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.
In the News
Choose any current news story - local, national or international - as the foundation for today’s exercise. Write an opinionated letter about the story giving the reasons for your opinion.
Unexpected Change is Today’s Topic
How do you handle unexpected change in your life? Do you avoid it at all costs, and if it’s forced upon fight it with every breath you have - or do you welcome it as a fresh breeze on humid day?
Today write a journal entry about your reaction to changes that happen in your life.
Wednesday’s Weave a Word Challenge
Today there are 12 words to weave into your piece of writing, and they all start with the same letter! Read through them and see if your creativity takes you on a fiction or non-fiction journey with them. Remember, to be successful in the challenge, you must use all the words! You can however use [...]
Timers at the Ready for Today’s Exercise!
Set your timer for 15 minutes, write the title at the top of your page, and then start writing. No editing as you go. This is a writing exercise to create a good free writing habit!
Title: Sandcastle Ice Cream
What’s Your Reality?
Reality shows are in abundance on TV. For your writing challenge today, consider your average day and write about what TV cameras would see if they followed you around for 24 hours. Remember to include the emotion whether it’s joy, tension, frustration, and/or anger, because it’s the real emotion that makes reality TV captivating for [...]
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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