Noticing Newbies

I am a not-so-new newbie. After retiring as a Military air traffic controller, I returned to college for a BA in communications. I worked as a staff writer for several years, mostly at weekly newspapers. Now, I am a part-time caregiver for my 89 year old mother.

I have recently cultivated an interest in fiction – short stories in particular. I stumbled upon a way to make myself be creative. I have not read of anyone else doing this.

I use LA Times crossword puzzles to create short stories. Some have turned out very well, err, at least in my humble opinion. I am into day two on this site and will soon upload some examples.

I may have written as many as 50 stories in the past few months using the crossword puzzle clues and answers in order to create the story. Chapter one is the across and chapter two is the downs.

What makes this exciting to me is I have no idea in what direction the words will take me. It is as though I am writing and reading the story at the same time. Has anyone heard of this game being played by other writers?