I was recently asked during a Creative Writing class I’m taking how is it that I come up with these puns. Do I start out with a theme and go from there, or is there some other thing that happens? How does it work for me?

I have always been fascinated with words and their power since I was a child, and being an introvert have spent major segments of my life on an inward journey to lands of magic and intrigue. My mind is a fertile setting for words to tumble around and plant themselves and germinate into whatever comes of them.

Yes, sometimes I start out with a theme and let my mind meander – sometimes that works and things come up that work out, but sometimes also nothing happens and I’ve spent 30 minutes in near slumber in my recliner. When it works things seem to come rapidly and anywhere from a handful to a very productive 15 or so may emerge from that field of dreams.

Other times I think hard on just one word and see where that takes me. Again sometimes something happens, but a lot of the time it’s a blank time-space continuum that doesn’t continue. Sometimes a word triggers memory traces and ignition occurs and there is lift-off and then things go very well. At times this unleashes a score of puns that come so easily, and at other times just one comes and it’s all she wrote for that session on the recliner.

I have no control over how it works, whether I start with a specific theme in mind or just a word or just let my mind meander. David Letterman often said of his success: “There is no off-switch to the genius machine…!” For me I am not that presumptuous, but a similar thought seems to be true for me: “There is no off-switch to the pun machine…”