CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES & TIPS
Jan 7, 2016 5:01:07 GMT -8
Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 7, 2016 5:01:07 GMT -8
We had a book on writing due to return to the library and ran out renews, so we snagged everything we could of use from it. Then we were like, some of these writing exercises are butts, so we put in different ones. Do with it what you will, or nothing.
Writing Exercises from What If by Bernays and Painter:
boring or difficult ones were replaced with stuff from mysite.du.edu/~bkiteley/exercises.html & ourselves. if u don't like nothing go here: writingexercises.co.uk/index.php
1) Write ten opening lines for ten stories, trying to pull reader immediately into story.
2) Look at several favorite stories by others, make list of events occurring before page one, do same for one of your stories, compare / see if your story feels like it has history/foundation.
3) Skipped, 7 by 7 by 7. Find 7th book on bookshelf, open to page 7, look at 7th sentence, write short story 7 lines long starting with it.
4) Begin a story with a given first line: "Where were you last night?" or another.
5) Person Place & Song: Write about 1000 words either complete story or beginning which must begin: "The first time I (or name) heard (specific song title) by (specific artist or group), I (or name) was down/up/over at (place) and we were doing (action)."
6) Pairs of beginning sentences: Write first sentence of story about a birth. Write first sentence of story about a death. Try other pairs, such as Falling in Love/Divorce. Try pairs not in opposition such as Spring/Summer.
7) What word comes next? Write first sentence of narrative. Then take two or three words from that first sentence and use them again in the second sentence. Go on to the end.
8) Skipped, Deja Vu: Write 500 word sketch in which character has an experience that causes them to recall a similar past experience. Juxtapose the two scenes, alternating back and forth.
9) Skipped, The Reluctant Eye: 600 word first person story in which only uses first person pronoun I/me/my 2 times, but keep the I somehow important to the narrative.
10) Skipped, Write a nonverbal conversation of body language. 600 words.
11) An image notebook: Every day record at least one image, date these entries. Ask yourself what's the most striking thing I heard, saw, smelled, touched, tasted today?
12) Skipped, Write a long, fairly complicated phone conversation overheard by someone in the room. All 3 people in scene are involved in some way. Listener can guess what other lino is saying but minimize that. 600 words.
13) Skipped, Go through one story or more of your own writing, find ten most common interesting words, use them as titles for 10 paragraphs. After the drafts, eliminate the titles. Should be intact story.
14) Skipped, Tell a story backwards. 500 words.
15) Skipped, Do verbal round robin & wait a few days, then both participants write 1000 words best recollection of it.
16) Skipped, Write story with multiple characters in house where they are trapped in separate rooms and can only use non-face-to-face communications. 500 words.
17) Skipped, Pick an unusual interior space, don't go with stereotypes of location, 500 words.
18) Skipped, Write scene where two characters have to improvise and cooperate, 500 words.
19) Work with a story you've already written, one whose characters need fleshing out. For
a character fill out this sentence five to ten times: "He or she is the sort of person who ___"
20) Existing story of yours, have one or more of your PoV characters wonder about his or her motives for doing something. Use the word maybe, imagine a conversation with another character, imagine an entire scene he or she is not in. Skipped second half.
21) Skipped, Write a gritty creepy story and halfway through have things change dramatically so everythang is alright & possibly rhyming. 500 words.
22) Existing story of yours, ask what does central character want? What are their motives for wanting this? Where in the story is that made clear? How do we learn what the character wants? -dialogue, actions, or internal monologue? What or who stands in the way of their achieving it? What does that desire set in motion?
23) Complete the following sentences to suggest the age of a character: Keep in mind there are subtle ways - moral attitude, psychology, surroundings, style of speech, as well as the direct - conditions of skin and hair, mobility, tone of voice.
"I figured Carol was as old as my grandmother because__"
"We knew it was time for Larry to go into an old folks home because__"
"We knew that Janet was not far from retirement because__"
"Although Daphne wouldn't admit to being over 40, she gave it away by__"
"The Harrisons were your unmistakable yuppy baby boomers because they___"
"You could tell that Jamie was using a fake ID because__"
"It wasn't clear at first but Michael couldn't have been more than six, because he was__"
24) Describe the bedroom or environment of various characters.
25) Skipped, Write a story in the form of a standup routine, using a story situation you've already begun. 600 words.
26) Skipped, End a 600 word story with a joke you like or loathe, use the joke to color the story but don't just build up to it. No aristocrats.
27) Two person scene where one person is in denial and the other person is trying to break them out of it, done mostly through dialogue.
28) Skipped, Write 100 short sentences about a character you are working on. The sentences should not connect and not follow each other.
29) Skipped, Write scariest 500 words you can muster.
30) Skipped, Write 20 two-sentence horror stories.
31) Skipped, Write 500 word story where two people love each other a lot, while avoiding any words typically associated with describing that feeling.
32) Write a scene involving two or three characters who have secrets from each other or possess different perspectives on what they are doing or have just done. Alt: write a story using several points of view.
33) Skipped, Take a character you're working with and write 5 200 word descriptions / scenes of them experiencing different emotions to their outer extremes.
34) Skipped, Tell a story with two characters in dialog and no tags, no description, no words outside quote marks. 500 words.
35) Using first person write an unreliable narrator. They are not the person they think they are, either more or less admirable. Give your reader clues.
36) Skipped, Write a story from the perspective of an animal, really trying to imagine how they'd think about or perceive the events. 500 words.
37) Skipped, Think of the plots of ten stories or movies that you like, write them up briefly, and add M. Night Shyamalan twists to each.
38) Skipped, Describe a character head to toe. Take most interesting detail and write a more full description of it.
39) Highlight dialogue in story by writer u like. Determine how much is summarized rather than in quotes. Then write a scene: One character blathers, summarize the dialogue, interspersing it with comments and stage directions, use no quotes.
40) Write a scene in which people have convo while doing something else. Alt: Pick convo topic or argument, put same in different settings / activity scenarios.
41) Two people debating something concrete (whether to get takeout - not what is love), not arguing, both equally convincing, should sound distinct.
42) Skipped, Take a song whose lyrics suggest a narrative that is abstract or doesn't quite make sense. Write 500-1000 words making it a coherent story.
43) Take existing story you wrote. Write the plot as three sentences with three words each.
44) Write simple narrative 550 word limit about a quest for something concrete of obvious value, character acts immediately, meets specific obstacle, overcomes with help of supernatural force or object from the outside. Meant to be action packed.
44) Skipped, Watch trailers for 5 movies you haven't seen and write plot outlines for how you think they should go. Alt: Trailers for movies you do know but use your imagination to come up with a different story based on the info in the trailer alone.
45) Skipped, From a close PoV, put a character in a dark hall way / corridor / tunnel. What do they do? 500 words.
46) What If? Look for one of your stories that has a block or problem. Start paper with "What if?" Write five ways of continuing the story but not ending it. Write as many and as long as u like.
47) Skipped, Take a character and describe another character from their point of view.
48) Skipped, Have character eat their favorite meal ever, descriptive as possible. Possible: Same thing but they haven't eaten in 3 days.
49) Skipped, Google image search your favorite color, animal, and genre of music as a phrase (ex green wolf butt rock). Pick an image that isn't horrible and write a story suggested by it. 500 words.
50) Skipped, Title your chapters, including ones you haven't written yet as necessary or desired.
51) Skipped, Find an interesting image on internets. Describe it through the voice of the universe, then the voice of a character.
52) Circle all adjectives and adverbs in a published story and decide which ones work and not, then exchange the weak adverbs and adjectives for strong ones of your own, or delete them. Then do same to one of your own stories.
53) Skipped, Find a list of subgenres within a genre you favor, and come up with story ideas - one for each subgenre described.
54) Skipped, In a story you don't like, during a scene emblematic of what you don't like about it, something happens that makes the story more to your tastes. Zombies attack the heiress, the action hero is swept off his feet by tenderness, whatever. 500 words.
55) Skipped, For a species that you do not like reading about, be it vampires, vulcans, or humans, rewrite the rules about them - strengths, weaknesses, cultural information, what they eat, how they reproduce, etc.
56) Skipped, For a species that you do not like reading about, be it vampires, vulcans, or humans, write a story that turns them into the opposite of what they're normally portrayed to be. If they are romantic villains, make them banal goodie two-shoes. If they are erudite and clean, they become mindless and gross. 500 words.
57) Pick writer you like that you want to parody, try to imitate their voice / tone / rhythms / mood using exaggeration and humor.
58) Write a short story using words of only one syllable.
59) Read aloud work of writer you like, note way sentences are varied.
60) Skipped, Write a scene involving a song or music that doesn't really exist and has a strong effect on listeners. 500 words.
61) Skipped, Invent a supernatural or super power that you've never read about or seen before, write a story about a character using it. 500 words.
62) Write scene with two characters, now allow point of view character to suspect or imagine what the other character might be thinking, using words like probably and seemed.
63) Render a list of abstract concepts as concrete phrases - objects or images or actions, whatever.
64) Look in writing u like & note every transition of location, whether its skipped and if not whether it should have been or it adds something.
65) Look thru yearbooks or like items & take note of interesting names or details for possible future use.
66) Skipped, Your main character has accidentally infiltrated a really uncomfortable party, a la Eyes Wide Shut. What is their worst party ever scenario?
67) Begin a story with a long / run-on sentence that has a sense of acceleration.
68) Brainstorm list of titles, possibly break into future stories & ones u are doing presently. Make a list of possible titles from inside the story. Make another list of ideas that aren't so directly derived. After, go through and cross out definite nos. Alt: do this for other people's writing or songs.
69) Write a story you've thought of before, giving yourself permission to write badly. Violate rules of style, use cliches, mix metaphors, shift PoV. Exchange story with a partner and correct each other's errors. Ways to make worse: Type in white text, write fast.
70) Write a scene about someone you hate. Make the reader hate them. From your life, or public people, or invented archetypes of people u hate. Then write the scene from PoV of nasty boy, first person.
71) Skipped, Your main character's life as written in the story was all a dream or illusion. They woke up to a different life and even a different self. What is it like?
72) Write a sex scene between two of your characters that you are familiar with. Make it very personal to the characters rather than simply sexay. Try to be particular instead of general.
73) Write a story called "My Pet." Only requirement is it must be a pet you've never owned. Describe what it looks like, eats, sleeps, where u got it, what tricks it can do, how it gets on with different people in your life. No racist dogs, white people.
74) Skipped, Halloween party. As many of your characters as you like are in attendance. What are they wearing and doing?
75) Include in a story a physical detail that creates tension, like a piece of floss stuck in the teeth.
76) Skipped, Truth or Dare. As many of your characters as you like must participate. What happens?
77) Write about an experience didn't seem funny at the time and emphasize humor, limit 550 words.
78) Think of summer job or place visited in mega detail including all senses, peeps and what you doin yourself, after thinky part done, try to write real fast notes. Looking at notes think what you focused on and what you left out. Do in group and analyze each other's omissions and focus.
79) Go through all of your stories that you want to that might share a universe, note all locations, mentally or physically map where they are in relation to each other, and how characters might get between sites. Also consider where they are in time. Draw a map. Write a scene where characters meet.
80) Write a story called "Sunday" containing 550 words. Alt: other such words.
81) Think of a traumatic or noteworthy event / scene and write how you would tell different people about it - mother, homies, enemies, etc.
82) Skipped, If your main character could make the afterlife exactly how they'd prefer, would there be a heaven and hell and what would they be like? If not, what would their ideal afterlife be? Describe it.
83) Skipped, A character you've already created is in a situation where they must pretend to be someone else until the secret is revealed, either because the deception ran its course or because they were discovered. 500 words.
84) Write a character taking a shower a la Psycho - front door locked bathrooom door not & not expecting company. They hear a strange noise in room outside bathroom. No more than two pages, start in shower.
85) Pick police blotter item & use as basis of story. Alts: gossip columns, surreal tabloids.
86) Pick an event that can take place in one chunk of time and write four pages. Ex: birthday party, naming a baby, explaining heteronormativity.
87) Skipped, A character is cursed, but figures out how to turn the situation to their advantage. 500 words.
88) Make list of elements and write 2 page story including all of them, possibly trade lists if u have partner. Possible list: 2 characters, a place, 2 objects, an adjective, and an abstract word.
89) Write a 26 sentence story, each starting with a letter of the alphabet in sequence.
90) Skipped, A character from your own or another's story that you do not like is secretly a werewolf alien robot or otherwise not human, and this explains all of their unusual and / or annoying traits. 500 words.
91) Skipped, Pick a story or movie that you like up to a point and rewrite it in a way you'd prefer, possibly with just a plot outline if it's too involved. 500 to 1000 words.
92) Skipped, Find a part of a story, yours or not, where a character wants to do something but does not. Write the scene as them acting on the urge. 500 words.
93) Make a list of important details in an early draft of one of your stories. See if any of them have unexplored potential.
94) Skipped, Make a character go on a job interview for something they would like to do but are unqualified for. If it's likely they'll succeed at bluffing their way in, they fail. If it's likely they'll fail, they succeed. 500 words.
95) Skipped, No one believes a character, but they are all proven wrong. 500 words.
96) Take a story you've completed, go through and intensify the conflict, kick everything up a notch to extent of hyperbole. Be so extreme forever.
97) Examine some of your fave stories and ask "What's at stake?" Identify devices author uses to show characters risking something in order to pursue what they want. Next, examine your own story and do the same. Is the thing at stake inherently interesting?
98) As your character, make a diary entry for the time of the story. Also for the time preceding the story. Also a letter to someone not in the story about what is happening. Also a letter to someone in the story. Next, explore parts of the story you haven't dramatized or summarized. Frex: Did characters avoid a confrontation? Are there missing scenes? What events happened before the beginning of the story? Write past the ending.
99) Using 5 different colors of highlighting - one for each sense - mark up a text. See what is dominant. Goal is to find a passage that hits all 5. Alt: add a sixth for proprioception, ESP, or umami.
100) Skipped, Think of something abstract or diffuse like a concept or organization that you have powerful feelings about. Describe a character based on the concept.
101) Have partner, trade stories, ask if end is satisfying, ask if other guy feels story is finished.
102) Skipped, Pick a song you hate and a song you like and write a story where one defeats the other in a contest. Be as literal or metaphorical as you like, try to involve the lyrics. 500 words.
103) Skipped, Pick some injustice or problem from real life and write a scene where a character triumphs over an instance of it. 500 words.
104) Skipped, Find TV show or movie just beginning, mute TV and describe generally what you're seeing.
105) Choose one sentence 4-10 words from a novel. Call out first letter of each word in sentence. Ask players to make up a sentence starting with those letters.
106) Skipped, Pick a character from fiction you find completely boring and write a short scene with them that makes them more interesting. 500 words.
107) Skipped, Write some kind of a physical or mental contest in one scene, 500 words. At least somewhat formal, an actual or metaphorical duel.
108) In group each person writes fantastical first sentence of narrative & passes it on. Recipient writes rest of narrative building on all included details.
109) Skipped, Write a story where the narrative is derailed by the protagonist or antagonist giving up. Try to somehow make the end still be satisfying. 500 words.
110) Take someone's story that you like, find two sentences that seem like more could be added between them, and write that paragraph or scene in.
111) Skipped, Take a video game which has at least a vague narrative and write a different / alternate ending for it. 500 words.
112) Take antagonist or minor character you like from novel or story by someone else, make them the protagonist in scene or story of your own.
113) When reading a new story, stop halfway and ask yourself what do I care about? What has been set in motion that I want to see completed? What do I think is going to happen? Write your own version of last half, or just read last half and see how they done.
114) Skipped, Find a story where the main character dies at the end (or has an implied death like in a some Lovecraft and Poe). Write an ending where they get away and somehow win, 500-1000 words.
115) Skipped, Pick a type of random name generator online - rap names, cat names, whatever. Pick a different one. Generate one of each kind of name and write a story where one character does something significant to the other - kills them or kisses them or fires or hires or steals from them. 500 words.
EDITING IDEAS FROM VAROUS SOURCES
mostly Bernays & Painter
CHECK THRU WHOLE STORY FOR!
underline first interesting sentence in your story, should ideally be very near beginning.
is your beginning the best way to start the story?
whose story is it? how does the story reflect this? is the point of view right for the story?
what does the main character want? where do you indicate this? how does this drive the story?
what does the reader learn about your main characters in the first third of the story? is any crucial info withheld?
does your story start in the right place?
what's the story's history?
what's at stake in story? what's at risk? what can be won or lost?
how many scenes does the story have?
does your dialogue move the plot along?
do you use indirect discourse where needed?
how well have you choreographed your scenes? maybe block all scenes.
etc
DON'T DO THESE
better than ever
for some curious reason
a number of
as everybody knows
she didn't know where she was
things were getting out of hand
it came as no surprise
it was beyond him
needless to say
without thinking
he lived in the moment
well in advance
an emotional rollercoaster
little did i know
to no avail
AVOID
overuse of conjunctions and connectives: but/and/as if/which/when/or/so/nor/yet/for/after/because/if/since/where/while/as/although/unless/until/also/finally/however/therefore/moreover/hence - always ask if it could be better as two sentences
CONSIDER all scenes of characters traveling from walking thru doors to airplane trips & whether or not you can delete them.
LOOK at transitions between paragraphs, see if any are too jarring / non sequitur and can be eased.
Writing Exercises from What If by Bernays and Painter:
boring or difficult ones were replaced with stuff from mysite.du.edu/~bkiteley/exercises.html & ourselves. if u don't like nothing go here: writingexercises.co.uk/index.php
1) Write ten opening lines for ten stories, trying to pull reader immediately into story.
2) Look at several favorite stories by others, make list of events occurring before page one, do same for one of your stories, compare / see if your story feels like it has history/foundation.
3) Skipped, 7 by 7 by 7. Find 7th book on bookshelf, open to page 7, look at 7th sentence, write short story 7 lines long starting with it.
4) Begin a story with a given first line: "Where were you last night?" or another.
5) Person Place & Song: Write about 1000 words either complete story or beginning which must begin: "The first time I (or name) heard (specific song title) by (specific artist or group), I (or name) was down/up/over at (place) and we were doing (action)."
6) Pairs of beginning sentences: Write first sentence of story about a birth. Write first sentence of story about a death. Try other pairs, such as Falling in Love/Divorce. Try pairs not in opposition such as Spring/Summer.
7) What word comes next? Write first sentence of narrative. Then take two or three words from that first sentence and use them again in the second sentence. Go on to the end.
8) Skipped, Deja Vu: Write 500 word sketch in which character has an experience that causes them to recall a similar past experience. Juxtapose the two scenes, alternating back and forth.
9) Skipped, The Reluctant Eye: 600 word first person story in which only uses first person pronoun I/me/my 2 times, but keep the I somehow important to the narrative.
10) Skipped, Write a nonverbal conversation of body language. 600 words.
11) An image notebook: Every day record at least one image, date these entries. Ask yourself what's the most striking thing I heard, saw, smelled, touched, tasted today?
12) Skipped, Write a long, fairly complicated phone conversation overheard by someone in the room. All 3 people in scene are involved in some way. Listener can guess what other lino is saying but minimize that. 600 words.
13) Skipped, Go through one story or more of your own writing, find ten most common interesting words, use them as titles for 10 paragraphs. After the drafts, eliminate the titles. Should be intact story.
14) Skipped, Tell a story backwards. 500 words.
15) Skipped, Do verbal round robin & wait a few days, then both participants write 1000 words best recollection of it.
16) Skipped, Write story with multiple characters in house where they are trapped in separate rooms and can only use non-face-to-face communications. 500 words.
17) Skipped, Pick an unusual interior space, don't go with stereotypes of location, 500 words.
18) Skipped, Write scene where two characters have to improvise and cooperate, 500 words.
19) Work with a story you've already written, one whose characters need fleshing out. For
a character fill out this sentence five to ten times: "He or she is the sort of person who ___"
20) Existing story of yours, have one or more of your PoV characters wonder about his or her motives for doing something. Use the word maybe, imagine a conversation with another character, imagine an entire scene he or she is not in. Skipped second half.
21) Skipped, Write a gritty creepy story and halfway through have things change dramatically so everythang is alright & possibly rhyming. 500 words.
22) Existing story of yours, ask what does central character want? What are their motives for wanting this? Where in the story is that made clear? How do we learn what the character wants? -dialogue, actions, or internal monologue? What or who stands in the way of their achieving it? What does that desire set in motion?
23) Complete the following sentences to suggest the age of a character: Keep in mind there are subtle ways - moral attitude, psychology, surroundings, style of speech, as well as the direct - conditions of skin and hair, mobility, tone of voice.
"I figured Carol was as old as my grandmother because__"
"We knew it was time for Larry to go into an old folks home because__"
"We knew that Janet was not far from retirement because__"
"Although Daphne wouldn't admit to being over 40, she gave it away by__"
"The Harrisons were your unmistakable yuppy baby boomers because they___"
"You could tell that Jamie was using a fake ID because__"
"It wasn't clear at first but Michael couldn't have been more than six, because he was__"
24) Describe the bedroom or environment of various characters.
25) Skipped, Write a story in the form of a standup routine, using a story situation you've already begun. 600 words.
26) Skipped, End a 600 word story with a joke you like or loathe, use the joke to color the story but don't just build up to it. No aristocrats.
27) Two person scene where one person is in denial and the other person is trying to break them out of it, done mostly through dialogue.
28) Skipped, Write 100 short sentences about a character you are working on. The sentences should not connect and not follow each other.
29) Skipped, Write scariest 500 words you can muster.
30) Skipped, Write 20 two-sentence horror stories.
31) Skipped, Write 500 word story where two people love each other a lot, while avoiding any words typically associated with describing that feeling.
32) Write a scene involving two or three characters who have secrets from each other or possess different perspectives on what they are doing or have just done. Alt: write a story using several points of view.
33) Skipped, Take a character you're working with and write 5 200 word descriptions / scenes of them experiencing different emotions to their outer extremes.
34) Skipped, Tell a story with two characters in dialog and no tags, no description, no words outside quote marks. 500 words.
35) Using first person write an unreliable narrator. They are not the person they think they are, either more or less admirable. Give your reader clues.
36) Skipped, Write a story from the perspective of an animal, really trying to imagine how they'd think about or perceive the events. 500 words.
37) Skipped, Think of the plots of ten stories or movies that you like, write them up briefly, and add M. Night Shyamalan twists to each.
38) Skipped, Describe a character head to toe. Take most interesting detail and write a more full description of it.
39) Highlight dialogue in story by writer u like. Determine how much is summarized rather than in quotes. Then write a scene: One character blathers, summarize the dialogue, interspersing it with comments and stage directions, use no quotes.
40) Write a scene in which people have convo while doing something else. Alt: Pick convo topic or argument, put same in different settings / activity scenarios.
41) Two people debating something concrete (whether to get takeout - not what is love), not arguing, both equally convincing, should sound distinct.
42) Skipped, Take a song whose lyrics suggest a narrative that is abstract or doesn't quite make sense. Write 500-1000 words making it a coherent story.
43) Take existing story you wrote. Write the plot as three sentences with three words each.
44) Write simple narrative 550 word limit about a quest for something concrete of obvious value, character acts immediately, meets specific obstacle, overcomes with help of supernatural force or object from the outside. Meant to be action packed.
44) Skipped, Watch trailers for 5 movies you haven't seen and write plot outlines for how you think they should go. Alt: Trailers for movies you do know but use your imagination to come up with a different story based on the info in the trailer alone.
45) Skipped, From a close PoV, put a character in a dark hall way / corridor / tunnel. What do they do? 500 words.
46) What If? Look for one of your stories that has a block or problem. Start paper with "What if?" Write five ways of continuing the story but not ending it. Write as many and as long as u like.
47) Skipped, Take a character and describe another character from their point of view.
48) Skipped, Have character eat their favorite meal ever, descriptive as possible. Possible: Same thing but they haven't eaten in 3 days.
49) Skipped, Google image search your favorite color, animal, and genre of music as a phrase (ex green wolf butt rock). Pick an image that isn't horrible and write a story suggested by it. 500 words.
50) Skipped, Title your chapters, including ones you haven't written yet as necessary or desired.
51) Skipped, Find an interesting image on internets. Describe it through the voice of the universe, then the voice of a character.
52) Circle all adjectives and adverbs in a published story and decide which ones work and not, then exchange the weak adverbs and adjectives for strong ones of your own, or delete them. Then do same to one of your own stories.
53) Skipped, Find a list of subgenres within a genre you favor, and come up with story ideas - one for each subgenre described.
54) Skipped, In a story you don't like, during a scene emblematic of what you don't like about it, something happens that makes the story more to your tastes. Zombies attack the heiress, the action hero is swept off his feet by tenderness, whatever. 500 words.
55) Skipped, For a species that you do not like reading about, be it vampires, vulcans, or humans, rewrite the rules about them - strengths, weaknesses, cultural information, what they eat, how they reproduce, etc.
56) Skipped, For a species that you do not like reading about, be it vampires, vulcans, or humans, write a story that turns them into the opposite of what they're normally portrayed to be. If they are romantic villains, make them banal goodie two-shoes. If they are erudite and clean, they become mindless and gross. 500 words.
57) Pick writer you like that you want to parody, try to imitate their voice / tone / rhythms / mood using exaggeration and humor.
58) Write a short story using words of only one syllable.
59) Read aloud work of writer you like, note way sentences are varied.
60) Skipped, Write a scene involving a song or music that doesn't really exist and has a strong effect on listeners. 500 words.
61) Skipped, Invent a supernatural or super power that you've never read about or seen before, write a story about a character using it. 500 words.
62) Write scene with two characters, now allow point of view character to suspect or imagine what the other character might be thinking, using words like probably and seemed.
63) Render a list of abstract concepts as concrete phrases - objects or images or actions, whatever.
64) Look in writing u like & note every transition of location, whether its skipped and if not whether it should have been or it adds something.
65) Look thru yearbooks or like items & take note of interesting names or details for possible future use.
66) Skipped, Your main character has accidentally infiltrated a really uncomfortable party, a la Eyes Wide Shut. What is their worst party ever scenario?
67) Begin a story with a long / run-on sentence that has a sense of acceleration.
68) Brainstorm list of titles, possibly break into future stories & ones u are doing presently. Make a list of possible titles from inside the story. Make another list of ideas that aren't so directly derived. After, go through and cross out definite nos. Alt: do this for other people's writing or songs.
69) Write a story you've thought of before, giving yourself permission to write badly. Violate rules of style, use cliches, mix metaphors, shift PoV. Exchange story with a partner and correct each other's errors. Ways to make worse: Type in white text, write fast.
70) Write a scene about someone you hate. Make the reader hate them. From your life, or public people, or invented archetypes of people u hate. Then write the scene from PoV of nasty boy, first person.
71) Skipped, Your main character's life as written in the story was all a dream or illusion. They woke up to a different life and even a different self. What is it like?
72) Write a sex scene between two of your characters that you are familiar with. Make it very personal to the characters rather than simply sexay. Try to be particular instead of general.
73) Write a story called "My Pet." Only requirement is it must be a pet you've never owned. Describe what it looks like, eats, sleeps, where u got it, what tricks it can do, how it gets on with different people in your life. No racist dogs, white people.
74) Skipped, Halloween party. As many of your characters as you like are in attendance. What are they wearing and doing?
75) Include in a story a physical detail that creates tension, like a piece of floss stuck in the teeth.
76) Skipped, Truth or Dare. As many of your characters as you like must participate. What happens?
77) Write about an experience didn't seem funny at the time and emphasize humor, limit 550 words.
78) Think of summer job or place visited in mega detail including all senses, peeps and what you doin yourself, after thinky part done, try to write real fast notes. Looking at notes think what you focused on and what you left out. Do in group and analyze each other's omissions and focus.
79) Go through all of your stories that you want to that might share a universe, note all locations, mentally or physically map where they are in relation to each other, and how characters might get between sites. Also consider where they are in time. Draw a map. Write a scene where characters meet.
80) Write a story called "Sunday" containing 550 words. Alt: other such words.
81) Think of a traumatic or noteworthy event / scene and write how you would tell different people about it - mother, homies, enemies, etc.
82) Skipped, If your main character could make the afterlife exactly how they'd prefer, would there be a heaven and hell and what would they be like? If not, what would their ideal afterlife be? Describe it.
83) Skipped, A character you've already created is in a situation where they must pretend to be someone else until the secret is revealed, either because the deception ran its course or because they were discovered. 500 words.
84) Write a character taking a shower a la Psycho - front door locked bathrooom door not & not expecting company. They hear a strange noise in room outside bathroom. No more than two pages, start in shower.
85) Pick police blotter item & use as basis of story. Alts: gossip columns, surreal tabloids.
86) Pick an event that can take place in one chunk of time and write four pages. Ex: birthday party, naming a baby, explaining heteronormativity.
87) Skipped, A character is cursed, but figures out how to turn the situation to their advantage. 500 words.
88) Make list of elements and write 2 page story including all of them, possibly trade lists if u have partner. Possible list: 2 characters, a place, 2 objects, an adjective, and an abstract word.
89) Write a 26 sentence story, each starting with a letter of the alphabet in sequence.
90) Skipped, A character from your own or another's story that you do not like is secretly a werewolf alien robot or otherwise not human, and this explains all of their unusual and / or annoying traits. 500 words.
91) Skipped, Pick a story or movie that you like up to a point and rewrite it in a way you'd prefer, possibly with just a plot outline if it's too involved. 500 to 1000 words.
92) Skipped, Find a part of a story, yours or not, where a character wants to do something but does not. Write the scene as them acting on the urge. 500 words.
93) Make a list of important details in an early draft of one of your stories. See if any of them have unexplored potential.
94) Skipped, Make a character go on a job interview for something they would like to do but are unqualified for. If it's likely they'll succeed at bluffing their way in, they fail. If it's likely they'll fail, they succeed. 500 words.
95) Skipped, No one believes a character, but they are all proven wrong. 500 words.
96) Take a story you've completed, go through and intensify the conflict, kick everything up a notch to extent of hyperbole. Be so extreme forever.
97) Examine some of your fave stories and ask "What's at stake?" Identify devices author uses to show characters risking something in order to pursue what they want. Next, examine your own story and do the same. Is the thing at stake inherently interesting?
98) As your character, make a diary entry for the time of the story. Also for the time preceding the story. Also a letter to someone not in the story about what is happening. Also a letter to someone in the story. Next, explore parts of the story you haven't dramatized or summarized. Frex: Did characters avoid a confrontation? Are there missing scenes? What events happened before the beginning of the story? Write past the ending.
99) Using 5 different colors of highlighting - one for each sense - mark up a text. See what is dominant. Goal is to find a passage that hits all 5. Alt: add a sixth for proprioception, ESP, or umami.
100) Skipped, Think of something abstract or diffuse like a concept or organization that you have powerful feelings about. Describe a character based on the concept.
101) Have partner, trade stories, ask if end is satisfying, ask if other guy feels story is finished.
102) Skipped, Pick a song you hate and a song you like and write a story where one defeats the other in a contest. Be as literal or metaphorical as you like, try to involve the lyrics. 500 words.
103) Skipped, Pick some injustice or problem from real life and write a scene where a character triumphs over an instance of it. 500 words.
104) Skipped, Find TV show or movie just beginning, mute TV and describe generally what you're seeing.
105) Choose one sentence 4-10 words from a novel. Call out first letter of each word in sentence. Ask players to make up a sentence starting with those letters.
106) Skipped, Pick a character from fiction you find completely boring and write a short scene with them that makes them more interesting. 500 words.
107) Skipped, Write some kind of a physical or mental contest in one scene, 500 words. At least somewhat formal, an actual or metaphorical duel.
108) In group each person writes fantastical first sentence of narrative & passes it on. Recipient writes rest of narrative building on all included details.
109) Skipped, Write a story where the narrative is derailed by the protagonist or antagonist giving up. Try to somehow make the end still be satisfying. 500 words.
110) Take someone's story that you like, find two sentences that seem like more could be added between them, and write that paragraph or scene in.
111) Skipped, Take a video game which has at least a vague narrative and write a different / alternate ending for it. 500 words.
112) Take antagonist or minor character you like from novel or story by someone else, make them the protagonist in scene or story of your own.
113) When reading a new story, stop halfway and ask yourself what do I care about? What has been set in motion that I want to see completed? What do I think is going to happen? Write your own version of last half, or just read last half and see how they done.
114) Skipped, Find a story where the main character dies at the end (or has an implied death like in a some Lovecraft and Poe). Write an ending where they get away and somehow win, 500-1000 words.
115) Skipped, Pick a type of random name generator online - rap names, cat names, whatever. Pick a different one. Generate one of each kind of name and write a story where one character does something significant to the other - kills them or kisses them or fires or hires or steals from them. 500 words.
EDITING IDEAS FROM VAROUS SOURCES
mostly Bernays & Painter
CHECK THRU WHOLE STORY FOR!
underline first interesting sentence in your story, should ideally be very near beginning.
is your beginning the best way to start the story?
whose story is it? how does the story reflect this? is the point of view right for the story?
what does the main character want? where do you indicate this? how does this drive the story?
what does the reader learn about your main characters in the first third of the story? is any crucial info withheld?
does your story start in the right place?
what's the story's history?
what's at stake in story? what's at risk? what can be won or lost?
how many scenes does the story have?
does your dialogue move the plot along?
do you use indirect discourse where needed?
how well have you choreographed your scenes? maybe block all scenes.
etc
DON'T DO THESE
better than ever
for some curious reason
a number of
as everybody knows
she didn't know where she was
things were getting out of hand
it came as no surprise
it was beyond him
needless to say
without thinking
he lived in the moment
well in advance
an emotional rollercoaster
little did i know
to no avail
AVOID
overuse of conjunctions and connectives: but/and/as if/which/when/or/so/nor/yet/for/after/because/if/since/where/while/as/although/unless/until/also/finally/however/therefore/moreover/hence - always ask if it could be better as two sentences
CONSIDER all scenes of characters traveling from walking thru doors to airplane trips & whether or not you can delete them.
LOOK at transitions between paragraphs, see if any are too jarring / non sequitur and can be eased.