Writing Exercises

By 0---TY---0 · May 9, 2010 · ·
  1. Well, considering the fact that I have found myself in an utter block due to my creative writing being dampened for the sake of college writing, I decided to seek out something to help me gain my creativity back.

    Here is what I found, and took from many of the Theater practices I have in class, and I hope they help you guys along with myself.

    1. Show and Tell.

    This one is quite simple, take a character of yours that you might want to explore a bit more (For me at this point it would be Scarecrow), and simply write out a short bit where a child in kinder garden or 3rd grade uses your character for their show and tell subject. I imagine this would be quite fun with fantasy-like characters.

    2. ABC's

    There can be two variations of this, one of them is an actual exercise, the other just a thing to to should you get stuck.

    If you get stuck in your writing, and find you might be at a loss for words, just simply write out your ABC's. I'm not exactly sure if this works or not, but hey, its something.

    If you want to challenge yourself, try writing a short story with each sentence you write beginning with a consecutive letter of the alphabet. For Example:

    A loud rumble began to sound in the forest. Birds took to the air. Chris could barely make out the form of a creature through the brush.

    Something along those lines.

    3. Landscape at a Glance

    Simply look at a landscape of sorts, it can be in real life or something you pulled up on the computer. Take a glance at it, some may choose to time themselves to challenge themselves, however initially one can look at the landscape for as long as they want. The next step is simple, describe it. Easy as that. The more practice you have with this, the easier people might be able to pick out your landscape out of a selection of a few (should you chose to do this extra step).

    4. Random Selection

    This one has many sub-steps:

    First write down 10 of your characters, number them accordingly.

    Then, write down 10 locations, could be from your imaginative world, or anywhere else, also number these.

    Next, write down 10 times, these can be times of the year, times of day anything, you can be specific or general, number them once again.

    Finally, write down 10 situations, these can range anywhere from someone your character knows suddenly becomes pregnant, or an epic battle, just go with it, number them.

    What your then going to do, is have a random selection of four numbers. Say you draw/select a 4, 5, 3, and 5 (this means that numbers can be repeated). You are then going to take Character numbered 4, place them in location 5, during time 3, and have to deal with situation 5. Just roll with it from there.

    ----------

    These are the only ones I have for now... 4 might not be a great spectacular amount... but it is something to work with, right?

    I hope this helps people, I am off to try some of them out for now.

    Happy Writing!

    PS: Check out Theater Games if you want to see a little more. They are originally exercises for actors, but I find they could work out for writing as well.

Comments

  1. Cogito
    2. Good luck when you get to X. :)

    A couple I have tried (you can see the results in my blog)

    5. The Big Show

    Write an extended scene that shows the emotions and thoughts of a character through his or her actions without actually saying what the character thinks or feels. (My attempt - Bitter Fruit). It's an exercise in showing instead of telling, and may very will convince you showing is good, but that you shouldn't completely do away with telling.

    6. The Unwriteable Story

    Many people come here trying to come up with a "perfect storyline", or wondering whether their storyline is any good. My response is that anything can be turned into a good story. Try writing a story based on some really mundane-sounding event. My two examples: Going to the mailbox to get your main (The Courier), and a guy walking down the street twiddling his thumbs (Idle Hands). Try it yourself. Pick an event X, for which you would say, "No one could write an interesting story about X!" Then see if you can prove yourself wrong. You'll never look at storylines the same way again.
  2. 0---TY---0
    Interesting, I thank you greatly for adding to this Cogito!

    I did my attempt at a blog with some advice, because I never saw any Creative Writing Exercises on here. I probably wasn't looking hard enough though.

    Curse my teenage attention span.

    Anyhow, most of the exercise ideas I use in my writing I get from things from theater. Should Theater Games ring a bell, then you really need to check it out. If not... well then look it up anyhow! They were created around the early-mid 20th century by a fellow who was fascinated in improvisational theater. If one is familiar with the show Whose Line is it Anyway, then you have seen the modern day version of the Theater Games.
  3. Coldwriter
    I have done the scenic one many times.
    A personal favorite is listening to music (mostly instrumental, not necessarily classical) and simply writing what the notes tell me. For example, a heavy guitar rift is a march or battle or something. I've produced six very fun and detailed documents. Music is a big deal to me and a great prompt that I don't think many people consider.
  4. Coldwriter
    I have done the scenic one many times.
    A personal favorite is listening to music (mostly instrumental, not necessarily classical) and simply writing what the notes tell me. For example, a heavy guitar rift is a march or battle or something. I've produced six very fun and detailed documents. Music is a big deal to me and a great prompt that I don't think many people consider.
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