Exercises for writing should stimulate your imagination in an enjoyable way. Yet, we’ve all heard the stories about writers locking themselves away for months as they wrestle with writer’s block, eyes bleeding into an empty bottle of whisky and fingers worn to the bone, surrounded by thousands of pages of torn papers, or, should I say shards of broken computers. It doesn’t have to be like that.

You can take a professional approach to the ‘work’ of writing as you would any other form of work, decide on a sensible, practical approach and start writing. This is where exercises come in. They provide stimulus and structure –  much more reliable than a muse.

WHO NEEDS A MUSE?

Muses are pretty thin on the ground for the average writer anyway. Now, I am not saying writing is easy – it has ups and downs like anything else, but it needn’t be painful or difficult. Sometimes the hardest thing is just to begin. However, there are easy ways to get started You don’t have to sit around agonizing over whether your muse will show up – you can start writing straight away. Instead of spending months or years even trying to ‘come up with’ the perfect idea why not just write?

The fastest and most efficient way to start writing is to try  as many exercises as you can. You will find the more exercises you do, the more ideas you will have. The ideas may not be anything to do with the exercises from which they originated but they will be yours.

STORY FIRST – EDIT LATER

The exercises on this page are easy ways to get started. If you want a little bit more of a challenge perhaps you might like to think about the dramatic situations described in these creative writing exercises, which are designed to have visual appeal.

The exercises below are easier because if you answer the question in the exercise you will find a story opening up. All you have to do then is to write it. The best way to do that is to write as fast as you can. Get the story down first and leave the editing until later – this will give you a far greater chance of completion.

START YOUR CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES

To begin simply answer the following questions and see what happens. The answers to the questions are entirely up to you. There is no right or wrong – only ideas. Once an idea appeals to you, follow it through. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly a story will emerge from the answers you give.

Jenny slammed the door in John’s face because …………

The plane crashed because….

Paul read his wife’s diary and discovered. ……………

Victoria pulled at the window but she was trapped. Now she had no escape from ……………

Patrick looked over the bridge and ……………

Stacey wept because ……………

Jack and Maureen took their first steps towards ……………

Rodney looked down the ……………

The sun went in and Maureen went ……………

The small girl ran away from ……………

Travis had never seen a …………… look so scared before.

It was time for ……………

Her arms ached but she couldn’t stop swimming because ……………

Ben climbed the tree and ……….

I hope you enjoyed these exercises for writing. I suggest trying a variety of exercises to see what suits you best. There are lots more free creative writing exercises here, as well as plenty of creative activities for you to try throughout the site.

If you find your imagination triggered more by mystery or by something strange or vague I recommend you try these abstract creative writing exercises, which gently suggest and provoke ideas for you to develop without providing too much in the way of limits or constraints.

I hope you enjoy experimenting with my exercises for writing. I’d love to hear how you get on so let me know.

Best of luck with your writing.

Grace