Operative words are the essential words in a sentence, story, poem or script. Performers and spoken word poets often stress or emphasize these words in some way when performing.
We often look for operative words in our writing and highlight or visually emphasize them so they stand out. That way we can come back later and quickly find and use these words as sources for further investigation and exploration.
Look over some writing that you have done. If you don’t have any, take about 10 minutes to do some writing – perhaps use a random word as a prompt or perhaps something a bit more meaningful. Look over your writing and chose important words or phrases and highlight them in some way. These are words and phrases that you are drawn to so trust your gut reaction. Circle them. Make them bold. Use a different color. Try to find at least three operative words or phrases in your writing, but feel free to find as many as you’d like.
Pick one of these words or phrases to use as a source of inspiration.
Don’t to forget to post a link to you response in the comments even if you don’t get it finished.