What's the best writing exercise you've ever done?

Sage said:

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.

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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.

Lolly12 said:

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.

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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.

RookieWriter said:

Quitting.

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LOL, I'm not sure how you meant this.

but now we're free. Free to write about anything we want.

Hi, just new here!

I hope you could help me - just wanted to know if there is a like 3 point rule when it comes to writing, especially for a beginner like me. TIA

I have loved using a lot of the ideas posted before this. The one that challenged me the most was this:

focus on your character.... what is the worst that could happen to them?

So I thought about it.
My group leader then said: worse... think of something even worse.

I am an emotional person at the best of time, but having to dig that deep into my character's worst actually made me sob (I know!!!), and made me realise what was truly at stake, and that shifted some of the themes.

I don't know if this is a writing exercise, but when I went to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, we did roundtable readings of our screenplays.

Hearing other people read lines I wrote changed how I examine my dialogue.

To this day, I use audacity and a blue yeti microphone to record my writing so I can listen to it while falling asleep. Doing that exposes awkward phrasing and clunky dialogue -- something I produce in abundance.

I could probably do with some healthy exposure to poetry. I wouldn't say I think it's stupid, but even as a writer I don't really get it. Forget trying to write it!

Wow this thread has alot of replies now, which is awesome! This might get lost, but the best thing I ever, ever, ever did for my writing hands down was go to a conference. I learned so much about technique listening to seminars. I learned so much about the industry by connecting with editors and meeting agents. It's a really enlightening experience on the world we're trying to break into. If you never interact with professionals in the business, it's very easy to develop a warped or skewed idea of what it really is.

BigJ1 said:

I could probably do with some healthy exposure to poetry. I wouldn't say I think it's stupid, but even as a writer I don't really get it. Forget trying to write it!

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I love poetry, beat poetry, and song lyrics. I studied poetry at two art schools, have taken poetry seminars at the Randolph Arts Guild, and was the sole lyricist for a band for many years. I am always trying to get skeptical writers to give poetry a shot. I noticed your post count is too low to post in SYW, so if you want to try poetry as a writing exercise, you can PM a single resulting poem, and I'll gladly offer an honest critique.

I don't have a ton of time, so this a one time offer, but it comes with no strings attached. All I ask in return is you take my opinion with big ole a grain of salt and keep trying poetry no matter what.

Basically, what has worked for me is freeing myself from any presuppositions such as how to do something, so: Self-explore without attending to anything that perchance circles your mind like grammar or syntax, or the splitting of infinitives. Once in a while, you might just randomly type away at the keyboard, assuming you use a laptop or pc, to get all the confusion out of your head. The rest will unfold by itself. Just stick to it. 'Great literature is not bound to rigid structures; it is the abstract of thought that begets an idea--you just need to be able to articulate it the way it wished to be articulated.'

1. Reading. A lot, especially in your chosen genre. This lets you absorb rhythm, style, character development, and plot devices.

2. Writing. Sit down and dig in. Whether you plot our book beforehand or just jump in and write by the seat of you pants - discovering your story as you go - just get in and do it. Puke words on to the page if you have to - then go back and edit, edit, edit... IMO the best exercise for writing is to write.

Write a scene that really makes you feel for a protagonist that you do not understand, or dislike greatly, or whatever. It's an exercise in empathy, because you cannot write a character you do not understand. Even your villain has to be a whole person/creature. Write the other side and make sure that you really see their point of view before you stop. It will make your stories richer.

That sounds like a very engaging activity. I may try this out the next time I get stuck. It's very specific, where I find many writing help courses are pretty dang broad.

I've only been playing with it in my head although I'd like to commit it to paper, but a fun one I've been doing is having all the characters from every story I've worked on or conceived at a cookout together, and seeing how everybody gets along. Who immediately likes and dislikes who, who does the most and least talking, what subjects do they talk about, etc. They're all from different genres from romantic comedy/drama to hardcore sci-fi.

Amusingly the two most popular among everyone are a couple of dragons from a sci-fi comedy, and one of them is fascinated with a storm chaser from a sci-fi thriller.

gettingby said:

I know a lot of people here have taken creative writing courses or found writing exercises elsewhere. Have you ever done a really good one? Maybe even one that changed your relationship with the written word? I'm looking for a few good ones to try out. Thanks.

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Read anything by Sol Stein

The thing that worked best for me is writing short stories consistently. I took Holly Lisle's free course to learn how. And hey, I checked, and it's still free here: https://hollylisle.com/how-to-write-flash-fiction-that-doesnt-suck/.

I ended up writing short stories rather than flash (2k, rather than 500 words in most cases). And it took me a while to get them to the point that I felt comfortable publishing them on my blog. I had to pub about a dozen of them in other places before I felt confident enough to do that.

But year in, year out, the thing that has worked the best, as a baseline for "Am I still a writer?", has been publishing a short story every month on my blog. Ha--I should say, most months because I've had times where I couldn't even find a short inside me. But I'm happier when I do. : )

The best, most effective writing exercise I ever did was writing every day. I heard it from each teacher growing up, every professor in college, but I railed against that advice... and finished almost nothing as a result, let alone a novel.

However, when I forced myself to write day after day -- which was torture at first -- I gradually built up a routine. And I went from never finishing a novel (and barely ever finishing short stories) to writing my last novel's first draft (and I'm talking around 90k words) in just 19 days. And writing novels went from feeling like some tremendous challenge to no big deal.

And then tracking my progress really helped, since I'd sometimes challenge myself to beat previous daily word counts.

gettingby said:

I know a lot of people here have taken creative writing courses or found writing exercises elsewhere. Have you ever done a really good one? Maybe even one that changed your relationship with the written word? I'm looking for a few good ones to try out. Thanks.

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Honestly, the best exercise I've done is sit myself down in my chair and put my fingers on the keyboard. I've read many how-to books and even taken some college courses, but the best, most helpful thing I've done is just sat and wrote.

I got one. Long post incoming.

“Writing fiction” by Janet Burroway made me understand just how crucial setting is. I really love writing exercises that focus on setting to be fascinating, and this one in particular really struck a chord with me.

I found this technique from my undergrad senior year creative writing professor very effective; write a short story centered around a major decision by the main character (about 600 words or so). Write three different versions; one where the character makes the worst possible decision, one where they make the best possible decision, and one where they make an understandable but flawed decision. The decision made will have consequences for the main character no matter what. However, go back and take notes of how well your setting accommodates your character’s decision, or doesn't. Let’s say the main character makes the “best possible” decision. Is it possible that the setting they are in actually induces negative consequences on the main character because of that decision? First examine how severe the consequences for the main character will be personally on an immediate level, then zoom out and explore how the environment around them will react.

As a very simple example, a man breaks up with a woman when they realize they don’t genuinely love her. Good decision long term, and the “right” thing to do, but does he live in a world or society where if you’re not married by a certain age you’re looked down upon? Does either of them lose financial benefits from not being married that put them at risk of starvation, eviction or anything else that would make them question their choice?

Sometimes doing good things and “right” things have bad consequences, and sometimes a setting or environment will make excuses for you for doing bad things which make them appear less bad (a cozy hometown you know you could feasibly never leave, but you'd have to stifle ambition to stay), and sometimes you make a decision and the world around you seems completely indifferent. This is where pressure, doubt, and the nuances of real life kick in.

If you knew what decision was the “right” one, but you’d be punished, not rewarded for it, would you still do it? Scorcese is the king of this. In The Departed, the undercover mob infiltrator is constantly tortured, develops addictions and has to go to therapy, while the rat in the FBI is rewarded constantly by his department and has a gorgeous apartment. And yet, somehow the character who did the “right” thing (which itself gets complicated, obviously) seems more at peace with himself; the rat in the FBI has a girlfriend but he clearly isn’t attracted to her, he’s always jumpy and every time he talks excuses come out of his mouth, more like he is trying to justify things to himself. The "bros" at his FBI department see him as a golden boy, but he knows the truth and he hates himself for it. He expresses suicidal ideation towards the end of the film. To use a less pretentious example, even the first Spiderman film from Sam Raimi has this; Peter breaks up with MJ to protect her at the end, and boy does it suuuuuuuck for him, but it's "right." The setting, a fictionalized New York City, needs him to be Spiderman, as the villains are a representation of how corrupt people will always take advantage of those around them and create a "bad" environment, and Spiderman represents a possibility for power being used responsibly. That said, does doing the "right" thing matter? Does such a thing even exist? Maybe you don't believe it does, and you can explore that too.

This really tests the concept of a “soul.” Whether you believe in a “soul” or not, that’s up to you. That can’t be proven. However, a character often seems to act according to having some kind of “soul;” some characters will do good despite being punished for it because it helps them sleep at night, while characters who are rewarded for action they can’t place on their own internal scales of right and wrong are still faced with constant, agonizing guilt. As roger ebert said of The Departed, This movie is like an examination of conscience, when you stay up all night trying to figure out a way to tell the priest: I know I done wrong, but, oh, Father, what else was I gonna do?

This is one that I learnt from Gene Wolfe's interviews.

Take a short story you love, perhaps your favorite. Read it over and over and over until you know it to death. Pour over those lines, think about what the writer does well. Then lock it away where you can't access it and try to rewrite the story. What do you remember? What do you forget? What stands out to you and where did you struggle, compared to the writer?

When done, take out your work and compare. Where did you fall down compared to the original? How did your structure measure up? It's a great exercise.

Copywork is highly underrated. Just the description seems so pointless, physically rewriting the work of someone you admire. But there is something about slowing the reading/thinking pace down to your writing pace, and feeling the rhythm in your fingers as another person's thoughts flow through them....
You notice the attention in the scene shifting where yours would never go on its own. You notice the writer giving themselves to do and say things that you wouldn't habitually do. And even if you cannot pay attention to everything at once, your fingers seem to remember the feel of the words.
For a new POV character I now copywork a few different authors, then try writing the opening scene for my own story while the feeling is still lingering in my fingertips. I then pick the version that appeals the most to continue the story.

Copying first lines/paragraphs has been a really good one for me. I have found doing the first 3-4 paragraphs is best for me. It is enough to see the initial hook, the sideways tug to set the hook (or answer it with a bigger question), and to feel the flavor.

Rebekkamaria said:

I especially gained from the exercise where you tape six A4 pages together and write onto each page one of these: I love, I hate, I'm drawn to, I need, I fear, I get shivers from. Then you write whatever comes to your mind. It revealed awesome things about what I really want to do with my words. Now I write what I want to write instead of trying to write great art.

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oooh that does sound like a good one...

Somebody once gave me this tip as a writing exercise – take a novel or short story that you like the style of, ideally one you think is better-written than your own work. Then write out, long-hand, the first paragragh to help you get into the style. Then write on yourself and see where you want to go with it, trying to stay in the same style.

I love writing prompts! One member here who I haven't seen in years had a blog where the author was given a photograph (something off Shutterstock or something) and the writer was free to write 1500 words however the writer wanted, and the story would go up on the blog. It was fun.

I also wrote one short story based on the theme for an anthology, but unfortunately the editor was one of those "I love writing but don't know a thing about publishing" types (and I didn't know the difference at that time either). Although I wrote the story the anthology never happened. I looked at the story years later, and I still think it would be worth submitting if I could just get the opening 500 words to not suck.