Here’s a quick ‘n’ easy writing exercise to spark off some new ideas. It’s about as simple as you can get AND YET lends itself to a numberless amount of interpretations:
Write a 5 sentence long short story from three different perspectives.
Do it for yourself or put it under this post!
1. It was just one moment of abstraction. The setting sun shone bright in his eyes, making it impossible to see anything. Paired with the headphones in his ears, he was completely unaware of his surroundings. The impact came as a total surprise to him and literally swept him off his feet. For a moment he thought he saw stars, but then he realized he stared into the worried eyes of his attacker.
2. She was going fast, flying down the promenade. With the setting sun in her back and the wind in her hair, she felt alive and invincible. She weaved her way through the people with ease, humming a song she had heard on the radio earlier. Not paying attention for a second, she couldn’t stop fast enough when a man came up in front of her, obviously lost in his own world. His body broke her own fall, but she made sure to check that she hadn’t injured him too badly.
3. He was on the side of the promenade almost every day, selling ice cream to the passersby. He let his gaze drift away for a bit, blinking against the setting sun. A woman came down the boardwalk on skates, a little bit too fast maybe. ‘Thank god, she wears a helmet’, he thought to himself and then noticed the oblivious man coming down the promenade from the other side. He couldn’t warn them anymore and he flinched when he saw them collide.
Bonus: From the distance, the ice cream seller could see them both standing up, uninjured and holding each other’s gaze - with big smiles on their faces.
Write a summary for a book you would love to read.
Do it for yourself or put it under this post!
Mysterious events in a noble hotel raise the question: who to call? The police, pest control or ghost hunters? When the hotel gets cut off from civilization the staff and guests have to work together to put an end to the problems - and to be able to leave the hotel alive.
Write a 10 sentence long short story about the object next to you.
Do it for yourself or put it under this post!
Context: I was at the eye doctor this morning and they had these paintings of eyes literally everywhere.
There were eyes everywhere. Blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes, big eyes and smaller eyes. Some seemed lost in the moment, some emotionless, some angry, some happy and some seemed scared. But they had one thing in common: they all seemed to follow her around.
No matter where she went, the second she turned back around, they stared down at her from every wall.
But she wasn’t scared.
There was a sense of relief, knowing that she was not alone. That there was someone watching out for her.
She picked a pair of eyes and stared right back at them. A soft smiled played around her lips and she winked.
Der Zug hatte bereits bessere Tage gesehen. Die Sitze waren abgewetzt, überall lag Müll herum und durch die dreckigen Fenster, die von außen mit Graffitis zu gesprüht waren, fiel nur wenig Licht. Es war Zeugnis all der Jahre, die der Zug die unterschiedlichsten Menschen von A nach B gebracht hatte. Doch hier und da ließ sich noch etwas von dem alten Glanz des Zuges erahnen und es wirkte fast so, als hätte man ihn aus einer vielversprechenden Vergangenheit gerissen und in eine düstere Zukunft verschleppt. Mit einem raschen Blick auf ihren Begleiter fragte sie sich, was wohl ihr Fahrtziel für eine Zukunft für sie bringen würde.
-
The train had seen better days. The seats were torn up, everywhere was garbage, and through the dirty windows, sprayed over with graffiti, was hardly coming any light. It was a testament to all the years the train had brought many different people from A to B. Here and there you could still see a glimpse of its former glory, and it almost felt like the train was torn from a promising past and thrown into a grim future. She asked herself, with a quick glance to her companion, what kind of future would their destination bring for them?
Volume 1 of many in my endless gratitude for everyone’s support!
They are Google Docs meant to be printed or copied (File > Make a Copy) and used for writing exercises. I hope you like them and please please please let me know if you use them and find them helpful! It’s what I live for.
Whether you want a challenge, a break, or to get back in the groove, here are some writing exercises to get started!
Word Writing Prompts
Write 250-500 words using all five of the words listed. Try timing yourself to see how fast you can bang out a short or flash piece. To add extra challenge, use the words in the same order they’re listed.
peonies, hammer, pillow, hate, found
callback, vase, actor, broken, money
pink, dust, saturated, rust, bleak
dragon, farmer, monster, love, friend
Christmas, fight, jail, lemon, tiger
Write a Letter as Your Character
It can be a brand new character or a character you’re working on and they can be writing it to literally anyone. Use this to find their voice, opinions, personality, explore their life before the story, or just for fun. Below are some ideas of who they could write to.
a parent
their unrequited love
Beyonce
their past self
their future self
their best friend
a childhood crush
a priest
John Mulaney
Write a Flash Fiction Piece
Flash fiction is characterized as being less structured than a short story and more focused on the detail of a moment or collection of moments. It’s much more condensed and tends to be packed with vivid imagery. Shoot for under 500 words. Here are some prompts:
She had never seen a blade so big before.
“Come on!” “I can’t do it!”
A young chef has just realized she’s in the middle of a con.
a chess piece, an unloaded gun, and an attempted murder
Let’s play a game! How would you describe something vs how would your character describe it?
This can be a fun way to get to know your character(s) more! Depending on their thoughts, feelings, self-esteem, etc, they may view themselves differently to how you see them. For each of the following sets of questions, answer both of them and see how they compare or differ!
How would you describe your character’s physical appearance? How would your character describe their own physical appearance?
How would you describe your character’s personality? How would your character describe their own personality?
How would you describe your character’s fashion sense? How would your character describe their own fashion sense?
How would you describe your character’s flaws? How would your character describe their own flaws?
How would you describe your character’s sense of humor? How would your character describe their own sense of humor?
I’ve started a story, now it’s up to you to continue it! Below I’ve written a short paragraph. Reblog this post and add the next paragraph yourself and let the chain continue until the story gets completed. You don’t have to put too much thought into it, this is just a writing exercise! Just have fun!
The setting sun disappeared behind the trees as I walked steadily towards my car. My exposed arms shuddered against the chill of the cool evening breeze. I glanced down at my wristwatch, which was barely visible in the fading light. 8 o'clock sharp. Taking a moment to marvel at my punctuality, I then reached for the driver’s side door handle. That’s when I heard my name being shouted from somewhere in the distance.
pick a character and make them ramble about their favorite thing
make up a fable, pretend it’s as famous as the Grimm fairytales. how does this fable affect the world and what would people reference from it? (i love this one because it can be as crazy and silly as you want)
make a commercial for something that really shouldn’t be sold at all. try to convince people to buy it.
ACRONYMS. but, like, try to have it make sense
make a poem about your story/something in your story
rewrite a classic but put your own twist on it
make up a detailed recipe
make a monologue with a plot twist or punchline in the end
create a ridiculously detailed timeline for a character
childhood memory (real one or make it up!)
improv rap lyrics
the story behind an inside joke
make up a mythical creature
pretend to be a commentary youtuber and pick a topic
the what if? pick a story and create an alternate ending to it
pick one scenario and several characters. how different are the reactions based on their personalities?
Another theme week, this time about one of my favourite things in the world and in fiction: FRIENDSHIP!
The week from May, 9th to the 15th is going to be Friendship Week, which includes 2 new posts (Friendship Dynamics, How to write friendships), 3 friendship-themed single prompts and reblogs of my posts about friends so far.
All of the new posts for this week are already up for members on my Ko-fi.
I hope you have a wonderful week and get inspired to write some really strong friendships!
Give yourself 15 minutes, get a random number between1 and 820 and search for that prompt (search in my tags: prompt #{number}) and then start writing.
And if you already used that prompt choose another one or write it in a completely different way.
Choose three prompts (you can use random.org) from my blog between 1 and 820 and search for it on my blog by using #prompt [no.].
Now try to think of a way to combine all of them in one story. No matter how outlandish they seem together at first, in the end this game helps you to see them in a completely different light and to get a new multi-dimensional idea for a story.
+ if you use even more prompts;
who can fit the most prompts into a drabble or a 500 word short story?
++ if you choose prompts that at first glance don’t seem to fit together at all
Choose one prompt from my blog (you can use random.org) between 1 and 820 and search for it by using #prompt [no.] on my blog.
Whatever your first inspiration is, the goal of the game is to write this one prompt in as many genres as you can think of for it. Write about 5 to 10 sentencesfor each genre and see the different directions you can take the same prompt in.
Choose a title or let your followers send you some in. Write a short drabble or a full story with that title. What is the first idea that comes to your mind?
+ if you take the same title and write completely different stories/different genres with it
2. Game:
Let your followers send you the titles and then create a short summary for what a potential story would be about.
3. Game: The Alphabet Game
Choose one title for every letter in the alphabet from these lists and fill them or let your followers pick characters for you to write a story for each title with. (Inspired by evilwriter37)
Creating characters is one of the most important things to do while writing. Characters can make or break a story. No matter how good the idea, if the characters are flat, people are not going to keep reading. Here are some posts to help you create interesting and memorable characters.
Another theme week, this time about one of my favourite things in the world and in fiction: FRIENDSHIP!
The week from May, 9th to the 15th is going to be Friendship Week, which includes 2 new posts (Friendship Dynamics, How to write friendships), 3 friendship-themed single prompts and reblogs of my posts about friends so far.
All of the new posts for this week are already up for members on my Ko-fi.
I hope you have a wonderful week and get inspired to write some really strong friendships!
- Jana
The second theme week is officially over! What was your favourite post to work with? As always, you can show off your work on @creativepromptfills for everyone to read.
