself (even if you don’t like the outcome) to devote at least 5 minutes to it.

This is a bit of a twist on my 25 minute rule, which is another productivity trick I use a lot.

Here’s How to do Idea Roulette

All you need to play: Some way to randomly generate numbers, a few sheets paper and a pencil. I used dice, because like any good gamer girl I have a ton of them

Step 1: Create 3 Lists. These can be of settings, characters and goals, if you are wring stories, or in my case I did character, fashion style, fashion adjective. I’ve listed six items on each of my lists below and I would try to get at least that many on your lists, but the more the better.

Step 2: Next roll some dice! (Or generate your numbers however you like.) So, I would encourage your to roll several times and just write down whatever you roll- no editing.

I had a fourth list for when I rolled Historic where I rolled again on another list of historic periods. But that’s just an added level of random generation, you do what works for you!

Step 3: Pick 4 from your rolled ideas and write them at the top of paper. I would recommend using paper that carries no pressure. For me, that meant just using cheap printer paper that I folded in half.

Write at the top of the paper whatever idea you’re working to draw.

And then for 5 minutes draw. Don’t edit. Just draw. Whatever comes to mind.

Do this four times.

Step 4: Now, you get to edit. Look at your doodles/drawings and decide which of these, if any, you want to expand on or actually draw.

And that’s it!

Of all the things I created, the only one I think was a total bust was the “Nautical Cyberpunk Sorceress” which, in my defense, I’m still not sure what the heck that would even look like.

The others will probably show up somewhere at some point. The Sweet Fantasy Saytr, Sweet Lolita Fairy and Modest Steampunk Elf are all going o be fore my 365 Day Project on Patreon.

I haven’t yet decided for whom I’ll draw the Regency Lolita Warrior, but I do like the designs I came up with.

Let me know if you decide to play Idea Roulette. It’s a lot of fun. If you have any thoughts or questions, let me know in a comment. If you want to see some of these papers dolls when they’re done, join us over on Patreon.