On the bus

Pretend you are riding on a bus and overhear one person say to another person, “I’ll never forgive you as long as I live.” Write a story that tells who these people are and what happened before their conversation.

Life lessons

What lessons have you learned from life? write nonstop on your life lessons for 10 minutes.

A Writer's Workbook

I love this book! Check it out online here for free!

Kindness

Define kindness...

From the mouths of babes

What might come from the mouths of babes? Write a humorous piece of fiction where a baby's first word is a little surprising.

Scene Specification Exercise

Think of two characters in a particular setting. Write some notes about the two characters (name, age, etc) and their setting (time of day, outside/inside). Then write one sentence in response to each prompt. The piece should read as a continuous whole:

1. A sentence with a wall or boundary in it.
2.A sentence with weather in it (air, temp)
3. A sentence with a sound in it
4. A sentence with a gesture in it
5.A line of dialogue of six words or less
6. A sentence with light in it
7. A line of dialogue of ten words or more
8. A sentence with a ceiling or floor in it
9. A sentence with texture in it
10. A sentence with an object smaller than a hand in it
11. A sentence with an allusion to literature or art in it.
12. A sentence fragment.
13. A sentence with a piece of furniture in it
14. A line of dialogue that is a question.
16. A sentence with a hand or fingers in it
17. A sentence with a dash in it
18. A sentence with an allusion to a current event in it
19. A sentence with a metaphor in it
20. A line of dialogue that is whispered

Scene Specification Exercise

Think of two characters in a particular setting. Write some notes about the two characters (name, age, etc) and their setting (time of day, outside/inside). Then write one sentence in response to each prompt. The piece should read as a continuous whole:

1. A sentence with a wall or boundary in it.
2.A sentence with weather in it (air, temp)
3. A sentence with a sound in it
4. A sentence with a gesture in it
5.A line of dialogue of six words or less
6. A sentence with light in it
7. A line of dialogue of ten words or more
8. A sentence with a ceiling or floor in it
9. A sentence with texture in it
10. A sentence with an object smaller than a hand in it
11. A sentence with an allusion to literature or art in it.
12. A sentence fragment.
13. A sentence with a piece of furniture in it
14. A line of dialogue that is a question.
16. A sentence with a hand or fingers in it
17. A sentence with a dash in it
18. A sentence with an allusion to a current event in it
19. A sentence with a metaphor in it
20. A line of dialogue that is whispered

Perspective

Write about an event in your life – first from your perspective and then from the perspective of someone else who was present.

Time Traveler Exercise

Pick something that exists in the present but might not exist in
the future. Imagine getting a visit from a time traveler who wants
you to explain what the object is and what it does and why it so
important to this time.

In the Fridge!

Open your refrigerator (for real or in your mind) and look for an item you've never written about in there. Write a poem or a paragraph about one item in your fridge!

Freewrite the blues

Here, an energetic exercise for kids by Maya Angelou (published by the Poetry Foundation), is adapted for people of all ages.

Read Langston Hughes’s poem, “Po’ Boy Blues” then brainstorm for five minutes about things that give you the blues. Freewrite for 15 minutes about one of them. (If you really want to get in the mood, have a little Muddy Waters playing in the background.) Choose one strand of your writing and expand on it and write a poem.

Whether you write them or not, poems can be helpful as writing prompts. Poems can be read in a relatively short amount of time, and they pack a lot of images per page. You might also find that the poem's rhythm and the compression of language will influence your writing in positive ways.

Imagery

On the left side of the page, list tangible nouns. Ocean, flood, steam shovel, cinder block, spoon. On the right side of the page, list intangible nouns. Respect, desire, hunger, flight. Now combine them in a phrase like this:

'a of '. Examples would be 'an ocean of respect', a spoonful of desire'. Let yourself get carried away with this, and you will come up with some very powerful images.

Nursery Rhyme Time!

Rewrite a nursery rhyme (Three Blind Mice, Jack and Jill, etc.) from a character's point of view.

How to use writing exercises

This is an interesting article about writing exercises.

http://www.errantdreams.com/epiphanies/2006/09/15/how-to-use-writing-exercises-and-how-not-to-use-them/

Difficult Decisions

For 10 mintues write about one of the most difficult decisions you have had to make in your life.

About this blog

I am always trying to think up ways to inspire my daily writing. Even just to write daily is sometimes a huge feat, as any writer can tell you. Writing prompts and exercises are good practice and I have always wanted to start a blog to publish ideas daily. So here we are!

I am creating this blog for inspiration and a place to compile a really good blog full of writing prompts & exercises! You can use these exercises just for simply practicing writing or also they may be useful as journal prompts.

These exercises are likely not going to produce great works. They may be silly or make you think. Who knows where I am really going with this!

I am going to try to post daily (at least Monday-Friday that is!) but don't hold me to that! I also may not actually DO the prompt/exercise at that time myself and I most likely won't be sharing my work here either, but please feel free to post links to your own work under comments, if you feel so inclined!

Most of these exercises and prompts will be geared toward 10-15 minutes of solid writing. Feel free to spend as much time as you wish on them.

Also, please feel free to drop me a line especially if you happen to have writing prompts, good links to prompts or your own exercises to share!