Creative Writing Exercises Tips
Read these 6 Creative Writing Exercises Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Journal tips and hundreds of other topics.
And you would be? Non-fiction exercise
When asked who we are, we often answer with little more than our name and occupation as though these are the only two factors that define us. Yet, we are so much more; we are all such incredible beings! Open your personal writing journal and begin to write about yourself but try describing your characteristics in relation to the Earth. For example, you are strong and tall like a Redwood Tree in the middle of a forest. When you dance, your body fills with a heat as intense as that of the desert at midday. When someone shares something truly funny with you, laughter rolls through your body and out into the world like ocean waves. When your child thanks you for your help with a project, you shine like a star in the night sky. Use any aspect of nature, including color and sound, to describe, not what you do but, who you are inside.
Joyful Things Non-fiction Exercise
Think about all the things that bring you true joy – people, places, things, times of day, etc. Then make a list of them in your personal journal. Make a copy of the list and hang it up somewhere you can see it during the day. Any time life is not going your way, read through the list and remind yourself of the important things.
Playing with time fiction exercise
For this fiction exercise, take two or four characters and place them in a situation in which they must live a complete story in ten minutes. Since the entire duration of time within the story is ten minutes, first think about how much time that is realistically. What types of situations might allow for an entire story in that timeframe – an elevator ride, a radio phone scam? Take your time. There is no limit to the number of pages you can write. Do not try to control your characters. Listen to them to see where they want to go. First time round do not edit yourself; later as you revise, try to make your writing clear and concise.
Descriptive writing
Describe one place that you remember from childhood. It might be a room, a house, a field, a tree fort, any place. What does it make you think of? Use your five senses to make the place come to life. What do you see? What does it smell like - freshly washed clothes, rotten eggs? When you are in this place, do you hear any sounds - birds chirping, cars honking? Let yourself go as you write in your journal and see what this becomes – is it just a snippet of memory, a scene from a story, the birth of a story itself? Have fun!
Left Reminders fiction exercise
You have just stepped into a lounge in a bar where you and the bartender are the only people. The bartender has not had a chance to clean up yet so everything is as it was when people left. You were supposed to meet someone here but clearly they have gone. Who were you supposed to meet? What have they left behind that lets you know that they were there? What is something that person always does, a telltale sign that they have been there – lipstick on a glass, a napkin folded a certain way, remnants from a pipe – that aggravates and endears you to them as the same time? As you write in your writing journal, describe the details of the room as well as the details of the person. Make everything on the page come to life.
Journaling to Improve Communication
Spend some time journaling about the five most important people in your life. Write down one example of a recent communication with each person. For example, journal about the last time you had dinner with a friend. Once you have written out the entire memory, look back on it and ask yourself if you feel positive about the conversation? Were you actively listening when the other person was speaking? If not, what prevented you from doing so? When you were speaking did you feel you could say anything that was on your mind or were holding things back? If so, why? Close your journal and return to it in a day. Imagine the same scenario but this time incorporate the ways you would change your communication to make it more effective.
| Guru Spotlight |
| William Pirraglia |
