Writing Exercises

I do a bunch of writing exercises. Even if I am in the deadline mines, I try to do at least one a week. So I thought I should write a bunch of them out in case anyone else wanted to try them on for size. These work for me. That does not mean they will work for anyone else. But maybe you see a spark of an idea here you can adapt for yourself.

Regardless there is one rule all of these share: I do the exercise, show no one, and delete it when done. That’s a huge part of them for me. They are vapor. Zero consequences. It doesn’t matter if I mess one up, they’re gone and there is no trace. Next time will be better.

And if they are great writing, I still wipe them, because they are still just exercise, not something to hold on to. If I did it once, I can do it next time. But also maybe next time I do falter, so it’s good to not have the past held on to making me feel bad.

With all that said here are the exercises:

Catch Yourself While Falling

Start a random scene, no plan no idea, just leap off and see how long it takes to catch yourself while falling. As in write it so the scene makes sense and works. That doesn’t mean shorter is better. It depends on the tone you’re aiming for as you discover it.

No Descriptions Just Talking

Build a complex scene with just dialogue but try to make sure no one feels like they’re just spouting exposition. Work in what’s going on, location descriptions, plot stuff, everything. Just without using anything but dialogue between two or more characters. Oh, and if it is more than two, you still can’t use anything that isn’t dialogue. That includes speech/dialogue tags.

Just 3^rd Person No Dialogue

Same as above but only 3^rd person to get things across, and distinguish chars, without over doing it. Still trying to get everything across, but not allowing yourself any dialogue to do so. But who are they what are they doing, where are they doing it, etc.

Just 1st Person No Dialogue

You get the idea, by now, right? Now, of course, you have to describe multiple people as well as what they’re doing and so on but can only do it from the head of one of them.

Senses Work 3^rd Person

Describe a setting and engage at least 3 senses doing so, making them seamless in 3^rd person so the senses relation has to be impersonal to the characters, but relate and work for the reader smoothly.

Senses Work 1st Person

Desc a scene in 1^st person using at least 3 senses. Do it a few times from different chars so you can start to pin down how things change per person. Don’t forget, too, that you can, and should, do a sense that isn’t as strong. How does the sound of a place differ in desc if a char has difficulty hearing, for ex?

Genre Math

Pick two genres and write a page that uses them both in a random relation picked before you start. 20% horror / 80% comedy, 60% romance / 40% thriller whatever it is. Learn how to balance genre math and what makes sentences and paragraphs fit different genres, as well as how to weave them together. Also I wrote way more about Genre Math specifically a while back. You can read that Right Here.

I think those are all of the major ones I do no a regular basis. If I forgot any I’ll do a part two to this, but I am honestly writing this instead of writing something else so I am stopping a good seven, as all the best lists have seven entries. …shhh let me have this.

Hopefully some of these, or all of them, are useful to you.