WritingRaw Exercises

Exercises and Tips

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Creative Writing

As you may know, creative writing entails equal parts of imagination and the ability to think outside the standard norm of thinking. When putting together a piece of creative writing, the author should employ all of his writing skills and power of observation within the piece so that it pleases both the reader and himself. But how do you come up with that next great American novel when the mental well runs dry? That's an easy question to answer… you direct your flow of juices toward a creative writing exercise.

So, when your muse has flown the coop, think about some of the "write about" suggestions listed below to bring that elusive mistress back into your arms:

Write About the Nature: When writing about nature, the author can express their views about different life forms (plant, animal, geographical, etc.) found in nature in an artistic, even poetic, manner. Take, for example, the classic books written by J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings. Besides being a great adventure story, Mr. Tolkien created an entire world and wasn't afraid to describe and explain to the reader what this imagined world contained… right down to the different types of grass that grew in only certain parts of the land. Make the world around your characters breath by giving it personality. Use adjectives and quotes to describe this world in a manner that pushes the story forward while rooting it into the reality of your story. For some writing exercises, just sit down and start writing about a location. Describe it in an entertaining way in which the reader will want to know more about this land and want to live within it for the duration of the story.

Write About Yourself: This is also one of the best creative writing ideas. While you write about yourself, you should be honest and try to write about your good as well as bad qualities. You can write about your hobbies and special interests and also about your thoughts about religion and politics. You can divide the essay into several points and explain each point in detail. Write about your views on the political and economic scenario in your country and also about the challenges which your country or city might have to face in the days to come. Also suggest some useful ways to overcome these challenges. You can also write about your lifestyle and friends in your self portrait or autobiography. Include the details about your aim, desires in life and state clearly what you would love to achieve and what steps you have taken in this regard.

Write on Relationship Topics: Every person has his own opinion on topics like relationships ad friendship. What are your views on this topic? Do you really believe in love and marriages? What kind of life partner would you love to have? When do you think is the right time to get married? You can include the answers to all these questions in your essay on relationships. This topic is definitely one of the best creative writing ideas as this can help many people understand the different concepts related to relationships. You can also write about your past and present relationships and try to explain why relationships fail in some cases. Give some useful tips to your readers for making their relationships successful. You can also write the quotes of famous people on relationships to support your views. From your writing, the readers should get a feeling that you have really understood the concepts yourself and have put in efforts to complete the writings.

And, if this doesn't spark anything remotely inspirationally, you can always use one of millions of creative writing exercises. Any piece of creative writing involves thought and hard work on the part of the writer. But it is not necessary that your creative thinking cap will be on your head at all times. In the process of writing, it is normal to have phases where the writer is unable to come up with anything. This is usually experienced by writers who are just starting to write, however, this is also quite common among experienced writers. If such a situation arises, there is no need to panic, rather you just have to practice certain creative writing exercises which would help in rejuvenating your mind and aid you in coming up with quality stuff.

Journal or Diary Writing: Many people have the habit of keeping a journal or diary where they pen their experiences, thoughts, etc., on a daily basis. Not only it is a great stress relief where you can pour out your feelings and frustrations, this is said to be one of the best creative writing exercise. You can jot down interesting story ideas that come to your mind. You can also fill up your journals with sudden thoughts, dreams that you have experienced, etc. Write about different people you have met, their body language, the manner in which they talk, etc. Apart from filling these journals with thoughts, it is also important to go through your journal regularly because even a line or a phrase has the ability to trigger an idea for a whole story.

Free Writing: Many people believe that free writing is similar to journal writing. However, it is altogether a different kind of creative writing exercise. While in journal writing, we put down our thoughts, in free writing we write whatever comes to our mind. It is an unstructured way of writing where you have set down a time for yourself, for instance take around 20 minutes and write continuously for that period of time without stopping. The writing need not be meaningful or connected. You can also start with 'what should I write?' or 'I can't write anything'. The main point is that you have to write something without worrying about the spelling or grammar. After the set period of time, go through whatever you have written, there are chances that some word, phrase, line or sentence that you have written can trigger your imagination and lead to an idea to write a poem or story.

Brainstorming: Brainstorming is another exercise that would help in developing creative writing skills. Take a large sheet of paper and write a word on the center of the page. Make arrow marks around the word and write down words that come to your mind while you look at the word and continue the same thing with other words. When you have a cluster of words, try to connect it with each other and you may come out with the a fabulous plot, character, setting, etc., for your story. For example, you write 'a 25 year old woman' on the center of the paper and circle it. Now think of the ideas that comes to you when you think about such a woman. It may be her name, career, family, childhood, education, traumatic events in a life, her personality, mannerisms, her background, etc. You can also ask many other questions like her financial status, marital status, describe the house where she lives, etc. Try to develop this further, and in the end put them all together to come up with an interesting character.

Photographs: Photographs are a good way to come up with stories. Choose a photograph from your family album or any picture from a magazine. Observe the picture carefully and write whatever you feel about the people present in the photograph, the background, etc. Comment on the expressions of the people, think about what would be the feelings and thoughts that would be going in their minds. This may not become a full fledged story, but would help you in creating the basis on which you weave the rest of the plot.

Newspapers: Newspapers can also aid in creative writing exercises. Everyday we come across a variety of news from the newspaper ranging from robbery, murder, scandal, etc. You choose one that really interests you and write what you think would have happened. This need not be the truth. You are just taking inspiration from the story, however, the final content would be totally different from what actually happened.

These creative writing exercises are not only applicable to adults, but can also be tried with children and teens to improve their writing skills. These exercises would help the person in thinking out of the box and stretch out his creative limitations to come up with an inspiring story.

Creative Writing Activities for Adults: Well, the fact remains that children are not always the only one who require creative writing activities. Often, many adults realize their requirement for creativity at a later stage. Let me tell you, creativity is a necessity in life. Even if you pride yourself for being completely logical or analytical, you should have some creative streak, for the rainy day.

Adults face quite a bit of difficulty in creative writing, if they have never done it before. This is because, they have a set mindset and a set writing style that could come in their way. The best creative writing activities for them would be these creative writing exercises :

Reading a paragraph and rewriting it without doing any plagiarism.

They could write a daily journal, with complete details of their day. But not in bullet points.

They need to start reading all kinds of books, this will introduce them to different writing styles.

Write a review or critique on any book that they may have read or any movie that they may have watched.

These activities on a regular basis, will really help the person in improving their creative writing abilities.

A very important aspect in creative writing, is that the writer needs to put himself in the write up and enjoy writing it. Remember, if you don't enjoy writing it, no one will enjoy reading it. This is where I sign off! I had fun writing this article, hope you did too, while reading it!