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Writing
Creative writing can be considered any writing that is an original composition. But it is more commonly considered to be any writing, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, that is not professional, journalistic, academic, or technical.
Writing is a very helpful tool for anyone, no matter who you are or what your hobbies. Never thought about writing, it's ok; there's nothing to fear or worry.
Writing is a great way to share your thoughts, but not really share them.
Writing is a great way to get out your pent up emotions, without acting on them in real life.
Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer
Bret Anthony Johnston
Naming the World:
And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer
Keep a Journal
Buy writing daily in a journal of any shape, form, or fashion, you will be able to stimulate the writing juices.Set a aside some time every day to write whatever comes to mind.
You may consider writing about:
- Your own, daily life
- What's going on with the people in your life
- Your daily goals and aspirations
- Things you are thankful for
- Things you fear
- Story ideas
- Drawings
Write about anything you want. Just make sure that you write in the journal daily. It's easier to set aside the same time every day to write, so that you get in the habit of doing so.
You may consider writing at night, as it may help you unwind as you let your emotions loose on paper.
These daily entries, can be used as further inspiration for your stories and writings.
- Include your own goals and fears into your protagonist and antagonist.
- Include the traits of your friends, co-workers, and strangers, into those of your own characters.
- Use the stresses of your life, as the stresses in your plot.
- Exaggerate daily activites and personal thoughts/ emotions, and use them in your plot and characters to further conflict in your writing.
Just remember that this is a fun activity, so don't stress it, too much.
Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Other Book
Open a book to a random page. With your eyes closed, point to a place on the page. Open your eyes, and write down the word. Repeat the steps in choosing 2 more words, so that you have a total of 3 words.
At the end of the 15 minutes, evaluate the pice.
Did the words generate a theme or idea in your writing?
Try to use the peice as a section in a larger piece of writing that you may be working on.
*NOTE: You may want to place the book on its spine and let it open its own. Let the pages settle on their own before you randomly choose a word.
The Write-Brain Workbook:
366 Exercises to Liberate Your Writing
At the end of the 15 minutes, evaluate the pice.
Did the words generate a theme or idea in your writing?
Try to use the peice as a section in a larger piece of writing that you may be working on.
*NOTE: You may want to place the book on its spine and let it open its own. Let the pages settle on their own before you randomly choose a word.
Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin's extraordinary writing primer is full of charm, wit, and opinion. Le Guin likens writing to "steering a craft," and as one reads through this volume, one has the sense of floating down a river, with the waves of Le Guin's words lapping at one's craft. Le Guin veers sharply from the mainstream of contemporary writing manuals by challenging their very definition of story. While it is common to "conflate story with conflict," Le Guin writes, she finds that limiting. "Story is change," she says. While that change may be the result of conflict, it is just as likely to evolve from "relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, [or] parting." Le Guin demonstrates this complexity with well-hewn excerpts from the works of such writers as Jane Austen, Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charlotte Bront%uFFFDand especially Virginia Woolf. The many aspects of fine fiction writing Le Guin addresses here include the role of the narrative sentence (its "chief duty [is] to lead to the next sentence--to keep the story going"); avoiding exposition doldrums ("break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build the story with"); and the concept of "crowding and leaping." While prose should be "crowded with sensations, meanings, and implications," don't forget that "what you leave out is infinitely more than what you leave in."
A Picture's Worth 1,000 Words
In this case, a picture may be worth more than 1,000 words. This particular exercise is to take any given picture (I've provided 20 below), and write for 10 minutes about that one picture. Write anything that comes to your mind.
If there are people in the picture:
- What are they thinking?
- What are they doing? Why?
- What are they feeling?
- Are they related? Friends? Strangers?
If there are animals in the picture:
- Are they someone's pet?
- What are they doing? Or have done?
- What are they thinking?
In pictures of scenery:
- What's happening in the picture?
- What's the weather?
- Who's taking the picture? Why are they there?
With this exercise, you will pull together various emotions, senses, and thoughts, in order to create a new story, a new a feel.
After practice of this activity, you will be able to turn around in your own, daily life and pull together the same emotions, senses, and thoughts. This new technique of creativity will allow you to bring daily life, situations, and scenes, into your writting.
Mind Dump
This is a simple exercise that allows you to just write freely without worry of punctuation or grammar.
There is no set time limit, you just write until you can't write any more.
You can consider anything to write about, whether it's the best part of your day or why you love your dog.
Some topics to consider include:
your favorite chair
an object you may take with you everywhere
father/mother's handwriting
first memory of school
as a child, something you looked forward to daily
college
a note that you would leave behind
first time you fell in love
what you would put in a time capsule
happiest/ saddest memory
rainbow
favorite Christmas
something you saw sitting on a bus/train
There is no set time limit, you just write until you can't write any more.
You can consider anything to write about, whether it's the best part of your day or why you love your dog.
A Writer's Workbook:
Daily Exercises for the Writing Life
Some topics to consider include:
The Pocket Muse Endless Inspiration: New Ideas for Writing
Monica Wood
The Pocket Muse:
Ideas & Inspirations for Writing
* Get started writing
* Overcome writer's block
* Develop a writing habit
* Think more creatively
* Master style, revision and other elements of the craft
The rich variety of exercises will help writers to create entire stories or focus on a single aspect of their writing. It will also encourage them to think about how they write in new and surprising ways. The Pocket Muse is truly a unique book, both fun and effective. It will teach, cheer and inspire writers as never before.
One Word Mahem
The object of this activity is to get your thoughts pumping. Given one word, you are to write as much as you can in ten minutes.
You can write anything you want, using the one word as a muse, so to speak. What you write does not necessarily have to be the main subject of what you write, but you must mention it in there somewhere, whether directly or indirectly.
Below you will find 20 random words that I have chosen. You can start the activity with these words, or you can look around the room and pick a random object to write about.
This activity will help you with your future writing, as it will allow you to take simple, everyday items, and find ways to use them in your writing. As, in many cases writing about far off ideals can be easier, while writing about simplistic products another challenge.
This activity will help you find ways to improvise your stories when you are at a block. You can even use the characters, settings, and feel of your current piece of work and intograte them into your ten minute trial.
These small pieces of writing can be altered, changed, and edited to fit into your story, giving it that added push that it may need.
- pillow
- text-message
- moon
- cake
- wine
- celebration
- vase
- water
- fire
- tree
- shade
- tears
- movie
- play
- train
- plane
- vacation
- stereo
- chocolate
- cookie
Starting Phrases
Keep a list of phrases that could start your imaginations wild. Pick a phrase and write for at least 10 minutes, nonstop.
A few phrases to start you off can include:
I don't remember...
I remember...
I have always...
I see...
I don't wonder...
I try not to...
I don't see...
I have never...
I know...
I don't know...
I don't want to...
I want to...
I wonder...
I try to...
I hate...
I love
A few phrases to start you off can include:
The 3 A.M. Epiphany:
Uncommon Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction
Write: 10 Days to Overcome Writer's Block. Period
Karen E. Peterson
You, with a Big Block of time; a serene, aesthetically pleasing hotel suite with free daily massager, a pool, and a delightful cafe; a privacy agreement signed by encouraging family members, friends, and coworkers (though you may of course call them); breakfast in bed from room service with abundant choices from bacon and espresso to granola and green tea; pads of paper and a box of pens in your favorite colors; and an absolutely perfect laptop.
Know Your ABC's
This is has always been one of my favorite writing exercises. You can use it when your stuck and suffereing writer's block. You can use it when you just want to write and have nothing to write about. You can use it in just about any situation.This particular exercise, calls for you to write for fiften minutes without ever stopping your pen.
You will write about anything and everything that comes to your mind.
No editing.
No moving backwards to read what you've writen.
If at anytime in that 15 minute period you run out of words, your penn cannot stop moving, so what are you supposed to do?
Write your ABC's.
Continue to write the alphabet until words come to your head.
Keep Collections
Write for at 5- 10 minutes about an oject you've picked up.
You will want to keep a collection or odds and ends ranging from buttons, string, stones, shells, figurines, etc.
When you can't think of anything to write about, go to your collection and choose an object in hopes to spark your imagination.
It may be easiest to keep all the objects in a small box or canister.
You will want to keep a collection or odds and ends ranging from buttons, string, stones, shells, figurines, etc.
When you can't think of anything to write about, go to your collection and choose an object in hopes to spark your imagination.
It may be easiest to keep all the objects in a small box or canister.
Now Write!: Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers
Sherry Ellis
Now Write!:
Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers
What's the secret behind the successful and prolific careers of critically acclaimed novelists and short story writers?
Complemented by brief commentary from the authors themselves, the exercises in Now Write! are practical and hands-on. By encouraging writers to shamelessly steal proven techniques that have yielded books which have won National Book Awards, Pulitzers, and Guggenheim grants, Now Write! inspires the aspiring writer to write now
Fill in the Blanks
This is a fun technique that allows you to take a simple phrase, and turn it into a page long entry.
The phrases can range anywhere from simple to complex, and you can make them your own.
Turn a happy thought, into something sad and depressing, if you will.
Try to write at least one page from any given phrase.
I have provided you with ten phrases to get you started.
The phrases can range anywhere from simple to complex, and you can make them your own.
Turn a happy thought, into something sad and depressing, if you will.
Try to write at least one page from any given phrase.
I have provided you with ten phrases to get you started.
- One day, I decided to...
- Watching the rainbow pass us by as we drove...
- Her purse seemed to be filled with...
- The party was a disaster because...
- The car sped off...
- I can't wait to go home and...
- Today at work...
- After prom we...
- Later at the picnic...
- Tomorrow when we go to the beach...
Idea Box
Create an idea box for all of the ideas that you come up with. This will help you save the things that spark your imaginatino for a later day.
Write down whatever inspres you and store it away. Accumulate as many ideas as possible, so that you have ideas to pull from when you're stumped.
Write down whatever inspres you and store it away. Accumulate as many ideas as possible, so that you have ideas to pull from when you're stumped.
The Little Red Writing Book: 20 Powerful Principles of Structure, Style, & Readability
Brandon Royal
The Little Red Writing Book:
20 Powerful Principles of Structure, Style, & Readability
This clever guide is:
- Easy to read, with concise explanations and non-intimidating instruction
- Perfect for classrooms, English as a Second Language learners, and business people seeking to strengthen their writing skills
- Comprehensive, covering essential elements such as clearness, efficient style and structure, and readability
- An excellent skill-building tool for test-prep students preparing for the writing section of standardized exams.
Jumble Story
This is a rather interesting exercise. You will want to pick four numbers, each ranging from 1 to 10.
You can do this a few ways:
- Have the numbers written on small slips of paper and random draw one, replace it, draw again, replace the paper, and draw for the third time, and then the fourth.
- Have a friend choose the four numbers of you.
- Have the numbers written down on a piece of paper, close your eyes, and point four times, opening your eyes between each pick.
You can come up with other ways of picking the three numbers, as well.
The first number will choose your character, the second your setting, the third the time, and the fourth the situation.
What you will do, is to take the the four elements and combine them in some way to form a story.
The character that you choose must be your main character, but not necessarily your only character.
The setting, time, and situation, must, also, be your main subjects, but you can deviate with other settings, times, and sub-situations.
I've provided you with your first four sets of ten elements. So, start picking and choosing.
Character
1. A new mother
2. An actress
3. A recent high school graduate
4. A waitress
5. An alien
6. A homeless man
7. An elderly woman
8. A freshman in high school
9. A college student
10. A musician
Setting
1. The woods
2. A wedding reception
3. A party
4. A restaurant
5. A mall
6. A park
7. A beach
8. A lake
9. A baseball game
10. A seminar
Time
1. Winter
2. During a thunderstorm
3. The morning after prom
4. Spring
5. December
6. Midnight or around midnight
7. Summer
8. In the middle of a fire
9. In the middle of a snowstorm
10. The afternoon
Situation
1. A death
2. A secret needs to be told
3. Someone has or will hurt another person
4. A crime has occured or is about to occur
5. Someone has lost or found something
6. Someone is falling in love
7. Reminiscing on how things have or will changed
8. There has been a family emergency
9. Something embarrassing has just happened
10. Someone has just gone to the doctor
You can do this a few ways:
- Have the numbers written on small slips of paper and random draw one, replace it, draw again, replace the paper, and draw for the third time, and then the fourth.
- Have a friend choose the four numbers of you.
- Have the numbers written down on a piece of paper, close your eyes, and point four times, opening your eyes between each pick.
You can come up with other ways of picking the three numbers, as well.
The first number will choose your character, the second your setting, the third the time, and the fourth the situation.
What you will do, is to take the the four elements and combine them in some way to form a story.
The character that you choose must be your main character, but not necessarily your only character.
The setting, time, and situation, must, also, be your main subjects, but you can deviate with other settings, times, and sub-situations.
Jump Write In! :
Creative Writing Exercises for Diverse Classrooms, Grades 6-12
I've provided you with your first four sets of ten elements. So, start picking and choosing.
Character
1. A new mother
2. An actress
3. A recent high school graduate
4. A waitress
5. An alien
6. A homeless man
7. An elderly woman
8. A freshman in high school
9. A college student
10. A musician
Setting
Writing Wide:
Exercises in Creative Writing
1. The woods
2. A wedding reception
3. A party
4. A restaurant
5. A mall
6. A park
7. A beach
8. A lake
9. A baseball game
10. A seminar
Time
1. Winter
2. During a thunderstorm
3. The morning after prom
4. Spring
5. December
6. Midnight or around midnight
7. Summer
8. In the middle of a fire
9. In the middle of a snowstorm
10. The afternoon
Situation
1. A death
2. A secret needs to be told
3. Someone has or will hurt another person
4. A crime has occured or is about to occur
5. Someone has lost or found something
6. Someone is falling in love
7. Reminiscing on how things have or will changed
8. There has been a family emergency
9. Something embarrassing has just happened
10. Someone has just gone to the doctor
Scenery & Conversations
Scenes
Go outside, another room, the mall, anywhere. Take a look around for a minute or so, and go back to you pen and paper to ite everything down that you remember.
Try to be specific, or be general. Just write for ate least 10 minutes.
This will help you create scenes and scene idea that you can use later on.
Dialogue
While you're sitting in the food court of the mall, try to listen in to conversations. If you hear anything you shouldn't, find another conversation to listen in on.
Note the people talking. Assume their personalities, likes, dislikes. Try to figure out the people in the conversation and the people they may be talking about.
Use this in future dialogue. This will help you get into your character's personality and speach. It should help you when your story calls for two or more characters talking.
By seeing what people look like, how they dress, how they talk, and what body mannerisms they make, you can incorporate these features into your characters and their dialogue.
Go outside, another room, the mall, anywhere. Take a look around for a minute or so, and go back to you pen and paper to ite everything down that you remember.
Unjournaling:
Daily Writing Exercises that Are NOT Personal, NOT Introspective, NOT Boring!
Try to be specific, or be general. Just write for ate least 10 minutes.
This will help you create scenes and scene idea that you can use later on.
Dialogue
While you're sitting in the food court of the mall, try to listen in to conversations. If you hear anything you shouldn't, find another conversation to listen in on.
Note the people talking. Assume their personalities, likes, dislikes. Try to figure out the people in the conversation and the people they may be talking about.
Use this in future dialogue. This will help you get into your character's personality and speach. It should help you when your story calls for two or more characters talking.
By seeing what people look like, how they dress, how they talk, and what body mannerisms they make, you can incorporate these features into your characters and their dialogue.
Creative Writing Books
Creative Writing Courses
Free. Online.
- Aspiring Writers
- Aspiring Writers offer a practical approach to creative writing. We can help you to plan, research and draft your creative writing ideas. Our writing courses include a range of genres and skills, such as writing short stories, novels and historical fiction.
We are based in the Stannary town of Tavistock in West Devon. - Online Writing Courses & Workshops
- Online writing courses, tutorials and workshops. You'll find courses on journal writing, creative writing, technical writing, romance writing, fiction writing, travel writing, magazine writing, business writing and more.
- F2K: Fiction Writing for the New Millennium
- F2K is a free online creative writing course sponsored by Writers' Village University and staffed by volunteer Mentors.
- Gotham Writer's Workshop
- Welcome to Gotham Writers' Workshop. Teaching more than 6,000 students a year, Gotham is the leading creative writing school in NYC and the United States.
- The Crafty Writer
- Welcome to The Crafty Writer, published by Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, author, playwright and writing teacher. This site is full of information and resources to help you on your journey to become a better writer.
- Writer's University's Writing Course
- Welcome to Writers University's Writing Courses, where it's simple and easy to take online courses led by renowned experts in the field of creative writing. Our courses are designed to fit into your schedule. You can log in to our classes from any computer with Internet access, any time, day or night. Writers University's Writing Courses are presented in a clear, straight-forward format and contain all the elements you look for in a live class, including lectures, writing exercises and feedback from your instructor.
- Search Online Writing Programs
- Love to write? Great! But writing, like anything else, is a skill that can be sharpened and developed. Have you considered an online certificate in writing to help strengthen your natural talent?
Share Your Writing Experiences
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lissie
I have been surprised as I keep writing I keep on getting more and more ideas - originally I was worried that I would of run out of ideas but they seem to come from comments and questions you get on articles as well as just thinking of other options around the same topic Posted March 16, 2008 |
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steveffeo
Very good lens, you listed some resources I did not know exist. Great work Posted January 14, 2008 |
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Rajays
Great resource! well done. very useful to get the creative writing juices flowing :) Posted January 12, 2008 |
