Writing Exercises
Recommended
Try an inspiring writing exercise every day with Wake Up Writing.
Writing exercises help you by getting you used to writing all of the time, especially when you are finding it hard to write your story or novel.
If you have some plots or ideas for stories hanging around and don’t know what to do with them here’s an idea - develop some characters, drop each of them into the same role (i.e. you’ll be writing a different story for each character) and let their personality decide which way they go. You can then see how different characters can drive a plot forward.
A good place to start writing may be to write about your childhood - take an event which you remember vividly and try to create a “sense of place”, take yourself back there and describe how it was and how you felt.
15 Minute Writing
One of my writing teachers used to set a timer during class and each student would have to come up with a story in 15 minutes. I’ve found this to be a great exercise for when I have writer’s block. You can start out by taking a short clip from a newspaper and expanding into a story. It’s surprising what you can come up when you know you have to get it done in 15 minutes! Even if you end up hating what you wrote, at least you’re writing and who knows, it may develop into something else later on. - Laurie Bosco.
Writers’ Tennis
You’ll need two people for this one. One of you writes a few paragraphs of a story. It can be about anything. You then pass it on to your writing partner (email is perfect for this) who then writes the next paragraph and so on and so on. If you both try to keep the two parts of the story consistent you can achieve interesting results. Thanks to Colin Lawson for suggesting this exercise.
Pictures & Words
Take a painting and look at it for a while then write a story about it. You can write about the actual painting or take the theme of the painting as the theme of your story. You can do the same with poems or with book and movie titles. Thanks to Sam Lomax for suggesting this.
Writing exercises from Wake Up Writing
The Wake Up Writing website (www.wakeupwriting.com) has frequently updated writing exercises. Check out the latest ones below, and keep checking back here as this list will update itself.
The Wednesday Weave-a-Word Challenge Awaits
Use the following words in a piece of fiction, or non-fiction. As always, the order in which you use them is unimportant, as long as you use them all.
Abyss
Baseball
Carols
Feline
Hem
Jog
Leaf
Pottery
Slander
Walnut
I’d Like to Thank…..
Following on from yesterday’s exercise, today your creative mission is to write an acceptance speech for an award. This could be an award as a great parent, or a fabulous writer ….or if you aspire to act, why not think big and write your acceptance speech for your Oscar! When you’re finished being modest about [...]
Do you have opinions to spare today?
The annual Oscar ceremony was held a few days ago and statues given to those in the movie making business that the powers that be thought worthy. Today’s exercise is to think about these ceremonies and write an opinion essay. Perhaps you think they are great entertainment. Perhaps you think that there are other professions [...]
There are Seeds Awaiting your Creativity Today
Use any of the following as the beginning of a piece of fiction or non-fiction:
Bluebells were poking through when …….
The branches of the trees were outstretched like skeleton hands as the snow came down on ……..
On this day, ten years ago ……
How are your Descriptive Skills?
Today your exercise is to write about ice, without actually using the word. Your finished piece when read aloud should allow someone who can’t see ice understand what it is.
Further Reading
On this site:
Have your say in our discussion forums.
On the web:
Try an inspiring writing exercise every day with http://www.wakeupwriting.com.
About.com’s Creative Writing for Teens site has some good creative writing exercises - http://teenwriting.about.com/library/exercises/blexercises.htm
Books:
What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers - Anne Bernays & Pamela Painter.
The Creative Writing Coursebook (Forty authors share advice and exercises for fiction and poetry) - Andrew Motion (Foreward) & Julia Bell (Editor).
Browse writing books at amazon.co.uk.
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