Hands: A Creative Writing Exercise in 5 Steps

When I've used this creative writing exercise in a class, it's consistently resulted in interesting work. You'll begin the exercise by thinking of someone for whom you have strong feelings, and then respond to five writing prompts. Though the prompts may not seem to relate to each other initially, if you trust the exercise, it will lead to some interesting associations -- and hopefully to something that you can craft into a poem or short story.