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Try These Writing Exercises To Get inspired

By on August 27, 2016
Try These Writing Exercises To Get inspired - Writer's Life.org

Writing exercises are a great way to practice and hone your writing skills. They can also be extremely useful if you haven’t written for awhile and need to try to get back into a writing routine.

Writing exercises can give you ideas and inspiration for stories, can help you learn how to take risks and experiment with your writing, and can teach you useful skills such as how to edit your stories or how to recognise common writing mistakes and fix them.

So if you are feeling a little rusty when it comes to writing, or simply want to try some different ways to see if you can sharpen up your writing skills, why not give these writing exercises a go and see how they improve your work?

Here are some quick-fire fixes

Use music

Put on a random playlist. Listen to 3 different songs and during each one write down any words or phrases that come to mind.

Music can be particularly powerful when it comes to rousing emotions so can be helpful when it comes to writing certain scenes in your book, or coming up with new ideas.

Listening to music can also be very relaxing, so alternatively spend some time creating the perfect writing playlist and listen to it before or while you write.

Meditate

Sitting in a quiet room and trying to empty your mind can be just the thing if you are feeling stressed and anxious which can block your creativity. You’ll be surprised by how thinking about nothing at all can inspire you to write!

Play a word association game

Open your dictionary and point to a word - write down everything you can think of associated with that word, try not to censor yourself - just let your mind flow and see where it take you.

Pick a book

Pick any book from your bookshelf and look at the chapter titles. Pick one and write a short story about it. You can also read the first lines of books and then try to write your own story from there.

Who, what, where, why?

Write a bunch of questions beginning with who, what, where, and why. For example ‘Who is John?’ ‘Where did the accident happen?’ ‘Why can’t she remember?’ Write as many of these as you can and then pick out a few at a time. Use them to build a story.

Time your sessions

Sometimes writing can feel like too much of a chore, and so we put it off every day, finding excuses of other things that we simply must get on with instead. If you set yourself a writing challenge - to write for fifteen minutes and no more, you’ll soon find yourself getting back into the swing of things.

Act it out

Try acting out parts of your story and see how they come across and where they lead. You can do this alone in the privacy of your own home or with a willing friend. It’s key to let yourself go - it might feel silly at first, but it could lead to your novel taking a rather unexpected turn.

These simple writing exercises are ones that any writer can do. So next time you are feeling a little uninspired why not give them a go and see if you can get your imagination running wild!

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