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I’ll be honest with you, I never used to think much of writing exercises. The slightly embarrassing (and possibly shamefully arrogant) truth is that I always thought I didn’t need them. It felt to me that the day I’d need writing exercises would be the day where my creative flair dried up.
Since I’ve started looking at writing less as a hobby and more as a professional endeavour, my view on the matter has changed. If I werein any other profession, I wouldn’t think twice about undertaking regular training to maintain, improve orchallenge my skills, so why would it be any different with writing?
If you’re still unconvinced about the value of trying some of these exercises out, I’ve recently written a piece about the benefits of journalingwhich is highly relevant to what comes next in this article. I was never a big journaling advocate before, but just like with writing exercises, I’ve definitely changed my tune.
You Won’t Know Till You Try.
My view on the topic actually shifted when I took part in a Flash Fiction Battle hosted by Michael R. Kiel. The way it worked was that every participating writer was given a photo prompt and a word count, and we all had to write within those guidelines. There was no prize or anything involved, it was all for the pure pleasure of trying something new.
It was odd at first, but I found it incredibly satisfying and rewarding. One because it was exciting to do something a little different than usual, and second because it felt good to work on a shorter piece that was miles away from what my work in progress was at the time. If you’re interested, you can find my entry here: The Silver Assassin.
The great thing with writing exercises if that they put you face to face with different types or styles of writing. They make you try things out which you wouldn’t generally consider, or that don’t necessarily come naturally to you. And that’s what teaches you to adapt and grow, and look at your writing under different angles, through different lenses and, often, help make your other works in progress better than they might otherwise have been.
4 Writing Exercises Worthy Of Your Attention.
Below are 4 exercises I’ve tried out which I’ve found particularly interesting or useful. You’ll notice that they’re all in essence doing the same thing—they’re making you approach writing from a different angle and give you prompts to start writing in a different way than you normally would. They simply come in slightly different formats, and trying them all will work on strengthening your adaptability muscles.
Photo, Word or Sentence Prompts.
Photo, word and sentence prompts are, as the name suggests, when you’re given one word, one sentence or one picture and you use what it inspires in you to write.
How it works:
1. For this one I tend to prefer finding words, sentences or images suggested by others, as opposed to picking my own word, sentence or image. The value of doing it that way is that it forces you to step out of your comfort zone, because it’s more likely to be something you wouldn’t have normally gone for yourself.
2. You can find these fairly easily on Instagram for instance, or by Googling ‘Writing Word Prompt’, ‘Writing Sentence Prompt’ or ‘Writing Photo Prompt’
3. Once you have your prompt, take a good look at it if it’s a picture, or have a good think about it if it’s a word or a sentence, and write whatever it inspires.
4. You can make it as structured or free-flowing as you like and it can end up being a paragraph, a short-story or a full-on novel.
5. If you wanted, you could set yourself a target or maximum word count. You may set a timer and write as much as you can within that time. You can also assign yourself a genre (fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry etc.)
Flash Fiction.
Flash Fiction involves writing very short pieces (some of them as short as six-word long referred to as nano-pieces) based on a prompt (this can be anything: an image, a word, asentence, a general theme) and a set of rules, which will depend onthe type of Flash Fiction you’re writing.
If you want to learn more, Michael R. Kiel wrote a great piece about what Flash Fiction is, which is so well worded I won’t bother to paraphrase it.
How it works:
1. When it comes to Flash Fiction I’d definitely recommend looking for people hosting a battle. This keeps you accountable, but also has an added sense of fun because you get to see what all other people come up with when starting out with similar constraints.
2. You can find these fairly easily on Instagram for instance, or by Googling ‘Flash Fiction Battle’
3. Once you have your prompt and are assigned a Flash Fiction type, all you need to do is start writing!
4. Optional—Because Flash Fiction still needs to include a full plot from start to finish, it’s a great challenge for those of us who are used to writing much longer pieces. As an add-on, I’d definitely recommend journaling (on paper or at least in your head) on your Flash Fiction experience, what it brought up for you and how you think it impacted your writing.
5.
People Watching.
This is one of my personal favourites, and one I use A LOT, because I really enjoy people-watching (in a very non-creepy kind of way, I can assure you!)
How it works:
Find yourself a spot where you’re surrounded by people. It doesn’t have to be a huge crowd, but it only works if you’re not on your own (obviously). It also works better if the people around you are strangers, but that’s not a problem if they aren’t.
Take a moment to observe every person you can see (again, in the most natural, non-creepy way you can manage). Then write what you imagine that person’s story to be. It can be a little or a lot, that’s up to you! For instance:
1. Who are they?
2. Where do they come from? And where are they going?
3. Why are they here in this place you’re observing them?
4. Who are the people they’re with and what’s their relationship to them?
5. If they’re alone, why are they sitting there alone?
6. What is their personality and character?
7. You can also practice writing up what they look like and what the setting around them is—that’s a great way to practice writing description.
8. What’s their past? What would their childhood have been like?
9. What would be their greatest struggle?
10. And so on and so forth.
Journaling Variation: Mindless Writing.
This is another form of writing exercise I do a lot. In fact I have about a hundred millions notes on my phone (barely exaggerating here) with all my mindless writing.
I should state here that I’ve kind of made up the term ‘Mindless Writing’, because that’s how I refer to it in my head. I haven’t checked whether that’s a legit thing or not, but it’s definitely somewhere on the journaling spectrum.
By mindless writing I refer to a form of informal journaling that’s completely unstructured and disorganised. Writing that has no point, no purpose, no planned outcome other than to exist for a few moments on the page. The sort of stream of consciousness writing that you do when something feels like it needs to come out.
How it works:
1. I’d recommend having a medium you use only for your Mindless Writing. A diary, a notebook or, in my case, a string of messy notes one your phone. Whatever you pick, it should be something that’s easily accessible wherever you go, because you may get the urge to note things down at any time.
2. Start writing without worrying about having a beginning or an end.
3. Take the first thought that’s going through your mind and roll with it. You can expand on each thought or move onto the next swiftly.
4. Don’t lift the pen off the page, or your fingers off the screen. Keep writing without any thought for style, grammar or typos.
5. I don’t normally set a timer for this type of writing, I tend to write until I feel satiated—until I have nothing else that comes up—but you can make your own rules here.
The More the Merrier.
The main reason why I signed up for the Flash Fiction battle I mentioned earlier was that a dear writer friend of mine suggested we do it together. It was great to have someone to hold me accountable for it, and it was a lot of fun sharing that experience with her. Later on, it was fascinating to seeeveryone’s entries and how different everyone’s outputs were when we all had similar prompts and instructions.
If you’re unsure about trying out one of these exercises, or you can’t quite gather the motivation to do it on your own, why not gather up a group of writers and do it all together? You don’t even need for someone to host a battle, you can create your own informal battle. It’s a lot more enjoyable sharing this with others. It gives you a chance to learn from others by seeing how different people handle the exact same prompts. It’s also a great way to build connections and friendships amongst the writer community—friends who write together, stay together!
Beyond the personal growth elements and the social aspect of it, it does a few other things on the practical front too: like I’ve said, having others doing it alongside you keeps you accountable. It’s a way to MAKE yourself do it and prevent you from bailing out. It’s also great content to be posting about on Social Media and grow your profile and your reach.
So, tell me. With so much to be gained… Why wouldn’t you give it a try?
