Writing Exercises and Why I Love Them by Allison Symes

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. 

Writing exercises make me think outside of my usual creative box and help me mix up how I create a story. 

Using Random Generators

I use random generators a lot. These include generators for random words, pictures, objects, verbs, themes, questions - the list is almost endless. All make me respond to the challenge of getting a story from what was generated.

Often I can generate something and get two different stories. I like that a lot. Double bubble and all that. I send one of those stories off to an online magazine I write for and the other I use for my YouTube channel so I get to tick the submit a fresh story and do some marketing boxes all at the same time here. I like that a lot too. 

First Drafts and Warming Up

When I run workshops, I set exercises. For a recent one at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, I prepared my material but deliberately didn’t draft my “answers” to the exercises I set. I wrote those up at the same time as those who were at my workshop did. Why? 

I love the buzz of “live” writing as this keeps me on my toes. It also meant I shared what I’d written and then encouraged others to share their work. I’d emphasized all we were producing were drafts and Shakespeare, Dickens etc never came up with the perfect first draft, we weren’t going to either, and this was fine. I’ve found this approach puts people at their ease, and everyone, including me, went home with stories to polish and hopefully find a home for.

I also like exercises as a warm up into my main session. They give me a way into writing. Once I’m away, I’ll happily write for as long as I’ve got time wise. Getting started sometimes can be tricky. Writing exercises can be a great way of overcoming that hesitancy.

Some Favourite Writing Exercises

Some of my favourite writing exercises include:-

1.  Writing to a randomly generated theme.

2.  Answering a question (from the viewpoint of a character). Again this was randomly generated.

3.  Putting randomly selected words into a story at any point. It’s even better when there is no obvious link between the words.

4.  The random question generator can be useful for giving you ideas for themes and titles.

Opening and Closing Lines

Do you have any favourite writing exercises? I like writing to opening and closing lines. 

I’ve occasionally come across the write to a middle line exercise but I find those tough. I like to hit the ground running with an opening line I know I can do something with or work out what I can do with a closing line. I often use a spider diagram here to figure out possibilities and then go with the one I like best. It’s the one that has the most impact on me and I hope it will do the same for readers.

Above all, writing exercises give me a chance to play with words and ideas. I will always love that.