Creative Writing -- Prose Exercises

To improve as a writer, it is important to:
(1) Write frequently.  Write every day, if possible.
(2) Try your hand at all different kinds of writing.  (This is like cross training for an athlete or trying new ethnic foods for a chef.  It can only make you better at your main specialty.
(3) Save what you write, read it over, and reflect on it occassionally.
(4) Have others read and critique what you write.
(5) Read.  Continuously.  You can't read enough.  Borrow tricks of the trade from the masters.  Try out different styles.  Be impressed.  Get motivated.  Let your imagination take flight.
(6) Engage in some longterm writing projects of your own choosing.


The principles above can be useful in helping giving direction to this course.  Some of the daily writing exercises may seem like they "are not your cup of tea," but I encourage you to try them all.  The exercises that seem most difficult may actually be the ones that stretch you the most and do you the most good.

Some exercises to get started:

1.  Write about a place (real or imaginary).  Involve all 5 senses in your description of this place.
2.  Write about a person (real or imaginary).  Involve 2 or more senses in your description of this person.
3. Write about an object.  Tell the story of this object through time.
4.  Write about a pet (or other animal) from the point of view of that pet.  Tell a story (real or imagined) through the pet or animal's eyes.
5. Write about a birthday, Christmas, or other holiday from the point of view of a young child.  Use the language and way of looking at the world suitable to a child.
6. Write from a point of view of a person very different from yourself -- a prisoner in a jail, a nomad living in the desert, a yak farmer in Tibet, a rancher in Australia -- you get the idea.  Tell a story about your life from this perspective.
7. Write a complete short story that includes a beginning, middle, and an end in less than 200 words.  Then try to get it down to less than 100 words.
8.  Write a fable or a myth.
9.  Write about your first memory (from childhood).
10. Tell a story by only using dialogue.  No narration.
For example:
     "How would I go about doing that?"  he said.
     "Just start in the middle of a conversation and keep going," she replied.
     "But what about the story part?"
     She paused before answering.  "We've already got a beginning.  Now make it go somewhere. . . ."