How Do I Make My Java Method Keep Trying Until It Finds A Free Position To Place Word In Word Search Puzzle

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Java

I am placing a word character by character into a word puzzle. The method generates a random position and random direction in which to place my word in the grid. It first tests if that space is free before adding in the word. My problem is that if it finds that the position is not free, it doesn't try a second time to place that word, it moves on to the next word to be entered. How can I tell it to keep trying with a new random starting position and direction until it finds a space?

This section of the code shows an example of generating the random start position and one of the random directions.

gridDimension is the sise of the grid determined earlier int the code.
puzzle is my 2d array.
puzzleWords is my list of words to be placed in the grid.

private void generateWordSearchPuzzle()
  {

     int randRowPos=0, randColPos=0, randDirection=0, i=0,j=0, wordLength, freeSpace;


      while(i < this.puzzleWords.size())
      {
          // random directions: 0= down, 1= up, 2= right, 3= left
          randDirection= (int) (Math.random()*4);
          randRowPos= (int)(Math.random()*this.gridDimension);
          randColPos= (int)(Math.random()*this.gridDimension);

          int randRowTemp = randRowPos;
          int randColTemp = randColPos;

         if(randDirection == 0)//down
         {
           if((this.puzzle[0].length - (randRowPos +1) >= this.puzzleWords.get(i).length()) && (Character.isLetter( this.puzzle[randRowPos][randColPos])==false))
           {
               for(freeSpace=0; freeSpace < this.puzzleWords.get(i).length(); freeSpace++)
               {
                   if(Character.isLetter( this.puzzle[randRowTemp][randColPos])==false)
                   {
                       randRowTemp++;
                   }
                   else
                   {
                       freeSpace= this.puzzleWords.get(i).length()+1;
                   }
               }
               if(freeSpace== this.puzzleWords.get(i).length())
               {
                   int w= this.puzzleWords.get(i).length()-1;

                   while(w >= 0)
                   {
                       this.puzzle[randRowPos][randColPos]= puzzleWords.get(i).charAt(w);
                       randRowPos++;
                       w--;
                   }
                   i++;
               }
           }
         }