Creative Writing Exercises

Hello and welcome to not your average novel writing month. This is a curated blog especially by me "Adria". I'm currently the only admin here on this site, and I love using other resources to pull ideas.

This month, you know starting tomorrow, my project is going to be a continuation of a story I've been working on for the last year... or two... I can't remember, but to help you and I get writing, I thought this might be a good blog to plug some creative writing sources. One of my favorite outlines I've typically used has been save the cat. That will be posted below, and you can find it here. This is a technique that has been used by screenwriters, but I also think it adds a little extra depth and flavor as you write a story. I would also like to take a moment to thank individuals who have taken the baton since the fallen National Novel Writing Month; sources like Reedsy are great alternative writing contests and communities. With that in mind, I'd like to borrow from their creative writing exercises. You can feel free to visit them and access all 119 posts they have here: https://blog.reedsy.com/writing-exercises/.

Here's some of my favorite writing prompts I hope to be able to use to get the creative juices going:

1. Three Questions

   Come up with three thought provoking questions. Such as:

   1. Who is Sara?

   2. Why is she running down the street?

   3. What is she holding?

   Or:

   1. Who is knocking at the door?

   2. Do you know them?

   3. What do they want?

   Without stopping to think or check on your spelling, answer these questions as fast as you can, with whatever comes to mind.

   
   

2. Put Yourself In Someone Else's Shoes

   Choose a character and think of ways they'd react to things that happened during your (the writer's) day. Use your experiences, think how you reacted, and then how your character would have reacted. Possible events: cut off in traffic, caught in the rain, missed an important meeting, lost a valuable item.

   
   

3. Musicals

   Your character's story has been Disney-fied. At what point in the arc does your protagonist break out into song - and what is that song about?

   
   

4. Examine your story for common language - for example, circle blah verbs and insert something more unique.

   
   

5. Two-Thirds

   "Gossip, as usual, was one-third right and two-thirds wrong," wrote L.M. Montgomery. Improvise a gossipy dialogue between two characters (Character A and Character B) about your protagonist (Character C). If these fractions are followed, what do Character A and Character B get right about your protagonist - and what do they get wrong?

   
   

   Additional Links:

   a. https://thejohnfox.com/2021/01/9-story-structures-to-plot-your-next-novel/

   b. Another useful link: https://blog.reedsy.com/live/how-to-crack-your-novel-s-beginning-and-ending/

   Happy writing everyone and thanks for joining me here on my journey.