Zachary Dillon
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My three favorites from when I was in a writing group. Could just be my faves because they produced the most interesting results.
1. Write a story that focuses on the smells
Scents are actually difficult for a lot of writers, so I think this would be a good exercise for anyone. I wrote from the POV of a ghost who couldn’t smell, but kept being reminded of the way things smelled when he was living.
2. Write a scene from 2 different POVs.
Gets into the head of more than one character, can help dig deep into how each is seeing the scene. Especially fun if one has knowledge the other doesn’t.
3. Write a story backwards
Everyone in our group interpreted this one differently. My first attempt was clumsy with a lot of, “& that happened because of [earlier occurrence].” My 2nd attempt switched POVs with each earlier than the first, as the characters tried to one-up each other & the audience constantly discovering how they got into the current situation. It ended up 10,000 words long & inspired books 2 & 3 of a trilogy. So I don’t know how helpful others might find it, but obviously I did.
These are awesome! I'm very much a gardener/pantser/discovery writer, and when I get stuck on what should happen next, #1 and #2 help me ground myself deeper in the characters and open my mind to letting them tell me what happens next.
Best writng exercise I do is to write every day. Even if it's only a paragraph of back story of a character or noting down a character quirk or a partial setting description. Or an action/behaviour. Anytihng - just write it down. And it doesn't matter if what you've written is trash. We all have some trash in us and have to get it out to get to the good stuff.
This, totally. My adopted system for writing long form has been to read the previous day's bit, revising and adjusting, then continuing where it left off. As a gardener/pantser/discovery writer, I'll often begin the continuation writing some lines or paragraphs that feel like grasping in the dark, until something comes to push it along. But I'm often surprised to see that the passages I thought were boring or rambling are sometimes effective transitions, or even the jewel center of a scene or idea, and the parts I thought were so great when I wrote them need the most work. So quantity is important if you want to get quality, because it's definitely a muscle that needs exercise.
I'm not much of a sports guy, but there's an apt comparison between writers and athletes. The more an athlete trains, doing drills and playing games, eventually the basic stuff fades into the background, and their mind is free to puzzle out big-picture problems and make complicated maneuvers. This is 100% applicable to writing.
Also, I agree with Lolly saying even if it's just a written scrap of something. Doing it every day is the key. I've heard plenty of prolific authors say in interviews that while they may write for 8-12 hours a day now, they didn't have that kind of patience when they started. Sure, they also had other jobs taking up their time, but even if they had the time available, they hadn't built up the stamina. So another good "writing exercise" is to learn not to beat yourself up over word counts or time spent. Just make sure you do something, anything, every day.