Readers Respond: What's Your Favorite Writing Exercise?

Responses: 9

From Ginny Wiehardt, former About.com Guide

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Is there a creative writing exercise you love we have listed? Please contribute ideas you've used in classes, found in books, or just dreamed up.

If you have a piece of writing you've done in response to an exercise, please share that using the general submissions form.

Softly walks the troubled soul None can hear it so I’m told. Gently falls the foot to ground Listen and there’s not a sound. But my heart it can hear And it knows its you my Dear.
—EugeneMarlow

With fury and spite did the storm arise, With flashes of light and the darkening of skies. The ocean swelled and tossed and turned, The tempest roared as the water churned. Wave after wave smashed against the shore. Day turned to night as the rain began to pour. The flood waters rose and my heart was exposed, Causing a single tear to fall, As a signal to all. Though the raging torent caused just one tear, In my heart the deluge was surely more severe.
—Six_Gun

I believe that poetry is grown in the depth of a person's soul. Every experience, no matter how small, will someday bubble to the surface for expression.I've found a day trip away from home,a note pad to write down what I've seen,or a photo I've taken will trigger a memory. Last fall, I took a walk through the local park near the lake. The walkway was brightly lit by sunshine when I began, and then clouds moved overhead and the day turned grey.I took a photo of the walkway, went home and uploaded it to my computer. Suddenly an old memory found its way to the surface and a poem was born.
—Guest Cassandra Barclift

Oh, and another exercise I just love from that book: write a poem about your grandmother's kitchen. There has to be one green thing and one dead thing in the kitchen, and at some point in the course of the poem, a female relative has to enter the room. It helps if you draw a picture of the kitchen first.
—Guest Sara

I found this exercise some years ago in a book called the Practice of Poetry. It's by Roger Mitchell, and has three parts: 1) Describe an object or scene that interests you without making any comparisons of one thing to another. 2. Take the same object or scene and use it to describe one of your parents. 3. Write a poem, which, though it's a description of the object or scene, is really about your parent.
—Guest Sara

I try thinking about what it would be like to be someone completly different. I watch tv or read or just sit on a bench at the mall for five minutes. There is ideas everywhere all you have to do is look. Sometimes I read a book then write down what the complete opposite would be.
—Guest

I take a simple sentence -- let's say, "The cat sat on the mat." Then I start to incorporate Rudyard Kipling's 'six serving men' Who: The cat What: Well, we know . . . the cat sat . . . Where: Wherever you choose When: Daytime, nightime, etc. Why: Was it tired, is it the cat's favorite place? How: Did it sprawl, curl up, stretch, etc.? Okay! crazy as it appears, a story can be created from a simple senence. Jack and Jill; Three Blind Mice; anything. No matter what you use to exercise the brain, get Mr Kipling's serving men to work with you. Then edit like crazy!
—Guest Al McCartan

Sometimes when writers hit a block, there are simple writing excursions one can take to break out. This exercise is simply the challenging task of creating a short story, 1-2 pages (or more if you are feeling inspired) that gives no indication of time period or direct location (as in specific cities or even countries) it could take place in. The difficulty of removing those simple distinctions and details provide an enjoyable challenge to inspire the mind to think through some crutches we may have as writers. What you will have accomplished at the end is a story that relies on your ability to write outside of the box and may take a few revisions to catch all of the details we impart without realizing it.
—Guest Stacey Coombe

I'm really into quotes, you know? Who isn't? But sometimes you can put a whole different story behind the quote. One so different than what was intended. Like Roosevelt's "The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself" Can you put a new meaning to fear? Like J.K. Rowling's dementors and Boggarts, what can you twist Fear into? Or reading real stories is good, too. My Science teacher told the class about three brothers who went to war, and only one came back. I've written a story to put behind that... It's more fantasy, though. Try it. Explore. One sentence can create a whole story in your head... I know from personal experience. Go for a drive. One empty, shadowy field can put a full novel into your brain... Look into the sky. How do you know one of those birds isn't a completely different creature, flying high enough to appear small... Explore. Find your writing style. Keep working until you have your way to get going. =)
—Guest FunAndRandomness