Favorite Creative Writing Exercises?

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 03 May 2015, 00:57

Writing while doing push ups. It's pretty hard.

zeldas_lullaby · Post by **zeldas_lullaby** » 03 May 2015, 01:02

ALynnPowers wrote:Writing while doing push ups. It's pretty hard.

Ooh! Ba-da-ping.

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 03 May 2015, 03:56

I got another one. Do a sit up, and press one key on the keyboard for each one. At the end, see if you have written any words.

zeldas_lullaby · Post by **zeldas_lullaby** » 03 May 2015, 11:19

Oh, groan. I'd be lucky to type the word "a."

RedShoggoth · Post by **RedShoggoth** » 03 May 2015, 13:24

An exercise my creative writing teacher used to have his class do was to have us write an explanation of love ( or an emotion) based on the point of view from different types of characters. Like, love can mean something different to a middle aged, divorced, heavy drinking detective than an impressionable little girl who frequently watches Disney movies.

Brandi Noelle · Post by **Brandi Noelle** » 27 Oct 2017, 00:23

I like going to the Writer's Digest University website and using one of their writing prompts. It can be a fun change of pace, a way to break up the monotony of whatever real project I'm working on. Sometimes, it surprises me and turns into a whole new story in itself.

Whippet · Post by **Whippet** » 16 Jan 2018, 02:21

Writing prompts are a great idea and for me a fun way to exercise. They get me to write stories I wouldn't normally have written otherwise (because they're not stories I'm driven to tell) though I find I end up following the same themes I always do and my true style will come out. It's good to 'exercise' this way when you're a bit drained or blocked in what you're working on. My favourite prompt is taking an article from the newspaper, usually something a bit unusual, and rewriting its story in a fictional manner. I change all the details I want to and it gets the words churning again.

Helen_Combe · Post by **Helen_Combe** » 29 Mar 2018, 15:49

At our writing club, we sometimes do Instant writing where we get a one word prompt to get us going, then every few minutes, we get another random word. It’s amazing how different all the stories that are created can be.

Hannah Mo · Post by **Hannah Mo** » 15 May 2018, 10:05

I put on some music and begin to sort of get into my characters heads. I have to imagine they are real people and I need to see everything they do along with everything they think. So I have to find the perfect playlist, play that, read a book, then pull up a list of writing prompts and close my eyes to let my mind do what it wants without my eyes judging it constantly.

GKerr · Post by **GKerr** » 30 May 2018, 09:14

One of the exercises my university tutors set was based on photos.
You chose one photo with a person in and one with a setting then construct a narrative based on the two photos. Writing from prompts is one of the easiest ways I have found to begin writing, especially if you are stuck for an idea.

palilogy · Post by **palilogy** » 10 Jun 2018, 12:43

Some of my favorite from graduate school :
Pick a quote and write about it.
Write something with a beginning a middle and an end.
Write something you know about from a different point of view.
Tell a story.

elivia05 · Post by **elivia05** » 10 Jun 2018, 23:51

In my creative writing class in high school, we did one ekphrastic per week. Our teacher would put a photo on board of a landscape, art, etc., and we would write using that photo for inspiration throughout the entire class period.

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 18 Jun 2018, 05:18

What I practice is I do not write something as soon as it came to my mind, but I wait and let it grow inside my mind. With that it gets its shape and creativity on its own

elivia05 · Post by **elivia05** » 18 Jun 2018, 05:50

Sushan wrote: ↑18 Jun 2018, 05:18 What I practice is I do not write something as soon as it came to my mind, but I wait and let it grow inside my mind. With that it gets its shape and creativity on its own

I love this idea, but my memory is terrible. If I don't write something down, it will never be able to grow.

elivia05 · Post by **elivia05** » 18 Jun 2018, 05:52

palilogy wrote: ↑10 Jun 2018, 12:43 Some of my favorite from graduate school :
Pick a quote and write about it.
Write something with a beginning a middle and an end.
Write something you know about from a different point of view.
Tell a story.

I love these exercises. I greatly enjoy writing from unexpected points of view.