#writing exercises
Dictionaries and potential literature.
On my other blog The Door is Ajar, I recently reviewed a book by Joe Fiorito, Rust is a Form of Fire (you can read my post in its entirety here). In his introduction to the book, Fiorito acknowledges the influence of George Perec and his book An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris(1974), as well as a literary movement Perec was a part of: Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (usually known as…
Prompt 1850
Two adults who are childhood friends begin to grow apart when one of them becomes immortal and the other one keeps aging.
Prompt 1849
A woman in the 1890’s has intense fainting spells due to all the the toxic chemicals exuding from the items she lovingly picked out for her home. She spends a lot of her time on the verge between waking and sleeping, and this causes her to be disconnected with reality and consequences of her actions. How is her husband handling it? How are her children? Dose she understand what’s happening to her? What dose she see in her dreams? Can she ever tell when she’s awake?
Prompt 1848
A friends group of teenage girls in the 40’s are hunting ghosts. How are they getting the phone calls? What do they do with the ghosts? Dose anyone find out? What are the dynamics like?
Prompt 1847
A character who olny works in absolutes enters a morally grey situation. How do they adapt? Can they? Do they damage the situation, or dose it damage them?
Prompt 1846
Write about a healthy relationship and how those people navigate the world. They have independent lives and struggles, but they always come back to each other as a source of stability. Make the reader fall in love with them and their relationship.
Prompt 1845
“When my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold, dark earth. No grave can hold my body down, I’ll crawl home to her.”
-Hozier ( Work Song)
Prompt 1844
You are a cashier that works nights at a 24 hour grocery store. Who comes in regularly? What do they buy? Why do the patrons get stranger and stranger as the night goes on?
Prompt 1843
Years in the future, cloning is invented, but only available to the extremely wealthy. A young prince has a clone, and decides to switch places with it to get out of some obligations. The only catch is the clone has none of his memories, and now the prince has to lay low in a palace full of aids, staff, extended family, and press.
Prompt 1842
Words associated with sound! ( feel free to add on! )
Vibration
Doppler
Volume
Waves
Theory
Echo
Whisper
Chirp
Bellow
Tune
Silence
Sharp
Noise
Prompt 1841
Sometimes you just need to write about an alien civilization and go ham with it. What is their prized invention? How big are the cities? Do they know about electricity or do they do fine without it? What geological features are sacred to them? How do they divide their land, if at all?
Prompt 1840
Sailors on tall ships are known to have a deep respect for the sea. Explore this relationship, is it loving? Or is it a cold respect, possibly even an unrequited love? Can you respect something without loving it? Can you love something without respect?
Prompt 1839
A guardian angel has to go to extreme lengths to undo the actions of the feral raccoon person they are charged with. Sure, they should be protecting them, but they can get to that once their charge stops committing crimes.
Prompt 1838
Write your characters their own personal hell. Bonus points if it’s of their own making, or something they thought they wanted. It can be serious, or more whimsical. Either way, It’s fun to see how they handle it.
Prompt 1838
Modern day Animal rights activists, but for mythical creatures. What breeds of dragon are they against? Where would they take mistreated unicorns? How are they stopping Thunderbird poachers? Are they more politically, or action oriented?
Prompt 1837
A time traveler has come from the future to stop a tragic past event. However, they are from so far in the future that the picture of the past is completely warped and reductionist. History is written by the victors, after all.
Prompt 1836
Write a story about a protagonist who is completely opposite to everything you value. They’ll need to be justified an empathetic, but that doesn’t mean it has to be easy for them!
Prompt 1835
An immortal has been going to the same university for over fifty years at this point. Normally, they keep their head down and no one takes an interest in their academics, but a proactive counselor has taken an interest in trying to get them to graduate, only to find the longest transcript on record.
Prompt 1834
Festivals! Everyone loves them. What do your characters celebrate? How? Most holidays have a reason/story they’re centered arround, and an asthetic they embody, and an activity. So make some lists, and see what strikes you!
Prompt 1833
Words associated with electricity
Light
Electronic
Zap
Wire
Transformers
Current
Atomic
Charge
Resistor
Conducts
Grid
Prompt 1832
Give your character a small personality trait that comes back to bite them. A fear of ladybugs, that makes them unable to garden, or a strong preference for things that smell nice making their house a headache zone for people who don’t like perfumes. An interest in weighted blankets that topples every pillow fort they make. The sky’s the limit! ( but not if you’re scared of heights)
Prompt 1831
They turned off the zoom screen but forgot to mute themselves after they finished talking. The bong rips weren’t as offensive as what they were saying, but once the next presentation started, it seemed like their whole situation started to devolve.
small writing exercises
- make up an origin and meaning of a name
- write a family history going back centuries
- 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?
