I found some creative writing exercises that I really enjoyed doing back in day, so I thought I’d post them here and give them a try.

If you’d like to take a whack at it, link you work back here- I’d like to see what other people come up with.

Just FYI I think these are pretty involved, so take your time.

anita

WIndow scene from
Melancholie by Lucas Cranach

1. A previous exercise that I put up was from my High School Creative writing teacher about a Science Fiction experiment that he had us do. The wonderful thing about that teacher was that he always had ideas for us, and he always had things for us to do. One of the first things he had us do in class (and always rather controversial), as to have us write our own obituaries. List what we did in our lives, what type of people we were, who our families were, etc… just to get to know us. It wasn’t a ‘you die today’ thing, it was more of a ‘when you die, what will you have done?’ thing.

2. Write down all of your favorite words. The words that you like the sound of the most. Like ‘garbanzo bean’ and ‘chocolate’. There are words here and there that just have a ‘ring’ to them that make you think. When you’re done, write a short poem, and get all of those words into it some way or another.

3. Find a group of pictures. Good places to start are magazines, Magic: The Gathering Cards, Gaming Books, etc… cut them out (of course, only cut out magazine pictures), set them to the side, and then write a story about what is happening in that picture. Then, rewrite the story without the picture to guide you.

4. For Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers ( From Orson Scott Card’s book on writing ), draw up a city ( or use a photo ), and write a story about that very city. The ideas should start pouring in as you draw the city.