Happy
Scream
Guard
Evil
Whirlwind
Cactus
King
Chaos
Angry
Desert
Laugh
Heart
Give each participant a couple of pieces of paper at random. The first person says the first sentence of a story and they must use their first word as part of that sentence. The second person then continues the story and must include their word in it, and so on. Go round the group twice to complete the story.
You can also do this creative writing exercise with story dice, your own choice of words, or by asking participants to write random words down themselves, then shuffling all the cards together.
Every Christmas adults tell kids stories about Santa Claus. In this exercise you write a Christmas story from an alternative dimension.
What if every Christmas Santa didn't fly around the world delivering presents on his sleigh pulled by reindeer? What if gnomes or aliens delivered the presents? Or perhaps it was the gnomes who are trying to emulate the humans? Or some other Christmas tradition entirely that we humans have never heard of!
If you're working with a group, give everyone a couple of minutes to write two possible themes for the new Christmas story. Each theme should be 5 words or less.
Shuffle the paper and distribute them at random. If you're working online, everyone types the themes into the Zoom or group chat. Each writer then spends 10 minutes writing a short story for children based on one of the two themes, or their own theme if they really want to.
If working alone, choose your own theme and spend 15 minutes writing a short story on it. See if you can create the magic of Christmas from another world!
In a murder mystery story or courtroom drama, there's often conflicting information and lots of links between characters. A mind map is an ideal way to illustrate how everything ties together.
Split into groups of 3 or 4 people each and place a blank piece of A3 paper (double the size of A4) in the middle of each group. Discuss between you who the victim is and write their name in the middle of the piece of paper. Then brainstorm information about the murder, for example:
Feel free to expand out from any of these, e.g. to include more information on the different characters involved.
The idea is that everyone writes at the same time! Obviously, you can discuss ideas, but anyone can dive in and write their ideas on the mind map.
If you’re writing a piece of fiction, ask yourself how your protagonist would react to an everyday situation. This can help you to gain a deeper insight into who they are.
One way to do this is to imagine what their New Year’s resolutions would be.
If completing this exercise with a group, limit it to 3 to 5 resolutions per person. If some participants are historical fiction or non-fiction writers, they instead pick a celebrity and either write what their resolutions will be, or what their resolutions should be, their choice.
Stephen King said, "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops."
He also said, "Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence. It never fails. Rocks explode. Jane transmits. Mountains float. These are all perfect sentences. Many such thoughts make little rational sense, but even the stranger ones (Plums deify!) have a kind of poetic weight that’s nice."
In this fiction writing exercise, start by brainstorming (either individually or collectively) seven verbs on seven different pieces of paper. Put those aside for later. Now brainstorm seven nouns. Randomly match the nouns and verbs so you have seven pairs. Choose a pair and write a piece of fiction for ten minutes. Avoid using any adverbs.
It’s the end of the world! For 5 minutes either:
If working as a team, then after the 5 minutes is up each writer reads their description out to the other participants.
For use after your first draft
I’ve listened to a lot of masterclasses on writing by successful authors and they all say variants of your first draft won’t be good and that’s fine. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman summarise it the best:
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
Terry Pratchett
“For me, it’s always been a process of trying to convince myself that what I’m doing in a first draft isn’t important. One way you get through the wall is by convincing yourself that it doesn’t matter. No one is ever going to see your first draft. Nobody cares about your first draft. And that’s the thing that you may be agonising over, but honestly, whatever you’re doing can be fixed… For now, just get the words out. Get the story down however you can get it down, then fix it.”
Neil Gaiman
Once you’ve written your first draft, it will need editing to develop the plot, enhance the characters, and improve each scene in a myriad of ways – small and large. These seven creative editing exercises are designed to help with this stage of the process.
Read the first paragraph of the novel, in particular the first sentence. Does it launch the reader straight into the action? According to On Writing and Worldbuilding by Timothy Hickson, “The most persuasive opening lines are succinct, and not superfluous. To do this, it is often effective to limit it to a single central idea… This does not need to be the most important element, but it should be a central element that is interesting.” Ask yourself what element your opening sentence encapsulates and whether it’s the best one to capture your readers’ attention.
Consistency is crucial in creative writing, whether it’s in relation to location, objects, or people.
It’s also crucial for personality, emotions and motivation.
Look at scenes where your protagonist makes an important decision. Are their motivations clear? Do any scenes force them to choose between two conflicting morals? If so, do you explore this? Do their emotions fit with what’s happened in previous scenes?
As you edit your manuscript, keep the characters’ personality, emotions and motivation in mind. If their behaviour is inconsistent, either edit it for consistency, or have someone comment on their strange behaviour or be surprised by it. Inconsistent behaviour can reveal that a character is keeping a secret, or is under stress, so characters don’t always need to be consistent. But when they’re not, there has to be a reason.
This exercise is the first in The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. It’s a writing guide with a plethora of editing exercises designed to help you reenergize your writing by thinking of what your character is feeling, and giving you the tools to make your reader feel something.
Search for the following words in your book:
Whenever these words occur, ask yourself if you can demonstrate how your characters feel, rather than simply stating it. For each occasion, can you use physiological descriptors (a racing heart), actions (taking a step backwards) or dialogue to express what’s just happened instead? Will this enhance the scene and engage the reader more?
Find a scene where your characters disagree – in particular a scene where your protagonist argues with friends or allies. What happens next?
It can be tempting to wrap up the action with a quick resolution. But what if a resentment lingers and mistrust builds? This creates a more interesting story arc and means a resolution can occur later, giving the character development a real dynamic.
Review how you resolve the action and see if you can stretch out the emotions for a more satisfying read.
Ensure that the words used don’t detract from the enormity of the events your character is going through. Can you delete words like, “Quite”, “Little”, or “Rather”?
Of “Very” Florence King once wrote: “ 'Very' is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen .” Delete it, or replace the word after it with a stronger word, which makes “Very” redundant.
“That,” is another common word used in creative writing which can often be deleted. Read a sentence as is, then reread it as if you deleted, “That”. If the meaning is the same, delete it.
When talking about chapter endings, James Patterson said, “At the end, something has to propel you into the next chapter.”
Read how each of your chapters finish and ask yourself does it either:
Review how you wrap up each of your chapters. Do you end at the best point in your story? Can you add anticipation to cliff hangers? Will you leave your readers wanting more?
The editing exercises are designed to be completed individually.
With the others, I've always run them as part of a creative writing group, where there's no teacher and we're all equal participants, therefore I keep any 'teaching' aspect to a minimum, preferring them to be prompts to generate ideas before everyone settles down to do the silent writing. We've recently gone online and if you run a group yourself, whether online or in person, you're welcome to use these exercises for free!
The times given are suggestions only and I normally get a feel for how everyone's doing when time's up and if it's obvious that everyone's still in the middle of a discussion, then I give them longer. Where one group's in the middle of a discussion, but everyone else has finished, I sometimes have a 'soft start' to the silent writing, and say, "We're about to start the hour and a half of silent writing now, but if you're in the middle of a discussion, feel free to finish it first".
This way everyone gets to complete the discussion, but no-one's waiting for ages. It's also important to emphasise that there's no wrong answers when being creative.
Still looking for more? Check out these creative writing prompts or our dedicated Sci-Fi and Fantasy creative writing prompts
If you've enjoyed these creative writing exercises, please share them on social media, or link to them from your blog.
Indigoextra Ltd © 2006 - 2024
UK Tel: +44 (0) 208 1234 618 France Tel: +33 (0) 602 222 354
Testimonials - Terms & Privacy - Ethics - Contact
You know that feeling when you just don’t feel like writing? Sometimes you can’t even get a word down on paper. It’s the most frustrating thing ever to a writer, especially when you’re working towards a deadline. The good news is that we have a list of 105 creative writing exercises to help you get motivated and start writing again!
Creative writing exercises are short writing activities (normally around 10 minutes) designed to get you writing. The goal of these exercises is to give you the motivation to put words onto a blank paper. These words don’t need to be logical or meaningful, neither do they need to be grammatically correct or spelt correctly. The whole idea is to just get you writing something, anything. The end result of these quick creative writing exercises is normally a series of notes, bullet points or ramblings that you can, later on, use as inspiration for a bigger piece of writing such as a story or a poem.
Good creative writing exercises are short, quick and easy to complete. You shouldn’t need to think too much about your style of writing or how imaginative your notes are. Just write anything that comes to mind, and you’ll be on the road to improving your creative writing skills and beating writer’s block .
Use the generator below to get a random creative writing exercise idea:
Here are over 105 creative writing exercises to give your brain a workout and help those creative juices flow again:
Do you have any more fun creative writing exercises to share? Let us know in the comments below!
Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.
Comments loading...
The best writing exercises bring out our latent creativity. Especially if you ever feel stuck or blocked, making creative writing exercises part of your daily writing practice can be a great way to both hone your skills and explore new frontiers in your writing. Whether you’re a poet, essayist, storyteller, or genre-bending author, these free writing exercises will jumpstart your creative juices and improve your writing abilities.
The best creative writing exercises will push you out of your comfort zone and get you to experiment with words. Language is your sandbox, so let’s build some sand castles with these exercises and writing prompts.
The English language is huge, complicated, and — quite frankly — chaotic. Writing with self-imposed limitations can help you create novel and inventive pieces.
What does “limitations” mean in this context? Basically, force yourself not to use certain words, descriptions, or figures of speech. Some writing exercises using limitations include the following:
Among exercises to improve writing skills, writing with limitations has the clearest benefits. This practice challenges your brain to think about language productively. Additionally, these limitations force you to use unconventional language – which, in turn, makes you write with lucidity, avidity, and invention.
What do you do when the words just don’t come out? How can you write better if you can’t seem to write at all? One of the best poetry exercises, as well as writing exercises in general, is to start your day by freewriting.
Freewriting, also known as “stream of consciousness writing,” involves writing your thoughts down the moment they come. There’s no filtering what you write, and no controlling what you think: topicality, style, and continuity are wholly unnecessary in the freewriting process. While the idea of freewriting seems easy, it’s much harder than you think – examining your thoughts without controlling them takes a while to master, and the impulse to control what you write isn’t easy to tame. Try these exercises to master the skill:
Among daily writing exercises, freewriting is one of the best writing exercises. Poets can use freewritten material as inspiration for their poetry. Prose writers can also find inspiration for future stories from the depths of their consciousnesses. Start your writing day with freewriting, and watch your creativity blossom.
Plagiarism is still off the table; however, you can learn a lot by paying attention to how other people write. This is what we call “reading like a writer.”
Reading like a writer means paying attention to the craft elements that make an excellent piece of literature work. Good writing requires different writing styles, figurative language, story structures, and/or poetry forms, as well as key word choice.
When you notice these craft elements, you can go ahead and emulate them in your own work. As a fiction writer , you might be drawn to the way Haruki Murakami weaves folklore into his stories, and decide to write a story like that yourself. Or, as a poet, you might be inspired by Terrance Hayes’ Golden Shovel form — enough so that you write a Golden Shovel yourself.
Among free writing exercises, this is a great way to learn from the best. The best kinds of exercises to improve writing skills involve building upon the current canon of works — as Isaac Newton said, you achieve something great by “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
The conventional advice given to writers is to “write what you know.” We couldn’t disagree with that statement more. The best creative works force both the writer and the reader to consider new perspectives and learn something new; writing from a new point-of-view makes for a great exercise in expanding your creative limits.
Try these ideas as daily writing exercises:
While playing with perspective makes for a great fiction writing exercise , poets and essayists can do this too. Patricia Smith’s poem “Skinhead,” for example, is a persona piece written from the perspective of a white nationalist, but the poem clearly condemns the speaker’s beliefs.
Thus, perspective writing also works as a poetry exercise and an essay writing practice exercise . If you’re stuck in your own head, try writing in someone else’s!
All creative writers need figurative language. While metaphors, similes, and synecdoches are more prominent in poetry , prose writers need the power of metaphor to truly engross their reader. Among both exercises to improve writing skills and fun writing exercises for adults, writing metaphor lists is one of the best writing exercises out there.
A metaphor list is simple. On a notebook, create two columns. In one column, write down only concrete nouns. Things like a pillow, a tree, a cat, a cloud, and anything that can be perceived with one of the five senses.
In the other list, write down only abstract ideas. Things like love, hate, war, peace, justice, closure, and reconciliation — anything that is conceptual and cannot be directly perceived.
Now, choose a random noun and a random concept, and create a metaphor or simile with them. Delve into the metaphor and explain the comparison. For example, you might say “Love is like a pillow — it can comfort, or it can smother.”
Once you’ve mastered the metaphor list, you can try the following ideas to challenge yourself:
Any free creative writing exercise that focuses on figurative language can aid your writing immensely, as it helps writers add insight and emotionality to their work. This is an especially great creative writing exercise for beginners as they learn the elements of style and language.
Of course, the best way to improve your creative writing skills is simply to write every day. Keeping a daily journal is a great way to exercise your writing mind. By sitting down with your personal observations and writing without an agenda or audience, a daily writing practice remains one of the best writing exercises , regardless of your genre or level of expertise.
Consider these ideas for your daily journal:
Learn more about keeping a journal here:
How to Start Journaling: Practical Advice on How to Journal Daily
Many of these writing exercises might feel challenging at first—and that’s a good thing! You will unlock new ideas and writing strengths by struggling through these creative challenges. The main point is to have fun with them and use them to explore within your writing, without indulging too many monologues from your inner critic.
Are you looking for more exercises to improve your writing skills? Our instructors can offer prompts, illuminating lectures, one-to-one feedback, and more to help you improve your craft. Check out our upcoming creative writing courses , and let’s put these skills to practice.
Thank you for this. I’ve been stuck for months—more than that, actually, and you’d think that a pandemic stay-at-home would be the perfect time to do some writing. But no. I’m as stuck as ever. In fact, the only time I seem able to write consistently and well is when I’m taking one of your classes! I’m still saving my pennies, but these exercises will hopefully get me writing in the meantime. Thanks again!
Hi Kathy, I’m glad to hear some of these tips might spark your creativity 🙂 I feel the same way, I was hoping the stay-at-home order might spark some creativity, but we shouldn’t push ourselves too hard – especially in the midst of a crisis.
The best part about writing: all you have to do is try, and you’ve already succeeded. Good luck on your writing endeavors!
Bravo….!What a great piece! Honestly I learnt a lot here!
I picked interest in poetry just a week ago after reading a beautiful piece which captivated my mind into the world of writing. I’d love to write great poems but I don’t know anything about poetry, I need a coach, a motivator and an inspiration to be able to do this. This piece really helped me but I will appreciate some more tips and help from you or anyone else willing to help, I am really fervid about this.
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for your comment! I’m so excited for you to start your journey with poetry. We have more advice for poetry writing at the articles under this link: https://writers.com/category/poetry
Additionally, you might be interested in two of our upcoming poetry courses: Poetry Workshop and How to Craft a Poem .
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at [email protected] . Many thanks, and happy writing!
[…] 24 Best Writing Exercises to Become a Better Writer | writers.com […]
Hi, kinsey there. Thanks for giving information. it is a very informative blog and i appreciate your effort to write a blog I am also a writer and i like these type of blogs everyone takes more knowledge to check out my essay writing website
As a writer, I often struggle to break free from the chains of writer’s block, but this blog has gifted me with a map of inspiration to navigate through those creative storms. It’s like being handed a box of enchanted writing exercises
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
NEW VIDEO COURSE 🎉
How to Write a Novel
Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months . Learn more →
This curated directory of creative writing exercises was conceived thanks to a collaboration between the top writing blogs of 2024. Use the filters to find and practice specific techniques — and show that blank page who’s boss!
We found 119 exercises that match your search 🔦
A stranger walks into the general store and buys a hammer, a hatchet, some rope, and an apple. What does he do with them?
Picket fence.
Describe your house - or the dream house you hope to get some day.
It is commonly known that a telephone directory might be the most boring text in the entire world. Here is your challenge: write a page of a telephone directory and figure out SOME way to make it interesting.
NEW VIDEO COURSE
Your story matters. Unlock your potential with daily video lessons from bestselling ghostwriter Tom Bromley, and finish your first draft in just 3 months. Learn more →
Pick a fiction book from your shelf. Go to page eight and find the eighth sentence on the page. Start with that sentence and write an eight-line poem that connects in some way to your work-in-progress. For instance, write from the POV of a character, or set the poem in a story setting. Don't worry about poetry forms. Just write eight lines of any length that flow and explore some aspect of character, setting, or theme.
The ellen degeneres show.
A talk show is scripted to promote the guest and discuss topics with which the guest is comfortable. Imagine your protagonist on the Ellen Degeneres Show (or The Late Show With Stephen Colbert - whichever show you're familiar with). What questions would be asked of your protagonist? What funny anecdotes would your protagonist share? Write down the reactions of both your protagonist and the host.
Thank you to all our contributors: Almost An Author, Alyssa Hollingsworth, Anne R. Allen, Bang2Write, Christopher Fielden, Darcy Pattinson, Elizabeth S. Craig, Flogging The Quill, Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips, Helping Writers Become Authors, Katie McCoach, Lauren Carter, Insecure Writer’s Support Group, Mandy Wallace, NaNoWriMo, Nail Your Novel, Novel Publicity, One Stop For Writers, Pro Writing Aid, PsychWriter, re:Fiction, The Journal, The Writer’s Workshop, Well-Storied, Women On Writing, writing.ie, Writing-World.com!
Find the perfect editor for your next book
Over 1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.
Build a writing routine with our free writing app.
Enter your email or get started with a social account:
Learn story writing from the masters
26 Remarkable Comments
Welcome to the creative writing prompts page! What you can find here is a MASSIVE collection of 63 quality writing exercises (basically, each one is a mini-story of its own, with a twist). This is going to be so much fun, and all while you improve your story writing skills.
You can find all kinds of creative writing exercises here. All of them are fiction writing prompts, and they cover almost every genre, plus you can find creative writing prompts about dialogue, characters, plot, for writer’s block, and much, much more…
This is not the usual stuff. I tried to make these writing prompts intriguing. Most of them are complete scenes and even mini-stories.
You can have them. Yes, you own all the rights, even if you base your entire novel on them and get it published and earn a million dollars for the movie rights. They are all yours.
To become a really good story writer, there is only one thing you need to do: Write! And these creative writing prompts should inspire you to write. They should fire your brain up and make your fingers itch.
With each of these prompts, you can train one specific aspect of your writing; either a genre, or your dialogue or story starter skills, etc…
Also, pick your favorite creative writing prompt, do it, and post it in the comments! Let’s make this a page for everybody to share their creative writing. The more you guys comment and actually do these prompts, the more prompts I will add in the future.
To top it all off, you can also download these prompts. Find a neat PDF collection of all the prompts here:
(Click on the genre to get to the prompts)
1. Romance Writing Prompts
2. Mystery Writing Prompts/Suspense Writing Prompts
3. Fantasy Writing Prompts
4. Science Fiction Writing Prompts
5. Horror Writing Prompts
6. Thriller Writing Prompts
7. Adventure Writing Prompts
8. Action Writing Prompts
9. Historical/Medieval Writing Prompts
10. Dialogue Writing Prompts
11. Character Writing Prompts
12. Plot Writing Prompts
13. Short Story Writing Prompts
14. Writing Prompts with Pictures
15. Writing Prompts for Writer’s Block
16. Story Starters Writing Prompts
17. Unusual Creative Writing Prompts
Bonus: Other Writing Prompts Websites
Romance writing prompts.
[ Read detailed tips about how to write a romantic scene her e . ]
Writing Prompt 1:
On the night before his marriage, Robert gets a visit. It’s Rachel, the girl that grew up next door and has been his best friend ever since. They had always pushed back any feelings for each other, “we are just friends.” (Yeah, right…!).
Now Rachel bursts into is home in a last, unexpected try to convince Robert he is marrying the wrong woman and she and he are meant for each other. But a ceremony for 150 guests is already arranged. After a lot of passionate talk and tears, Rachel gets him to agree to a game: “Can you guess what I would do…?” They both jot down 10 questions plus their hidden answers. Whoever can guess more of the other’s answers right, wins.
Will Rachel win and they will spend the night on a bus, escaping the wedding? Or will Robert win and watch devastated Rachel walk off into the night, frustration in his heart and tears in his eyes? You decide!
How you can make this scene shine:
Make the scene captivating by showing the reader why these two are meant for each other: Let them remember what they appreciate so much in each other (show, don’t tell), the special moments they shared, show the missed romantic opportunities, and how they complement each other perfectly.
Your reader will hope and fear with them and be hooked to your scene like it was her own love story.
Writing Prompt 2:
Gwen and Christopher have been married for 20 years. One night Gwen finds bright red lipstick on the collar of his jacket. Infuriated, she grabs one of his golf clubs, and swings at his car till it looks worse than a bicycle under a freight train.
When she is exhausted and breaks down crying, Christopher can finally explain what happened: Christopher had been with his Chinese language student group. They all had been on their way to a Chinese restaurant for a change, and it had been raining. He lent his jacket to one of his Chinese language students to protect her from the rain. That’s when the lipstick got on the shirt.
Will Gwen believe him and end up sobbing and relieved in his arms? Or will she not believe one word and soon continue with Chris’ Chinese porcelain collection? You decide!
Leave the reader in the dark about why the lipstick really is on the jacket as long as possible, keep the suspense vibrant. Describe Gwen’s pain and the destruction of Chris’ beloved car in energetic detail, so the reader will live with them as if it was their own (heart and car).
Writing Prompt 3:
King Kong, the giant, roaring ape, falls in sweet love with his female counterpart, Queen Kong. While he was terrorizing New York, she was keeping Chicago on its toes. They meet for a date somewhere in the middle, in a dreamy forest (burning trees instead of candlelight, etc…).
They share a romantic dinner (living cattle, farmers…) and discover their common interests: They both love tearing down skyscrapers, putting police cars on top of billboard ads and eating humongous bananas. And oh, don’t even get me started on the sex…
Will these lonely apes form a bond that helps their love survive against all odds/outer resistance? Or will the egomaniacs in them gain the upper hand and tear their love apart? You decide!
How do you express your love when you are a hairy monster the size of a skyscraper? What would be different, what would be absurd? Emphasize the strange contrast between tender feelings and a gigantic physique. Your reader will find their obstacles very different, but equally painful to his own, and love you for it.
Writing Prompt 4:
Lucas has fallen in love with his dentist. His teeth are very healthy, but he is coming into Jasmin’s practice for the third time within three months, in the hope he will be capable of asking her out in a quiet moment, when nobody is listening.
Unfortunately, the doctor has three assistants and one secretary, and even the door to the waiting room doesn’t look too soundproof… Lucas feels like he is on stage in a Shakespearian comedy. Jasmin, on the other hand, lightly makes fun of him, calling him a hypochondriac.
Will Lucas finally have the balls to follow through with his plan? Or will he have to come for a fourth time? Will Jasmin sense what’s up, and will she be attracted or just annoyed? You decide!
Emphasize the contrast between the nonchalant everyday business of the doctor and her assistants, and Lucas’ timid desire to ask her out. Whatever angle he takes, he is running out of time and of Jasmin’s professional attention. How does he feel? Describe his troubled inner life, and your reader will identify strongly and feel for him.
Additional Romance Writing Prompt:
Also see the SF bonus prompt here . It’s a double prompt for two genres, romance and science fiction.
Writing Prompt 5:
Animal-loving Naomi is at her parents’ holiday home. She is observing a small hut at the forest edge. A van shows up there on three nights back to back. Each time, it seems to pick up something. Naomi sees dark silhouettes sneaking around with flashlights.
One night she decides to sneaks closer, and through a gap in the curtains sees a stack of antlers and fur: She has discovered the sinister doings of poachers. Will Naomi alert the police, or will she be so furious she decides to act on her own? Will she stay undiscovered once the van’s headlights show up on the hill? You decide!
Make the readers wonder “What the heck is going on…?” as often as possible, it will make for a suspenseful story. Show how kind, smart and brave Naomi is, so readers fear for her life. Then make the bad guys come.
Writing Prompt 6:
Paris, 19 th century: Detective Beaumont follows his suspect Forestier, who is wearing a long trench coat. He believes Forestier to be the long hunted for “rose murderer.” That murderer always leaves the rare rose variety “Farewell” on his victims’ bodies. The rose can only be bought in one shop in Paris, and if Forestier walks to that shop today, it is almost certain he is the murderer.
Indeed Forestier’s ways lead him to the flower shop in question. When he comes out, the detective follows him into a narrow street to arrest him. He lays his hands on his shoulders, but once he turns him, he sees that it’s not Forestier – he has been played! The real Forestier must have left the flower shop through a back door, and is now up to who-knows-what…
Will that second person have another trap in store for Detective Beaumont? Will the detective get to Forestier before bad things happen? You decide!
Get into the detective’s head! Show his enthusiasm about finding the long sought-after murderer, his doubts, his shock at the discovery! Show the looming danger he is in. It will make for a terrifyingly good scene…
Writing Prompt 7:
Jeremy has a neighbor whose wife has been missing for months. Jeremy is sitting in his living room, watching a documentary about the most beautiful graveyards of the world. It says that the human body and bones are excellent fertilizers and make plants grow like crazy.
He looks out the window and that huge, blooming rose bush in his neighbor’s garden catches his eye. It’s elevated on a small hill of loose soil, and it’s even more striking, as the rest of his garden is barren ground. Suddenly, Jeremy remembers that the name of his neighbor’s wife is Rose…
In this scene, a lot is happening on a mental level, and little on a physical level. Dive into Jeremy’s somber thoughts and his shocking suspicion. But at the same time, remain some outside stimulus going: E.g. Describe images of the documentary, the landscape of the garden, a clock striking ten, etc… It makes for a well-balanced scene.
Writing Prompt 8:
The four goblins Hukput, Paddycest, Nixxle and Klozzik are on their way to the cave of the Redwing dragon Isidur. They carry a delicious moore rabbit steak with minty potatoes. They plan to present it to him as humble offering of submission, but in reality the dish is soaked with a sleeping potion so they can rob his enormous pile of golden cups, chains and ducats. Will Isidur smell the bait? Or will his loud snoring fill the cave while the goblins hastily get away with as much gold as they can carry? You decide!
Describe how the deceitful goblins try to get suspicious Isidur to devour their dish. Which tactics do they employ? They are so small, and the dragon is so powerful, but will they nevertheless outsmart him? Describe the wide, majestic nature of the landscape and the cave. Tricky and powerful creatures as well as moody sceneries make for a great fantasy story.
Writing Prompt 9:
Magician Axius is potent, old and absent-minded. He wants to put a spell on his best cooking spoon so it should cook his favorite meal, chicken with sweet pepper. But he gets a detail in the spell wrong. The spoon starts to brutally attack all of the chickens in the patio.
Which unlikely places does the spoon go to while Axius is after it? How does Axius make his way through the terrified flock of chickens? And which spells does he use when trying to calm down his good spoon? You decide!
Time to try some “cute,” homespun fantasy! Lay out the small worries of a big magician. Even he needs to take care of overexcited pets and unruly household goods some time. It’s just that he has more powerful ways to deal with them…
Writing Prompt 10:
Two bored dwarfs, Onyx and Hafax, guard a castle’s entrance. They get into an argument who can throw stones further. While they prove their skills to each other, unfortunately a stone hits a giant who is sleeping in the castle ditch. She comes after them furiously. Will she smash their surprised faces to porridge, or can the resilient dwarfs talk her out of it? You decide!
Show the simple, but competitive nature of the dwarfs. They feel strong and then suddenly very weak… Describe the frightening power of the giant. Show your readers a world of many wonders that only exist in fantasy.
Writing Prompt 11:
The ogre Grawczak is invited to a talk show about strange creatures. Believing in the best intentions of TV and eager to help make races understand each other better, he accepts. The vicious questions on air take him by surprise: “Why do ogres smell so bad; don’t they care other people are disgusted?” and “What does human flesh taste like?”
Will Grawczak just freeze in face of the bright studio lights and endure the process? Will he let them provoke him and look really bad? Or will he just eat the moderator with some spices? You decide!
Describe how helpless the big ogre feels in face of the media. Contrast it with the sensational malice of the moderator. If you can paint the ogre as a likeable being, your readers will root for him strongly. If only we understood ogres better, the world would be a more peaceful place!
Writing Prompt 12:
It’s an intergalactic poker tournament. Different races from different galaxies have come together. On one of the tables, the only players left are Froggosaurus, The Big Dust, Rhonda Seventeen-Tentacle and the Red Snailman.
Snailman is doing really well, too well for Rhonda. She suddenly reaches out behind his ear and pulls out a mindreader chip! Will the angry players grill Snailman, or will he be able to flee? Maybe an angry/apologetic dialogue ensues that ends with a bargain? You decide!
Writing Prompt 13:
In 2230, humans have conquered Mars. Automated skytrains run through its red desserts. One of these is stopped by a technical glitch at rush hour. The doors are stuck. When the passengers hear the voice of the control system robot through the loudspeakers, they realize the full extent of the disaster…
The system has come to the conclusion that it’s now superior to its creators, and it is planning to take over. It will open the hydraulic doors for the passengers and allow them to leave, under one condition: They have to chain three programmers in the group to a grabpole in the train and leave them behind. It becomes obvious that the system wants to eliminate the last persons that could still endanger its rule: The most talented programmers…
Will the passengers yield to the insane robot’s demand in order to save their lives? Will they try a trick and risk it all? You decide!
Writing Prompt 14:
Zwooshers look like fluffy, pink, door-high pet giraffes – you just want to cuddle them. But their looks are deceiving! They are actually plundering, reckless space pirates.
In the meeting hall, their captain Haab (eye patch, ruffled plush fur, wooden foot, spacemaid tattoo…) holds an inflammatory speech to hype up his crew. They are about to take the freight space ship that showed up on their radar. The ship must carry at least 65 tons of wood shavings, and Haab wants to take them all!
The crew is all hyped up and ready to go, when Haab trips over his wooden leg and falls off the stage. It looks pretty pathetic for a heroic leader. Will the crew just take this as a sign that chaos and plundering can now ensue, and storm forward? Or will this end the captain’s authority and make the horde want to feed him to the Spacephins? You decide!
Writing Prompt 15:
In 2075, the company Cryptofreeze™ offers the simplest, most effective method to time-travel into the future: They freeze your complete organism and defrost you after the desired period of time. Raul Morales was president of Payadua for 12 years. The laws state that he can’t run for office again for the following 4 terms (24 years). His solution is to get frosted for that period.
He is unfrozen in a big televised show that is transmitted directly into the communication chips of the population’s brains. The show features his frozen body in a transparent casket, lasers, dancers, etc… It should be one huge campaign appearance for the upcoming election.
His rivals do their best to make him look bad though: They smuggle in their own audience to boo and ask the wrong questions, they sabotage the lightning, etc… Will they succeed in derailing his campaign, or will Morales’ reputation shine brighter than ever before? You decide!
Bonus Prompt 16: Romance/Science Fiction Writing Prompt
But Cryptofreeze™ also attracts clients with a completely different set of problems: Henry loves Leila and is sure she is the girl he wants to be with. The problem is that she is 19 and he is 58.
Write two scenes:
Henry wants to talk to Leila and finds her on the running track (where the inner track travels less distance than the outer track, but they are still running side by side…). They jog next to each other, which painfully exposes their age difference. He confesses his love to her, she tells him she can’t live with the age difference, and he tells her he has booked his spot with Cryptofreeze™ and that she should make sure she will be free in 30 years. They say farewell in tears.
Henry is unfrozen, but something has gone horribly wrong: Because of a technical failure he has been frozen double time, for 60 years. Leila is now 79, while he is still 58. Roles are reversed, but it’s not as fun as it was supposed to be… Devastated, Henry visits Leila in her nursery home. She is kept in a large metal box, taken care of by robots who drive her out into the garden once per day.
Will they rediscover their love for each other, or will the circumstances have changed them too much? Will the thought of having missed out on all that precious time just kill them? Or will the make the best of it and find happiness? You decide!
You can download a complete collection of all the prompts on this page on a neat sheet. Save them for whenever you need them! Enter your email here for your PDF of printable writing prompts:
Writing Prompt 17:
Joanna has won a vacation weekend in an old castle. Not many guests are there. Wandering the wide halls, she learns about Count Brookhart, the 16 th century owner of the castle. He stole another nobleman’s wife, started a war, and was beheaded. He is rumored to be roaming these halls as a ghost. The castle’s ancient chronicles state that he will only be redeemed if a living woman kisses him on her knees. Sounds pretty strange, doesn’t it…?
At night, Joanna gets up to look for the bathroom. She only hears wind; a book falls from a shelf out of nowhere. And these heads on the old portraits all seem to turn after her…
She looks into a mirror – and freezes. Behind her is the Count, his eyes beseeching her for a kiss. And she would have to kneel to kiss him, because he is carrying his head under his arm, blood-dripping… Does Joanna feel like redeeming the count? What will happen if she does/doesn’t? You decide!
Describe the setting, the emptiness and the uneasy details. Let Joanna wonder what is going on and show her fear. In the end, go for the terrible shock effect!
Writing Prompt 18:
Gina’s beloved cat Tiger has been feverish and dizzy lately. At a fair, Gina sees a tent with a sign “Voodoo Healings $5.” Inside, she finds an old, hunched woman. She sits down in a strange chair with split rods, and her hair gets caught. The hag speaks a spell and gestures with her hands, then motions Gina to leave.
Outside at the fruit stands, Gina suddenly feels very sick, and it occurs to her what her hair could have been used for… Will she return to demand every single one of her strands back? Or will she already feel too sick and go for a more extreme solution? Will the old woman be gone or deny everything? You decide!
Don’t describe Gina’s fear, but instead describe what makes her scared: Show details of the witch’s looks and how the witch acts, describe Gina’s physical condition. Show how awful it is not to know where the horror is coming from. It will make your readers feel it strongly.
Writing Prompt 19:
When Lucy comes home, she finds her daughter Luna sitting on the floor sobbing, surrounded by broken glass. Luna has just smashed every single mirror in the house. She tells her mother that she saw ‘The Eater’ appearing behind her shoulder in the mirrors: Some dark silhouette that was coming to take a huge bite out of her.
Lucy tries to calm down her hysterical daughter, and is already going through a list of psychiatrists in the back of her head. In the evening, after cleaning up the house, she is applying make-up to go out for an important business dinner. Suddenly she notices huge black teeth appearing behind her in the little mirror…
Will Lucy shake it off as her imagination running wild? Or will she smash the make-up kit? How will she try to save herself and her daughter? And for how long can you avoid mirrors, which surround us… everywhere. You decide!
Have you ever had the feeling that you don’t know what’s going on? Pretty unsettling, right? Give disturbing, moody details about the silhouette, its appearances and effects, but don’t explain the why this is happening. We don’t know why terrible things happen to good people. And that’s scary.
Writing Prompt 20:
Zombie apocalypse has arrived. TV stations finally have the audience they deserve… For the zombies, it’s one huge party, and the humans are desperately holding onto their arms and socio-economic systems.
Four zombies are robbing a bank. Their advantages: Bullets don’t bother them, they really don’t need masks, and they have a natural gift to scare the shit out of the employees. Disadvantages: They are just so damn slow. Imagine a bank robbery in slow motion, and a couple of limbs falling off the robbers on their way out… Will the rotten gang get away thanks to their ‘Shock and Awe’? Or will the guards be quick-witted and find a way to protect themselves and attack? Where is the hunt going? You decide!
Show how absurd this scenario is. How is it different from an ordinary bank robbery? Think it through, and you will get to a couple of interesting scenarios.
Writing Prompt 21:
Jeff is the bloodhound type of a prosecutor. He is currently prosecuting the big ice cream company “Freezelicious.” They are accused of using harmful ingredients. Since Jeff took on that trial, he has been having the feeling that somebody is following him. Yesterday at the gas station, today during the break at a restaurant, and now this Mercedes has been behind him for 20 minutes.
He makes two daring and illegal maneuvers with his car, but just as he thinks he got rid of the Mercedes, it appears in his rearview mirror. He parks at a shopping center and disappears into the bathroom. After a while, the Mercedes driver comes in, and Jeff smashes him against the wall and starts to interrogate him. Turns out the guy isn’t sent by Freezelicious, but by their cheaper competitor Mega Cream. They want to make sure nothing bad happens to Jeff, because they are afraid Freezelicious wants to get him out of the way. Will Jeff just be pissed and throw the guy out? Or will he be secretly grateful? Has Freezelicious indeed planned an assassination? You decide!
Write Jeff’s inner dialogue in short sentences throughout the scene, and alternate it with action bits. Let him wonder whether somebody is following him (yes, no, yes, no) and what they could want. Show his anxiety and uncertainty.
Writing Prompt 22:
Seems like Amanda’s new co-worker Gregory does not waste any time: On his second day in office he asked her out. She declined, and the next week he asked her again with flowers in his hand. She explained he wasn’t her type, no hard feelings.
Today, when she leaves her house, she finds a shocking image: Somebody nailed her cat to the trashcan! In tears, she pulls her lose and buries her in the backyard. On the bus to work, dreadful thoughts race through her head: How can a human be capable of doing something like this? Did Apple suffer for long? Was it just some cruel and mindless kid? Is she in danger? And did she forget to close the bathroom window…?
At work, Gregory sticks his head into her office: “So how is your cat?” he asks… How will this terrible poker game continue? Can Amanda keep cool? You decide!
Again, get into Amanda’s head and play with her uncertainty. How would it make you feel if your co-worker was a dangerous maniac? Grief, terror, vengefulness, remorse… you can draw from all of these strong emotions.
Writing Prompt 23:
Herbert wants to call his son Gerd in from playing in the garden. But he only finds Gerd’s teddy with the head missing, and a note to bring 100,000 € to the Zombie House at the amusement park. If he informs police or doesn’t pay, he will get his son back like his teddy…
Four days later, police are waiting outside the Zombie House, while Herbert roams its eerie corridors, with a backpack filled with 100,000 €. Suddenly, out of the dark, a moldy looking hand grabs his backpack, while his son appears at the end of the corridor. He lets the backpack go and walks towards his son, who suddenly disappears… Will a wild chase between zombie masks ensue? What is waiting in the dark? Will the kidnappers notice the police, and what will they do then? You decide!
Uncertainty and mood! Describe the horrible thoughts of a father fighting for his son. Describe the dark, frightening atmosphere of the Zombie House. Here, your worst nightmares come true…
Writing Prompt 24:
An expedition into the jungle has gone wrong. Desmond is an intrepid, bearded explorer who set out with his team to explore the tropical wild. But they got caught by aborigines.
Then something strange happens: Affectionately, they are asked to put on shoes made of parsley and onion necklaces… Seems like these aborigines are hungry.
Jungle-smart Desmond knows their best bet is to make themselves look toxic. He orders his team to rub violet berries and black roots all over their bodies, to punch a couple of each other’s teeth out and to writhe and babble like an insane person. Will the wild tribe be disgusted, and what will they decide to do with them? Or will they just laugh and proceed to produce a tasty casserole? You decide!
Writing Prompt 25:
Four women are stranded on a small, rocky island. To their dismay, the boat they came in is leaky. The extreme situation makes their masks come off and exposes the true nature of each one:
Ellen freaks out. She blames Ruth for booking a damaged boat and Mary for forgetting to take walkie-talkies with them, even though she had been in charge of equipment.
Ruth can’t stop sobbing, she is pale and shaky and can’t be moved from the rock she is sitting on.
Mary tries to bring all of them onto the same page, so they can work together. She holds Ruth in her arms and sings to her.
Bethany makes a list of possible actions to take and tries to assign tasks to everyone (look for food, try to repair boat, look for material for smoking signal, etc…).
Describe the group dynamics. It could be an upward or a downward spiral. Will the women work together and find a way out of this? Or will they become worked up against each other and start to fight? Will a rescuing boat show up once they are at their lowest point and make them all feel shocked about themselves? You decide!
Writing Prompt 26:
Tobias and Rafael, two colleagues, are trying to reach the top of a mountain in the Himalayas. They are close to the peak, but Tobias knows it’s too dangerous to continue. Once they reached the top, it would get dark and cold, and the descent would be very dangerous. He decides to turn around, but he can’t get Rafael to come with him.
At night he is in his tent and hears Rafael asking for help over the walkie-talkie. The poor guy is sitting high up there in a freezing cold cave without food, and it’s not clear whether he will survive the night. Will Tobias risk his life for a colleague who has disregarded all safety rules? Or will he just encourage him over radio and pray? Will there be calm conditions the next day? You decide!
[ Read detailed tips about how to write an action/fight scene her e . ]
Writing Prompt 27:
Alfredo is a celebrity cook who loves the good life. That’s why he owes the mafia money.
One day, two gentlemen shaped like bull dozers in suits pay him a visit. They quickly surround him and send him friendly reminders to pay with their brass knuckles and baseball bats. But Alfredo is quick and flexible. He rams a cucumber into their ribs, then quickly jumps over the big counter in the middle of the kitchen.
The weapon of a cook is food… He throws some butter at their feet, so they slide and stumble, and scatters pepper into their eyes. Howling, disorientated and furious, they speed in opposite directions around the block. Alfredo quickly jumps onto the counter, and coming from opposite directions, they crash into each other like colliding trains and stay on the floor unconscious. Alfredo goes on to cook a celebratory cake.
Will the two suddenly wake up and go for Alfredo again? How will he get their heavy bodies out of there? Or is this won already? You decide!
Mix the threat and pain of the cold-blooded torturers with quick dynamic phrases of action (verbs of movement; commas not full stops; graphic descriptions).
Writing Prompt 28:
Prison break time is the best time of the year: Hector, Axl, and Hans have been digging their way to freedom for months. Tonight, they lift the tiles for the last time, hastily crawling through the narrow tunnel. Stuck in the middle, they hear an alarm going off. How were they discovered so quickly? When they block the tunnel behind them with earth and debris, it feels like filling their own graves.
They hear guards crawling after them while rapidly digging the last tunnel part. Once out in the forest, they run! They discuss splitting up, but Hans refuses. They hide in trees, but are discovered by police quickly. They jump into a river, hearing police dogs behind them. Flushing down the river, a waterfall comes up. Whaaaam, freefall! Surely no policeman or dog can follow them here, so they feel safe finally! Until they are washed right into the arms of police waiting at the shore… How is that possible?
The cops have handcuffs for Hector and Axl, and a towel for Hans, who takes a tracker out of his sock… Will the other two try to strangle him? What will be his reward, and how could he have the guts to betray his companions? You decide!
Make it a big surprise and mystery how the cops always know where they are. And give us a taste of what it feels like to be human prey: Use short, quick, hectic sentences to give a sense for the quick pace of the hunt.
Writing Prompt 29:
The “Three Apples” hospital is in flames. On the 9 th floor, nurses Jenny and Linda try to save the babies of the preemie ward. The way downstairs is already blocked by flames, and there is only one way left: Up!
The girls are on the rooftop with the babies, and Jenny brought a container, and a sheet they use as a “cable.” She ties one end around a chimney and sails over the gap onto the neighbor building with a blood-freezing jump. They push the babies safely to the other side one by one like on cable cars, until only Linda is left. But she has major fear of heights, and now the babies are safe, her body has time to panic. The flames come closer.
Will Jenny be able to help her out with another trick? Will she find her courage, or will a helicopter rescue her at the last moment? You decide!
Babies and puppies are your best pawn! Make your reader fear for these helpless little creatures, and fall in love with their brave and quick-thinking helpers. You can heighten that effect by giving the girls very distinctive personalities, and showing their inner struggles. They are no superheroes, they have to earn this!
Writing Prompt 30:
The middle ages. One of the famous “morality plays” is played in the village. These are basically thinly veiled guidelines for the people on how to behave. This one is for kids though, and very short to allow for their attention span. It tells kids how to behave properly, so mom and dad will love them and they won’t go to hell.
The play features Adam, the good kid, clean and in white like an angel; and Roger, the bad kid, looking nasty in rugs and always misbehaving. Several allegories are also around: Obedience is a thin figure in a long, flowing dress, always looking down. Diligence is a muscular guy with rolled up sleeves and leather apron; Adam tries to be like him, while Roger bites his leg. In the end, Adam is showered with candy toys and even a pet calf, while Roger gets a bloodletting and an ass-whipping. But suddenly the kids in the audience start to cheer and stamp: The calf has lifted its tail and peed all over Adam!
Do the kids get their own morality out of that play? How will the director and authorities turn this around to keep them in line? Will independent thinking or order prevail? You decide!
Create a couple more figures for the “play within the play.” If you constantly switch between the reality of the village and the reality in the play, it will make for nice variety. Get creative on both ends!
Writing Prompt 31:
Francis is a troubadour all girls have a crush on, kind of the Justin Bieber of the 12 th century. He has been courting charming Amalia night after night under her window. Tonight, he sings her his romantic poem “Thou Art the Bellows of Mine Heart.”
Amalia is enchanted, but soon rumbling is heard in the house: Her father has woken up, and that usually leads to him chasing Francis around the house with a rolling pin. He is a wealthy merchant and doesn’t approve of her tie to a penniless poet. The rumbling becomes louder while they speak.
Finally, merchant Robertson rips open the front door and screams up at his daughter: “What happened to the rolling pin!!?” Turns out Amalia has wisely hidden it… Will merchant Robertson get even angrier now? Or will he be charmed by his baby’s wit? Will he do damage to her poor suitor? You decide!
Love is in the air, so describe how and why these two are sighing/yearning for each other: The longing, the flirting, the plans. Draw from romances in your own life, because love never changed throughout the centuries. Disrupt that romance with an angry, drowsy man for great effect!
Writing Prompt 32:
Ancient Rome: On a big “forum” (square), a slave auction is held. Huno, a big, muscular Alemannic slave in heavy chains is next in line. Gaius, a newly rich plebeian, wants to acquire him so he can wear himself out on his construction sites by pulling heavy blocks. Gracelanus, a town clerk, would treat Huno much better and use him as a body guard.
Huno is ordered to demonstrate his power, and he breaks thick logs of wood over his thighs. Gaius lets out humiliating comments like “Work it, proud animal!” or “All the brains are in his upper arms.” He gives him the whip several times to test his resilience. Gracelanus, on the other hand, remains quiet, only to applaud the demonstrations.
When the bid goes to 800 sesterces, these two are the only bidders left. Gaius is hesitating for a moment, and suddenly Huno turns to the side of the stage and lets a heavy log fall on Gaius’ feet. Screaming and swearing, Gaius jumps in circles, while the bid goes to Gracelanus. Will Gaius accept his defeat, or will he get back at them? If Huno is provoked further, can he keep his cool? You decide!
Slavery is disgusting to the modern reader. It has an even bigger effect, if you, the author, don’t judge. Just present the auction as everyday life. Huno’s humility to his own fate, Gaius’ cruelness… try to describe it without emotions.
Writing Prompt 33:
Punker girl Samantha (pierced tongue, “Anarchy” tattoo, etc…) is detained for stealing a skateboard bit by bit from a sports store (wheels first, then axle, etc…). Her attorney George is a seasoned vet. At his office, he tries to explain to the stupid brat what’s about to happen and what he wants her to do in front of court: Explain that she had just been bored and curious how to dissemble a skateboard, wanting to prove herself, and that she would have brought the complete skateboard back. Samantha is not too concerned about all of this and wishes the old man was a little more chill.
Write their dialogue and show how differently they speak about their agendas, different words they use, tone, rhythm, etc… Will George hammer some sense into the teenager? Or will Samantha stay unimpressed and make him lose his cool? You decide!
What it’s good for:
It’s important your characters’ voices sound different from each other. This exercise trains you to give each character their distinctive voice.
Writing Prompt 34:
Greta has lent her pick-up truck to her cousin Iris to transport some furniture. Unfortunately, a little accident happened: The truck perfectly fit around the pillar of the gateway.
Iris enters the kitchen, where Greta is cooking. At first, she is afraid to confess and wants to cheer up Greta’s mood with some enthusiastic compliments. She hesitates and finally confesses.
Greta is busy and hectic when Iris enters, to get dinner ready before guests arrive. She is happy to see Iris return and asks about the furniture buying, then wants to rush her out of her kitchen. After Iris confesses, Greta feels like everything is going wrong on that day and becomes hysteric. Will Iris be able to calm her down? Or will the two women get into a big fight, just before the guests arrive? You decide!
This scene takes the two protagonists through a rollercoaster ride of emotions. It will train you to always let your characters express their feelings and to insert a lot of emotions into your scenes.
Writing Prompt 35:
Fibby & Fozzy are twins. Their mom has died recently, and their uncle Gerald wants to trick them out of the largest part of their inheritance. He just presented a new, fake will that would only leave them a small heritage. They discuss what steps they could take against their uncle’s scam, and they speak about it at their mom’s favorite place on earth, the zoo.
Show them walking through the scenery in a way that the animals provide some subtle subtext for whatever they are talking about. E.g. when they talk about how ruthless their uncle is, they watch a lion tearing his meat apart; when they talk about how they love their mother, they are watching a cute baby panda, etc…
This should improve your sense to connect what your characters are talking about with their environment. Adding a bit of subtext is easy and makes your scene deep and rich.
Writing Prompt 36:
A popular comedian sits on a park bench. He is the type that shocks and amuses his audience with outrageous ideas. A bum sits down next to him. The comedian asks the bum for change. Is this just a lighthearted joke that will ease out into a philosophical discussion about humanity? Or will the bum be seriously offended and react? You decide!
Train your characters to sound real with this one. When the erratic, playful, ruthless comedian clashes with the tired bum, you can lend your characters raw and realistic voices.
A. Writing Prompt 37: Shading
Jeff is a very analytical-thinking stock broker; people call him cold-blooded. Sheryl is an elementary school teacher with a big heart. Andy is an always positive and slightly naive flight attendant.
Describe their characters and add one trait to each of them that doesn’t look like them at all. Describe why they have this trait.
Giving your characters an unexpected trait is called “Shading.” E.g. the wealthy, stingy man, who often gives to charity, so he can have the feeling his life has more meaning. If the unexpected trait makes sense, it will give your character a lot of depth and make her look very three-dimensional.
B. Writing Prompt 38: Description
Romeo is a young private detective who dresses like a college boy, with baseball cap and saggy clothes (excellent disguise!). Lana is a stressed restaurant manager. Hannah is a street-artist selling her artwork on a busy corner.
You are having coffee on a lazy Sunday afternoon and are observing each of them separately. Describe their looks, clothes, movements, etc…, so we get a sense for who they are.
Train to describe your characters with this one. Give your readers a sense for who your figures are, simply by listing observations about them. This is pure “Show, don’t tell!” and satisfying for your reader, as she feels like the observer herself.
C. Writing Prompt 39: Backstory
Mariella is an arrogant high-society lady with an expensive fur coat and a little poodle. Henry is a pickpocket with the body language of a beaten dog. Susan is a “speedy reporter,” always driven by the desire to get the latest news first.
Describe their backstories in a couple of sentences each: How did they grow up? What are their biggest fears and desires? What made them who they are? How were they hurt?
This prompt will get you into the habit of rooting your characters in a strong backstory. It will make them look as embraceable as your best friend.
D. Writing Prompt 40: Behavior
Hans is a funny hot-dog street vendor who likes to entertain his customers. Tia is a tax inspector who always welcomes expensive jewelry from companies. Laura is a waitress who is really good at making her customers feel welcome.
Show us how each of these characters would react to the following situations: Somebody carelessly shoving them on public transport. An acquaintance (not friend) asking them to borrow some money. Finding a beautiful rare snail during a bike trip.
Here you are letting your characters act out of their distinctive personalities. We all react very differently to the same situations. Let your figures express themselves!
Take the following words and construct a story plot around them. Use them in any order. Describe a short plot summary. Try to add something: Characters, locations, subplots, details, twists. The more you add, the more colorful your story will become. The only rule is that you must use all of the words. Slashes mean you can pick between words.
Writing Prompt 41:
Suitcase – traffic jam – star – contract – drug – celebration – stairs/piano/autograph – beggar – apple
Writing Prompt 42:
Library – rodent – love/hobby/fanatic – magic – flowers – legend/fairy tale/rumor – birthday pie – clock
Writing Prompt 43:
Monastery/Brewery/Pet shop – breeding – tears – wheel – green – rebel – friend – cozy/thick/dirty
Writing Prompt 44:
Cigar – anger – policeman – pill – polite – celebrate/encourage/humiliate – husband – double-edged
Writing Prompt 45:
James and Agnes are throwing their engagement dinner. James’ ex Dina is invited too. Secretly, she still loves him and hates Agnes. During the dinner, she spreads the rumor that Agnes scammed her boss Dimitri out of money/cheated on her fiancée with several of her co-workers/infected people at her office with some disgusting disease. At the after-dinner reception, Dimitri shows up unexpectedly, which leads to really awkward situations for a couple of people.
How will the guests look at Dimitri, Agnes and James? Which awkward misunderstandings and accusations will it lead to? Will somebody clear this up and get Dina kicked out, or will James lose all his trust in his fiancée? You decide!
Writing Prompt 46:
Bruno and Benedict are two kids selling lemonade at their street stand. It’s not going well. A stranger in a trench coat, with a wig and huge sunglasses stops by. He offers to buy all of their lemonade, if they do him a quick favor: Over there on the park bench, a guy with a big sports bag/lady with an expensive jewelry necklace/businessman with a black briefcase is sitting. They should threaten him/her with the knives they use for cutting lemons, and bring him the sports bag/necklace/briefcase. He says it’s a prank for a TV show.
Will the kids agree, and will they actually pull through? If yes, will the wigged guy escape untroubled? Or will the little ones be smart, maybe talk to the guy/woman on the bench? You decide!
Writing Prompt 47:
Randolph is a casino supervisor. He has a crush on that new croupier Lara. Lara on her part has a plan to take her own extra salary from the casino… The two stay after closing hours and get into a risky game: They will play one hour of roulette. If Lara wins, Randolph will turn a blind eye in the upcoming month while chips “disappear.” If James wins, Lara will sleep with him.
Who will come out in front? Or will they call it a draw and declare two winners? And how will the dynamics between the two of them develop during the game? You decide!
Writing Prompt 48:
Gary has been sleepwalking lately. When he wakes up in his bed, he doesn’t remember where he has been, but he finds oily car parts/squashed chocolate/earthy bones in his bed (depending on the genre you want to write in).
Gary’s nephew Walter is working at the car repair shop/chocolate factory/graveyard of the village. Gary asks him to stay at night after his shift, and observe what he is doing in his sleep. But is it even a coincidence Walter is working there? Is Gary subconsciously trying to tell his nephew something, to warn him, help him, or even sabotage him? Will Walter discover something funny or terrible, and can he even tell his uncle the truth the next day? You decide!
Write a story around the following image:
Writing Prompt 49:
Writing Prompt 50:
Image: Interior Design/Shutterstock
Writing Prompt 51:
Image: LaCozza/Fotolia
Writing Prompt 52:
Image: anibal/Fotolia
If you are troubled by writer’s block, try one of these exercise. You will find your mind flowing freely again.
Writing Prompt 53:
Think of a very happy day in your life. Describe what happened on that day and how it made you feel. Were you anticipating it when you woke up, or did you have no idea? What did the people around you say or do?
Just write and don’t overthink. What you write really doesn’t matter. This exercise is designed to get you excited and get your juices flowing, and that’s the only thing that matters.
Writing Prompt 54:
Hansel walks up to Gretel and asks her if she wants to go to the lake with him. She says yes. They dance off into the sunlight.
The most commonplace plot in the world. Your job is to write the entire scene as badly as you can. Uninteresting characters, predictable dialogue, action that makes no sense… Please make sure to mess it all up. The worse, the better! If everybody who reads it cringes, you have succeeded. And if you want, send it to me, and I will tell you how awesome it is you finally got back to writing: alex at ridethepen dot com.
Writing Prompt 55:
Pick the window that’s closest to you right now, as you read this. Look through it. Describe what you see in detail!
For this exercise, completely turn around at least one of your writing rituals: If you usually write at a desk, write on the couch or the floor; if you usually write by computer, write by hand; etc… The new approach will give you a fresh start.
[ Read a post with 31 ways to start your story here . ]
Write a story starting with the following sentences:
Writing Prompt 56:
Anderson knew Amanda as a cheerful person. But on that Wednesday, when she came into the office, she was carrying a big basket, and she looked really sad.
Writing Prompt 57:
Kai looked up at his scary task. This was the craziest thing any contestant of “Where there’s a will, there is a million” ever had to do. It was because he was first! Nobody had ever gotten one step from the million…
Writing Prompt 58:
“Once bitten, twice shy.” That’s all Emma could think while looking at handsome Luis and his bullterrier with the huge jaws. “Once bitten, twice shy.”
Writing Prompt 59:
The day Iggy came into Jasmine’s life, the postman rang twice. That was very unusual, and the reason why it happened was unusual too.
Writing Prompt 60:
Getting stood up at the altar is every bride’s worst nightmare. But what if it happens the other way around? On the day of her wedding, Sophie was nowhere to be found.
Writing Prompt 61:
“I’m so happy, Uncle Albert!” Priscilla screamed into her cell phone as her train was speeding towards London. At that moment, nobody knew that a far-reaching confusion would take place on the train soon.
Writing Prompt 62:
Imagine you are a dog. Now tell me about a day in your life from your perspective. How do you spend your time? Waiting, going for a walk with your owner, hunting a cat? Which emotions do you feel? What concerns you, what makes you happy? What matters? What do you want? Follow your wet snout and describe a typical day.
Writing Prompt 63:
Kurt and Sarah are neighbors in the same building, and they are arguing in the hallway. Kurt thinks he lent Sarah three eggs she never replaced. Sarah claims she replaced them a long time ago.
Emma, an elderly lady, passes by and feels obligated to join: Sarah owes an egg, but it’s just one. The two of them tell her to keep walking, as it’s none of her business.
Erin, a student, passes by, and tries to get all of them to make up in the name of peaceful neighborhood.
Charles, a stressed dad, shouts at all of them to shut up.
Finally, the police comes by and issues a citation against all of them because of public disturbance.
Describe this absurd scene, in which each new participant tries to resolve the quarrel, but tops it up by one additional level. What a mess! Show the good intentions of every party, and how the dialogue finally draws them into the argument. Have fun!
You can download a complete collection of all the prompts on this page on a neat sheet. Enter your email here for your PDF of printable writing prompts:
Check Out These Interesting Writing Prompt Pages As Well:
The Wealthy Writers Club features a list of over 100 very creative prompts (most of them are short ideas).
26 Remarkable Comments. Join in!
Hey Riders,
I wrote this sometime back, and thought it’d be best if I shared it with y’all. I’d already gotten a review from (the amazing) Alex, and he encouraged me to put it up here for all to see. Anyway, hope you like it. comments and recommendations are welcome (positive, and if cutting, then constructive).
Happy riding!
P.S. I had some of the stuff for Gwen’s inner dialogue written in italics… not so sure how to do that here, though. Hoping you will get the drift though. P.P.S. This is prompt #2 ————————————————————————————————————————– Gwen sat at the dining table, sipping her coffee, choking back the bitter taste it left in her mouth. Not as bitter as what I am feeling now. She gazed at the large window that would fill the house with glorious, golden light on bright, sunny days. Now, the storm that was raging outside clouded the skies, and the panes dripped with rain whose fate was sealed. She sipped at the coffee, and swallowed painfully, forcing the black liquid to pass the lump that had formed in her throat, and fan out hotly behind her heart which she felt sure was turning to ice. By the window was Chris’ seat. His wickerwork chair he had bought from China during a trip with his student group. She snickered. How long did he think I was not going to find out? Idiot. She sipped at the coffee, and swallowed. The jacket she had bought for him was sprawled on it. Prime leather, as black as sin. And his heart, too. Twenty years of loving the man poured into buying that jacket, only for it to be poured out like spent coffee grounds. She sipped at her coffee, and looked at the clock. Two minutes past six. He always left the bathroom at two minutes past six. As if on cue, he walked into the room, clad in his thick cotton bathrobe. “Whew, what a day it’s been!” he sighed, slipping his hands into the pockets of the robe. Gwen chose not to listen to him; her attention was fully on the jacket. “Sweetie, is there any more coffee? I need the warmth,” he continued, before his voice became as smooth as oil. “Or will you substitute the coffee?” “Why have coffee, when you have the option of green tea?” Gwen sipped at her coffee, slowly turning to face him. His rich brown eyes were puzzled for a moment, before the corners crinkled in amusement. That did it. She flung the coffee mug at him, and he ducked just as fast. The mug exploded on the glossy white wall, coffee streaming down it like rotten blood from a sore wound. “How dare you find this funny?” she screamed, rising up and walking to the wicker chair. She picked up the jacket, sodden and heavy, and tossed it at him across the length of the room. “Explain that, Chris. Explain why you would do this to me!” “Sweetie, what do you mean?” His voice was filled with worry, fear; did she detect a slight quiver? He turned over the jacket, then his eyes widened in realisation. He knows I know, the lying bastard. The lipstick on the collar, red as his neck would be in a few minutes. “Honey, I can explain…” he started, but Gwen could not bear hearing him call her that. How many more has he called sweetie, or honey? She screamed, anger almost blinding her. Or was it the tears? The hurt? She couldn’t say. “Chris, how could you? Twenty years is nothing to you, is it? All we’ve been through, all we’ve faced, and you decide to have it with a whore. A whore, Chris! A slut whose name you can’t even remember!” She picked up a fine porcelain vase Chris had gotten for her birthday. “Gwen, please, calm down, and I can explain everything.” His tone wa soft, almost pleading. Pleading for forgiveness, which I won’t give today. She flung the vase at him. either he didn’t see it coming, or was slow to react. The vase shattered against his head, the shards burying deep into the thick black locks of his hair. He cried out in pain, then crouched down low. Gwen felt a shocking stab of triumph. Why am I enjoying this? “Gwen, what’s gotten into you? Trust me, it’s not what it seems!” Chris got up, a tiny rivulet of blood oozing across his forehead, into his left eye. “Give me a chance to explain everything!” “As far as I know Chris, you have never gotten into me, for as long as I can remember, and you decided to, what’s the word, get ¬into someone else.” She picked up a golf club from its bag – his bag – next to the chair of iniquity. She glowered as she saw him cower back in fear. “Gwen…” “No, Chris, this isn’t meant for you, though the thought of crushing your cunning serpent, along with his nest of eggs, would greatly satisfy me.” She saw his neck muscles cringe at the description. “Gwen, please. I can explain everything – JUST GIVE ME A CHANCE, WOMAN!” She screamed, a feeble attempt at drowning him out, before pushing past him and running out of the house, through the door and into the rain. She spotted his car; his beloved Kia. Did he do it in our car, with that slut? She yelled in anger, anger that seemed to seep out of every pore and element of her being. A scream she felt must have been last used by a Viking berserker; primal and raw. She smashed in the window, the shards mixing with the rain like diamonds. The next swing landed on the bonnet, denting it and taking a big scrape out of the primer. The third shattered the windscreen, and it fell like a delicate fractal plate of ice. She stopped counting after eight, and by the time she was done, the rain had soaked the interior, the system console was cracked, and the steering wheel was awkwardly askew. She was taking in deep gulps, gasping for air. It’s cold, invisible barbs poked at her throat, mixed with the taste of coffee, rage and blood. She realised she had bit her lip, and the blood was dripping onto the wet driveway in big splotches, mingling with the rain. Chris came up from the dry safety of the porch. If he was angered about the car, she couldn’t see it. She began to sob, and fell to the paved driveway, too exhausted to keep standing. She felt Chris’ warmth, smell and presence surround her. “Gwen, it’s alright. Just give me a chance to explain, please.” “I told you, no, Chris. I can’t keep on living if you were to leave me for another.” She let out another sob, and suddenly felt cold. She held on to Chris, even though he was as drenched as she. Still, she needed to feel if he was real; the Chris she knew would never cheat on her. “Gwen, I was with my students, and for a change, we decided to go have our classes at Wong’s over a light lunch.” His voice was soothing, comforting, real. She pulled him closer. She needed that reality more than anything. “The day began so wonderfully, Gwen; the sky was as blue as your eyes, and I felt it would be best to wear the jacket, and think of you and us.” Now my eyes are red, and puffy. Could he still want me? She felt his tender hand push away wet strands of her hair from her face. She didn’t want to look at him; the very idea of seeing his lips mention that he had slept with another woman – or one of those students? – revolted her. “When we were leaving, it started to rain, and I had to make sure my students got home dry and safe. I gave Nessa my jacket – you remember Nessa; she came to see you at the hospital – to cover herself as we walked to the bus stop. I saw her off, then rushed to my parking spot at the café we always use for our meetings. She had some lipstick on; she was from a date with her fiancé before the class began. It must have rubbed off on my jacket” He wrapped her in his big arms, and she could smell the fragrance of the soap he had used. “I swear, I would never walk out on you, Gwen. Never.” “But I had a miscarriage, Chris. Twenty years, and no children. I thought you didn’t want me anymore, now that we can’t have children…” she sniffled, pushing back the memories of the hospital. The smell of antiseptic, green walls, overly sympathetic nurses… the pain associated with them haunted her still. Haunting me to a point where I’d think my husband would never love me? Yet here he is, with me in the rain, even though I’ve smashed our car to pieces. “Chris, I’m sorry I could never be the wife you wanted. You always wanted kids, even before we got married, you’d say how much of a father you wanted to be. Because of me, you can’t have that dream become a reality.” She began to cry, before Chris gently shushed her. “Before I wanted kids, I wanted you. And as long as I have you, Gwen, well – this is cheesy, but – I don’t need anything else. You’re the most perfect, most amazing woman I know. You are the wife I’ve always wanted.” He chuckled at his feeble attempt of professing love. She found herself giggling. He had always made her laugh with his corny declarations of affection. Probably that’s what I’ve always about him; he is real, and honest, and true. “Can we stay here a bit longer?” She nuzzled up to him. “We haven’t done this since college; our vain attempt at recreating The Notebook.” “Oh, yeah; remember when we almost got struck by lightning?” He laughed, and Gwen smiled up at him. What more could I ask for?
Hey Eddie, good to see you posting this here, because… somebody has to go first, right?
And like I wrote to you via email, this is a great piece of writing. Love the psychology, the dynamics and the details. Plus, you have a wonderful feeling for metaphors, similes, images, etc… Nice!
So who’s next…?
I want to post my prompt and to get it published too. I have two prompts I have finished writing.
Sounds good, just post your prompts here in the comments. Go for it, I’m curious to see what you have got!
Alex, these are the best ever!
Prompt 52 I think is my favorite. Two of the subjects I enjoy are stone-age fiction and science fiction. What nice marriage that prompt brings. Oh, hmm, maybe there could be a real one in that story, seed and egg age difference of 40,000+ years and still viable. No, I gotta quit now. Too much on my desk to handle immediately.
I’ll try to come up with a good prompt in perhaps a week. Kinda busy here at the moment.
Number 16, perhaps Cryptofreeze™ could have a companion, Cryptoflow™ to un-age. Wouldn’t that be really something, the two of them keeping on missing each other by several decades; ironing out their schedule and venue misunderstandings and trying again.
Eddie, I’m going to come back and read yours.
Thanks, Will! Oh, you are thinking along the lines of a love child in space and stone. And number 16, yes, that would be awkwardly tragic and funny. Imagine the thought of just waking up from a couple of decades in the freezer, slowly learning to move your limbs again, and buying some flowers to show up at her doorstep – only to learn that you have to do the freezing all over again…
I know, these exercises take more time than the prompts I usually publish in my posts. But when you are ready, I would love to read yours.
Hey, Alex, writing writing prompts is hard. I feel an urge to keep writing rather than stopping at the prompt. When I promised I’d make one, many days ago, I didn’t know what I had let myself in for.
Your blog sends me a copy of every comment posted on this page. They’ve served as prompts to write a writing prompt.
Writing Prompt # (no particular genre):
He knew he shouldn’t do it, even as he did it. But it was too delicious a thought to be abandoned. It simply had to be created to share with others.
It was a bad, bad habit, he had. A divine idea would arrive, an idea so clear and insightful and, well, full of awesomeness, that it must be manifested. Somehow. And the first step in the direction of that “somehow” was to make a promise to do it. Not a self-promise that nobody else knows about and is easy to neglect, but a promise to someone whose goodwill was important.
As expected, he did it again, true to his habit.
Immediately after he stated the promise, making it irrevocable, he had a sinking feeling.
Your assignment, dear reader who is also a writer, should you choose to accept it, is to unveil the promise and the consequences the poor bloke experiences because of it.
And now, Alex, let me make another promise. That I’ll write a short little story from one of your prompts. Perhaps the cave man prompt I mentioned earlier.
Hey Will, it happens to the best. Your prompt now is to take your time and write whenever you are ready. It doesn’t have to be very long, btw. Sometimes a couple of imaginative paragraphs create a great story in the reader’s mind.
Well, if it happens to the best, then I must be the best, right? :)
This story simply would not cooperate. It refused to become a “stone-age human meets space-suited human”. And insisted to finalize at 1700+ words.
Be all that as it may, here is what the story insisted it must be.
=====================================
Wzzt, the Martian
If they were translated, the whistles and grunts would have meant, “Wzzt, it has been decided that you will welcome the interlopers.”
Wzzt’s protest sounded like a wounded pig. A foreign listener would not have been much deceived.
——
“Base, I see tracks.”
Mars. Every dream, every night since he could remember, from little boy to adult at expedition training, Sam dreamed about Mars — although he could never recall specific details. And here he was.
“Well, I hope you see tracks. You’re following Opportunity’s path.”
“No, these are light tracks on top of what the dust storm left way back in 2018. Round, about the width of my hand, with marks that might be toes or claws.”
“Well, take some pictures and we’ll figure it out when you get back.”
Joe smirked, thinking his trainer was making a fool of himself. On this, their very first mars external operation. He gloried in anticipation of discrediting Sam. Joe had seen the tracks, too, but Sam reported it to base before he had a chance to do so. For once, he was happy not to be first.
It’s impossible, of course, Sam thought. Decades of satellite and robot explorations had proved Mars habitat is inimical to life more complex than bacteria. The track must be something else.
Sam and Joe, trainer and trainee, proceeded along Opportunity’s path, approaching the base of a cliff. In the shadow of the cliff, the two stopped short.
Sam forgot to draw a breath until his body reminded him.
“Base, there is a creature in front of us. It is about half my height with a roundish body, no neck, three short legs with feet that could have made the tracks we saw earlier. It waddles. And it is slowly approaching us.”
“Shit. Pull your weapons, but don’t shoot unless you are in danger. Raise the gain of your mikes. And activate those external speakers we were told we had to have.”
The thing waddled to a comfortable distance, about five times its own height.
It said, “The first humans have arrived on Mars.”
Joe, wanting to be first with the asounding fact, reported, “It speaks English!”
Sam thought, “Shit. This one has tech.”
He followed his thought with, “Base, it played a recording of our arrival transmission to Earth. On our very own comm channel!”
Base responded with, “Yes, we heard it. It seems we have a spheroid waddler with enough tech to intercept our radio transmissions to Earth, record them, and play them back to us on our comm channel. What the hell is it!”
Joe felt deflated. “Well, it did speak English!”
Base ignored Joe, following Sam’s lead like it always had during training and practice.
The thing said, “It speaks English! Base, it played a recording of our arrival transmission to Earth. On our very own comm channel! Yes, we heard it. It seems we have a spheroid waddler with enough tech to intercept our radio transmissions to Earth, record them, and play them back to us on our comm channel. What the hell is it! Well, it did speak English!”
Base told Sam, “That was not a recording. The same voice repeated what all three of us said. There is high intelligence.”
The things said, “Wzzt.”
Base, “What the hell was that!”
Sam, “Base, I think it refers to itself, it’s species or perhaps it’s name.”
Sam bent his knees, pointed at himself, and said,”Sam.”
The thing raised one of its legs and clumsily pointed at itself. “Wzzt.”
“Base, it seems that it’s name is however that word is pronounced.” Sam chuckles and continues, “Maybe we can introduce vowels to its language.”
Wzzt used a leg to point at Joe.
Sam looked at Joe. Joe was shaking.
For the millionth time Sam wondered how Joe got past the psych tests this mission put them all through. Maybe somebody really was bought off, someone who knowingly endangered the first manned mission to Mars by letting Joe slide into the team.
Sam activated Joe’s speaker and said, “Joe.”
Wzzt said, “Sam. Joe. Follow me to my cave,” turned around, and started waddling back the way it had come.
Sam grimmaced as the thought about psyche tests flitted through his mind. An utterly irresistible compulsion contrary to his innate sense of integrity had compelled him to ensure without doubt that he would be posted as head of Mars External Operations.
Sam said, “Base, it originated something. None of us ever said ‘Follow me to my cave,’ or at least not on a radio. It must have learned by listening to us.
Base, “Follow it. But carefully!”
Sam hurried forward, saying “Yes, Base.”
But Joe didn’t move. He seemed to be rooted.
Suddenly, Joe yelled, “It’s an abomination! Humans are the only intelligence! I’ll rid the world of this mad disease!”
Joe raised his weapon to do just that. Base, alert, deactivated it before it could fire.
Base, “Sam, proceed. Please be carefull. I don’t want to lose you.”
Base continued. “Joe, stay where you are. That is an order. Sam will accompany you back to base on his return.”
Then, “Sam, this is private. As you suspected, there were psyche test anomalies. Confirmation came in just before you met Wzzt, however that thing is pronounced.”
“I realize you have no first contact training,” Base continued. “Who would have thunk you’d need it; here, of all places! Use your own judgement and do what you think is right. If we delay for a partner to join you, this opportunity may be lost.”
Wzzt led the way to the cliff.
“Base, there’s a small hole in the cliff, behind a jut and under a rock shelf. Surveilance would have found it only by being within sight on ground level.
Wzzt held up a foot, a clear signal to stop. Then pointed his foot toward the hole.
“This is my cave.”
Wzzt lowered its foot, re-balanced itself, and continued, “If you come in, radio is lost.”
“You are welcome to come in.”
“Base, you heard Wzzt. It is civilized enough to give me a choice. I’m going in, if I can squeeze through that hole.”
“I don’t like this, Sam!”
“Base, you gave me authority.”
“Agreed.”
Wzzt entered the hole.
When Sam entered, it seemed as if the hole expanded to let him through.
Once inside, the light was dim. But he sensed it was a large cavern.
When his eyes adjusted to the dim light, Sam got a surprise. There was Opportunity, taken apart; but not haphazardly. The pieces were laid out in an orderly fasion, each piece labeled.
A dozen creatures of Wzzt’s shape were standing along the wall.
“Base,” Sam started. Then remembered he had no comm signal.
Two of the creatures along the wall stepped forward with an apparatus, setting it near Sam. A dial was turned.
Wzzt said, “Radio found.”
Tentatively, Sam says, “Base, Wzzt tells me we have comm.”
“Clear and no distortions, Sam.”
“Base, Opportunity is in this cave. Taken apart. By experts. No wonder we couldn’t find it after that dust storm. I’ll send you some visual.”
“Sam, are you okay? There are a lot of Wizzes in that cave.”
“Base, they are friendly. They provided the unit that established our comm from within the cave.”
“Sam! Joe has moved. He is running toward your cave. He’s going inside.”
Joe popped through the entrance hole. He grabbed Sam’s weapon, pointing it at Wzzt. Before Sam had a chance to react, Wzzt shriveled into char.
Sam launched himself toward Joe to take him down.
Suddenly, he halted in mid-flight, suspended. He didn’t and couldn’t move. Neither could Joe, being frozen in a leaning-back defense stance. The two were in a static space of some kind, a total absence of motion.
One of the creatures walked over to Wzzt’s ashes and collected them with a deep bag on a handle reminisent of a butterfly net.
The creature waddled over and forcefully put the bag over Joe’s head all the way down to his shoulders.
In less than a minute, the bag was removed and Joe was able to move. He almost fell down, then regained his balance.
When Joe spoke, it was Wzzt’s voice, “Sam, I am Wzzt. The Joe entity forfeited its right to exist when it tried to take my life.”
The Wzzt/Joe bent, straightened, and twisted, as he got familiar with the new body.
“Humans have strange bodies.”
Then from the radio, blared a frantic, “Sam! Base is lifting! The rockets are firing. According to the instruments we’re headed for rendezvous with Orbiter.”
“Sam, we have no control of the rockets or our trajectory.”
“Sam? Are you there? Talk to me!”
Sam desperately wanted to respond. But he couldn’t move. Nor could he make a sound.
“Base, this is Wzzt speaking through the body you knew as Joe. The life essence that was Joe is no more. It used its every effort to kill me, reducing my body to ashes.”
“We will no longer tolerate you and your kind on or near our planet. Except Sam, who we have chosen to learn from.”
“For decades we have watched you and learned about you. Monitoring established your Earth citizens to be capricious and destructive, at odds with each other, and focused on individual benefit, a mad melee reminding us of the animals that finally reduced themselves to extinction on this very planet you call Mars.”
“Do not come back. If in the future Sam wishes to return to Earth, he will be provided with transportation.”
The communicator was removed and Sam’s stasis was released. He noticed his gun was fully charged. He felt normal, healthy, energetic.
He looked at Wzzt, who was still becoming familiar with his new body.
“What now, Wzzt?”
Suddenly, with a silent, thunderous mental bang, Sam remembered everything.
Wzzt said, “Now you remember, friend Zzzt. Your mission was a success. It will be a long time before humans land on our planet again. We will be fully prepared.”
Sam/Zzzt suddenly felt awkward in his body, but quickly regained control.
In a moment, Zzzt emitted whistles and grunts that meant, “You know, friend Wzzt, they really are a strange species. There is little cohesion.”
Zzzt looked around. All the creatures in the cavern, his people, his friends and some new ones, were ringed around him, one leg raised pointing at him in a silent salute.
Will Bontrager
Oh how strange we have become. We are the aliens.
That was a fun read, Will!
All of those writing prompts sound fun and wonderful. it is going to hard to pick just one to write on.
Thank you
That’s great to hear, Bruce.
Have fun with them!
Really useful…. 🙏thanks
Awesome! You are welcome!
Thank you for all the great resources. I am new to writing and have written a couple of pieces for the Show don’t Tell section on your site. Cheers, Tilly
Kayla was a talented piano player Kayla Vlasov sat at the grand piano, her back straight, her delicate hands poised on the shiny black and white octaves. The audience in the front row noticed how Kayla’s legs hung demurely from the stool, her feet barely reaching the pedals. Kayla’s expression was focussed. Nothing else existed when she was about to play the piano. With her right index finger, she struck middle C. The vibration went through to the audience’s marrow and sent a shiver down their backs. Thunderous applause. This would be an evening to remember.
Winny felt shy Winny held her mother’s hand, as they walked through the gates of Newtown Primary School. A teacher with a warm smile and auburn hair bouncing along with each step came towards them. The child hid behind her mother, wishing she could disappear between the folds of her skirt. Warm tears gathered in Winny’s eyes and she lifted her other hand to her mouth, hoping the teacher wouldn’t notice her quivering bottom lip.
Hi Tilly, these are excellent!
Not only do you “show” what’s the matter, but these are also fun pieces full of atmosphere.
If anybody is wondering where the prompts come from, it’s this post about “Show, don’t tell”: https://www.ridethepen.com/show-dont-tell/
Thank you Alex for the great prompts
You are welcome, Maria! :)
I would like to use Freezelicious. For a villain name.
Sounds like evil ice cream!
Lol it is. I want Freezelicious. To be a villain in a spy book I’m writing.
I really have a problem with prompt 24 on the adventure prompts. It feels very dehumanizing to indigenous peoples to portray them in that way and it perpetuates harmful stereotypes. I would suggest removing it because it is insensitive.
Hi Jessica, your comment is heard, but I would consider this excessive political correctness, of which the world already is seeing too much nowadays.
Everything is a stereotype – especially in a writing prompt! Your job as a writer is to then lay out a colorful story that draws the reader in, precisely because it’s so far away from any stereotype, which makes it interesting.
Looking for something else?
Hi Alex. Paragraph
I live in a senior residence and have taken on the adventure of coordinating a creative writing group. We have completed a year and I am very enthusiastic about the level of commitment and effort the students have put into all the assignments. This coming year we will be offering to include more people in the group. but since a number of people will be returning I have been looking for some different kinds of exercises to prompt and teach the students.
The prompts seem like a splendid opportunity for all the people in the group to try their hand without having to create new material right off the bat. I will let you know the kind of responses I get. Thanks for putting this together
Hey Pat, sounds great, I imagine in a senior residence people have plenty of time to write. Plus, you are living next door to your critique partners. Would be interesting to hear what came out of it and which prompts were used the most.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
If A New Comment Is Posted: Do Not Send Email Notifications. Send Email Notification ONLY If Someone Replies To My Comment(s). Send Email Notification Whenever A New Comment Is Posted.
Writing worksheets.
PIN TO READ LATER You’re welcome to use these creative writing worksheets for teaching in class or online. I only ask that you do not redistribute them as your own. Thank you!
If you’re short on time, you can download 1 master PDF containing all of the worksheets in the Coterie Library .
Find the growing index of 150+ writing worksheets here .
You can find a complete PDF of all of the writing worksheets to date in the Coterie Library.
Click Here to Join the Coterie
I write about literature, language, love, and living off your pen. Also, fortifying fiction, personal amelioration, and tea.
Lay out your story on one page.
Build a framework for stronger characters.
Form a paper model of your story world.
This page contains affiliate links which help support the site.
I will never spam you, or sell your information!
You are signing up to receive email training. You can unsubscribe at any time.
You will receive occasional emails about Alemmia & the Law of Attraction. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Email Address
by Melissa Donovan | Jan 4, 2024 | Creative Writing | 24 comments
Try some of these creative writing activities.
Are you looking for writing motivation, inspiration, or ideas that will give your latest project an extra boost?
Below you’ll find a massive list of creative writing activities. Some of these activities will keep you writing when you’re in need of ideas and inspiration. Others will improve your writing skills and techniques through practice. Some will give you experience with forms and genres you haven’t tried. And others will help you promote your writing once it’s published.
Pick any activity and use it as a creative outlet. Bring a few activities to your writing group or do one with your kids. Use these creative writing activities in any way you want.
Journaling is an excellent way to maintain a steady writing practice, and there are lots of different journals you can write: gratitude journals, dream journals, media journals, poetry journals, and idea journals, to name a few.
Flip through some images on Instagram or Pinterest and see what sparks an idea. Don’t place limitations on your writing—just let the words flow.
Writing letters in your characters’ voices can help you get inside their heads and understand them better so you can write them with more depth and realism. Create an ongoing correspondence to explore character relationships and group dynamics within your cast.
Write a series of short bios for your social media accounts and a longer one for your author website. Don’t forget to make a bio for your press kit and another to include in your books.
Set your inner musician free by composing lines and couplets in metrical patterns with rhymes. Establish the parameters before you start writing, or just let the words flow and note the meter and rhyme afterward.
Grab an old photo album or flip through the photos on your phone—or use recall to bring forth memories that you can write about. Use this as an exercise in writing description or crafting a narrative about something you experienced or witnessed—ideal if you’re interested in writing a memoir.
Writing exercises keep your skills sharp and your creativity flowing even when inspiration is fleeting. They are excellent for keeping up your writing practice between projects. Pick up a book of creative writing exercises so you’ll have plenty to choose from.
Create a repository of ideas by writing a list of what-if questions that could spark characters, plots, and settings for your future works of fiction or provide ideas you can explore in poetry and nonfiction writing projects.
A mailing list is one of the best ways for an author to connect with a readership. Start planning yours now. You can fill your newsletter with behind-the-scenes material from your books or excerpts from your work in progress. Or write a poem or piece of flash fiction for your newsletter.
The best characters feel like real people, which means the writer has fully gotten into their heads and hearts. One way to do that is to keep a diary in your character’s voice, which will help you establish their innermost thoughts and feelings. And who knows? Maybe a character diary will turn into a novel written in first person!
Jump at least ten years into the future and write a letter from your current self to your future self, write a letter from your future self to your current self, or write a diary entry as your future self.
Comics are often partnerships between artists and writers. Give the writing side of comics a try. If you don’t want to draw, just make notes about what the illustrations will depict. Focus on character, plot, and dialogue. Flip through a few comics if you need examples to guide you.
Write a few pages describing your dream vacation. Where will you go? How long will you stay? What will you do there? If you’ve already experienced a dream vacation, write about that instead.
A book blurb is a short statement endorsing a book, often written by another author. Choose a few of your favorite titles and write blurbs for them.
Focus on dialogue by writing a script. It could be a script for a play, a TV series, or a movie, or it can simply be an exercise in practicing or exploring dialogue.
Create a fictional history for a fantastical or sci-fi story world. What were the origins of the civilization? What are their customs and traditions? Their laws and beliefs?
Start with an introduction that makes the reader’s mouth water, and then deliver the recipe, complete with an ingredient list and cooking instructions.
Do you have a favorite book that’s never been made into a film or television series? Put together a two-page pitch convincing studio executives that this story needs to be seen on a screen.
Write a letter to someone who’s gone, someone who’s upset you, or someone you admire from afar.
Found poetry is when we use words and phrases from source material to create a poem. This is most often seen as a page of printed text with various words and phrases circled, or all text blacked out except the portions that make up the found poem.
Write an award acceptance speech; a campaign speech, or a graduation or wedding speech.
Create an outline for a large-scope project, such as a book or series of books.
Practice writing similes and metaphors. Similes are when one thing is like another (your smile is like sunshine) and metaphors are when one thing is another (your smile is sunshine).
If you’ve written a lot of short pieces, like essays, poems, and short stories, collect them into a chapbook. Bring it to an open mic and take along copies you can sell or give away, or offer it on your blog, website, or social media as a free or premium download.
Fill it with things that make you want to write — positive affirmations, favorite lines from poems, quotes of wisdom, and useful reminders. Crack it open whenever you catch yourself procrastinating when you should be writing.
Write a few scenes in your favorite story world. Create new characters or use existing characters. Just remember — you don’t own the intellectual property, so you can’t commercially publish it.
A critique should start by highlighting the strengths in a piece of writing, and then it should gently but constructively offer feedback that is meant to show the author how to make improvements. You can critique any work, but it would be ideal if you can find a writer friend to swap critiques with.
A log line is a sentence or two that summarizes a story and entices readers. If you’re working on a project, write a log line about it. Log lines are excellent for crystallizing your vision, and they’re also useful for pitching and selling written works.
A legacy book is a collection of writings and other materials (letters, photos, ephemera, etc.) that can be passed down as a family heirloom. Write about your family history and document significant or memorable family events.
What do you think the world will look like in twenty-five years? Fifty? A hundred? A thousand? Write an essay or short story, or create a world-building document for a futuristic civilization.
Written like a short story in present tense, a film treatment is an overview of an entire film; it’s usually written before the first draft and used for pitching film ideas throughout the industry.
If you write nonfiction, this should be easy; just write a post about one of your usual topics. If you’re a poet or a fiction writer, write about the craft, the industry, or use subject matter from your written works.
Writing description is an important skill. Create a one-page description for a story setting, or describe a location you’ve visited, or write a description of a real person or a fictional character.
Memories can provide a wealth of ideas for any type of writing, from poetry to fiction and a variety of essays. Choose an early memory and write it as a story, essay, or poem.
Social media is ideal for people who can write snappy, witty, and entertaining or engaging vignettes. Social media is an excellent tool for writers to find readers and connect with one another, so mastering a couple of these social platforms is a good idea if you hope to build a career as a writer.
Dig through your old, discarded writings and find a piece that had some potential. Then rewrite it.
Choose a piece of writing (it can be a book, an article, an essay — anything) and then write an analysis of at least 2,000 words (or about four pages).
Read a handful of poems by a single poet and then attempt writing a poem in that poet’s voice. This is not an exercise in copying; it’s an exercising in studying the voice of a writer. If you’re feeling ambitious, try it with works of fiction and write a scene in an author’s voice.
Choose a book that you’ve read recently and write a detailed review of it. What worked? What didn’t work? What did you like? What didn’t you like? Remember, a review should help a book find its readers. Who is this book for, if not for you?
What are some of your favorite creative writing activities? Have you done any of the activities on this list? Which ones would you want to try? Can you think of any writing activities to add to this list? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment, and keep writing!
Thank you for all these wonderful ideas. After a very long hiatus from the writing world (mostly because of health) I am feeling a bit rusty. Using some of these ideas will certainly prime the pump! I really enjoy your blog and appreciate the basics of grammar, etc. I find that I have slipped into some old habits just in my everyday writing and your tips help me get back on track.
Thanks, Ann. I’m always touched by comments like yours. It keeps me going when people let me know this blog is helpful or inspiring. So thank you for taking the time. Best of luck and keep writing!
The character journal is a great idea!!!
The problem with the character journal is that it could be time consuming, but I love it as a way to get to know a character, and more specifically, to get inside a character’s head.
All of these ideas are wonderful. I’m especially attracted to the last two suggestions. Both of those activities are fun for me and certainly bound to be helpful concerning my writing skills.
When I must wait in the car (with a sleeping grandchild, for instance) I’m only happy if I can see folks as they come and go.
We play word games on a regular basis and have found it strengthens the writing skills of even those of us who do not call ourselves wordsmiths.
Keep up the excellent work.
Thanks so much for your kind words, Yvonnne. I’m looking forward to the day when the little ones in my family (niece and nephew) are old enough to play word and letter games.
Hi Melissa, Thanks for these wonderful ideas. I ‘m taking a couple of days off from writing my memoir, and will try them out.’Writing as one of my characters’ and ‘sitting in some heavily populated place for observations’ are intriguing.
Those are my two favorites as well. Good luck, Margaret, and enjoy your hiatus. I hope it refreshes you so you can return to your memoir.
Love the character journal idea! To keep my vocab going I choose pages out of the dictionary/thesaurus to keep my brain working. It also does wonders for my muse. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this list.
I write a lot of scenes and backstory for my characters, which are never included in the book. Exploring the characters outside of the narrative has proven to be very helpful in better understanding them.
Hi, Melissa!
Well, I’ve been absent for quite a long while. But I have been busy. A spec piece submitted to my local daily newspaper landed me a column. (Who couldda guessed?) I also write theater reviews for them; write what you know has never been more true.
Consequently, I find that my creative writing has slowed quite a bit. The sequel to my debut needs, maybe, two more chapters yet there it sits, though a production company asked for it. Even reading the preceding few chapters doesn’t help me get into the character’s heads in order to finish the thing.
Got any ideas?
Congrats on landing a column, Paul. That’s awesome. I’m not sure why you’ve been unable to finish your sequel, so I can’t offer any specific suggestions, but you can start by fguring out why you’re not finishing it (no time, lost interest, etc.), and then you can probably rectify the problem.
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing these great ideas.
You’re welcome. Thanks for commenting!
It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut. Every writer needs to step away.
I live near the University of Oregon. Every now and than I take a walk through campus. I try to time it during a busy school day. I wish I could bottle the youthful energy that is floating in the wind.
If any of you live near a school try it.
Thank you for the list. It helps a lot.
Yes, breaks are great refreshers for a creative mind. You’re lucky to live near a beautiful place for walks.
I don’t speek english so, sorry if i write wrong, but i need to tell you that your blog is amazing. Your write it’s soo good and make me wanna write. I have 15 years old and i love write, maybe I become a writter when I grew up, and I don’t know how to make my ideias go for the paper but your blog has helped me. Thank you!!
Hi Isabella. Thanks for sharing your passion for writing. I’m glad you’re enjoying this blog. Keep writing!
Thank you for your useful ideas! You have inspired me to try out new formats. I’m not a professional writer, it’s more my hobby. But still, I want to improve myself by writing texts and short stories.
You’re welcome. I’m glad this inspired you, and I’m thrilled that you’re working toward improvement. That’s wonderful!
Hi Melissa! I just wanted you to know that I recently bought some of your books and I absolutely love them and carry them around with me everywhere. Keep up the amazing work! Best wishes, Sandra Harris.
Wow, you just made my day, Sandra. That’s one of the nicest things anyone has said about my books. I’m so glad you like them. Keep writing!
Thank you for those amaing ideas. I’m not exactly stuck, as I know where my latest book is going, but I’m a bit lacking in motivation right now. Some of your suggestions might just get my juices flowing again.
Hi Vivienne. You’re welcome. I’m glad you found some motivation here. Keep writing!
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .
Subscribe and get The Writer’s Creed graphic e-booklet, plus a weekly digest with the latest articles on writing, as well as special offers and exclusive content.
Write on, shine on!
Good question.
Creative writing exercises are designed to teach a technique. They are highly specific, more specific than creative writing prompts, and much more specific than story generators.
Creative writing exercises for adults are not designed to lead the writer into crafting a full story, but are only designed to help them improve as a writer in a narrow, specific category of writing skills.
I’ve broken the exercises below into categories so you can choose what category of skill you’d like to practice. Can you guess which category in this list has the most prompts?
If you guessed characters, then you’re right. I think characters are the heart blood of every story, and that a majority of any writing prompts or writing exercises should focus on them.
But I also think any of these will help you create a narrative, and a plot, and help you generate all kinds of dialogue, whether for short stories or for novels. These writing exercises are pretty much guaranteed to improve your writing and eliminate writer’s block.
Also, if you’re a fledgling writer who needs help writing their novel, check out my comprehensive guide to novel writing.
Enjoy the five categories of writing exercises below, and happy writing!
1. Think of the most deafening sound you can imagine. Describe it in great detail, and have your character hear it for the first time at the start of a story.
2. Have a man cooking for a woman on a third date, and have her describe the aromas in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she’s in love with him.
3. Pick a line from one of your favorite songs, and identify the main emotion. Now write a character who is feeling that emotion and hears the song. Try to describe the type of music in such a beautiful way that you will make the reader yearn to hear the song as well.
4. Have a character dine at a blind restaurant, a restaurant in pitch blackness where all the servers are blind, and describe for a full paragraph how the tablecloth, their clothing, and the hand of their dining partner feels different in the darkness.
5. Select a dish representative of a national cuisine, and have a character describe it in such detail that the reader salivates and the personality of the character is revealed.
7. Describe two characters having a wordless conversation, communicating only through gestures. Try to see how long you can keep the conversation going without any words spoken, but end it with one of them saying a single word, and the other one repeating the same word.
8. In a public place from the last vacation you took, have two characters arguing, but make it clear by the end of the argument that they’re not arguing about what they’re really upset about.
9. Write a scene composed mostly of dialogue with a child talking to a stranger. Your mission is to show the child as heartbreakingly cute. At the same time, avoid sentimentality.
10. Have two character have a conversation with only a single word, creating emphasis and context so that the word communicates different things each time it is spoken. The prime example of this is in the television show “The Wire,” where Jimmy and Bunk investigate a crime scene repeating only a single expletive.
11. Pick an object that is ugly, and create a character who finds it very beautiful. Have the character describe the object in a way that convinces the reader of its beauty. Now write a second version where you convince the reader (through describing the object alone) that the character is mentally unstable.
12. Write down five emotions on slips of paper and slip them into a hat. Now go outside and find a tree. Draw one emotion from the hat, and try to describe that tree from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion. (Don’t mention the emotion in your writing — try to describe the tree so the reader could guess the emotion).
13. Describe a character’s bedroom in such a way that it tells us about a person’s greatest fears and hopes.
14. Root through your desk drawer until you find a strange object, an object that would probably not be in other people’s drawers. Have a character who is devastated to find this object, and tell the story of why this object devastates them.
15. Go to an art-based Pinterest page and find your favorite piece of art. Now imagine a living room inspired by that flavor of artwork, and show the room after a husband and wife have had the worst fight of their marriage.
16. Pick a simple object like a vase, a broom, or a light bulb, and write a scene that makes the reader cry when they see the object.
Sign up for my writing course “ Writing Techniques to Transform Your Fiction .”
Learn more by clicking the image or link above.
17. Make a list of the top five fears in your life. Write a character who is forced to confront one of those fears.
18. Write an entire page describing the exact emotions when you learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life. Now try to condense that page into a single searing sentence.
19. Think about a time in your life when you felt shame. Now write a character in a similar situation, trying to make it even more shameful.
20. Write a paragraph with a character struggle with two conflicting emotions simultaneously. For example, a character who learns of his father’s death and feels both satisfaction and pain.
21. Write a paragraph where a character starts in one emotional register, and through a process of thought, completely evolves into a different emotion.
22. Create a minor character based upon someone you dislike. Now have your main character encounter them and feel sympathy and empathy for them despite their faults.
23. Have a kooky character tell a story inside a pre-established form: an instruction manual, traffic update, email exchange, weather report, text message.
24. Write about a character who does something they swore they would never do.
25. Have a character who has memorized something (the names of positions in the Kama Sutra, the entire book of Revelations) recite it while doing something completely at odds with what they’re reciting. For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty.
26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is.
27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game. Have the fight be about something related to the board game: fighting about money, have them play monopoly. Fighting about politics, let them play chess.
28. Write about two characters angry at each other, but have both of them pretend the problems don’t exist. Instead, have them fight passive-aggressively, through small, snide comments.
29. Describe a character walking across an expanse field or lot and describe how he walks. The reader should perfectly understand his personality simply by the way you describe his walk.
30. Write a first-person POV of a character under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and try to make the prose as woozy and tipsy as the character.
31. Describe the first time that a character realizes he is not as smart as he thought.
32. Describe an hour in the life of a character who has recently lost their ability to do what they love most (a pianist who has severe arthritis; a runner who became a quadriplegic).
33. Write an argument where a husband or wife complains of a physical ailment, but their spouse refuses to believe it’s real.
34. Write a scene where a stranger stops your main character, saying that they know them, and insisting your main character is someone they are not. Describe exactly how this case of mistaken identity makes your character feel.
35. Describe a small personality trait about a person you love, and make the reader love them, too.
36. Write a personality-revealing scene with a character inside a public restroom. Do they press a thumb against the mirror to leave a subtle mark? Do they write a plea for help on the inside of the stall door? Do they brag about the size of what they’ve just dumped off?
37. Give your character an extremely unusual response to a national tragedy like a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Maybe have them be aware their response is unusual, and try to cloak it from others, or have them be completely unaware and display it without any self-consciousness.
38. Have one of your main characters come up with an idea for a comic book, and tell a close friend about the idea. What about this idea would surprise the friend, upsetting what he thought he knew about your main character? Also, what would the main character learn about himself from the comic book idea?
39. Think of an illness someone you love has suffered from. How does your character respond when someone close to them has this illness?
40. Have your main character invent an extremely offensive idea for a book, and show their personality faults through discussing it with others.
41. Have your character write down a list considering how to respond to their stalker.
42. Write a scene where a man hits on a woman, and although the woman acts repulsed and begs her friends to get him away from her, it becomes apparent that she likes the attention.
43. Write about a 20-something confronting his parents over their disapproval of his lifestyle.
44. Have your character write a funny to-do list about the steps to get a boyfriend or girlfriend.
45. Have a risk-adverse character stuck in a hostage situation with a risk-happy character.
46. For the next week, watch strangers carefully and take notes in your phone about any peculiar gestures or body language. Combine the three most interesting ones to describe a character as she goes grocery shopping.
47. Buy a package of the pills that expand into foam animals, and put a random one in a glass of warm water. Whatever it turns out to be, have that animal surprise your main character in a scene.
48. Have your character faced with a decision witness a rare, awe-inspiring event, and describe how it helps them make their decision.
49. Imagine if your character met for the first time his or her long-lost identical twin. What personality traits would they share and which ones would have changed because of their unique experiences?
50. If a character got burned by a hot pan, what type of strange reaction would they have that would reveal what they value most?
Once you’ve taken a stab at some of these exercises, I’d recommend you use them in your actual writing.
And for instruction on that, you need a guide to writing your novel .
That link will change your life and your novel. Click it now.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
John Fox, you have some excellent resources, and I thank you. I read your comments, then scrolled down to glance at the list of 50 exercises. The FIRST one, “loud noise’ is already in my head. My Hero is going to be side swiped in my Cozy. I was side swiped on a state highway here in Virginia a couple of weeks ago and, although the damage was minor, the sound of that big SUV “glancing” off my little car was SCARY!!! I once heard a fast-moving car REAR-END is stand-still car; that sound was something I’ll never forget. So, your exercise is very timely. THANK YOU!!!
This is a great list! Thanks!
You know what would be motivating? If we could turn these in to someone and get like a grade lol
I can really see the benefit of doing these writing exercises. (Versus using prompts) The purpose is so much clearer. Some I can imagine my response fairly easily. (Though the task of not jumping on the obvious might make it harder than I imagine at this point) Some however I would struggle with ( number 42 for example), where I have zero sympathy for the main character’s plight. Hhhmmmm. But maybe they are the very ones I should be tackling – to see if I can develop them in a way that explains their behaviour and so creates sympathy. Thank you. Much food for thought.
I’ve been thinking a lot about “how to master writing,” and this is the first time that I found an article that makes it clear the difference between prompts and exercises. I fully agree with you. These are bound to make you a better writer if you focus on doing a variation of them daily.
An excellent list – thank you very much. I run a small writing group and we’ll be trying some.
Yes, thank you. I too run a small writing group and you got me out of a slump for tomorrow’s group!
yes,thank you . It’s good for improve your writing skills.
What a lovely list! I am working on the final draft of my very first novel, and am constantly working at improving the final product. Your exercises are just what I need to kickstart my writing day. Thank you so very much.
Thank you very much When I turned50 I received my diploma from Children’s Institute in West Redding Ct I got my inspiration from being near water however now that I am in Oregon I have had a writing block thanks to your list my creative juices are flowing
I suppose I better have good punctuation, seeing this is about Writing. Thank you for this great list. I am the Chair of our small Writing group in Otorohanga and we start again last week of Feb. I have sent out a homework email, to write a A4 page of something exciting that has happened over the holiday break and they must read it out to the group with passion and excitement in their voices. That will get them out of their comfort zone!
A formidable yet inspiring list. Thank you very much for this. This is really very helpful. I am from India, and very new to writing and have started my first project, which I want to make it into a Novel. This has been very helpful and is very challenging too. Prompts look sissy when compared to this, frankly speaking. Thank you very much again.
Where can I get the answers for these?
There aren’t “answers.” You create responses to these exercises.
Thank you so much for the detailed suggestions focusing on HOW to put the WHAT into practice; really helpful & inspiring.
Just started rough drafting a story I’ve always wanted to write. Do you have any advice for someone writing their first real story? I’m having trouble starting it; I just want it to be perfect.
I consider this very helpful. Just started my journey as a creative writer, and will be coming back to this page to aid my daily writing goal.
I have always loved writing exercises and these are perfect practice for my competition. I have tried lots of different things that other websites have told me to try, but this by far is the most descriptive and helpful site that i have seen so far.
This is really a creative blog. An expert writer is an amateur who didn’t stop. I trust myself that a decent writer doesn’t actually should be advised anything but to keep at it. Keep it up!
I’ve always enjoyed writing from a little girl. Since I’ve been taking it a bit more seriously as does everybody else it seems; I’ve lost the fun and sponteneity. Until now…..this is a marvelous blog to get back the basic joy and freedom in writing. Or should that be of?:) These exercises are perfect to get the creative juices flowing again…..thank you:)
These are interesting exercises for writing.
These are fantastic! I started reading a really awesome book on creative writing but it just didn’t get any good or easy to follow exercises. So I found your site and having been having a lot of fun with these. Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
creative and inspiring, thank you
I always wanted to have an exercise where a friend and I each wrote a random sentence and sent it to each other to write a short story from that beginning sentence, then exchange the stories for reading and/or critique. Maybe both writers start with the same sentence and see how different the stories turn out.
Thanks for these exercises. Some are really challenging. To truly tackle them I’m having to spend as long beforehand thinking “how the HECK am I going to do this?” as I do with ink on paper. Would be a great resource if other authors submitted their replies and thoughts about how they went about each exercise.
Start the conversation: submit one of yours.
I think I can use these to inspire my students.
Hi there. Thank you for posting this list- it’s great! Can I ask you to consider removing number 42 or perhaps changing it somewhat? I teach sex ed and every year am shocked by how many young people don’t understand issues around consent. Stories about woman who ‘say no but really mean yes’ are deeply unhelpful. Really appreciate your post but felt I had to ask. Thanks.
What’s wrong with the number 42?
It promulgates the belief that when a woman says no, she doesn’t mean it, potentially resulting in sexual assault.
I just make this list a part of my teaching in Creative Writing Classes. Very good list of ideas!
Thank you so much for posting this! I have used it to create a creative playwriting activity for my high school creative writing class–so much good stuff here for me to pick through and select for my kiddos that will allow them to shine and improve their knowledge of writing as a craft!
These exercises are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Every writer NEEDS this book.
It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.
Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.
Customize creative writing templates.
If you're assigning this to your students, copy the worksheet to your account and save. When creating an assignment, just select it as a template!
If you are someone who enjoys writing, you probably know that it takes more than just creativity to produce an engaging story or a captivating poem. These kills require a lot of practice and a structured approach. This is where creative writing worksheets come in handy. Whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting, these worksheets can help you express your thoughts and ideas more effectively. These worksheets help kids plan different story formats, with story maps to guide plot or fun shapes to fit a theme or idea.
Creative work is often where children get the most enjoyment out of writing in school and where they can exercise their imaginations. These templates help develop their plot sequence, create personalities for characters, and shape conflict. Moreover the templates give students the opportunity to write about themes and ideas in a format that is different from traditional lined paper, which can stimulate their creativity and make the process more fun and interesting.
Creative writing worksheets, such as story template writing and creative writing outline template, are essential tools for developing writing skills. They offer a structured approach to learning and practicing writing skills by breaking down the writing process into manageable steps and providing prompts and activities. By using these worksheets, students can learn how to organize their thoughts, create an outline, and develop a cohesive and engaging plot. This can help writers build confidence in their abilities and develop a better understanding of how to craft a well-written story or essay.
In addition to providing structure, these worksheets also encourage creativity and self-expression. By presenting your class with prompts that challenge them to think outside the box, these worksheets can help them express themselves in unique and innovative ways. Moreover, they can ignite a passion for writing and storytelling, which can translate to other aspects of their lives.
Besides promoting creativity, these worksheets also reinforce language skills, including vocabulary and grammar. By including prompts that focus on specific vocabulary or grammar concepts, students can learn and practice those concepts in a way that is engaging and memorable.
If you want to create your own worksheets, here are some tips to help you get started:
Making a worksheet from scratch can be fun, but using one of our premade templates will be so much easier! Check out how below.
Choose one of the premade templates.
We have lots of amazing templates to choose from. Take a look at our colorful example for inspiration!
Once you do this, you will be directed to the storyboard creator.
Be sure to call it something related to the topic so that you can easily find it in the future.
This is where you will include details, text, images, and make any aesthetic changes that you would like. The options are endless!
When you are finished with your poster, click this button in the lower right hand corner to exit your storyboard.
From here you can print, download as a PDF, attach it to an assignment and use it digitally, and more!
Once you have created your worksheets, here are some strategies for using them effectively:
Happy Creating!
In what ways do creative writing worksheets help improve writing skills.
These worksheets, including story planning templates and story outlines, are a versatile tool for improving composition skills. They provide a structured approach, while offering prompts and activities that focus on specific skills such as character development or descriptive writing. In addition to helping students develop creativity, vocabulary, and grammar skills, these worksheets can improve critical thinking skills by asking writers to analyze and interpret literary texts or create their own stories and characters. By providing a framework for them to organize their thoughts and ideas, these templates can be especially helpful for kids who struggle with getting started on a written assignment. Overall, they are a valuable resource for helping students become better writers and more confident communicators.
These worksheets can be adapted to teach different genres, such as poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. For example, a worksheet could focus on developing descriptive language for poetry writing, or on creating character profiles for fiction writing. By tailoring the prompts and activities to specific genres, children can learn the skills needed to write in those genres.
Examples and worksheets can be used to encourage creativity by providing prompts and activities that inspire writers to think outside the box. For example, a worksheet could ask students to write a story from the perspective of an inanimate object, or to create a new world with its own rules and customs. By encouraging writers to explore their imagination and creativity, our worksheets can help foster a love of the written word and storytelling.
Teachers can help by providing clear instructions and guidance on how to use the worksheets effectively. This can include demonstrating how to use story planning templates and outlines to organize their thoughts and ideas, as well as providing prompts and activities that inspire creativity and encourage writers to think outside the box. Additionally, teachers can offer feedback and support throughout the process to help students develop their creative ideas, writing skills and build confidence. By providing a supportive and structured learning environment, teachers can help students of all levels improve their abilities and achieve their goals.
30 Day Money Back Guarantee New Customers Only Full Price After Introductory Offer
Learn more about our Department, School, and District packages
Create a Storyboard
Limited Time. New Customers Only
Purchase orders must be received by 9/6/24.
30 Day Money Back Guarantee. New Customers Only. Full Price After Introductory Offer
This is usually pretty quick :)
Email Sent to
ThinkWritten
Need a creative lift as a writer? Try these 7 creative writing exercises for writers to boost your writing skills.
We may receive a commission when you make a purchase from one of our links for products and services we recommend. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for support!
Sharing is caring!
Has your creative well run dry? Are you struggling to find inspiration for your next written work? Creative writing exercises could be the answer.
Just like any other skill, the art and craft of writing will benefit from the frequent working and reworking of your practices and habits. Creativity exercises for writers could unlock that writer’s block that you have been struggling to overcome and spur you on to new and exciting creative directions.
Creative writing exercises can take on many forms and can mean different things to different people. However, certain elements are common to most examples of creative writing exercises.
They are often produced in short, intense bursts, for one thing, and they are often entirely improvised. Improvisation is one of the earmarks of the creative writing exercises employed by many writers.
One other factor that most creative writing exercises have in common is that they often encourage the exploration and expounding of familiar subject matters in novel ways.
Many classes and guides that focus solely on developing creative writing techniques involve adopting short and spontaneous approaches.
Regardless of what form a creative writing exercise takes, it is smart for writers to adopt these practices and incorporate them into their daily routines. The goal is to expand their writing skills and develop the ability to tell the same story in as many different ways as possible.
Start by writing a few lines once or twice a week, spending only a few minutes each session. Gradually increase the length of each session and how many times you sit down to write per week.
Eventually, you could work up to about ten minutes per session, performing these exercises several times throughout the week.
If you feel like taking a break from a writing assignment or are between projects, you can try your hand at these creative writing exercises. They can also serve as inspiration for your next opus or strengthen your creative muscles.
Many writers have become conditioned to feel a great deal of stress or worry about being confronted by a blank page. This exercise will help you address this fear head-on.
Get a piece of paper and start writing the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t even think about what you are writing or edit your thoughts. This type of writing is known as “free writing”. Author Julia Cameron referred to this as the “morning pages” in her award-winning book, The Artist’s Way .
If you find yourself struggling with expressing yourself, try switching up your point of view. Take a chapter from your favorite book, or even just a scene if you want to start slow. Write everything that takes place from the point of view of another character. The goal here is to communicate the story in another way.
You could also vary this exercise by writing as if you are the main character by changing their point of view. If the story is written in the first person, try writing it from the third person. Be aware of the details that are omitted when you switch viewpoints. This frequently leads to an interesting new twist to the story.
Writing prompts or story starters can be invaluable writing tools that could encourage you to explore unfamiliar but interesting creative directions. These are sentences or short passages that could serve as springboards for writing spontaneous stories.
We have many writing prompts lists here at ThinkWritten you can use for inspiration, including 365 Creative Writing Prompts , 42 Fantasy Prompts , and 101 Poetry Prompts .
See what it’s like to write a letter or converse with yourself. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have a conversation with your younger self, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
You can choose any subject you want, from a significant social or political event or some words of wisdom to your younger version. Try to be as honest and as forthcoming as possible. The results might surprise you.
Try to crank out a piece of flash fiction. As with other creative writing exercises, don’t spend too much time at it. Simply sit down in front of the computer or a piece of paper, and begin writing. Flash fiction doesn’t usually go beyond 500 words, so try to keep it short.
Note: It might be helpful to differentiate flash fiction from the freewriting exercise discussed earlier. While freewriting involves generating words and ideas in an unbridled stream of consciousness, flash fiction is more about writing within a set of guidelines. In this particular exercise, try incorporating structural elements such as plots, conflicts, and character development, all in the goal of developing a logical story arc.
Writing fake advertisements is another potentially useful exercise. Few tasks can flex your creative muscles than trying to sell a product, person, company, or idea. You don’t need a lot to get started either. All you have to do is to select a word at random from a magazine or newspaper and get started writing an ad for it.
It might help to write one ad in a more formal tone, similar to the classified ads published in newspapers. This exercise will train you in using a few words effectively to sell your subject. You can then write another ad in a style similar to that published in online marketplaces, which allow for longer text. In both exercises, try to convince your readers to purchase the product in as definitive terms as possible.
Consider adopting a story from someone else and making it your own. Unlike the exercise that involves writing a story from another point of view, this one involves telling the same story from the same viewpoint but using your own words.
It could be any story you want to write about, from something a family member told you about or an urban legend that has long made the rounds of your town.
Whichever story you choose, try to write it as if it happened to you. If certain details are missing–which is often the case with old stories–don’t hold back from adding your own touches. You could even take a well-known story and write it as if you were there when the events took place.
There are only a few of the creativity exercises for writers you can try. There are many more variations that you could use to help you get back into the pattern of writing creatively.
If you ever find yourself stuck and unsure of what your next step should be, consider taking some time off and working on some creative writing exercises instead. After some time, you might find yourself becoming more eager to get back into it and more inspired than ever.
Tell us what you think! Do you enjoy creative writing exercises? Do you have any additional ideas for ways writers can continue to build and work on their writing skills? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Eric Pangburn is a freelance writer who shares his best tips with other writers here at ThinkWritten. When not writing, he enjoys coaching basketball and spending time with his family.
The article was inspirational but I wish that there was a place to show case our writing. I have written a novel and will love to have someone read and edit it.
Yeah, I agree.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
How do beginners practice writing ?
Here you are as an adult who’s decided to make writing an essential part of your life.
However little practice you’ve had until now, it’s not too late to become a writer.
It’s as simple (and challenging) as showing up every day to write something .
Getting started on your daily writing can be tricky, though–especially if it’s not a habit yet.
That’s why we’ve rounded up this collection of 35 fun writing exercises for adults.
We’re not talking about writing prompts (which are also helpful). Writing exercises usually focus on a specific type of writing to help you develop your skills.
The list in this post offers a variety of fiction writing exercises, each dealing with one or more of the following:
Since there’s plenty of room for overlap with these types, the list below doesn’t separate them. You can choose, though, to focus on one specific type for each exercise.
If you’re still wondering, “How do I start writing as an adult?” the answer is to do just that: start writing. We all have to start somewhere. The older you are when you begin, the more experiences you can draw from for your writing material.
What better way to get started and build a daily writing habit than with some easy writing exercises?
Look through the list below and start with the one that gets your mind immediately working on ideas. Don’t worry if those ideas quiet down the moment you begin.
Take a deep breath (or two) and write whatever comes to mind.
1. Write up to ten emotions on as many strips of paper and put them in a container. Choose an object, and then pick out one of the pieces of paper. Write about the object from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion. Or write a journal entry for a character, expressing that emotion and explaining why they feel it.
2. Start with a blank page and whatever is on your mind, and just write. This is a stream of consciousness exercise where you just let the thoughts pour onto the page without worrying about grammar , spelling, or technique. The point is to just get the words flowing without interruption. Choose the topic , and run with it.
3. Take one of your works in progress or a story you’ve enjoyed reading, and write from the perspective of one of its characters. It can be the protagonist, the chief antagonist, or anyone else. Get into the character’s head and write freely about the story or another character from their point of view.
4. Choose a creative writing prompt for the day and write for a solid five minutes using whatever comes to mind. Don’t worry about how it sounds or whether you think it’s bestseller material. The point here isn’t to write something masterful; it’s to help you get used to writing without a filter. Editing is not part of this.
5. Imagine you’ve gone back in time, and you have the opportunity to say something to your younger self. Write about how that encounter would go and what, if anything, you would say to warn them about a pivotal decision you remember making. Would you encourage them to choose differently? Or would you just be there for yourself?
6. Write a fake advertisement for a roommate, a job, a product of your own making, or whatever you want. Have fun with it. You can even advertise yourself, offering your services as a memoir writer , a food tester, an interior designer, or whatever. It doesn’t have to be something you’re good at.
7. Write a short blog post from the perspective of one of your story characters — or any character you choose from a TV series, a movie, or a story you’ve enjoyed reading. Write about something they’ve learned, something they want to do, or someone who’s on their mind a lot lately.
8. Describe your ideal home office using as much sensory detail as possible. Include the color scheme, the decorating style and type of furniture, the smells from candles or fresh flowers, the taste of your favorite working beverage and/or snacks, and the tactile sensations you experience while working in that room.
9. Pick a number between one and ten. Choose a book from your shelf and go to that number page and to that number line on the page. Use it as a prompt for a poem and take it in whatever direction you choose. Don’t worry about technique. Write the words that come as a sort of free association exercise.
10. Your character comes to you with a problem. Your job, for this exercise, is to keep asking the question, “Why?” and writing down whatever they give as their answer. If they get exasperated (and rude), you can go with that, too. Make the words fit your character. And don’t be afraid to go deep.
11. Pretend you’re a talk show host, and your special guest is the protagonist or antagonist of a favorite story or your own work in progress. Record your conversation as a dialogue, and don’t be afraid to ask personal or challenging questions. Let your guest answer in a way that fits their character.
12. You’ve gone to a party with a favorite story character, and they’ve had a bit too much to drink. What might they say or do when they’re less inhibited? Record a conversation you have with their drunken self or describe a scene they create while under the influence. And what are the consequences?
13. Describe an unexpectedly romantic scene between two characters. Start with something mundane and have one of the characters say something unexpected — either from a sudden rush of emotion or because they’re distracted and not thinking about the words coming out. Write about what happens between them.
14. Write a detailed description of the room you’re in right now. What details stand out for you, and why do they matter? What would you change if you could? What can you do today or this week to make this room better for writing in? Or what do you love about this room that no other room has?
15. Your character steps through a portal into a place of your choosing. Describe it using words to set a particular mood . How does your character feel as they walk deeper into the scene? Are they afraid, curious, hungry, sad, or something else? And how does that emotion affect their perception of their surroundings?
16. Write a dialogue between two characters who keep misinterpreting each other’s words and nonverbal cues, thanks to their own distorted self-perception. Is one of them convinced the other finds them unattractive or annoying? Is the other trying to work up the nerve to ask them out? Add descriptions of body language.
More Related Articles
75 Of The Best Fiction Writing Prompts For All Writers
47 Character Development Prompts To Flesh Out Your Book Characters
99 Fun Flash Fiction Writing Prompts
17. Use your phone or computer to record yourself talking about whatever is on your mind, e ither from your perspective or that of a favorite character. When you’ve done this for at least five minutes (set a timer), use the text-to-speech function to transcribe what you’ve recorded.
18. Recall your text-to-speech exercise and pretend you’re taking down your thoughts (or your character’s thoughts) from mental dictation. Use a prompt, if it helps, and record their stream-of-consciousness thinking process without editing or filtering any of the content. Write exactly as you (or they) talk.
19. Imagine you’ve just inherited or won a huge, life-changing sum of money, and you’re discussing it with someone close to you. What ideas do both of you have for its use? Do you disagree on how best to manage the money? Or are you both finally able to do something you’ve wanted to do — together or separately?
20. Find the day’s Twitter #vss word prompt (140 characters or fewer) and write something using that word — a brief dialogue, a pivotal moment, a shocking advertisement, etc. Write as many as you like, and, if you have a Twitter account, share one with your followers, making sure to include #vss and other relevant tags.
21. Choose a character and write about something they’re ashamed of. How did they learn to be ashamed of it? Who in that character’s past contributed to that? And what could another character do to help them confront that shame and heal from it? What, if anything, does this character need to hear, admit, or do to overcome it?
22. If you or one of your characters becomes physically ill at the prospect of doing something or going somewhere , what’s causing this immediate onset of physical symptoms, and how exactly do they manifest? What could you or your character do to change the way you respond to this perceived threat?
23. Write a letter to yourself to read a year from now. Write as if you’ve accomplished all the things you want to do over the next 12 months. Describe how your life has changed and what you love about it. What changes have you made and undergone that you’re proud of? Where did you begin with the changes?
24. Write about a dialogue between you and an important person in your life. Add any sensory details and body language you remember. What emotions did you feel, and how did this conversation affect you? What did you realize that you expressed to the other person—or that you couldn’t put into words?
25. Put yourself in a character’s shoes and write about the moment they realized they were in love with someone. What were they thinking and feeling in that moment? What did they do with those feelings? And how did it affect their next interaction with that person? Were they free to express what they were feeling?
26. Find a small box and tape it securely shut. Let your imagination run loose and write about what’s in the box and why you can’t risk opening it (at least not until the time is right). Or write about what will happen when the box is opened and its contents revealed. What or whom are you protecting?
27. Describe your perfect bedroom down to the smallest sensory detail. What do you love most about it—the colors, the bedding, the furniture, the closet, etc.? What descriptive words come to mind when you think of that space? Whom do you allow to enter that room (as long as you’re there and they knock first)?
28. Create a timeline of important moments in a character’s life. What experiences shaped them as a person? What pivotal moments have contributed to the life they live now? What choices have they made that led them to where they are? How might you explain their biggest fears or characteristic tendencies?
29. If you’re writing a story, describe a pivotal moment from the perspective of an outsider who witnessed that moment but is not part of the story . What do they notice that your characters do not? How do they interpret the situation since, as an outsider, they’re not privy to important background information?
30. Take a character of your own making (or someone else’s) and put them through something that pushes their limits and deeply affects them, leaving them uncertain as to how to make sense of it. Show how it changes their perspective and their behavior from that point forward.
31. Brainstorm a list of at least five ideas for something related to a story you’re writing: five surprising or defining facts about your main character, five things your antagonist would do to mess with your protagonist , five important details about your story’s setting, five ways your main character could get what they want, etc.
32. Choose a book written by an author you admire and write about an important moment in your life using the voice from a particular character in that book (protagonist, villain, etc.). How would they express what they’re feeling or how they’re inclined to react? What would they do that you would not—or vice-versa?
33. Describe in detail the kind of relationship you want for yourself. Make a list of must-haves and of nice-to-have qualities in a partner. You can also pretend you’re writing a profile description for an online dating site. Or write a letter to your current or future partner about what you really want to have with them.
34. Pick one of your characters and describe the best day of their life in detail. What made it their best day ever? When did it happen, and how? Have they tried to recreate that day more recently? And if so, how did it go? What (if anything) went wrong? Or what happened as an unintended consequence?
35. Write down three random nouns, four adjectives, two verbs, and one adverb for a Mad Libs exercise. Now, write at least 500 words of a story that uses all ten of those words. It doesn’t have to make sense. In fact, the goofier, the better. This can be a self-contained story or the first chapter of a longer one.
Now that you’ve looked through all 35 creative writing exercises, which ones stood out for you? And which one will you try today? The goal here is to get you so comfortable with writing it becomes second nature.
You don’t need perfect; you just need to start somewhere.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .
Kindlepreneur
Book Marketing for Self-Publishing Authors
Home / Book Writing / 17 Character Development Exercises for Writers
Character development exercises are short forms of deliberate practice to improve your writing skills and round out your characters.
They are typically not used in the final novel, but are little extras that help you understand the personalities that you are writing.
Because for some of us, nailing down that perfect character can be hard. And to help with that, we’ve assembled 17 different exercises to improve your characters.
So why use a character development exercise in the first place?
This may be a valid question, especially for authors like myself, who just want to dive into the writing and let the characters unfold as I write.
But honestly, a little work up front can save you a load of headache afterward.
Running through a handful of these exercises will help you to:
In short, it’s a great way to deliberately practice writing and reduces the need to go back and do extensive revisions on your characters.
That said, this might not be the best thing to do if you’re a pantser and just want to dive in and discover your characters along the way. But it can be a great tool in your author tool belt.
Write and format professional books with ease. Never before has creating formatted books been easier.
So without further ado, here are 17 of our best picks for character development exercises.
When it comes to writing characters, most of us focus on the facial features, things like hair color, eye color, etc.
A great way to begin getting to know your character is to do a full description of them. In a book, we might not do this to the extent you might in a creative writing exercise, which is why it’s good to practice here.
Here are some things to consider:
What we choose to wear says a lot about a person. Someone wearing an extravagant French-style outfit from the 18th century will give you a completely different impression than a cut business suit from the 21st century.
The problem is that most authors, when they’re writing about their characters, often forget to add a lot of detail about the clothes they are wearing. It’s easy to see these things in your mind and forget that your readers don’t see what you see. They see what you write.
One way to help overcome this oversight is to continue the exercise above, but focus on clothing.
And don’t just focus on any one type, because your protagonist will most likely use several types of clothing throughout the course of your novel. Here are just some examples:
Ideally, every character should experience the same thing differently, depending on their background, their wants and desires, and their tastes.
Additionally, great prose is often written from the perspective of the character making the observation.
For example, let’s say you have two people, one who has grown up in a desert their whole life, where water is scarce, and the other who grew up in a place where water was plentiful.
Imagine these two people on a hot day, observing a third person splashing water on their face. If you’re writing from the first character’s perspective, you could describe this as “and the man took a handful of water and wasted it on his face.” The second person might describe it this way, “I watched as the man poured the cool liquid and splashed it all over his face. I wish I were him right now.”
Do you see the difference there? In one, the character sees using water in one way as a waste, and for the other, it’s something to be sought after.
We’ve all heard the adage to “show, don’t tell,” but what does this really look like for most characters?
This is something that really only comes with practice. Once you’ve done it enough times, you’ll recognize instances where you’re saying things like “he felt hungry,” and can replace them with something like “He winced and put a hand to his stomach as it growled, and he swallowed hard.”
Character emotion is one of these areas where showing rather than telling can really enhance your novel.
There are a lot of scenes in a book, and most of them have a purpose. That said, there are many scenes that probably occur in that character’s life, but that we don’t talk about because they’re not important for the story.
However, you as the author should have an idea of what happens in these less important moments.
Some examples of a “slice of life” episode might include:
Very often, we learn more from others about ourselves that we might not have known on our own. Others can provide unique perspectives, and in some cases expose huge biases (on both sides).
For example, a proud character might not realize that he/she is proud, but it’s easy for an outside observer to spot this.
In real life, people change a lot, and characters should change in stories too (most of the time).
A great way to show this is to write a short story that examines the character at different parts of her/his life. You can focus on key moments in their life, but you could also just follow exercise #5 and focus on a few more everyday events.
The purpose of this exercise is to show how that person may have changed. Do they view the world differently as a working adult, vs as a teenager? A child? An elderly person?
What about before or after experiencing some kind of trauma?
I’ll be honest, I’m not an artist. But I am a visual person, and getting some solid visuals of the character can be a huge boost in helping me understand them.
If you’re like me and really have no design skills , then finding a few photos is fine.
I’d recommend several photos though, since one might not be enough. You could have some for their face and general appearance, one for their clothes and how they look, etc.
If you know a program like Photoshop, you could even crop these together to get an even better sense of what you character looks like.
This is a great exercise for understanding the feel of a character, which is often harder to put into words.
Imagine you work for the FBI, and you have to draft up a dossier about your character. What might that look like?
Fortunately, we’ve done a whole article about this topic, so you should definitely check that out, and also don’t forget to pick up our character profile template, which can easily help you through this process.
If you want a thorough process to identify the character’s appearance, personality, background, and more, this is the way to go.
The best aspects to focus on are the flaws, motivations, and fears of your character. What prompts them to action? Understanding these things will help you get at the core of your character’s personality traits.
Imagine you sat in a darkened room, across the table from you is your character. You can ask them anything, they won’t be offended, and they will understand the question.
What do you ask them about?
Writing a character interview is almost like writing yourself into a short story where you get to personally meet your character and ask them questions.
This is huge for helping you understand the character’s voice, but also a good strategy for building solid character backstory and character traits.
To help, we’ve already assembled over 200 character development questions that can aid you in this process.
This goes along with the idea of an interview, but sometimes in order to dig really deep into the motivations of your character, you’ve got to ask why.
Is your character aggressive? Ask them why.
From there you might find out that his mother shouted at him as a kid, and he saw his parents fight a lot. Ask why.
You might learn that his father had a drinking problem and it meant that his mother took it out on him. Ask why.
From there, it might come out that his father had lost a lot of money in a business deal, leading him to turn to drink.
I hope you get the idea. The more you ask why, the more you’ll dig deeper into your character’s past, and the better you will understand them.
This can be a little dangerous, because to be honest, most of the people we know are not that interesting. And we also want to avoid lawsuits for defamation if the comparison is too obvious.
That said, the people we know can be a huge inspiration to pick and choose ideas to incorporate into your characters.
For example, my own father and uncle have a really fun way of talking to each other. They’re always ribbing on each other and calling eachother weird, made-up names. You can tell that they love each other, but it’s an uncommon way of showing it.
This might make a good relationship between two people in a book.
The writer is mostly concerned with what happens during the plot of her novel. But if written well, a character will feel like they exist long before and long after the pages of the book.
So it’s a good idea to try dreaming up what happens to these characters in that time.
It can be dramatic, or it can be mundane. Impactful, or ordinary. It doesn’t matter much. All that matters is that you have a past and future in mind for that character (unless you plan to kill them off of course).
And who knows, you might even come up with some good ideas for other books involving those characters.
I’ve heard it said that you should basically put your characters through hell in a story, and never let up.
While this is good advice, it’s not always practical. That said, putting your characters through the meat-grinder is a great way to learn how they react to conflict.
These scenarios don’t have to be trials you will actually use in your novel. These are just different ways to put your character in pain and see how they react (I know I sound like a very unethical scientist, don't @ me).
Here are some possibilities:
Sometimes it’s hard to keep every part of a character’s life straight. That’s where a timeline can be helpful.
A timeline is a simple list of events in the character’s life, though they can get more complex and interesting, and you can even put some design skills to work if you want.
But timelines only have to be a simple list of events. They can include events from before their birth to their death, or they can be focused on a specific period of their life.
It will depend on the character and the story you will want to tell.
When we’re writing a story, we might not have a full grasp on it yet, and that’s where writing fan fiction can help.
Imagine your character interacting with characters from a story you already know? Imagine the ultimate crossover between your story and your favorite franchise.
For example, what Hogwarts house would your character belong in? What might it look like when he/she is sorted and interacts with other characters in that house or other characters from the Harry Potter books.
It’s a great way to lean on characters you already know, to help unveil more about the characters you’re trying to discover.
There are a bunch of character-related creative writing prompts out there, and many of them can be quite helpful in getting your brain to think outside of the box.
In theory, we could have a list much longer than 17 if we wanted to include more of these prompts, but that would end up being too much.
Instead, I recommend this post , or checking out our list of character questions to give you ideas.
If you’ve made it far, first of all, well done.
Second of all, you might be a little overwhelmed, but don’t worry. This list is not meant to be a checklist for everything you should do to expand on your characters.
Instead, this is a handful of ideas that you can take (or leave) and use them to better understand your characters.
As you apply these exercises, I can pretty much guarantee that you will grow as a writer, become more familiar with your characters, and increase your chances of having a great dynamic character in your books.
Let us know how it goes!
When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.
Author vs writer: what’s the difference, how to write an adventure story, parts of a book [from cover to cover], sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.
Learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks.
Join 111,585 other authors who receive weekly emails from us to help them make more money selling books.
The Life So Short, The Craft So Long to Learn
I created the Fictional Character Profile Worksheet to help writers understand their characters and develop motivations. It is a fillable PDF, which means you can use it for many characters (just change the file name) and detail their individual motivations.
The sheet helps add details about the following:
This tool also contains a matrix for setting external and internal desires of the character. This can be useful for remembering motivations and internal wants.
Keep this tool in a folder or binder so you can refer to it. After time, most of these motivations and details will be second-nature. However, it is nice to review because sometimes there is a detail you might have overlooked and it can solve a problem in the plot or the scene.
Fictional Character Profile Worksheet – (PDF)
Living God’s Word One Step at a Time
September 16, 2014 by Tricia Goyer 13 Comments
I’ve pulled together a ton of Free Printables for Writing Your Novel. A few are mine, but most of them are awesome resources that I’ve found around the Internet.
Are you interested in writing a novel but you don’t want to start? Do you learn by doing? Do you want easy-to-use worksheets to help novel writing made sense? These printables and resources are just what you need!
This series of worksheets will help you get to know your character’s personality, what they want, and how they might try to overcome challenges. Click here to download and print.
TheWritersCraft.com has a great set of worksheets.
Elizabeth Span Craig has collected a long list of wonderful tools and worksheets made by and for novelists!
Annie Neugbauer’s Plotting Worksheet is for writers who have scattered ideas that need to be worked into a basic plot structure. It’s one page, bare-bones, & easy to view at a glance.
Writer’s Digest has a wonderful index of worksheets to help you write your novel in 30 days.
Imagine if you were friends with a successful author willing to show you the ropes. Tricia Goyer is that friend. The author of more than 75 books, she’s the writing coach you’ve been looking for, and she’s ready to help you:
“Want to know how to write? You can learn while you sit in the carpool line!” Tricia Goyer
Making your writing dreams become a reality is tough. You have ideas but you wonder if any of them are good. You have no idea how to connect with agents and editors, and what in the world is book proposal anyway?
I’m here to help. And I’ve invited some of my friends to help you too. They are professional agents, editors, authors, and marketing and publicity team members. They’re the best of the best in the Christian publishing industry. Together we want to help you reach your dreams.
To help you do this, I’ve created Write That Book . This premier group provides education, inspiration, and connection with other writers and experts. Learn all the tricks of the trade while getting your personal questions answered.
Over thirty experts will be available throughout the month to answer your questions. Their decades of experience will be at your fingertips. They not only want to help you, they also want to get to know you better. After all, your words might just be the ones they’re looking for!
September 17, 2014 at 8:44 am
Thank you, Tricia! I am printing these for my 16yo daughter, who is ALWAYS writing something! Her dream is to be an author. If she’s not writing, she’s reading … with work and school thrown in there occasionally! lol! Thank you, again! Blessings, Kelly Y.
September 17, 2014 at 12:09 pm
You’re welcome!!
September 17, 2014 at 6:24 pm
Thx. Appreciate anything to help organize all the voices in my head. 🙂
September 18, 2014 at 9:47 pm
Glad I could help!
September 18, 2014 at 4:43 am
I have book marked this post and I know that I am going to come back to it time and time again. Thanks!
September 18, 2014 at 9:48 pm
March 16, 2015 at 11:05 pm
I just wanted to say thank you so much for this. I have been trying to figure out a way to organize the chaos in side my head and nothing I found would help. They only served to complicate it further but this was just what I needed. Thank you for making it and letting me use it. You are my newfound hero.
April 2, 2015 at 10:39 pm
Wonderful information!
January 14, 2016 at 10:15 pm
Thank you so much for these printables! They’re super helpful.
April 13, 2016 at 7:49 am
Thank you for this! I shared in my new and still small group for christian authors, bloggers, writers and brands. https://www.facebook.com/groups/186211708434601/
April 29, 2017 at 3:43 pm
The best worksheets I found! They are very nice organized with and extremely helpful. Thank you!
September 8, 2023 at 7:46 pm
🙁 I could not get any of the Writers Digest links to work.
[…] Source: Free Printables for Writing Your Novel […]
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .
Can there really be a character development worksheet that does it all?
A guide that helps you design complex characters that are both relatable and unique? A fillable PDF that allows you to envision your character as a singular being while also shaping the essential connection between who they are and the story they’re in?
Why, yes. It is possible. In fact, you’ve just found it.
We created our character development worksheet to help you build characters who are not only compelling, but also essential to your story. They create a living context for your theme. They complicate the conflict simply by being themselves.
They demand to be read.
You can download the worksheet right here and get crackin’. Or you can keep reading for a quick rundown on how to use this tool and develop fascinating characters.
If you’re sticking around, let’s jump in.
The goal of a character development worksheet is to help you:
Use a character development worksheet anytime you need to do both or either of those things. That might mean diving into the worksheet while you plan your novel for the very first time. Or it might mean pulling it out as you flesh-out side characters during revisions.
Your process is your process.
That said, I recommend filling out the entire character development worksheet, even if you don’t do it all in one sitting. Unlike character interview questions , which tend to be a “use what you can, leave what you can’t” situation, this character development worksheet focuses only on the must-knows.
Finally, this character development worksheet is a fillable PDF, so you can fill it out right on your computer. But you can also print it out and write on it or even put your answers somewhere else entirely. (*cough* Dabble Character Notes *cough*) Again, it’s your process.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what’s on this worksheet.
Following this guide, you’ll gradually add layers to your character—layers that help you not only design a more complex being but also tell a better story.
There is a logical flow to the order we’ve laid out for you, but feel free to jump around if our flow does not match your flow.
Let’s get to it.
Right now, your character is probably like a stranger in a coffee shop.
You’re looking at them with great curiosity, trying to piece together who they are based on the way they look, speak, and move through the world. You’ve made a few vague conclusions, but you don’t really know their soul yet. Based on the “Chorly” scrawled on their coffee cup, you think their name is probably Charlie.
Start by nailing down the foggy details you currently know (or think you know) and build from there.
The next step is to build a backstory for your character. What experiences have shaped who your character is on page one?
Now, I’m calling this the “next step,” but if you already have a strong grasp on the central conflict of your story, you might want to swap steps two and three. That allows you to build your character from the conflict.
But if you’re the type who likes to discover the conflict within the character, you’re good here. Stay put and start building out these details:
This is where you dig deep and uncover the fears, desires, and philosophies that inform your character’s decisions.
To put it in story terms, this is where you find the internal gas can that keeps pouring fuel on the fire of conflict. If you’ve already done the previous step, make sure your character’s psychology is a natural result of their backstory.
Here’s what you need to explore:
Combined, all these details help you bring depth to your character, bring heat to your conflict, and get to the heart of that all-important question:
What would it take to make them change?
All the steps that came before helped you create depth. You identified the characteristics that make your character sympathetic, relatable, and worthy of story.
Now it’s time to define all the ways your character stands out. Turn that mushy pile of abstract character guts into a flesh-and-blood being your reader would recognize if they saw your character in the Walmart checkout line.
Here’s what you need to know:
I don’t know. Ask your character. They’re so real now, they’ll probably grab you by the hand and drag you directly into the climax, never mind your clearly stated objective to focus on your story opening today.
In all seriousness, what happens next all comes down to your process. But whether you’re ready to turn your focus to story structure , clarify the conflict, or just start writing , you’ll find the guidance you need in DabbleU .
And if you are ready to start drafting your novel, Dabble’s Character Notes feature is a great way to keep all those essential character details on hand as you write.
Not a Dabble user, yet? Try it out! Click here to access all of Dabble’s Premium features for free for fourteen days, no credit card required.
Abi Wurdeman is the author of Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood, as well as the novella, Holiday Gifts for Insufferable People. She also writes for film and television with her brother and writing partner, Phil Wurdeman. On occasion, Abi pretends to be a poet. One of her poems is (legally) stamped into a sidewalk in Santa Clarita, California. When she’s not writing, Abi is most likely hiking, reading, or texting her mother pictures of her houseplants to ask why they look like that.
Read. learn. create..
Want to write the kind of fantasy stories that draw readers in and get them hooked? Then you need to know your fantasy tropes. Here's a quick guide to the most popular conventions of the genre.
Conflict is central to every story you write, but actually writing that conflict is tough. No need to fight for information, we've got all you need to write conflict!
Romance tropes are the heartbeat of what makes romance novels feel like cozy sweaters you want to snuggle into. Learn how to weave in these tropes to enhance your romance story!
No doubt about it – writing isn’t easy. It is no wonder that many of our students could be described as ‘reluctant writers’ at best. It has been estimated by the National Association of Educational Progress that only about 27% of 8th and 12th-grade students can write proficiently.
As educators, we know that regular practice would go a long way to helping our students correct this underachievement, and sometimes, writing prompts just aren’t enough to light the fire.
But how do we get students, who have long since been turned off writing, to put pen to paper and log the requisite time to develop their writing chops?
The answer is to make writing fun! In this article, we will look at some creative writing activities where we can inject a little enjoyment into the writing game.
Quick Write and JOURNAL Activities for ALL TEXT TYPES in DIGITAL & PDF PRINT to engage RELUCTANT WRITERS .
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ( 18 reviews )
The Purpose: This activity encourages students to see the poetry in the everyday language around them while helpfully reinforcing their understanding of some of the conventions of the genre.
The Process: Encourage students to ‘scavenge’ their school, home, and outside the community for snippets of language they can compile into a piece of poetry or a poetic collage. They may copy down or photograph words, phrases, and sentences from signs, magazines, leaflets or even snippets of conversations they overhear while out and about.
Examples of language they collect may range from the Keep Out sign on private property to the destination on the front of a local bus.
Once students have gathered their language together, they can work to build a poem out of the scraps, usually choosing a central theme to give the piece cohesion. They can even include corresponding artwork to enhance the visual appeal of their work, too, if they wish.
The Prize: If poetry serves one purpose, it is to encourage us to look at the world anew with the fresh eyes of a young child. This activity challenges our students to read new meanings into familiar things and put their own spin on the language they encounter in the world around them, reinforcing the student’s grasp on poetic conventions.
The Purpose: Writing is often thought of as a solitary pursuit. For this reason alone, it can be seen as a particularly unattractive activity by many of our more gregarious students. This fun activity exercises students’ understanding of writing structures and engages them in fun, creative collaboration.
The Process: Each student starts with a blank paper and pen. The teacher writes a story prompt on the whiteboard. You’ll find some excellent narrative writing prompts here . For example, each student spends two minutes using the writing prompt to kick-start their writing.
When they have completed this part of the task, they will then pass their piece of paper to the student next to them. Students then continue the story from where the previous student left off for a given number of words, paragraphs, or length of time.
If organized correctly, you can ensure students receive their own initial story back at the end for the writing of the story’s conclusion .
The Prize: This fun writing activity can be used effectively to reinforce student understanding of narrative writing structures, but it can also be fun to try with other writing genres.
Working collaboratively motivates students to engage with the task, as no one wants to be the ‘weak link’ in the finished piece. But, more than that, this activity encourages students to see writing as a communicative and creative task where there needn’t be a ‘right’ answer. This encourages students to be more willing to take creative risks in their work.
The Purpose: This is another great way to get students to try writing poetry – a genre that many students find the most daunting.
The Process: Acrostics are simple poems whereby each letter of a word or phrase begins a new line in the poem. Younger students can start off with something very simple, like their own name or their favorite pet and write this vertically down the page.
Older students can take a word or phrase related to a topic they have been working on or have a particular interest in and write it down on the page before beginning to write.
The Prize: This activity has much in common with the old psychiatrist’s word association technique. Students should be encouraged to riff on ideas and themes generated by the focus word or phrase. They needn’t worry about rhyme and meter and such here, but the preset letter for each line will give them some structure to their meanderings and require them to impose some discipline on their wordsmithery, albeit in a fun and loose manner.
The Purpose: This challenge helps encourage students to see the link between posing interesting hypothetical questions and creating an entertaining piece of writing.
The Process: To begin this exercise, have the students come up with a single What If question, which they can then write down on a piece of paper. The more off-the-wall, the better!
For example, ‘What if everyone in the world knew what you were thinking?’ or ‘What if your pet dog could talk?’ Students fold up their questions and drop them into a hat. Each student picks one out of the hat before writing on that question for a suitable set amount of time.
Example What If Questions
The Prize: Students are most likely to face the terror of the dreaded Writer’s Block when they are faced with open-ended creative writing tasks.
This activity encourages the students to see the usefulness of posing hypothetical What If questions, even random off-the-wall ones, for kick-starting their writing motors.
Though students begin by answering the questions set for them by others, please encourage them to see how they can set these questions for themselves the next time they suffer from a stalled writing engine.
The Purpose: Up until now, we have looked at activities encouraging our students to have fun with genres such as fiction and poetry. These genres being imaginative in nature, more easily lend themselves to being enjoyable than some of the nonfiction genres.
But what about descriptive writing activities? In this activity, we endeavor to bring that same level of enjoyment to instruction writing while also cleverly reinforcing the criteria of this genre.
The Process: Undoubtedly, when teaching instruction writing, you will at some point cover the specific criteria of the genre with your students.
These will include things like the use of a title, numbered or bulleted points, time connectives, imperatives, diagrams with captions etc. You will then want the students to produce their own piece of instruction writing or procedural text to display their understanding of how the genre works.
But, why not try a fun topic such as How to Make the Most Disgusting Sandwich in the World rather than more obvious (and drier!) topics such as How to Tie Your Shoelaces or How to Make a Paper Airplane when choosing a topic for your students to practice their instruction writing chops?
Example of a Most Disgusting Sandwich Text
The Prize: As mentioned, with nonfiction genres, in particular, we tend to suggest more banal topics for our students to work on while internalizing the genre’s criteria. Enjoyment and acquiring practical writing skills need not be mutually exclusive.
Our students can just as quickly, if not more easily, absorb and internalize the necessary writing conventions while engaged in writing about whimsical and even nonsensical topics.
if your sandwich is entering the realm of horror, be sure to check our complete guide to writing a scary story here as well.
Our FUN DAILY QUICK WRITE TASKS will teach your students the fundamentals of CREATIVE WRITING across all text types. Packed with 52 ENGAGING ACTIVITIES
The Purpose: This activity allows students to practice personal writing within diary/journal writing conventions. It also challenges them to consider what their world will be like in the future, perhaps stepping a foot into the realm of science fiction.
The Process: Straightforwardly, after working through some examples of diary or journal writing, and reviewing the various criteria of the genre, challenge the students to write an entry at a given milestone in the future.
This may be when they leave school, begin work, go to university, get married, have kids, retire, etc. You may even wish to get the students to write an entry for a series of future milestones as part of a more extended project.
Example of Message to Future Me Text
The Prize: Students will get a chance here to exercise their understanding of this type of writing , but more than that, they will also get an opportunity to exercise their imaginative muscles too. They will get to consider what shape their future world will take in this engaging thought experiment that will allow them to improve their writing too.
The Purpose: Give your students the chance to improve their dialogue writing skills and work on their understanding of character development in this fun activity which combines writing with a series of visual elements.
The Process: There are two ways to do this activity. The first requires you to source or create a comic strip without the dialogue the characters are speaking. This may be as straightforward as using whiteout to erase the words in speech bubbles and making copies for your students to complete.
Alternatively, provide the students with photographs/pictures and strips of cards to form their action sequences . When students have their ‘mute’ strips, they can begin to write the dialogue/script to link the panels together.
The Prize: When it comes to writing, comic strips are probably one of the easier sells to reluctant students! This activity also allows students to write for speech. This will stand to them later when they come to produce sections of dialogue in their narrative writing or when producing play or film scripts.
They will also develop their visual literacy skills as they scan the pictures for clues of tone and context before they begin their writing.
Keep It Fun
Just as we should encourage our students to read for fun and wider educational benefits, we should also work to instil similar attitudes towards writing. To do this means we must work to avoid always framing writing in the context of a chore, that bitter pill that must be swallowed for the good of our health.
There is no getting away from the fact that writing can, at times, be laborious. It is time-consuming and, for most of us, difficult at the best of times. There is a certain, inescapable amount of work involved in becoming a competent writer.
That said, as we have seen in the activities above, with a bit of creative thought, we can inject fun into even the most practical of writing activities . All that is required is a dash of imagination and a sprinkling of effort.
The Purpose: Character interviews as writing activities are excellent for students because they encourage creative thinking, character development, and empathy. The purpose of this activity is to help students delve deeper into the minds of the characters they are creating in their stories or reading about in literature. By conducting interviews with these characters, students gain a better understanding of their personalities, motivations, and perspectives.
The Process of character interviews involves students imagining themselves as interviewers and their characters as interviewees. They can either write out the questions and answers in a script-like format or write a narrative where the character responds to the questions in their own voice.
The Prize: Through character interviews, students learn several valuable skills:
Overall, character interviews are a dynamic and enjoyable way for students to delve deeper into the worlds they create or the literature they read. It nurtures creativity, empathy, and writing skills, empowering students to become more proficient and imaginative writers.
The Purpose: Travel journal writing tasks are excellent for students as they offer a unique and immersive way to foster creativity, cultural awareness, and descriptive writing skills. The purpose of this activity is to allow students to embark on a fictional or real travel adventure, exploring new places, cultures, and experiences through the eyes of a traveller.
The process of a travel journal writing task involves students assuming the role of a traveler and writing about their journey in a journal format. They can describe the sights, sounds, tastes, and emotions they encounter during their travels. This activity encourages students to use vivid language, sensory details, and expressive writing to bring their travel experiences to life.
The Prize: Through travel journal writing tasks, students will learn several valuable skills:
Overall, travel journal writing tasks inspire students to become more observant, empathetic, and skilled writers. They transport them to new worlds and foster a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them. Whether writing about real or imaginary journeys, students develop a deeper connection to the places they encounter, making this activity both educational and enjoyable.
The Purpose: A fairy tale remix writing activity is a fantastic creative exercise for students as it allows them to put a unique spin on classic fairy tales, fostering imagination, critical thinking, and storytelling skills. This activity encourages students to think outside the box, reinterpret well-known tales, and explore their creative potential by transforming traditional narratives into something entirely new and exciting.
The process of a fairy tale remix writing activity involves students selecting a familiar fairy tale and altering key elements such as characters, settings, plot twists, or outcomes. They can modernize the story, change the genre, or even mix different fairy tales together to create a wholly original piece.
The Prize: Through this activity, students will learn several valuable skills:
By remixing fairy tales, students embark on a creative journey that empowers them to reimagine well-loved stories while honing their writing skills and imaginative prowess. It’s an engaging and enjoyable way for students to connect with literature, explore new possibilities, and showcase their storytelling talents.
Teaching creative writing can be a thrilling discovery journey for students and educators alike. To foster a love for storytelling and unleash the imaginative prowess of your students, here are five engaging tips for your creative writing lessons:
1. Embrace Playfulness : Encourage a spirit of playfulness and experimentation in your classroom. Encourage students to explore unconventional ideas, characters, and settings. Use fun writing prompts like “What if animals could talk?” or “Imagine a world where gravity is reversed.”
2. Incorporate Visual Stimuli : Visual aids can be powerful creative catalysts. Show intriguing images or short videos to spark students’ imaginations. Ask them to describe what they see, then guide them to weave stories around these visuals. This approach can lead to unexpected and captivating narratives.
3. Encourage Peer Collaboration : Foster community and collaboration among your students. Organize group writing activities where students can brainstorm, share ideas, and build upon each other’s stories. This not only enhances creativity but also promotes teamwork and communication skills.
4. Explore Different Genres : Introduce students to various writing genres—fantasy and science fiction to mystery and historical fiction. Let them experiment with different styles and find what resonates most with their interests. Exposing students to diverse genres can broaden their horizons and inspire fresh ideas.
5. Celebrate Individuality : Encourage students to infuse unique experiences and perspectives into their writing. Provide opportunities for them to write about topics that are meaningful to them. Celebrate their voices and help them discover the power of their narratives.
Remember, the key to teaching creative writing is to create a supportive and inspiring environment where students feel empowered to take risks and explore the limitless possibilities of storytelling. By embracing these tips, you can transform your classroom into a vibrant imagination and literary exploration hub. Happy writing!
middle-school
In this summer writing prompt worksheet, children will imagine and describe a day spent in nature.
Subject: English
Age range: 14-16
Resource type: Worksheet/Activity
Last updated
4 July 2024
Are you looking for a captivating way to engage your students in creative writing? Look no further! Our Detective Fiction Creative Writing Worksheet is the perfect resource for your classroom.
Ideal for students eager to flex their critical thinking skills, this handout is designed to spark their creativity and imagination. Focused on enhancing writing skills, the resource includes adjectives, expanded noun phrases, simile and metaphor examples, and encourages students to engage all 5 senses in their storytelling.
Detective Fiction Creative Writing - Instructions:
In this comprehensive worksheet, students will delve into the world of detective fiction. By following the provided guidelines, they will have the opportunity to craft their very own thrilling detective story. From developing intriguing plots to creating dynamic characters, this resource is sure to inspire budding writers.
Key Features:
Immersive learning experience in detective fiction writing Encourages critical thinking and creative expression Emphasises the use of descriptive language and sensory details Non-editable PDF format for easy distribution and access Download this invaluable resource today and watch as your students unleash their inner detectives through the power of storytelling. Let their imagination run wild with our Detective Fiction Creative Writing Student Exemplar!
Unlock the world of creative writing with our engaging resource. Download now and inspire a new generation of writers!
Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?
Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.
It's good to leave some feedback.
Something went wrong, please try again later.
This resource hasn't been reviewed yet
To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it
Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.
January 2-12, 2025 | paris & arles, france, with author jennifer steil.
The MFA in Creative Writing program at Rosemont College will offer its annual International Writers' Retreat in January 2025 . This year we will be traveling to Paris and Arles, France . MFA in Creative Writing and MA in Publishing graduate credit, non-credit, and companion prices are available. Airfare is not included .
*STUDENTS WHO WANT TO TAKE THE TRIP FOR CREDIT MUST REGISTER FOR CRW 7185 OR CRW 7186 WINTER WRITING SEMINAR or GPP 7185 International Publishing Seminar ON THE iWAY. This registration form is for non-credit students and companions only!
REGISTER TODAY
Graduate Credit Price: $4630 Double Room (includes tuition ) $4950 Single Room
Non-Credit Price: $3750 Double Room/$4450 Single Room
Companion Price: $3500 Double Room/$4200 Single Room
Advanced Reservation $500 Deposit Due: October 1, 2025
Balance Due: November 15, 2024 (After November 15, program fee is not refundable.)
Pre-trip Meeting: Friday, Dec. 6, 2024 Main Building
Wednesday January 1 : Departure from Philadelphia
Transportation: (walking and train transportation in France)
Thursday January 2
Friday January 3
Saturday January 4
Sunday January 5
Monday January 6
Tuesday January 7
Wednesday January 8
Thursday January 9
Friday January 10
Saturdy January 11
Sunday January 12
Airfare and flight registrations are the responsibility of the attendee. Direct round-trip flights (recommended) are available from most major East Coast airports to Paris. Flights can be cheaper from New York Airports, but you will need to factor in the transportation to and from and or long-term parking. You can also do a multi-leg trip, if you want to, but you need to be at Charles DeGaul Airport in Paris by 10 AM on January 2. Flights to Europe from the East Coast, generally, are overnight. This means to arrive on January 2, you must leave on New Year's Day (January 1, 2025). There is a direct flight from Philadelphia to Paris on American (AA754), which I recommend, that arrives at 8:20 AM.
Booking your flight before the fall may give you the best price. Travel Insurance is a MUST! I also HIGHLY recommend that you get a FLU and Covid Shot before the trip.
Jennifer Steil is an award-winning author and journalist. Her third book, the novel Exile Music , was released by Viking in May 2020 and won the Grand Prize in the 2020 Eyelands Book Awards and was named a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Lesbian Fiction Award. Her previous novel, The Ambassador’s Wife , published by Doubleday in 2015, won the 2013 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Best Novel award and the 2016 Phillip McMath Post Publication Book Award. It was shortlisted for both the Bisexual Book Award and the Lascaux Novel Award, and has received considerable critical acclaim. Jennifer’s first book, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (Broadway Books, 2010), a memoir about her tenure as editor of the Yemen Observer newspaper in Sana’a, received praise from The New York Times, Newsweek, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Jennifer earned her PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham, England, an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College, and a BA in Theatre from Oberlin College. www.jennifersteil.net
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
A selection of fun creative writing exercises that can be completed solo, or with a group. Some are prompts to help inspire you to come up with story ideas, others focus on learning specific writing skills. Intro. I run a Creative Writing Meetup for adults and teens in Montpellier or online every week. We start with a 5 to 20 minute exercise ...
Creative writing exercises are short writing activities (normally around 10 minutes) designed to get you writing. The goal of these exercises is to give you the motivation to put words onto a blank paper. These words don't need to be logical or meaningful, neither do they need to be grammatically correct or spelt correctly.
Among both exercises to improve writing skills and fun writing exercises for adults, writing metaphor lists is one of the best writing exercises out there. A metaphor list is simple. On a notebook, create two columns. In one column, write down only concrete nouns. Things like a pillow, a tree, a cat, a cloud, and anything that can be perceived ...
Eight. Pick a fiction book from your shelf. Go to page eight and find the eighth sentence on the page. Start with that sentence and write an eight-line poem that connects in some way to your work-in-progress. For instance, write from the POV of a character, or set the poem in a story setting. Don't worry about poetry forms.
Writing Prompts with Pictures. Write a story around the following image: Writing Prompt 49: Writing Prompt 50: Image: Interior Design/Shutterstock. Writing Prompt 51: Image: LaCozza/Fotolia. Writing Prompt 52: Image: anibal/Fotolia. Writing Prompts for Writer's Block. If you are troubled by writer's block, try one of these exercise.
Learning to write fiction is like training for a marathon. Before you get ready for the main event, it's good to warm up and stretch your creative muscles. Whether you're a published author of a bestselling book or a novice author writing a novel for the first time, creative exercises are great for clearing up writer's block and getting your creative juices flowing.
Creative writing syllabus. You can find a complete PDF of all of the writing worksheets to date in the Coterie Library. Click Here to Join the Coterie. 150+ writing worksheets to help writers with common story, character and worldbuilding problems. Free for educational use.
57 Genius-Sparking Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. Abi Wurdeman. May 6, 2022. The best writing exercises for fiction writers are the ones that help you tap into the story you already wanted to tell. Sometimes we writers get ourselves overwhelmed by the thought that there's something we "should" be writing.
4 - Take one of your favorite short stories, either one you've written or one you've read, and write it in a different genre. For example, take a romance and write it as horror. This is a super fun exercise, and it lets you practice using tone and perspective! The tone of a story can change the meaning.
5. Write a stream of consciousness page. This is an easy and fun exercise. You want to write it in longhand rather than typing on your computer, as handwriting slows down the process and allows more time for your creative brain to do its work. Grab a pen and blank pad and simply start writing.
Read and Resemble. Read a handful of poems by a single poet and then attempt writing a poem in that poet's voice. This is not an exercise in copying; it's an exercising in studying the voice of a writer. If you're feeling ambitious, try it with works of fiction and write a scene in an author's voice.
For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty. 26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is. 27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game.
Creative Writing Storyboard: A creative writing storyboard is a worksheet that helps you visualize what you want to writer about. It includes sections for different scenes and can be used to plan your story's progression visually. Creative Writing Prompts: These prompts are worksheets that provide inspiration.
5. Try Writing Flash Fiction. Try to crank out a piece of flash fiction. As with other creative writing exercises, don't spend too much time at it. Simply sit down in front of the computer or a piece of paper, and begin writing. Flash fiction doesn't usually go beyond 500 words, so try to keep it short.
Take a deep breath (or two) and write whatever comes to mind. 1. Write up to ten emotions on as many strips of paper and put them in a container. Choose an object, and then pick out one of the pieces of paper. Write about the object from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion.
Exercise #17: Use Character Writing Prompts. There are a bunch of character-related creative writing prompts out there, and many of them can be quite helpful in getting your brain to think outside of the box. In theory, we could have a list much longer than 17 if we wanted to include more of these prompts, but that would end up being too much.
Fictional Character Profile Worksheet. I created the Fictional Character Profile Worksheet to help writers understand their characters and develop motivations. It is a fillable PDF, which means you can use it for many characters (just change the file name) and detail their individual motivations. The sheet helps add details about the following:
Writer's Digest has a wonderful index of worksheets to help you write your novel in 30 days. Story Tracker (Act I, Act II, Act III): These worksheets help you outline before you start writing, and/or keep track of your story's progression as you go. Story Idea Map: This worksheet is especially critical for writers who will be working ...
The goal of a character development worksheet is to help you: Get to know your characters on a deeper level; Better understand their role in your story Use a character development worksheet anytime you need to do both or either of those things. That might mean diving into the worksheet while you plan your novel for the very first time. Or ...
Character Interviews. 9. The Travel Journal. 10. The Fairy Tale Remix. Tips for Teaching Fun Creative Writing Lessons. 10 FUN WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR THE RELUCTANT WRITER. No doubt about it - writing isn't easy. It is no wonder that many of our students could be described as 'reluctant writers' at best.
Help excite and inspire your reluctant writers with this fun comic book template. 2nd grade. Reading & Writing. Worksheet. Descriptive Writing: Picture Prompt #5 ... Creative writing worksheets encourage young students to express themselves in new and interesting ways. Unique mini assignments, like our evil snowman writing prompt and real ...
This World Building Questionnaire has been put together to help fantasy writers and roleplayers create in-depth worlds for their stories and characters. The questions have been split into categories and subcategories for ease of use. The main categories are: Geography and Nature. Population and Politics. Culture. Magic and Technology.
65 Worksheets. Even the most prolific and adept writers may get writer's block. That empty page can make any writer, young or old, draw a total blank. It's especially frustrating to young writers who may not have the…. Free, printable writing worksheets including writing prompts, and other ELA printables. For classrooms or at home.
Focused on enhancing writing skills, the resource includes adjectives, expanded noun phrases, simile and metaphor examples, and encourages students to engage all 5 senses in their storytelling. Detective Fiction Creative Writing - Instructions: In this comprehensive worksheet, students will delve into the world of detective fiction.
The MFA in Creative Writing program at Rosemont College will offer its annual International Writers' Retreat in January 2025. This year we will be traveling to Paris and Arles, France. MFA in Creative Writing and MA in Publishing graduate credit, non-credit, and companion prices are available.
A freelance writer who draws mostly from life worries about the creative impact of a boyfriend who has asked not to be written about. Adapted from an online discussion. Dear Carolyn: I've ...
The request was simple enough: Please come and talk to 11 separate Southern Indiana grade school classes about writing.You know, the thing you do for a living. Rearranging the alphabet into words.