warm up for creative writing

• Writing Activities

105 Creative Writing Exercises To Get You Writing Again

You know that feeling when you just don’t feel like writing? Sometimes you can’t even get a word down on paper. It’s the most frustrating thing ever to a writer, especially when you’re working towards a deadline. The good news is that we have a list of 105 creative writing exercises to help you get motivated and start writing again!

What are creative writing exercises?

Creative writing exercises are short writing activities (normally around 10 minutes) designed to get you writing. The goal of these exercises is to give you the motivation to put words onto a blank paper. These words don’t need to be logical or meaningful, neither do they need to be grammatically correct or spelt correctly. The whole idea is to just get you writing something, anything. The end result of these quick creative writing exercises is normally a series of notes, bullet points or ramblings that you can, later on, use as inspiration for a bigger piece of writing such as a story or a poem. 

Good creative writing exercises are short, quick and easy to complete. You shouldn’t need to think too much about your style of writing or how imaginative your notes are. Just write anything that comes to mind, and you’ll be on the road to improving your creative writing skills and beating writer’s block . 

Use the generator below to get a random creative writing exercise idea:

List of 105+ Creative Writing Exercises

Here are over 105 creative writing exercises to give your brain a workout and help those creative juices flow again:

• Set a timer for 60 seconds. Now write down as many words or phrases that come to mind at that moment.
• Pick any colour you like. Now start your sentence with this colour. For example, Orange, the colour of my favourite top. 
• Open a book or dictionary on a random page. Pick a random word. You can close your eyes and slowly move your finger across the page. Now, write a paragraph with this random word in it. You can even use an online dictionary to get random words:

• Create your own alphabet picture book or list. It can be A to Z of animals, food, monsters or anything else you like!
• Using only the sense of smell, describe where you are right now.
• Take a snack break. While eating your snack write down the exact taste of that food. The goal of this creative writing exercise is to make your readers savour this food as well.
• Pick a random object in your room and write a short paragraph from its point of view. For example, how does your pencil feel? What if your lamp had feelings?
• Describe your dream house. Where would you live one day? Is it huge or tiny? 
• Pick two different TV shows, movies or books that you like. Now swap the main character. What if Supergirl was in Twilight? What if SpongeBob SquarePants was in The Flash? Write a short scene using this character swap as inspiration.
• What’s your favourite video game? Write at least 10 tips for playing this game.
• Pick your favourite hobby or sport. Now pretend an alien has just landed on Earth and you need to teach it this hobby or sport. Write at least ten tips on how you would teach this alien.
• Use a random image generator and write a paragraph about the first picture you see.

• Write a letter to your favourite celebrity or character. What inspires you most about them? Can you think of a memorable moment where this person’s life affected yours? We have this helpful guide on writing a letter to your best friend for extra inspiration.
• Write down at least 10 benefits of writing. This can help motivate you and beat writer’s block.
• Complete this sentence in 10 different ways: Patrick waited for the school bus and…
• Pick up a random book from your bookshelf and go to page 9. Find the ninth sentence on that page. Use this sentence as a story starter.
• Create a character profile based on all the traits that you hate. It might help to list down all the traits first and then work on describing the character.
• What is the scariest or most dangerous situation you have ever been in? Why was this situation scary? How did you cope at that moment?
• Pretend that you’re a chat show host and you’re interviewing your favourite celebrity. Write down the script for this conversation.
• Using extreme detail, write down what you have been doing for the past one hour today. Think about your thoughts, feelings and actions during this time.
• Make a list of potential character names for your next story. You can use a fantasy name generator to help you.
• Describe a futuristic setting. What do you think the world would look like in 100 years time?
• Think about a recent argument you had with someone. Would you change anything about it? How would you resolve an argument in the future?
• Describe a fantasy world. What kind of creatures live in this world? What is the climate like? What everyday challenges would a typical citizen of this world face? You can use this fantasy world name generator for inspiration.
• At the flip of a switch, you turn into a dragon. What kind of dragon would you be? Describe your appearance, special abilities, likes and dislikes. You can use a dragon name generator to give yourself a cool dragon name.
• Pick your favourite book or a famous story. Now change the point of view. For example, you could rewrite the fairytale , Cinderella. This time around, Prince Charming could be the main character. What do you think Prince Charming was doing, while Cinderella was cleaning the floors and getting ready for the ball?
• Pick a random writing prompt and use it to write a short story. Check out this collection of over 300 writing prompts for kids to inspire you. 
• Write a shopping list for a famous character in history. Imagine if you were Albert Einstein’s assistant, what kind of things would he shop for on a weekly basis?
• Create a fake advertisement poster for a random object that is near you right now. Your goal is to convince the reader to buy this object from you.
• What is the worst (or most annoying) sound that you can imagine? Describe this sound in great detail, so your reader can understand the pain you feel when hearing this sound.
• What is your favourite song at the moment? Pick one line from this song and describe a moment in your life that relates to this line.
•  You’re hosting an imaginary dinner party at your house. Create a list of people you would invite, and some party invites. Think about the theme of the dinner party, the food you will serve and entertainment for the evening. 
• You are waiting to see your dentist in the waiting room. Write down every thought you are having at this moment in time. 
• Make a list of your greatest fears. Try to think of at least three fears. Now write a short story about a character who is forced to confront one of these fears. 
• Create a ‘Wanted’ poster for a famous villain of your choice. Think about the crimes they have committed, and the reward you will give for having them caught. 
• Imagine you are a journalist for the ‘Imagine Forest Times’ newspaper. Your task is to get an exclusive interview with the most famous villain of all time. Pick a villain of your choice and interview them for your newspaper article. What questions would you ask them, and what would their responses be?
•  In a school playground, you see the school bully hurting a new kid. Write three short stories, one from each perspective in this scenario (The bully, the witness and the kid getting bullied).
• You just won $10 million dollars. What would you spend this money on?
• Pick a random animal, and research at least five interesting facts about this animal. Write a short story centred around one of these interesting facts. 
• Pick a global issue that you are passionate about. This could be climate change, black lives matters, women’s rights etc. Now create a campaign poster for this global issue. 
• Write an acrostic poem about an object near you right now (or even your own name). You could use a poetry idea generator to inspire you.
• Imagine you are the head chef of a 5-star restaurant. Recently the business has slowed down. Your task is to come up with a brand-new menu to excite customers. Watch this video prompt on YouTube to inspire you.
• What is your favourite food of all time? Imagine if this piece of food was alive, what would it say to you?
• If life was one big musical, what would you be singing about right now? Write the lyrics of your song. 
• Create and describe the most ultimate villain of all time. What would their traits be? What would their past look like? Will they have any positive traits?
• Complete this sentence in at least 10 different ways: Every time I look out of the window, I…
• You have just made it into the local newspaper, but what for? Write down at least five potential newspaper headlines . Here’s an example, Local Boy Survives a Deadly Illness.
• If you were a witch or a wizard, what would your specialist area be and why? You might want to use a Harry Potter name generator or a witch name generator for inspiration.
• What is your favourite thing to do on a Saturday night? Write a short story centred around this activity. 
• Your main character has just received the following items: A highlighter, a red cap, a teddy bear and a fork. What would your character do with these items? Can you write a story using these items? 
• Create a timeline of your own life, from birth to this current moment. Think about the key events in your life, such as birthdays, graduations, weddings and so on. After you have done this, you can pick one key event from your life to write a story about. 
• Think of a famous book or movie you like. Rewrite a scene from this book or movie, where the main character is an outsider. They watch the key events play out, but have no role in the story. What would their actions be? How would they react?
• Three very different characters have just won the lottery. Write a script for each character, as they reveal the big news to their best friend.  
• Write a day in the life story of three different characters. How does each character start their day? What do they do throughout the day? And how does their day end?
•  Write about the worst experience in your life so far. Think about a time when you were most upset or angry and describe it. 
• Imagine you’ve found a time machine in your house. What year would you travel to and why?
• Describe your own superhero. Think about their appearance, special abilities and their superhero name. Will they have a secret identity? Who is their number one enemy?
• What is your favourite country in the world? Research five fun facts about this country and use one to write a short story. 
• Set yourself at least three writing goals. This could be a good way to motivate yourself to write every day. For example, one goal might be to write at least 150 words a day. 
• Create a character description based on the one fact, three fiction rule. Think about one fact or truth about yourself. And then add in three fictional or fantasy elements. For example, your character could be the same age as you in real life, this is your one fact. And the three fictional elements could be they have the ability to fly, talk in over 100 different languages and have green skin. 
• Describe the perfect person. What traits would they have? Think about their appearance, their interests and their dislikes. 
• Keep a daily journal or diary. This is a great way to keep writing every day. There are lots of things you can write about in your journal, such as you can write about the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ of your day. Think about anything that inspired you or anything that upset you, or just write anything that comes to mind at the moment. 
• Write a book review or a movie review. If you’re lost for inspiration, just watch a random movie or read any book that you can find. Then write a critical review on it. Think about the best parts of the book/movie and the worst parts. How would you improve the book or movie?
• Write down a conversation between yourself. You can imagine talking to your younger self or future self (i.e. in 10 years’ time). What would you tell them? Are there any lessons you learned or warnings you need to give? Maybe you could talk about what your life is like now and compare it to their life?
• Try writing some quick flash fiction stories . Flash fiction is normally around 500 words long, so try to stay within this limit.
• Write a six-word story about something that happened to you today or yesterday. A six-word story is basically an entire story told in just six words. Take for example: “Another football game ruined by me.” or “A dog’s painting sold for millions.” – Six-word stories are similar to writing newspaper headlines. The goal is to summarise your story in just six words. 
• The most common monsters or creatures used in stories include vampires, werewolves , dragons, the bigfoot, sirens and the loch-ness monster. In a battle of intelligence, who do you think will win and why?
• Think about an important event in your life that has happened so far, such as a birthday or the birth of a new sibling. Now using the 5 W’s and 1 H technique describe this event in great detail. The 5 W’s include: What, Who, Where, Why, When and the 1 H is: How. Ask yourself questions about the event, such as what exactly happened on that day? Who was there? Why was this event important? When and where did it happen? And finally, how did it make you feel?
• Pretend to be someone else. Think about someone important in your life. Now put yourself into their shoes, and write a day in the life story about being them. What do you think they do on a daily basis? What situations would they encounter? How would they feel?
• Complete this sentence in at least 10 different ways: I remember…
• Write about your dream holiday. Where would you go? Who would you go with? And what kind of activities would you do?
• Which one item in your house do you use the most? Is it the television, computer, mobile phone, the sofa or the microwave? Now write a story of how this item was invented. You might want to do some research online and use these ideas to build up your story. 
• In exactly 100 words, describe your bedroom. Try not to go over or under this word limit.
• Make a top ten list of your favourite animals. Based on this list create your own animal fact file, where you provide fun facts about each animal in your list.
• What is your favourite scene from a book or a movie? Write down this scene. Now rewrite the scene in a different genre, such as horror, comedy, drama etc.
•  Change the main character of a story you recently read into a villain. For example, you could take a popular fairytale such as Jack and the Beanstalk, but this time re-write the story to make Jack the villain of the tale.
• Complete the following sentence in at least 10 different ways: Do you ever wonder…
• What does your name mean? Research the meaning of your own name, or a name that interests you. Then use this as inspiration for your next story. For example, the name ‘Marty’ means “Servant Of Mars, God Of War”. This could make a good concept for a sci-fi story.
• Make a list of three different types of heroes (or main characters) for potential future stories.
• If someone gave you $10 dollars, what would you spend it on and why?
• Describe the world’s most boring character in at least 100 words. 
• What is the biggest problem in the world today, and how can you help fix this issue?
• Create your own travel brochure for your hometown. Think about why tourists might want to visit your hometown. What is your town’s history? What kind of activities can you do? You could even research some interesting facts. 
• Make a list of all your favourite moments or memories in your life. Now pick one to write a short story about.
• Describe the scariest and ugliest monster you can imagine. You could even draw a picture of this monster with your description.
• Write seven haikus, one for each colour of the rainbow. That’s red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. 
• Imagine you are at the supermarket. Write down at least three funny scenarios that could happen to you at the supermarket. Use one for your next short story. 
• Imagine your main character is at home staring at a photograph. Write the saddest scene possible. Your goal is to make your reader cry when reading this scene. 
• What is happiness? In at least 150 words describe the feeling of happiness. You could use examples from your own life of when you felt happy.
• Think of a recent nightmare you had and write down everything you can remember. Use this nightmare as inspiration for your next story.
• Keep a dream journal. Every time you wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning you can quickly jot down things that you remember from your dreams. These notes can then be used as inspiration for a short story. 
• Your main character is having a really bad day. Describe this bad day and the series of events they experience. What’s the worst thing that could happen to your character?
• You find a box on your doorstep. You open this box and see the most amazing thing ever. Describe this amazing thing to your readers.
• Make a list of at least five possible settings or locations for future stories. Remember to describe each setting in detail.
• Think of something new you recently learned. Write this down. Now write a short story where your main character also learns the same thing.
• Describe the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your whole life. Your goal is to amaze your readers with its beauty. 
• Make a list of things that make you happy or cheer you up. Try to think of at least five ideas. Now imagine living in a world where all these things were banned or against the law. Use this as inspiration for your next story.
• Would you rather be rich and alone or poor and very popular? Write a story based on the lives of these two characters. 
• Imagine your main character is a Librarian. Write down at least three dark secrets they might have. Remember, the best secrets are always unexpected.
• There’s a history behind everything. Describe the history of your house. How and when was your house built? Think about the land it was built on and the people that may have lived here long before you.
• Imagine that you are the king or queen of a beautiful kingdom. Describe your kingdom in great detail. What kind of rules would you have? Would you be a kind ruler or an evil ruler of the kingdom?
• Make a wish list of at least three objects you wish you owned right now. Now use these three items in your next story. At least one of them must be the main prop in the story.
• Using nothing but the sense of taste, describe a nice Sunday afternoon at your house. Remember you can’t use your other senses (i.e see, hear, smell or touch) in this description. 
• What’s the worst pain you felt in your life? Describe this pain in great detail, so your readers can also feel it.
• If you were lost on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, what three must-have things would you pack and why?
• Particpate in online writing challenges or contests. Here at Imagine Forest, we offer daily writing challenges with a new prompt added every day to inspire you. Check out our challenges section in the menu.

Do you have any more fun creative writing exercises to share? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

Related Posts

Comments loading...

• Join for Free

Free Creative Writing Worksheet with 5 Warm-up Exercises

• by Domestika @domestika

Download these free writing exercises to challenge your creativity and come to the blank page filled with inspiration

Writing a unique and engaging book that readers simply can’t put down often means finding ways to put a twist on well-known tropes and writing habits. Prompts are a great way to open your mind by introducing new ideas and rules to experiment with .

Emily Barr ( @emily_barr ) is an award-winning novelist and Domestika teacher who combines a love for travel with her talent for writing addictive thrillers to take readers on a journey. Here, she shares five warm-up prompts that will help you stretch your writing muscles in a downloadable PDF worksheet.

How to get started with writing prompts

“It’s much easier to not write a book, than to write a book!” Emily explains. As the author of several adult and young adult thrillers in the UK, and horror and sci-fi in the US, she needs to stay motivated and engaged with her projects through lots of drafting and editing.

While reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way , Emily was introduced to the practice of morning pages , where you begin a writing day by filling three pages by hand. This can help “unstick” your mind.

And if you’re struggling to think of things to write about, writing prompts are your best friend. They might be a single word or image you can bounce off, or they might be a whole scene waiting to be explored.

Benefits of using writing prompts

1. You can discover new ideas and themes you want to explore in your main project.

2. It’s easier to get started on a slower writing day.

3. You can experiment with styles or genres you don’t usually write.

4. They give your brain a break from writing the same thing every day.

5. It’s liberating to write something completely silly, that you don’t have to share with anyone!

Download the free PDF worksheet with five writing warm-up exercises

After clicking on the download button below, you’ll find a PDF file titled Creative Writing Warm-up Worksheet by Emily Barr in your Downloads folder.

Inside, you can learn more about Emily’s course, and also discover the prompts she recommends to stimulate your creativity before you work on your novel. They will push you to think about a range of aspects in your writing, from dialogue to description—and even challenge you to write a story with every letter of the alphabet!

Join for Free and download

EN download-20230825T091752Z-001.zip

Sign up for Emily’s course, Writing a Psychological Thriller . There, you’ll write the opening of your own book, a 25-word synopsis, and plan the rest of your plot with an experienced novelist as your guide.

Discover more writing resources

1. Try these two additional writing exercises to overcome creative block.

2. Learn the difference between a novel and a short story , so you can make the right choice for your narrative.

3. Watch these six free creative writing tutorials for all levels.

4. Go from the blank page to a daily writing practice with this course by Aniko Villalba.

5. Develop your first novel idea with this course by Shaun Levin.

Recommended courses

Writing Exercises: From the Blank Page to Everyday Practice

A course by Aniko Villalba

Engage in creative writing exercises that document and generate ideas, and transform it into a regular practice

• 98% ( 1.2K )

Storytelling Techniques for Conveying a Message

A course by Gabriel García de Oro

Discover the most powerful tool for effectively communicating your brand, business, or work through emotions

• 98% ( 636 )

Visual Poetry Diary: tell stories with photos and verses

A course by Lina Botero

Learn to tell stories by combining different languages, such as words, video, and photography to express your emotions in an original way.

• 99% ( 215 )
• Follow Domestika

Keep in contact through the following social networks or via RSS feed:

Join Newsletter

Writing warm-ups.

“Don’t wait for inspiration. Work inspires inspiration. Keep working. If you succeed, keep working. If you fail, keep working. If you’re interested, keep working. If you’re bored, keep working.”

— Michael Crichton

15 Ways to Jump-start Your Day

In a candlelit garret, William Shakespeare spins in a circle, rubs a quill between his hands, then spits over his shoulder before sitting down to put plume to parchment.

That scene from 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love” is played for laughs, but in today’s world of deadlines and day jobs, warm-up rituals are no joke. A warm-up routine can help you banish distractions, loosen “cold” creative muscles, and get down to the serious business of putting words on pages.

I recently asked the most prolific writers I know—the members of Romance Writers of America—to reveal how they jump-start their writing each day. Here, they share 15 fresh ways to get beyond the “blank page” stage as quickly as possible.

• Create a routine . Become a creature of habit. “I arise at 6 a.m., read the newspaper and take a short swim,” says Virginia Henley (The Border Hostage, Dell). “Once I’ve begun step one of the ritual, I can’t turn back, and therefore I turn on that computer and start work at the same time every day.” Take note: All of the New York Times bestselling authors who responded to the survey stressed this point.
• Don’t use e-mail or the Internet as a warm-up . Going online is the fastest way to make your writing time vanish without a trace. “I smack my hand when it tries to push the Outlook Express button first thing,” says Kathleen Eagle (Once Upon a Wedding, William Morrow). Reward yourself with Net surfing at the end of your writing session, after you’ve met your daily goal.
• Set a limit on warm-up time . A warm-up ritual is meant to improve your productivity, not give you another excuse to procrastinate. As you read this list, circle two or three ideas that appeal to you, then weave them into a daily routine that lasts about 10 to 20 minutes. If you find yourself overdoing it, set a timer.
• Relocate. Take your show on the road: Pack up your laptop and head for the nearest dining room, coffee shop, park or beach. One New York Times bestselling author starts every day far from her office: After waking up and making a quick pit stop, “I hop right back under the covers with my laptop,” says Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Breathing Room, William Morrow). “I like to write this way for about an hour before I go downstairs and tend to everything else. Two hours later, when I finally get resettled in front of the computer, I already have something to show for my day.”
• List. If you’re nagged by thoughts of errands to run and groceries to buy, banish your distractions by jotting a quick to-do list. Put a star next to anything that needs to be done today (just as soon as you’re finished writing). Now set the list aside and focus on your book.
• Dictate . If you find the “blank page” stage too daunting, turn off your computer and dictate the rough draft of your scene into a digital recorder. Use a portable model and jump-start your writing in the car, at your daughter’s soccer game or anywhere that’s convenient.
• Type . Put your fingers on the keyboard and type whatever pops into your head: random phrases, a description of the weather, the room where the scene takes place—anything that will move you into the story. “I know I can delete these ramblings, and I often do,” says Victoria Hinshaw (The Fountainebleu Fan, Zebra Regency). “I’m sometimes surprised, however, to find a new insight or even a worthwhile sentence or two.”
• Plot . Take a moment to think about what you want this scene to accomplish: Who are the focal characters? What are their motivations? What conflicts will they encounter? What action might take place? What’s the emotional tone? How will this scene move the story forward? Brainstorm 10 or 20 quick ideas and dive in.
• Skim . “If I’m stalled, I often go back and speed-read through the entire manuscript,” says Robin Lee Hatcher (Firstborn, Tyndale House). “Major procrastination usually indicates that I’m missing motivation for one of my characters. This helps me find the answer.”
• Journey . If you’re a historical author, take a time-traveling journey into the era you’re writing about: Look at letters, diaries, prints or other material from the period. While writing The Exiles (Zebra), Nita Abrams started her day by tracing her characters’ movements on a map of 1813 Vienna.
• Spark . Decorate your writing space with pictures that instantly spark your creativity. In her “Poof, It’s a Book!” workshop, Susan Wiggs (Passing Through Paradise, Warner) suggests making a collage with clippings from magazines. The collage for my current novel-in-progress features photos of Alaskan scenery, a helicopter, Mel Gibson, a blonde in a slinky red dress and phrases like “Strong & Beautiful.”
• Believe . Create a folder filled with self-esteem boosters: inspiring quotes, praise from contest judges or critique partners, award certificates—anything that helps you believe in yourself and your talent. Spend a moment looking through it before you start your day.
• Relax . A few minutes of guided relaxation can quiet your mind and awaken your creative spirit. Step-by-step instruction is available on DVD or audio CD. Try “Yoga Journal’s Yoga Practice for Relaxation” (DVD) or “The Theta Meditation System” by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson (CD), both available at Amazon.com, or “Ten Minutes to Relax” by The Relaxation Company (CD, available at www.therelaxationcompany.com).
• Ask a question. Before leaving the keyboard, ask yourself a question about tomorrow’s scene: What’s the heroine feeling at this point? Or, How are they going to get out of this alive? Write it down and sleep on it. Your subconscious might provide a surprising answer.
• Blaze a trail . Type a few quick sentences to be continued. “I try to always end my workday by beginning a new strand of action or adventure—just enough to draw me into the next day’s work with a bit more ease,” says Ruth Ryan Langan, author of more than 70 novels (His Father’s Son, Silhouette).

Experiment a bit until you find the warm-up that meets your needs. If any part of your routine causes you trouble, change it. “What will motivate one writer may not work for another,” says Tina St. John (White Lion’s Lady, Ballantine). “It’s important to look for the things that inspire you, then use them shamelessly.”

USA Today bestselling author Shelly Thacker has earned lavish praise from Publishers Weekly, Locus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Detroit Free Press and booksellers who have called her “a virtuoso beyond compare.” A two-time RWA RITA Finalist, she has won numerous other honors for her fiction, including a National Readers’ Choice Award and many Romantic Times Certificates of Excellence. There are more than one million copies of her novels in print.

Published in Writer’s Digest’s Writer’s Forum magazine, Winter 2005 © Shelly Thacker. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted for individual writers to print one copy of this article for personal use. Any other reproduction by any means, print or electronic, is strictly prohibited without written permission of the author.

• 43 Creative writing exercises

A selection of fun creative writing exercises that can be completed solo, or with a group. Some are prompts to help inspire you to come up with story ideas, others focus on learning specific writing skills.

I run a  Creative Writing Meetup  for adults and teens in Montpellier or online every week. We start with a 5 to 20 minute exercise, followed by an hour and a half of silent writing, during which each participant focuses on their own project. Every exercise listed below has been run with the group and had any kinks ironed out.  Where the exercises specify a number of people, if you have a larger group, simply split everyone up into smaller groups as appropriate.

The solo exercises are ideal to help stimulate your mind before working on a larger project, to overcome writer’s block, or as stand-alone prompts in their own right. If a solo exercise inspires you and you wish to use it with a larger group, give every member ten minutes to complete the exercise, then ask anyone who wishes to share their work to do so in groups of 3 or 4 afterwards.

Looking for something quick to fire your imagination? Check out these  creative writing prompts for adults .

Writing Retreat in South France

A note on running exercises remotely

While you can enjoy the exercises solo, they are also designed for online writing groups using Zoom, WhatsApp, or Discord.

If you're running a group and follow a ' Shut Up and Write ' structure, I recommend connecting on WhatsApp (for example) first, doing the exercise together, sharing writing samples as needed. Next, write in silence for an hour and a half on your own projects, before reconnecting for a brief informal chat at the end. This works great with small remote groups and is a way to learn new techniques, gain online support, and have a productive session.

If you have a larger online group, it's worth looking into Zoom, as this has a feature called  Breakout Rooms . Breakout Rooms let you split different writers into separate rooms, which is great for group activities. The free version of Zoom has a 40 minute limit, which can be restrictive, but Zoom Pro is well worth it if you're going to use it on a regular basis. In my experience, Zoom has a better connection than Facebook chat or WhatsApp.

A Letter From Your Character To You

Spend ten minutes writing a letter from a character in your novel to  you , the author, explaining why you should write about them. This serves three purposes:

• As you write, it helps you get into the mindset of the character. Ask yourself how they would language this letter and what they would consider important.
• It's motivating to know that your character wants you to write about them.
• If your goal is to publish a complete work of fiction one day, whether it be a novel, a play or a movie script, you will want to contact an agent or publisher. This helps you practice in an easy, safe way.

If you're doing this exercise with a group of teens or adults, and some of the group haven't already started working on their masterpiece, they can instead choose any fictional novel they love. Ask participants to imagine that a character within the book wrote to the author in the first place to ask them to write their story. How did they plead their case?

The Opening Sentence

The opening sentence has to grab the reader's attention and make them want to keep reading. Many authors achieve this by starting with an action scene. In modern literature, it's best to avoid starting with someone waking up, or a description of the weather. In this exercise the task is to write an opening sentence either to a book you're currently writing, or simply for an imaginary piece of literature.  Here are some of my favourite opening sentences to get you going:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

George Orwell , 1984

The Golem's life began in the hold of a steamship.

Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Djinni

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Leo Tolstoy , Anna Karenina

It wasn't a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.

Diana Gabaldon , Outlander

You better not never tell nobody but God.

Alice Walker , The Color Purple

The cage was finished.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez ,  Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon

Imagine that you are living your life out of order: Lunch before breakfast, marriage before your first kiss.

Audrey Niffenegger ,  The Time Traveler's Wife

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Douglas Adams ,  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

There are a plethora of ways you can start a book, however two ways that help engage the reader immediately are:

• Set the scene in as few words as possible, so the reader immediately knows what's happening and wants to know what happens next.  The scene must be original and create a vivid image in the reader's mind.
• Surprise the reader with an unusual event or usual point of view.

Spend 5 minutes working on your own opening sentence, then share it with the other participants.

Make your protagonist act!

Exercise for 2 writers, or can be done solo.

According to John Gardner:

"Failure to recognise that the central character must act, not simply be acted upon, is the single most common mistake in the fiction of beginners."

Spend 5 minutes writing a scene where the protagonist is passive in a conversation with one other character. It could be that the other character says something dramatic, and the protagonist just listens, or it could be anything else of your choice!

Once the 5 minutes is up, swap papers with another writer. If you're using Zoom, or working online, send it to each other in a private chat. Now the other person spends 8 minutes rewriting the scene to make the protagonist as active as possible. This might include:

Read both scenes together. Which makes you want to keep on reading?

If you're doing this as a solo writing exercise, simply complete both parts yourself.

• Showing the emotion this evokes.
• Getting them to disagree with the other character.
• Showing how they respond physically (whether it's as a physical manifestation of how they feel, or a dramatic gesture to make a point).

Overcoming writer's block

Are you staring at a blank page or stuck for any story ideas? This exercise will help anyone who's experiencing writer's block with a particular piece of writing. If this isn't you, that's great, others will value your input!

If anyone has a particular scene they're stuck with (a pool of blood on the floor they have no explanation for, a reason why the rich lady just walked into a particular pub, etc.) then at the start of the exercise everyone briefly describes their scenes (if working online with a large group, typing it into the chat might be best). Everyone then chooses one scene to use as a writing prompt to write a short story for 10-15 minutes.

Afterwards, split into small groups if necessary, and read out how you completed someone else's writing prompt. As everyone listens to everyone else's ideas, this can be a wonderful source of inspiration and also improves your writing. As an alternative solo exercise, try free writing. With free writing, simply write as quickly as you can on the topic without editing or censoring yourself - just let your creative juices flow. If you're not sure what happens next, brainstorm options on the page, jot down story ideas, or just put, "I don't know what happens next." Keep going and ideas will come.

Writing Character Arcs

There are several different types of character arc in a novel, the 3 most common being:

For this exercise choose either a positive or negative character arc. Spend 8 minutes writing a scene from the start of a novel, then 8 minutes writing a scene towards the end of a novel showing how the character has developed between the two points. Don't worry about including how the character has changed, you can leave that to the imagination.

The point here is to capture the essence of a character, as they will be the same, but show their development.

• Positive  - Where a character develops and grows during the novel. Perhaps they start unhappy or weak and end happy or powerful.
• Negative  - Where a character gets worse during a novel. Perhaps they become ill or give in to evil tendencies as the novel progresses.
• Flat  - In a flat character arc the character themself doesn't change much, however the world around them does. This could be overthrowing a great injustice, for example.

Sewing Seeds in Your Writing

In this exercise, we will look at how to sew seeds. No, not in your garden, but in your story. Seeds are the tiny hints and indicators that something is going on, which influence a reader's perceptions on an often unconscious level. They're important, as if you spring a surprise twist on your readers without any warning, it can seem unbelievable. Sew seeds that lead up to the event, so the twists and turns are still surprising, but make intuitive sense. Groups : Brainstorm major plot twists that might happen towards the end of the novel and share it in a Zoom chat, or on pieces of paper. Choose one twist each. Individuals : Choose one of the following plot twists:   -  Your friend is actually the secret son of the king.   -  Unreliable narrator - the narrator turns out to be villain.   -  The monster turns out to be the missing woman the narrator is seeking.   -  The man she is about to marry happens to already have a wife and three kids.

Write for ten minutes and give subtle hints as to what the plot twist is. This is an exercise in subtlety. Remember, when the twist occurs, it should still come as a surprise.

This is a fun writing activity for a small group. You’ve found a magic potion labelled ‘Cat Chat’ and when you drink it, you turn into whichever animal you’re thinking about; but there’s a problem, it also picks up on the brainwaves of other people near you!

Everyone writes down an animal in secret and then reveals it to the other writers.  The spell will turn you into a creature that combines elements of all the animals.  Each person then spends 5 minutes writing down what happens when they drink the potion.

After the 5 minutes is up, everyone shares their story with the other participants.

If you enjoy this exercise, then you may also want to check out our  Fantasy and Sci-Fi writing prompts  full of world building, magic, and character development prompts..

Joe Brainard wrote a novel called:  I Remember It contains a collection of paragraphs all starting with “I remember”.  This is the inspiration for this exercise, and if you’re stuck for what to write, is a great way to get the mental gears turning.  Simply write “I remember” and continue with the first thing that pops into your head.

Spend 5 minutes writing a short collection of “I remember” stories.

Here are a couple of examples from Joe Brainard’s novel:

“I remember not understanding why people on the other side of the world didn't fall off.”

“I remember waking up somewhere once and there was a horse staring me in the face.”

Giving feedback to authors

If you're running a workshop for more experienced adult authors and have at least an hour, this is a good one to use. This is the longest exercise on this page, but I felt it important enough to include.

Give each author the option to bring a piece of their own work. This should be double spaced and a maximum of 3 pages long. If you're running a workshop where not everyone is likely to bring a manuscript, ask everyone who wants to bring one to print two copies each. If someone forgets but has a laptop with them, the reader can always use their laptop.

Print out a few copies and hand them around to everyone in the workshop of the guide on: 'How to give constructive feedback to writers'

Each author who brought a sample with them then gives them to one other person to review. They write their name on the manuscript in a certain colour pen, then add any comments to it before passing it to a second person who does the same (commenting on the comments if they agree or disagree).

Then allow 5 minutes for everyone to discuss the feedback they've received, ensuring they are giving constructive feedback.

The Five Senses

Painting by Giovanni Battista Manerius -  The Five Senses

Choose a scene and write it for 5 minutes focusing on one sense, NOT sight. Choose between:

Hearing  Taste Smell Touch

This can be internal as well as external (I heard my heartbeat thudding in my ears, or I smelt my own adrenaline).

After the 5 minutes stop and everyone reads it out loud to each other. Now write for another 5 minutes and continue the other person's story, but do NOT use sight OR the sense they used.

You can use any sense to communicate the essentials, just focus on creating emotions and conveying the story with the specific sense(s).

If you need some writing prompts, here are possible scenes that involve several senses:

• Climbing through an exotic jungle
• Having an argument that becomes a fight
• A cat's morning
• Talking to someone you're attracted to

Show don't tell

2 or 3 people

A lot of writing guides will advise you to, "Show, don't tell". What does this actually mean?

If you want to evoke an emotional reaction from your reader, showing them what is happening is a great way to do so.  You can approach this in several ways:

Split up into pairs and each person writes down a short scene from a story where they "tell" it.  After this, pass the description of the scene to your partner and they then have 5 minutes to rewrite it to "show" what happened.  If there are an odd number of participants, make one group of three, with each person passing their scene clockwise, so everyone has a new scene to show.  After the 5 minutes, for small groups everyone reads their new description to everyone else, or for large groups, each person just reads their new scene to their partner.

• Avoid internal dialogue (thinking), instead have your protagonist interact with other people, or have a physical reaction to something that shows how s/he feels.  Does their heart beat faster?  Do they notice the smell of their own adrenaline?  Do they step backwards, or lean forwards?
• Instead of using an adjective like creepy, e.g. "Mary entered the creepy house", show why the house is creepy through description and in the way the protagonist responds - "The light streamed through the filthy skylight, highlighting the decomposing body of a rat resting on top of it.  As Mary stepped inside, she felt a gust of freezing air brush past her. She turned, but there was nothing there..."

World building

World building is the art of conveying the magic of living in a different world, whether it's a spaceship, a medieval castle, a boat, or simply someone's living room. To master world building, it's not necessary to know every intricate detail, rather to convey the experience of what it would be like to live there.

Choose one of the above images as a prompt and spend 10 minutes writing a scene from the perspective of someone who is seeing it for the first time. Now, move your character six months forward and imagine they've spent the last six months living or working there. Write another scene (perhaps with an additional character) using the image as a background, with the events of the scene as the main action.

Click the above image for a close-up.

Gossiping about a character as if they're a friend.

Judy Blume says that she tells her family about her characters as if they’re real people. 

Chris Claremont said, "For me, writing the 'X-Men' was easy - is easy. I know these people, they're my friends." 

Today’s exercise has 2 parts. First, spend 5 minutes jotting down some facts about a character you’ve invented that might come up if you were telling your friends about them. Either choose a character in something you’ve already written, or invent one from scratch now.

Answer the questions:

What are they up to? How are they? What would you say if you were gossiping about them?

Then split up into groups of 4 to 6 writers. 2 volunteers from each group then role-play talking about their character as if they were a friend (perhaps another character in the story).  The other participants will role-play a group of friends gossiping about the character behind their back and ask questions. If you don’t know the answer, invent it!

Degrees of Emotion Game

This is based on an acting game, to help actors understand how to perform with different degrees of emotion.

Ask everyone to write the following 4 emotions:

For groups of 5 or less, write down numbers starting with 1 and going up until everyone has a number, then give them out in order. For groups of 6 or more, divide groups into 3's, 4's or 5's.

Each person has to write a scene where the protagonist is alone and is only allowed to say a single word, e.g. "Banana".  The writer with number 1 should write the scene with a very low level of the emotion (e.g. happiness), number 2 increases the intensity a bit and the highest number writes a scene with the most intense emotion you can possibly imagine.

Once each writer has written about happiness, rotate the numbers one or two spaces, then move onto anger, then fear, then sadness.

It can help to give everyone numbers showing the intensity of the emotions to write about at the start of the exercise, in which case you may wish to print either the Word or PDF file, then use the ones corresponding to 3, 4 or 5 writers.

Everyone shares their scene with the other course participants.

Three birds, one line

The first paragraph of a surprising number of best-selling novels serves multiple purposes. These are to:

• Establish a goal
• Set the scene
• Develop a character

Nearly every chapter in a novel also serves all three purposes. Instead of establishing a goal though, the protagonist either moves towards it, or encounters an obstacle that hinders them from achieving it.

Some books manage to meet all three purposes with their opening lines, for example:  

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

J.K. Rowling ,  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone  

A little more than one hundred days into the fortieth year of her confinement, Dajeil Gelian was visited in her lonely tower overlooking the sea by an avatar of the great ship that was her home.

Iain M. Banks ,  Excession  

"We should start back," Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.

George R.R. Martin ,  A Game of Thrones

For this exercise write a sentence or short paragraph that serves all three purposes. If you're already writing a novel, then see if you can do this for the first line in a chapter. If not, choose any combination from the following table:

Blind Date on Valentine's Day (Exercise for Adults)

In pairs one writer spends a minute or two describing a character they're writing about, or alternatively they can describe a celebrity or someone from a work of fiction.  The next writer then describes their character.

The story is that these 2 characters (or in my case, person and alien, as I'm writing a sci-fi) have accidentally ended up on a blind date with each other. Perhaps the waiter seated them in the wrong location, perhaps it's an actual blind date, or perhaps they met in some other fashion the writers can determine.

Now spend 10 minutes discussing what happens next!

A Success (Works best for online groups)

This exercise works best for online groups, via Zoom, for example.  The instructions to give are:

"In a few words describe a success in your life and what it felt like to achieve it. It can be a small victory or a large one."

Share a personal example of your own (mine was watching my homeschooled sons sing in an opera together).

"Once you have one (small or large), write it in the chat.

The writing exercise is then to choose someone else's victory to write about for 10 minutes, as if it was the end of your own book.

If you want to write for longer, imagine how that book would start. Write the first part of the book with the ending in mind."

This is great for reminding people of a success in their lives, and also helps everyone connect and discover something about each other.

Your dream holiday

You’re going on a dream holiday together, but always disagree with each other. To avoid conflict, rather than discuss what you want to do, you’ve decided that each of you will choose a different aspect of the holiday as follows:

• Choose where you’ll be going – your favourite holiday destination.
• Choose what your main fun activity will be on the holiday.
• Decide what mode of travel you’ll use to get there.
• If there’s a 4 th  person, choose what you’ll eat on the holiday and what you’ll be wearing.

Decide who gets to choose what at random. Each of you then writes down your dream holiday destination/activity/travel/food & clothes in secret.  Next spend 5 minutes discussing your dream holiday and add any other details you’d like to include, particularly if you’re passionate about doing something in real life.

Finally, everyone spends another 5 minutes writing down a description of the holiday, then shares it with the others.

A haiku is a traditional Japanese form of non-rhyming poetry whose short form makes it ideal for a simple writing exercise.

They are traditionally structured in 3 lines, where the first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 syllables, and the third line is 5 syllables again. Haiku tend to focus on themes of nature and deep concepts that can be expressed simply.

A couple of examples:

A summer river being crossed how pleasing with sandals in my hands! Yosa Buson , a haiku master poet from the 18 th  Century.

And one of mine:

When night-time arrives Stars come out, breaking the dark You can see the most

Martin Woods

Spend up to 10 minutes writing a haiku.  If you get stuck with the 5-7-5 syllable rule, then don’t worry, the overall concept is more important!

See  How to write a haiku  for more details and examples.

Unlike a haiku, which is profound and sombre, a limerick is a light-hearted, fun rhyming verse.

Here are a couple of examples:

A wonderful bird is the pelican. His bill can hold more than his beli-can He can take in his beak Food enough for a week But I'm damned if I see how the heli-can.

Dixon Lanier Merritt, 1910

There was a young lady named Bright, Whose speed was far faster than light; She started one day In a relative way, And returned on the previous night.

Arthur Henry Reginald Buller in  Punch,  1923

The 1 st , 2 nd  and 5 th  line all rhyme, as do the 3 rd  and 4 th  line.  The overall number of syllables isn’t important, but the 3 rd  and 4 th  lines should be shorter than the others.

Typically, the 1 st  line introduces the character, often with “There was”, or “There once was”. The rest of the verse tells their story.

Spend 10 minutes writing a limerick.

Time Travel - Child, Adult, Senior

Imagine that your future self as an old man/woman travels back in time to meet you, the adult you are today.  Alternatively, you as a child travels forward in time to meet yourself as an adult.  Or perhaps both happen, so the child you, adult you, and senior you are all together at the same time.  In story form write down what happens next.

Participants then share their story with other writers either in small groups, or to the whole group.

Focus on faces

Solo exercise.

One challenge writers face is describing a character. A common mistake is to focus too much on the physical features, e.g. "She had brown eyes, curly brown hair and was five foot six inches tall."

The problem with this is it doesn't reveal anything about the character's personality, or the relationship between your protagonist and the character. Your reader is therefore likely to quickly forget what someone looks like.  When describing characters, it's therefore best to:

• Animate them - it's rare that someone's sitting for a portrait when your protagonist first meets them and whether they're talking or walking, it's likely that they're moving in some way.
• Use metaphors or similes  - comparing physical features to emotionally charged items conjures both an image and a sense of who someone is.
• Involve your protagonist  - if your protagonist is interacting with a character, make it personal.  How does your protagonist view this person?  Incorporate the description as part of the description.
• Only give information your protagonist knows  - they may know if someone is an adult, or a teenager, but they won't know that someone is 37 years old, for example.

Here are three examples of character descriptions that leave no doubt how the protagonist feels.

“If girls could spit venom, it'd be through their eyes.” S.D. Lawendowski,  Snapped

"And Ronan was everything that was left: molten eyes and a smile made for war." Maggie Stiefvater,  The Dream Thieves

"His mouth was such a post office of a mouth that he had a mechanical appearance of smiling." Charles Dickens

Spend 5 minutes writing a character introduction that is animated, uses metaphors or similes and involves your protagonist.

If working with a group, then form small groups of 3 or 4 and share your description with the rest of the group.

Onomatopeai, rhyme and alliteration

Today's session is all about sound.

Several authors recommend reading your writing out loud after you've written it to be sure it sounds natural.   Philip Pullman  even goes as far as to say:

"When I’m writing, I’m more conscious of the sound, actually, than the meaning. I know what the rhythm of the sentence is going to be before I know what the words are going to be in it."

For today's exercise, choose the name of a song and write for 10 minutes as if that's the title for a short story. Focus on how your writing sounds and aim to include at least one onomatopoeia, rhyme or alliteration.  At the end of the 10 minutes, read it out loud to yourself, or to the group.

Alliterations

An alliteration example from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.

Onomatopoeias

Buzz, woof, quack, baa, crash, purr, beep, belch,...

The alphabet story - creating a story as a group

This is a novel way to write a story as a group, one word at a time.  The first person starts the story that begins with any word starting with “A”, the next person continues the story with a word starting with “B”, and so on.

Keep going round until you have completed the alphabet.  Ideally it will all be one sentence, but if you get stuck, start a new sentence.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t make complete sense!

It can be tricky to remember the alphabet when under pressure, so you may wish to print it out a couple of times, so the storytellers can see it if they need to, this is particularly helpful if you have dyslexics in the group.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Here’s an example of an alphabet story:

A Band Can Dance Each Friday, Ghostly Hauntings In Jail Kill Lucky Men, Nobody Or Perhaps Quiet Rats, Still That Unifies Villains Who X-Ray Your Zebras.

As I mentioned, it doesn’t need to make sense!

A question or two

Small or large groups

The standard format in our group is a short writing exercise followed by an hour and a half of silent writing on our projects.

At one point I felt like we'd done a lot of small group exercises, and wanted to gain an insight into what everyone was working on, so we did the following exercise instead:

Go round the table and ask everyone to briefly talk about their writing.  Each person then asks one or two yes/no questions.

Everyone responds either by raising their hand for 'yes' or shaking their heads for 'no'. You can also leap up and down to indicate a very strong 'yes'.

Questions can be about anything, and you can use them either to help guide your writing or to help find other people in the group who have similar interests.

Here are some random examples you might ask:

• I want to write a romance novel and am considering setting it in Paris, a traditional romantic setting, or Liverpool which is a less obvious setting. Who thinks Liverpool would be best?
• I need to know more about the life of a farmer. Has anyone got farming experience who I can interview in exchange for a drink?
• My character gets fired and that night goes back to his office and steals 35 computers. Does that sound realistic as the premise of a story?

This works best when you give participants some advance notice, so they have time to think of a question.

Murder Mystery Game

Groups of 3 or 4

This exercise takes 20-30 minutes and allows participants to create a murder mystery outline together.

Phase 1 (3 minutes)

• Split into groups of 3 or 4
• Decide as a group where the murder occurs (e.g. the opera house, a bar, a casino)
• Decide one person who will write the details of the victim and the murder itself.  Everyone else writes the details of one suspect each.
• The ‘victim author’ then invents a few extra details about the scene of the crime, who the victim was (a teenage punk, an adult opera singer, etc.) and the murder weapon and summarises this to the others.

Phase 2 (10 minutes)

Each person then writes a police report as if they are either describing the scene of the crime, or recording the notes from their interview with a single suspect:

Write the following:

• 1 line description of the victim.
• When they were last seen by a group of witnesses (and what they were doing).
• How the murder occurred in more detail based on the evidence available.

Write the following (from the perspective of the investigator):

• 1 line description of the suspect
• What they said during the interview (including what they claim to have doing when the murder occurs).
• A possible motivation (as determined by the police from other witnesses).

Phase 3 (5 minutes)

• Each person reads out their police reports to the other members of their small group
• As a group, decide who the murderer was and what actually happened

See more ideas on  creating murder mystery party games

The obscure movie exercise

Pick a famous movie and spend 5 minutes writing a scene from it from an unusual perspective.  Your aim is to achieve a balance between being too obscure and making it too obvious.  Feel free to add internal dialogue.

At the end of the 5 minutes, everyone reads their movie scene to the others and all the other participants see if they can guess what the movie is.

How to hint at romantic feelings

Write a scene with two people in a group, where you hint that one is romantically interested in the other, but the feelings aren’t reciprocated.

The goal of this exercise is to practice subtlety. Imagine you are setting a scene for the future where the characters feelings will become more important. Choose a situation like a work conference, meeting with a group of friends, etc. How do you indicate how the characters feel without them saying it in words?

Some tips for hinting at romantic feelings:

• Make the characters nervous and shy.
• Your protagonist leans forward.
• Asks deeper questions and listens intently.
• Finds ways to be close together.
• Mirrors their gestures.
• Gives lots of compliments.
• Makes eye contact, then looks away.
• Other people seem invisible to your protagonist.

A novel idea

Take it in turns to tell everyone else about a current project you’re working on (a book, screenplay, short story, etc.)

The other writers then brainstorm ideas for related stories you could write, or directions your project could take.  There are no right or wrong suggestions and the intention is to focus on big concepts, not little details.

This whole exercise takes around 15 minutes.

Creative writing prompts

Exercise for groups of 3-5

If you're in larger group, split up into groups of 3 or 4 people.

Everyone writes the first line of a story in the Zoom chat, or on paper. Other people can then choose this line as a writing prompt.

For this exercise:

• Say who the protagonist is.
• Reveal their motivation.
• Introduce any other characters

Once everyone's written a prompt, each author chooses a prompt (preferably someone eles's, but it can be your own if you feel really inspired by it.)  Then write for 10 minutes using this prompt. See if you can reveal who the protagonist is, what their motivation is (it can be a small motivation for a particular scene, it doesn't have to be a huge life goal), and introduce at least one new character.

Take turns reading out your stories to each other.

• Write in the first person.
• Have the protagonist interacting with an object or something in nature.
• The challenge is to create intrigue that makes the reader want to know more with just a single line.

Creative story cards / dice

Cut up a piece of paper and write one word on each of the pieces of paper, as follows:

Give each participant a couple of pieces of paper at random.  The first person says the first sentence of a story and they must use their first word as part of that sentence.  The second person then continues the story and must include their word in it, and so on.  Go round the group twice to complete the story.

You can also do this creative writing exercise with story dice, your own choice of words, or by asking participants to write random words down themselves, then shuffling all the cards together.

Alternative Christmas Story

Every Christmas adults tell kids stories about Santa Claus. In this exercise you write a Christmas story from an alternative dimension.

What if every Christmas Santa didn't fly around the world delivering presents on his sleigh pulled by reindeer? What if gnomes or aliens delivered the presents? Or perhaps it was the gnomes who are trying to emulate the humans? Or some other Christmas tradition entirely that we humans have never heard of!

Group writing exercise

If you're working with a group, give everyone a couple of minutes to write two possible themes for the new Christmas story. Each theme should be 5 words or less.

Shuffle the paper and distribute them at random. If you're working online, everyone types the themes into the Zoom or group chat. Each writer then spends 10 minutes writing a short story for children based on one of the two themes, or their own theme if they really want to.

If working alone, choose your own theme and spend 15 minutes writing a short story on it. See if you can create the magic of Christmas from another world!

Murder Mystery Mind Map

In a murder mystery story or courtroom drama, there's often conflicting information and lots of links between characters. A mind map is an ideal way to illustrate how everything ties together.

Split into groups of 3 or 4 people each and place a blank piece of A3 paper (double the size of A4) in the middle of each group. Discuss between you who the victim is and write their name in the middle of the piece of paper. Then brainstorm information about the murder, for example:

Feel free to expand out from any of these, e.g. to include more information on the different characters involved.

The idea is that  everyone writes at the same time!   Obviously, you can discuss ideas, but anyone can dive in and write their ideas on the mind map.

• Who was the victim? (job, appearance, hobbies, etc.)
• Who did the victim know?
• What were their possible motivations?
• What was the murder weapon?
• What locations are significant to the plot?

New Year’s resolutions for a fictional character

If you’re writing a piece of fiction, ask yourself how your protagonist would react to an everyday situation. This can help you to gain a deeper insight into who they are.

One way to do this is to imagine what their New Year’s resolutions would be.

If completing this exercise with a group, limit it to 3 to 5 resolutions per person. If some participants are historical fiction or non-fiction writers, they instead pick a celebrity and either write what their resolutions  will  be, or what their resolutions  should  be, their choice.

Verb Noun Fiction Exercise (Inspired by Stephen King)

Stephen King said, "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops."

He also said, "Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence. It never fails. Rocks explode. Jane transmits. Mountains float. These are all perfect sentences. Many such thoughts make little rational sense, but even the stranger ones (Plums deify!) have a kind of poetic weight that’s nice."

In this fiction writing exercise, start by brainstorming (either individually or collectively) seven verbs on seven different pieces of paper. Put those aside for later. Now brainstorm seven nouns. Randomly match the nouns and verbs so you have seven pairs. Choose a pair and write a piece of fiction for ten minutes. Avoid using any adverbs.

It’s the end of the world

It’s the end of the world!  For 5 minutes either:

If working as a team, then after the 5 minutes is up each writer reads their description out to the other participants.

• Describe how the world’s going to end, creating evocative images using similes or metaphors as you wish and tell the story from a global perspective, or
• Describe how you spend your final day before the world is destroyed.  Combine emotion and action to engage the reader.

7 Editing Exercises

For use after your first draft

I’ve listened to a lot of masterclasses on writing by successful authors and they all say variants of your first draft won’t be good and that’s fine. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman summarise it the best:

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”  

Terry Pratchett

“For me, it’s always been a process of trying to convince myself that what I’m doing in a first draft isn’t important. One way you get through the wall is by convincing yourself that it doesn’t matter. No one is ever going to see your first draft. Nobody cares about your first draft. And that’s the thing that you may be agonising over, but honestly, whatever you’re doing can be fixed… For now, just get the words out. Get the story down however you can get it down, then fix it.”

Neil Gaiman

Once you’ve written your first draft, it will need editing to develop the plot, enhance the characters, and improve each scene in a myriad of ways – small and large. These seven creative editing exercises are designed to help with this stage of the process.

The First Sentence

Read the first paragraph of the novel, in particular the first sentence. Does it launch the reader straight into the action? According to  On Writing and Worldbuilding  by Timothy Hickson,  “The most persuasive opening lines are succinct, and not superfluous. To do this, it is often effective to limit it to a single central idea… This does not need to be the most important element, but it should be a central element that is interesting.” Ask yourself what element your opening sentence encapsulates and whether it’s the best one to capture your readers’ attention.

Consistency

Consistency is crucial in creative writing, whether it’s in relation to location, objects, or people.

It’s also crucial for personality, emotions and motivation.

Look at scenes where your protagonist makes an important decision. Are their motivations clear? Do any scenes force them to choose between two conflicting morals? If so, do you explore this? Do their emotions fit with what’s happened in previous scenes?

As you edit your manuscript, keep the characters’ personality, emotions and motivation in mind. If their behaviour is inconsistent, either edit it for consistency, or have someone comment on their strange behaviour or be surprised by it. Inconsistent behaviour can reveal that a character is keeping a secret, or is under stress, so characters don’t always need to be consistent. But when they’re not, there has to be a reason.  

Show Don’t Tell One

This exercise is the first in  The Emotional Craft of Fiction  by Donald Maass. It’s a writing guide with a plethora of editing exercises designed to help you reenergize your writing by thinking of what your character is feeling, and giving you the tools to make your reader feel something.  

• Select a moment in your story when your protagonist is moved, unsettled, or disturbed… Write down all the emotions inherent in this moment, both obvious and hidden.
• Next, considering what he is feeling, write down how your protagonist can act out. What is the biggest thing your protagonist can do? What would be explosive, out of bounds, or offensive? What would be symbolic? … Go sideways, underneath, or ahead. How can your protagonist show us a feeling we don’t expect to see?
• Finally, go back and delete all the emotions you wrote down at the beginning of this exercise. Let actions and spoken words do the work. Do they feel too big, dangerous, or over-the-top? Use them anyway. Others will tell you if you’ve gone too far, but more likely, you haven’t gone far enough.

Show Don’t Tell Two

Search for the following words in your book:

Whenever these words occur, ask yourself if you can demonstrate how your characters feel, rather than simply stating it. For each occasion, can you use physiological descriptors (a racing heart), actions (taking a step backwards) or dialogue to express what’s just happened instead? Will this enhance the scene and engage the reader more?

After The Action

Find a scene where your characters disagree – in particular a scene where your protagonist argues with friends or allies. What happens next?

It can be tempting to wrap up the action with a quick resolution. But what if a resentment lingers and mistrust builds? This creates a more interesting story arc and means a resolution can occur later, giving the character development a real dynamic.

Review how you resolve the action and see if you can stretch out the emotions for a more satisfying read.

Eliminating the Fluff

Ensure that the words used don’t detract from the enormity of the events your character is going through. Can you delete words like, “Quite”, “Little”, or “Rather”? 

Of “Very” Florence King once wrote: “ 'Very' is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen .” Delete it, or replace the word after it with a stronger word, which makes “Very” redundant.

“That,” is another common word used in creative writing which can often be deleted. Read a sentence as is, then reread it as if you deleted, “That”. If the meaning is the same, delete it.

Chapter Endings

When talking about chapter endings, James Patterson said,  “At the end, something has to propel you into the next chapter.”

Read how each of your chapters finish and ask yourself does it either:

• End on a cliff hanger? (R.L. Stine likes to finish every chapter in this method).
• End on a natural pause (for example, you’re changing point of view or location).

Review how you wrap up each of your chapters. Do you end at the best point in your story? Can you add anticipation to cliff hangers? Will you leave your readers wanting more?

How to run the writing exercises

The editing exercises are designed to be completed individually.

With the others, I've always run them as part of a creative writing group, where there's no teacher and we're all equal participants, therefore I keep any 'teaching' aspect to a minimum, preferring them to be prompts to generate ideas before everyone settles down to do the silent writing. We've recently gone online and if you run a group yourself, whether online or in person, you're welcome to use these exercises for free!

The times given are suggestions only and I normally get a feel for how everyone's doing when time's up and if it's obvious that everyone's still in the middle of a discussion, then I give them longer.  Where one group's in the middle of a discussion, but everyone else has finished, I sometimes have a 'soft start' to the silent writing, and say, "We're about to start the hour and a half of silent writing now, but if you're in the middle of a discussion, feel free to finish it first".

This way everyone gets to complete the discussion, but no-one's waiting for ages.  It's also important to emphasise that there's no wrong answers when being creative.

Still looking for more? Check out these creative writing prompts  or our dedicated Sci-Fi and Fantasy creative writing prompts

If you've enjoyed these creative writing exercises, please share them on social media, or link to them from your blog.

Marketing Blog

• Real estate SEO case study
• Writing retreat in South France
• How Google detects and penalizes AI content
• 42 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing Prompts
• 85 Creative Writing Prompts
• What is clickbait and how to use it as a business?

Indigoextra Ltd © 2006 - 2024

UK Tel: +44 (0) 208 1234 618 France Tel: +33 (0) 602 222 354

Testimonials - Terms & Privacy  - Ethics - Contact

TWO WRITING TEACHERS

A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.

Ways to Warm Up for Writing (At All Ages and Stages)

Athletes warm up before practice, musicians warm up before a rehearsal–so why wouldn’t writers warm up before writing?

Warming up for writing means getting your mind ready to write. For some writers, that means recalling your most recent word solving or spelling strategies so that they are fresh on your mind when you need them. For other writers, that might mean doing something to generate ideas for content, and for others it might mean doing something to refresh your memory on where you left off.

Here are a few quick and easy warm up routines that some of your students might find helpful.

Reading the Word Wall or a Ring of High Frequency Words

In many K-2 classrooms, teachers introduce a handful of high frequency words each week, adding them a few at a time to a “word wall” displayed in the classroom for easy reference. Other variations include adding to a smaller personalized word wall or ring of index cards. If this a tool that exists in your classroom, kids can warm up for writing by reviewing the word wall words – then those words will be fresh on their mind as they write. They might simply read the words to themselves, or they might write them on a dry-erase board in different sizes, or they might do a word hunt, searching through their previous writing for word wall words. Anything that gets them reading and/or writing the words they’ve been studying will give them extra practice with the words and set them up for success with spelling those words when they encounter them in their work.

A Spelling or Conventions Checklist Warm Up

For some kids, there are a few particular conventions that they seem to have trouble with day in and day out. With things like writing in lower case (instead of a mix of upper and lower case), common spelling errors, or fogetting punctuation, daily reminders and routines can be very helpful. After all, most conventions are habits, and habits really aren’t developed in one single sitting, or in just one minilesson. Instead, repetition is what forms a habit.

A short checklist highlighting just a few priorities for the indivdual student can help them self-monitor their own habits. Reviewing the checklist as a warm up to writing will put those conventions at the front of the writer’s mind as they begin to write, helping them incorporate the items on the checklist into their writing during writing, instead of always waiting until after writing to go back and check for mistakes.

Doodling or Drawing

For some writers, doodling or drawing helps them get ideas for what to write. It can also serve as a nice transition from an unrelated activity (recess, a math game, a science project…) into writing workshop. Ambient music or white noise often goes along nicely with doodling, and can have a calming effect, in addition to helping kids get ready to do their best work.

Talking or Rehearsing Aloud

Another way that writers often warm up for writing is by talking… talking A LOT. This might take the form of talking into a device to record all their great thinking, or talking to another person to brainstorm ideas, or rehearse a story idea to see how it sounds out loud. Talking might involve a lot of drama and expression, perhaps even role-playing different parts, or taking on different voices–or it might be done quietly and individually, whispering to oneself and sketching out a few ideas for what to write.

Re-reading What You’ve Already Written

Adults might do this without even thinking twice about it, but to novice writers it may not occur to them to reread what they’ve already written before they get started on new work. You can reread with many different lenses – reading your own work out loud helps you hear how it sounds and may help you discover parts to add on to, or shorten up. Rereading for spelling or punctuation from previous days work is helpful because you have fresh eyes for finding your own mistakes when you’ve taken a break from it. And rereading old finished work can help you generate new ideas for your next piece of writing.

Taking a Look at Some Mentor Texts

As a student, I would often get so carried away with a project or a piece of writing that I would lose sight of what the actual assignment was supposed to be. Now, I’ve developed a routine of looking at examples nearly every time I write. Sometimes I look to published, professional authors, but often I look to student writing, or writing created by friends or colleauges. This not only helps me stay focused on what I’m “supposed ” to be doing, I find it helps me generate new ideas, and gets my mind ready to write. Sometimes I look at a mentor text and I think, “Oh! I could use the same strategy in my work!” Other times I think, “Oooh. I would not do it that way. I think I’ll do it this way instead.” Either way, revisiting an example (or mentor text) is a helpful for routine for a lot of writers — especially those of us who benefit from clear expectations and focus on the task at hand.

Putting Warm Up Routines into Practice

In the classroom, each of your students may benefit from warming up for writing in a different way. In your next unit of study, near the beginning of the unit, perhaps you’ll introduce a few of your own favorite warm up routines that students can choose from, and invite them to invent their own routine. Then, each day at at the start of independent writing time, you can remind all your students to warm up, each in their individualized way. You may want to have a set ending time for warming up, signaling to students to stop warming up and start writing — or you may find that students transition into their work on their own and don’t need the signal.

For the writers in your classroom that need a little time to get settled in, a warm up routine might be just the thing that was missing.

Share this:

Published by BethMooreSchool

Literacy Coach, Consultant, Author, Graduate Course Instructor, and Mom. Passionate about fostering a love of reading and writing in learners of all ages. View all posts by BethMooreSchool

3 thoughts on “ Ways to Warm Up for Writing (At All Ages and Stages) ”

Such great ideas! Thanks for this awesome post Beth!

I appreciate the way you likened warming up for writing to warming up for a workout. I’d never just jump right into exercise without getting ready. Same should be said/done for writing too!

Love this list! I could see this at all ages for sure!

Comments are closed.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Helping Writers Become Authors

Write your best story. Change your life. Astound the world.

• Start Here!
• Story Structure Database
• Outlining Your Novel
• Story Structure
• Character Arcs
• Archetypal Characters
• Scene Structure
• Common Writing Mistakes
• Storytelling According to Marvel
• K.M. Weiland Site

How a Writing Warm-Up Routine Can Help You Write Better

Writers are, in a sense, athletes. We hurdle the high walls of writer’s block, we tackle mountains of research, we sprint through rapid-fire action scenes, and sometimes we even manage to hit a home run or two. So what makes us think that, unlike physical athletes, we can force our brains into action without taking the time for a writing warm-up routine?

For years, it was my practice to rush to my computer the moment I finished work every evening. I would slam the door, throw myself into my chair, ram a soundtrack into my CD drive, and frantically click my way into my story file. Every minute of writing time was precious, and I had no intention of wasting even a millisecond. So, without hardly a pause to uncap my creative juices, I hurtled into story land. What I didn’t realize at the time, however, was that, in my haste, I was actually wasting both time and effort.

Then, in 2004, when I sold my two horses, I suddenly found myself luxuriating in an extra hour of free time every evening. Now that the need for speed had been mitigated, I allowed myself the luxury of a little less pressure and a little more preparation time. Instead of diving directly into my writing the moment I parked myself in my chair, I instead took the time to ease myself into my writing and to get my creativity flowing. Looking back, I can see how much both the writing experience and my writing itself improved as a result.

Nowadays, I deliberately set aside the first half-hour of my writing time for the sole purpose of warming up. My own little ritual has evolved over the years, and although it is certainly a personalized ritual, I’ve outlined it below in hopes that you might glean some ideas of your own.

Writing Warm-Up Routine, Step #1: Prayer and Intention

The first thing I do every time I sit down to write is to ask a blessing on my work. I ask that the words might flow freely, that my music may inspire instead of distract, and that I might enjoy every minute of it.

Writing Warm-Up Routine, Step #2: Journaling

As I noted in the post “Journaling and Conquering Monsters,” I’ve found keeping a writing journal to be one of the most beneficial tricks in my bag of writing magic. Not only do I get to vent about problems, but I also have the opportunity to gather my thoughts about my characters, my pacing, and the scene I’m about to write. Instead of diving unprepared into my story and staring at the monitor, trying in vain to figure out where I want to go with a particular scene, I’m instead able to briefly sketch a basic scene plan in my notebook. I can’t even begin to tell how many false starts I’ve avoided with this method. Journaling allows me to gather my thoughts, to methodically put aside the outside world, and to ease my focus out of the intellectual and into the creative.

Writing Warm-Up Routine, Step #3: Article

I’m a faithful subscriber to writing magazines, such as The Writer and Writer’s Digest . For years, I’ve been clipping articles and filing them away. But because articles that just sit in the filing cabinet aren’t worth the staples that hold them together, I’ve made it a practice to cycle through my files by reading one article every day before I begin writing. Sometimes the information I read has a direct bearing on the scene I’m about to write; sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, I’m continually adding to and bolstering my knowledge of the craft in a directly applicable way.

Writing Warm-Up Routine, Step #4: Character Notes

During my outlining process, I write detailed “sketches” of my characters (see “ Interviewing Your Characters ” below). To remind myself of interesting quirks or angles, I read a few of these notes, usually focusing on a major character in my current scene.

Writing Warm-Up Routine, Step #5: Research Notes

For most of my stories, I collect pages upon pages of research material , most of which my sometimes sporadic memory couldn’t hope to remember. Even though I’m able to look up important details as they become necessary in the story, so many interesting facts still get lost in the giant crack between the research phase and the actual writing phase. To help combat that inevitability, I divide my notes into categories, and each day, before writing, I try to read one of these categories. Not only does this keep the important facts fresh in my mind, but it has also spurred interesting and unexpected plot twists.

Writing Warm-Up Routine, Step #6: Proofreading

Probably the most important element of my warm-up is reading over what I wrote in my previous writing session. Beyond just allowing me to correct typos and beautify ugly phrases, this immerses me in the world of my story. Usually, before I’m even done reading, I’m ready to start typing the next words.

Writing Warm-Up Routine, Step #7: Music Video

Finally, as a sort of cherry on the top of my warm-up session, I google a video. YouTube is crawling with fan-made music videos of nearly every movie ever produced. I choose a movie that will have images and themes that resound in my own work, and I spend an extra five minutes, letting the dramatic visuals and music put me in the mood to craft some drama of my own.

After all that, my brain having been stimulated and encouraged, I simply dive in. Other authors, of course, have their own methods of warming up. Some people recommend reading a passage from a classic author; still others suggest actually writing out that same passage, in hopes that you’ll be able to learn from that author’s style. Others swear by journal prompts or a brief stream-of-consciousness writing session.

So hunt around, experiment, and discover which exercises put you in the best frame of mind for writing your story. Just keep in mind that sometimes the quickest way of writing your story is to take some extra time to warm up those brains cells.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Do you have a writing warm-up routine? What is it? Tell me in the comments!

Sign Up Today

Related Posts

K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally-published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel , Structuring Your Novel , and Creating Character Arcs . A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and fantasy novels and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

Great technique. Sometimes switching POV can be just the ticket for rejuvenating a stalled scene.

totally agree about the warmup; probably useful for just about anything we do in life

esp liked your examples, so many good suggestions

reading a writing article, which i enjoy, i sometimes felt was “cheating” – ha! what a silly thought, glad to see you include that, makes me feel less guilty 😉

Writing is a complicated art form. It’s pretty darn near impossible for us to hold all the necessities of the craft in our mind at once. A little refresher course before each writing session can do wonders!

Warming up my brain cells, what few I have left, is a good idea. 😉 I tried a warm-up routine once, failed, and gave up. So maybe I just need to find a better one.

It’s just a matter of finding what works best for you.

Excellent as usual. I am going to give some serious thought to integrating a warm up into my routine.

Even just ten minutes of warm-up can be great for helping our brains switch gears.

10 minutes of warm up yoga, coffee, light breakfast, coffee, a little quiet breathing (a minute)…get to it.

This is a literal warm-up! I like how physical your approach is. I sometimes incorporate light stretching before I start writing.

Awesome post. I’ve been reading your articles for quite awhile now. Very helpful and encouraging. I’ve never been an organized writer, but I’m getting there. I have a wonderful bestie who is being my beta and helping me immensely. I’ve always taken notes all the live long day, but now I have a moleskin I carry with me and outline my chapter during the day. I write in pencil (something I never used to do) and adjust, tweak and embellish as the day goes on. Then, when I’m free in the evening, lo and behold, my chapter practically writes itself! I love your verse and that you begin with prayer. I’m adding that verse to my writing notebook right now. Also, your tip about youtube vids is excellent. I’m very motivated and inspired by music and by movies/tv shows. Inspiration strikes from all corners, but I’d never thought of watching youtube vids like you suggest. I’m going to give it a try! Thank you for all your great posts!!!

I love that you outline your chapter during your day. Even when life interferes with our ability to actually write, we can still be writing in our heads and preparing for the actual writing session.

A good way to make your whole day productive. I think I am gonna try it but use my phone instead of pencil.:) Thanks for this brilliant idea. As for warm up, I am still like you (Weiland) were before. I just get myself into it whenever I am seated to my chair. I think now is the time to think of my own warm up routine.

Even just a little five-minute routine can work wonders for guiding our brainwaves in the right direction.

Yes ma’am, working on it!

I love that you’ve set out your warm up steps. Would you be agreeable to me printing your steps to post beside my work space? I’d love to have a daily reminder.

Absolutely! Feel free.

Thank you for these great tips for warming up before writing. I will try these out and let you know how it goes.

I’m always fascinated to hear about the processes and routines other writers establish for themselves.

I like your warm-up ideas, especially the prayer. I think I may start using SARK’s Writer’s Manifesto as mine: http://planetsark.com/buy-stuff/transformational-programs/wins/attachment/writersmanifesto/

Looks good!

Really enjoyed this article. I’ve been journaling for many years, but now that I’m writing I’ll keep tip #2 in mind for sure. Gets me excited to find my own “groove” before working on my WIP.

Journaling is such a great technique! It’s like brainstorming out loud.

All good info–but I just want to ask something with absolute neutrality: How much lip did you get for step 1?

I’m looking for a numeric answer, a rough estimate, data, not opinions.

for example: “1/3” or “Around 7” or “Only 1 every five months” or “Never gotten any.”

Totally stealing this! <3

[…] Try a writing warmup routine by KM Weiland Food […]

[…] How a Writing Warm-up Routing Can Help You Write Better  […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Novel Outlining
• Storytelling Lessons From Marvel

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Write Your Best Book

Check out my latest novel!

( affiliate link )

Free E-Book

Subscribe to Blog Updates

Subscribe to blog posts rss, sign up for k.m. weiland’s e-letter and get a free e-book, love helping writers become authors.

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2016 · Helping Writers Become Authors · Built by Varick Design

Top 5 Writing Warm Ups To Start Flexing Your Creative Muscle

Nothing is more frustrating for content creators than staring at a blank page. It feels like you're being taunted by that blinking vertical bar. So what do you do to write past your writer's block? The answer is simple: Writing warm ups. I don't mean doing lunges or crunches. Writing warm ups are prompts and techniques that will ease you into writing. After reading this post, you'll have plenty of writing warm up prompts to get your ideas flowing. You won't be intimidated by a blank page again! As a bonus, we'll also list multiple ways to look for new content ideas. Ready to start flexing your creative muscle?

But First, Why Do You Need Writing Warm Ups?

Writing warm up exercises help you jumpstart your writing process . For one, it helps get your fingers moving. Second, it puts your writer's brain at work. But more importantly, these exercises help you get out of your creative rut. Writing warm ups aim to …

• Make writing a habit
• Immerse yourself into the writing process without committing to a "big" project
• Start writing without judgment or expectation
• Pave the way to easily express your thoughts

Remember, you're not expected to produce a publishable output. The whole point of these warm up exercises is to flex your creative muscle so you'll be ready to work on bigger writing tasks. In a minute, you'll learn about different writer's warm up techniques. But before that, we'll dive more into the benefits of writing exercises.

Sharpen Your Writing Skills

Practice makes perfect. That's what we often say. And this is true for writing as well. Sharpening your skills doesn't only involve grammar and information exercises. It's also important to spend time on creative writing exercises. This allows you to ease into writing much quicker. Writing habitually allows the ideas in your head to flow easily. You can write your thoughts on a page faster. That's how you sharpen your skills.

Build Confidence

For one, writing prompts allow you to explore your own voice. They also allow you to look at different perspectives without fear of judgment. Use these prompts to find your voice. In fact, you can explore different subjects to get your brain in gear. As a result, you're more confident when writing your opinions.

Clarify Your Thoughts

Staring at a blank page can be intimidating. Especially when you have a deadline looming in the background. So sometimes, you end up with muddled thoughts and ideas. Writing warm up exercises will help clarify your thoughts. So you can focus on one idea at a time without feeling obligated to create a publishable material. For example, perhaps you're a digital entrepreneur who needs to come up with a viral campaign. You start by writing a short story about your target customer. Or you can write about their hobbies and interests. This allows you to put your focus on the right subject. Or if you're a copywriter who needs to create a Facebook Ads headline. Start by writing headline variations. They don't need to be perfect. Gather your thoughts and turn them into words on a page.

Be Open to New Ideas

With writing prompts, you can be as creative as you want to be. You can build worlds that don't exist. Or write about different situations and characters. How is this beneficial? It helps stimulate your imagination. In doing so, you'll be more open to new ideas. Focus your thoughts on other things so you can discover alternative solutions. Let's say you're a content writer tasked to write about a topic you're not familiar with. Writing exercises will help stimulate your creative muscle. This allows you to look at the topic from a different perspective so you can come up with more innovative ideas. Whether you're a content creator, creative writer, or copywriter, the writing warm ups in the next section will help you get started. Ready?

Fun and Creative Writing Warm Ups for Content Writers and Copywriters

Here's a reminder before we start with these writing warm up techniques: Don't spend too much time doing these warm up exercises. You can pick one warm up and do it for less than 10 minutes. Don't feel pressured. No one expects you to produce a perfectly written outcome.

Practice Automatic Writing

Automatic writing is also known as freewriting. It’s a warm up process where you write anything that comes to mind. With this exercise, you can write without a filter. The aim is to simply get past your writer's block or any resistance. This exercise doesn't need feedback. This means …

• No worrying about grammar and structure
• It's okay to veer off-topic
• No one will read what you wrote

So how do you start? As a tip, you can choose a topic and set a time limit. A 2- to 5-minute mark works great. Remember to write continuously until you've reached the time limit. If you find your mind wandering off-topic then write about it. Even if the topic becomes nonsensical and incoherent. Simply put the words on the page. Here are a few warm up writing prompts to get you started:

• Your favorite vacation
• What was your first job
• Write about how you currently feel
• Review the TV show or movie you watched recently
• Outside your window, what do you see?

You don't have to stick to the initial topic. The prompts are there only to help you get started!

Jot Down Successful Ads On Paper

Gary Halbert, a copywriter, and direct mail marketer, suggests taking a successful ad. Then copy it word-for-word on a piece of paper. This exercise eases you into writing. Can't I just type them on my computer? The simple answer is no. You need to write it down in your own handwriting. Why? When you write things by hand, the neural activity in certain parts of your brain is activated. In fact, according to a 2017 study , long-form notetaking integrates more sensory-motor skills. Additionally, writing by hand allows you to slow down. You can focus on what you're writing and connect with the words. This leaves a more lasting impact on your brain. As an added benefit, studies have proven that handwriting helps improve memory and comprehension.

Write Different Headline Variations

Not sure how to start your blog post? Or are you having a hard time writing the perfect headline copy? Writing headlines can be pretty intimidating. In fact, you might find yourself stuck trying to come up with the right one. So if you're having a staredown contest with a blank page, try writing "draft" headlines. This takes the pressure off. Write a few headline variations. The goal of this writing warm up exercise is to get your creative juice flowing. So don't worry about getting it right the first try. Here's what you need to do for this warm up:

• Write the first headline you want to use
• Start writing different variations of your initial headline
• Repeat the process

Try not to over-analyze your headlines. Be as creative or emotional as you want to be. Allow yourself to write terrible drafts. You'll realize how liberating that feels. After this exercise, I bet you'll have some interesting drafts. Use these drafts to help you get started.

Skip the Intro

"The introduction needs to be catchy!" "It should hook the readers!" "It's the most important part of your article!" These intimidating thoughts keep running in your head. So your fingers freeze on your keyboard.

If you’re having trouble getting started, then skip the introduction! Create an outline for your blog posts instead. Then start from there. Simply go back to your intro once the scope of your article is clear. This allows you to properly set the tone and let your readers know what to expect. Here's a few writing exercises you can do while skipping the intro:

• List down the topic and the goal
• Write about your audience and what you want them to take away from your content
• Is your content going to appear on a blog, sales copy, or social media?
• Are there word count restrictions?

List these details down so you can get them off your mind. As a tip, write these details on top of the page.

Brainstorm Ideas

Suffering from writer's block? Lucky for you, we have a few tips on how to look for new content ideas. We'll get to that in a minute. But first, here's a writing warm up to flex your creative muscle. In this exercise, you'll need to look at your blog categories. Choose one and write content ideas for that category. No, you're not going to write a full-blown article. Instead, simply write content topics or ideas. In doing so, you're opening up your mind to possibilities. This exercise takes the pressure off from committing to writing a publishable article. Simply brainstorm. Be excited about your content ideas. And ease your mind into writing.

Writer's Block? Top 3 Ways to Look for New Content Ideas

What is the secret to coming up with new content ideas fast? From social media, to blog comments, to books. Content ideas are everywhere! In this bonus section, we'll show you the ways to look for new topics.

Follow Trends in Social Media

Start by looking into your audience. For instance, tap into your social media followers.

• Look at what they're sharing
• Read what they're tweeting about
• What brands or content are they engaging with

This gives you an idea of what type of content or topics they're currently leaning into. Your followers are a great source of ideas. You can also directly ask your followers. Use the poll stickers on Instagram Story or the poll feature on Twitter.

Quora is full of content ideas. It's a general forum where people ask a variety of questions. This gives you an idea of what your audience is asking. From there, you can come up with lists of topics. To get started, simply type the topic that your audience is interested in. For example, you're in the digital marketing industry. You can then type certain keyword phrases into the search box. Once done, you'll find questions that you can write about.

Tap Into Answer the Public

Answer the Public is a search listening tool. It’s especially useful if you don’t have a huge audience whom you can tap into for ideas. Simply type in your topic or niche. You will then see the top questions being asked about that particular topic.

Take a look at these questions. Then create content for some of them. This is a great resource for podcasters, content writers, YouTubers, and other content creators.

What Are Your Writing Warm Ups to Flex Your Creative Muscle?

It's natural to suffer from writer's block from time to time. But it's your choice whether to stay stuck or move forward. The writing warm ups we've listed above will help keep your creative juice flowing. And when you're feeling stuck, consider our tips for coming up with new content ideas.

What Are Some Writing Warmup Exercises? Essential Prep Methods

My name is Debbie, and I am passionate about developing a love for the written word and planting a seed that will grow into a powerful voice that can inspire many.

Writing ​Warmup Exercises: Essential Prep​ Methods ⁤for Writers

1. the importance of writing warmup exercises: boosting creativity and productivity, 2. getting ‍started: energizing your mind and body for writing ‌success, 3. freewriting: unleashing your creativity ⁤with stream-of-consciousness ⁤writing, 4. prompt-based warmups: ‌sparking ⁤ideas‌ and overcoming writer’s ​block, 5. word association games: expanding ⁤vocabulary and enhancing word choice, 6. sentence variation exercises: adding flair ‍and ⁣variety to your writing, 7. dialogue practice: improving ⁢character development and creating authentic conversations, 8. ⁤revision warmups: polishing your ‍writing and‌ developing a critical eye, frequently asked ‍questions, concluding remarks.

In the world of writing, warmup exercises hold ‌a​ vital place as essential preparation methods for writers.⁤ These exercises are not merely a formality, but serve as a pathway to unlocking creativity, enhancing focus, and refining writing skills. By incorporating writing warmup exercises into your routine, you can establish a solid foundation⁣ for your writing sessions and set yourself⁤ up for⁢ success.

One effective warmup exercise is freewriting. This technique involves setting a‌ timer‍ for ‍a specific duration,⁢ such as 10 or 15 minutes, and ‍simply letting your thoughts flow onto the page without any⁤ inhibitions. The ⁣key is ⁢to write continuously without pausing to edit or judge your⁢ work. Freewriting helps to ⁣quiet the inner critic, allowing your ideas to surface organically. It also helps to develop a writing habit ​and overcome writer’s block. Don’t worry about making sense⁤ or producing polished prose during this exercise—just focus on getting your thoughts down on paper or screen. ​

Another helpful warmup exercise is word association. Choose a word or phrase related to your ‌writing topic and‍ write it at the top of a page. Then, spend a few minutes jotting⁢ down any words or ideas that come to⁢ mind when⁢ you think about ‍that topic. Let your thoughts wander and make connections freely. This exercise helps to stimulate your brain, expand your⁣ vocabulary,​ and generate new perspectives for your writing. Plus, it can serve as a valuable brainstorming tool,‍ sparking ideas that ⁢you can incorporate into your writing later on. Don’t be ⁤afraid​ to ‌explore⁣ unconventional or unexpected⁤ associations‌ – that’s where⁤ the magic‌ often happens!

Incorporating writing warmup exercises into ‌your routine can significantly benefit your writing process. Whether you choose to freewrite or ⁢engage in‌ word association, these exercises are valuable‌ tools ⁢to awaken your ‌creativity, overcome obstacles, and get your ideas flowing. Embrace these methods and⁢ be amazed at ​how they can transform your⁢ writing practice, allowing you to unleash your full potential as a writer.

Warmup exercises are ​a​ crucial aspect of writing that often gets overlooked. They serve as‍ a catalyst for ⁤boosting creativity and productivity, providing a valuable foundation for any writing‌ session. These exercises ⁤help to create a mental shift, allowing writers to‍ focus their thoughts, unleash their ​imagination,⁢ and enhance their⁣ overall ‌writing skills.

Benefits of Writing Warmup Exercises:

• Enhanced Creativity: Warmup exercises stimulate the brain, encouraging fresh ‍ideas and unique perspectives. They push writers to ‍think outside the box and ⁣explore new possibilities, leading⁢ to more creative and innovative ​writing.
• Improved Productivity: ⁣ Spending a few minutes on warmup exercises can significantly increase productivity throughout a writing session.⁢ They help writers overcome‌ writer’s block, organize‌ their thoughts, and establish a smooth flow of ideas, resulting in more efficient and focused writing.
• Sharpened⁤ Writing Skills: Regular practice of warmup exercises ⁣hones writing skills, such as grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. These exercises allow writers to experiment with different writing ‍techniques, refine their style, and become more proficient wordsmiths.
• Increased Confidence: Engaging in warmup exercises before ⁤writing ‌helps to build confidence, especially for ‌those who struggle with self-doubt. By starting with small writing‍ tasks , writers​ gain a sense of accomplishment, which‍ boosts their confidence ⁢levels and encourages them to ‌tackle more challenging projects.

By incorporating‌ writing warmup exercises into your ‌routine, you can‍ unlock the full potential of your creativity⁢ and maximize your productivity. With continued practice, ‌these exercises not only improve your writing skills but also cultivate a sense of ​confidence that will ⁢propel you towards writing success.

Welcome to the exciting world of‌ writing! Whether you’re ​a seasoned wordsmith or just starting out, it’s important to kickstart your writing journey with a refreshed mind and a rejuvenated body. Here ​are a few tips to‍ energize yourself and boost your‌ creative flow:

• Move your body: Engage in physical activities such as stretching, walking, or even a quick workout session. Physical exercises help‍ increase blood flow, release endorphins, ‍and stimulate your brain, making it more ⁢conducive to writing.
• Practice mindful ⁤meditation: Take a few ⁣minutes to ⁣sit⁣ in a quiet space and focus on your breath. Mindful‌ meditation helps clear your mind‍ of distracting thoughts, improves concentration, and‌ cultivates a calm state that is perfect⁢ for productive writing sessions.
• Stay hydrated: Don’t underestimate the power of hydration!⁣ Drink plenty of water throughout the day to keep your brain functioning at its best. Staying hydrated prevents fatigue, improves⁣ cognitive functions, and ultimately enhances your writing abilities.

Remember, writing is not just about putting words on paper; it’s a ⁢creative process that⁤ requires mental and physical energy.⁣ By following these simple‌ tips, you’ll be ⁤well ⁤on your way to unleashing your writing potential and achieving success in your literary endeavors. So,⁤ take a deep breath, nourish your​ body, and let⁢ your words flow‌ effortlessly onto the page!

Freewriting, also known as stream-of-consciousness writing, is a powerful technique ⁣that can unlock the doors to your creativity. It involves ​writing continuously, without any concern ⁢for grammar, punctuation, or spelling. By allowing your thoughts to flow‌ freely onto the page, you can tap into the depths of your ​imagination and discover ideas that you never knew‍ existed.

Here are some key benefits of incorporating freewriting into your creative practice:

• Enhanced Creativity: Freewriting provides a space⁣ for your mind to⁢ wander freely, ‍enabling new connections and fresh perspectives to emerge.
• Overcoming Writer’s ‍Block: ‍When faced with a blank page, ‍freewriting can help you overcome the resistance and self-doubt that often ​leads to writer’s ⁢block.
• Improved Focus: By silencing your inner editor and allowing your thoughts to flow, ⁣freewriting helps you stay ⁣focused on the task at‌ hand.
• Increased Self-Awareness: As you engage in stream-of-consciousness writing, you may uncover insights about yourself and your emotions that can fuel your creative projects.

To get started with freewriting, set aside a specific amount‌ of time – perhaps 10 or 15 ‍minutes – and find a quiet space where you⁢ can write without distractions.​ Grab a pen and paper or open a blank document on your computer. Remember, the aim is to‍ keep your⁢ hand ‍moving or your fingers typing without worrying about what is being written. Allow your thoughts ‍to flow naturally, without judgment ‌or censorship.

Are you‌ struggling‌ with a blank page and ‌a lack of inspiration? Look no further! Prompt-based warmups are a ​fantastic way to kickstart your ⁢writing process, ignite your creativity, and conquer ‌that ​dreaded writer’s block. These simple exercises are⁣ designed to⁣ prompt spontaneous ideas and get your creative​ juices flowing. A surefire way to jumpstart your imagination, incorporating prompt-based ​warmups into your writing routine can ⁣lead‌ to‍ breakthroughs ⁤and exciting new ideas. So, let’s dive into some effective prompt-based warmup techniques ⁤to help you overcome creative hurdles.

1. Word Association: Start by writing down a random word⁤ or phrase. Then, ‍quickly‌ jot down the‍ first few words or thoughts that come to mind. This exercise encourages⁢ free thinking and allows​ your mind to​ explore unexpected avenues of inspiration. Try to keep the momentum going by associating⁢ each⁢ new word with the previous one, creating a chain of ideas.

2. Visual Prompts: Find a captivating image or​ photograph online ​or in a magazine. Take a few moments to study it, allowing your mind ⁣to ​absorb the details and atmosphere.‌ Then, write a short paragraph describing what you see, feel, or imagine.⁣ You can even challenge ⁣yourself ⁢by incorporating⁤ the five senses into your description for a more immersive experience. Visual prompts can ⁤transport you to different worlds and trigger a surge of creativity.

Word ⁣association games are a ‍fun and effective way​ to expand your vocabulary ⁣and enhance your word choice. These games not only exercise your brain, but​ they also help you develop a greater understanding and usage of words. Whether you’re playing with friends, family, or even by yourself, word association games offer an enjoyable way to improve your linguistic skills.

One ‍popular word association game is called “Chain Reaction.” To play, ⁣start with a word, such ‍as “cat,” and then quickly come up with another word⁤ that is ‍associated​ with it, like “whisker.” The next person must⁣ then think of a word that relates to ​”whisker,” like “catnip,” and so on. This game forces you to think quickly and​ creatively, expanding your vocabulary as you go.

• Another game worth trying is “Word⁤ Association Scattergories.” Every player is given a letter ⁢of ‍the alphabet, ⁢and a category is ‍chosen, such as “animals.” Each player has to come up with a ​word that ⁢starts with their assigned letter ⁢and fits the category, such as​ “koala” ‍for the letter “K.” This​ game not only enhances your⁤ word choice, but it also encourages you to think outside the box and ⁢search for unique words.
• For those who love puns and wordplay, “Bananagrams” is ​an excellent option. Similar to Scrabble, each player receives a selection of ‌letter⁣ tiles. The goal is​ to create a crossword grid using all of your tiles before your opponents. This ⁣game challenges you to think creatively, construct ‌words, and discover new vocabulary.
• Finally, “Synonym Showdown” is a game that specifically ⁢focuses on enhancing word choice. It involves choosing a word, such ‍as “happy,” ⁢and challenging your friends ‍to come up with as ‌many ‍synonyms as possible. This⁤ game fosters a deeper understanding ⁣of language ‌and helps you⁢ explore alternative words to‌ express⁢ yourself.

Word association games‍ are‌ not only ‌entertaining, but⁤ they also provide an interactive and educational⁣ way to expand your vocabulary ​and improve your word choice. They encourage you to think critically, ‍be creative, and explore the nuances ⁤of language. ‍So why not gather some friends or family members​ and indulge in a game of word association? You’ll have a blast while broadening your linguistic⁣ horizons.

One of the key elements ​to creating⁤ engaging writing is incorporating sentence variation. By adding flair and variety to⁤ your sentences, ‌you can capture your readers’ attention and keep them engaged throughout your writing. To help you in this journey, we have compiled a set of exercises that will assist you ⁤in enhancing your sentence structure and making your writing truly unique.

1. ⁢Mix Up Sentence Lengths: Experiment with both short and long sentences, as well as medium-length sentences. This will prevent your writing from becoming monotonous.

2. Play with Sentence Structures: Vary your sentence structures by‌ incorporating different ‍clauses such as independent, dependent, or ⁢relative clauses.‍ This will add ​complexity and depth to your ‌writing.

3. ‍Utilize Different Sentence Beginnings: ‍Start your sentences with different types ‍of phrases or​ words,‍ such as prepositional phrases,‍ adverbs, or interjections. This will introduce variety and interest into your writing.

4. Experiment with Sentence Types: Mix up the​ types of sentences you use, such as declarative,⁣ interrogative, imperative, ​or exclamatory sentences.⁤ This ‌will add a dynamic quality to your writing.

Remember, practicing these exercises regularly will enhance your‌ writing ‌skills ​and make your work more captivating. So, don’t hesitate to add flair and​ variety to your sentences!

One of the most vital elements⁢ in crafting a compelling story is the ‌ability to create authentic and engaging ‌conversations between ​characters. Dialogue⁣ has the potential to reveal​ personalities, drive plotlines, and evoke emotions in readers. By honing your dialogue-writing⁣ skills, you can enhance character development and inject life into ⁢your narrative. Here are some ways to practice and improve:

• Listen‌ to Real Conversations: Eavesdrop on conversations in cafes, parks, or any public spaces. Pay attention to different speech ‍patterns,‌ gestures, and pauses. Observe‍ how people express their​ thoughts and emotions naturally. Incorporate these ⁣observations into ⁢your character’s dialogue to make ‍it sound more genuine and realistic.
• Create Character Profiles: Develop detailed profiles for⁢ each of your ‍characters, including their background, personality traits,‍ and motivations. ‌This ‍helps you understand how‍ they would speak in various situations. A well-developed character will have a distinct voice and ⁤unique way of⁢ expressing ⁣themselves.

Constructing meaningful and believable dialogue takes⁣ practice and attention to detail. The key is to write dialogue ⁤that sounds natural while serving a purpose within your story. Keep experimenting,⁤ observing,‍ and refining your skills,‌ and you’ll be on your way to creating ⁣dialogues‍ that ‌captivate your readers and bring your characters to life!

Revision warmups are an essential part of the writing process that helps you fine-tune your ‍work⁢ and improve‍ your overall writing skills. These activities not only polish your writing but also cultivate a critical eye, ⁢enabling you⁣ to identify and rectify weaknesses in your writing.

To get started, try​ incorporating these ⁣revision warmup techniques into your writing routine:

• Peer Review: Find a⁢ writing buddy or join a writing group to exchange drafts and provide feedback. Fresh eyes can often catch‌ errors or‍ suggest improvements you may have overlooked.
• Read Out Loud: Reading your work ⁤aloud helps you identify‍ awkward phrasing, run-on sentences,⁢ or misplaced punctuation. It also gives you a better sense⁢ of the flow and rhythm of your writing.
• Reverse Outline: Create a reverse outline by summarizing each paragraph or section of your writing. ⁢This technique helps you spot any inconsistencies⁣ or gaps in your ​argument or narrative.

By incorporating these revision warmup techniques, you​ can​ enhance the clarity‍ and coherence of your writing⁣ while developing a discerning⁣ eye for detail. Remember, revising is just as crucial as the initial drafting process, so ‌embrace these⁤ warmups and ⁤watch your writing skills soar!

Q:⁢ Why is it important to ⁣warm up before writing? A:​ Warming up before writing⁣ helps to get your creative⁣ juices flowing, ‌enhances focus, and improves overall writing quality. It prepares your mind, relieves initial writing anxiety,⁢ and helps⁤ you transition from a blank page to ⁤a productive writing session.

Q: What are some⁤ common ‍writing warm-up⁤ exercises? A: There are‌ several warm-up exercises that can effectively get your writing gears moving. Some ​examples include freewriting, where you ⁤write continuously for⁣ a set time without worrying about grammar or coherence, and brainstorming, where ⁤you‌ jot down ideas related to⁤ your topic. Other exercises include writing prompts, word association, and⁣ visualization techniques.

Q: How does ⁢freewriting ‍work as a warm-up exercise? A: Freewriting is ⁣an exercise where you write without any⁤ restrictions, rules, or editing. It helps ‍you bypass your inner critic and allows ideas to flow freely. By writing non-stop for a set time, ⁢usually 10-15 minutes, you open‍ up a channel of creativity ⁢and build momentum for your writing session.

Q: What ​is the purpose of brainstorming as a writing⁢ warm-up? A: Brainstorming is a technique used to generate ideas before writing. It ‍involves quickly listing or clustering ​related ideas, ​concepts, or keywords ‍associated with your topic. Brainstorming can help you explore different perspectives, find unexpected ⁢connections, and⁤ provide ​a wealth of material to draw from when crafting your piece.

Q: Can writing prompts be used as warm-up exercises? A: Absolutely! Writing prompts⁤ are short, specific instructions or questions⁢ that prompt you ⁤to⁤ write about a particular⁤ topic‍ or scenario. They⁣ can ignite your imagination, push you out of your comfort zone, and ⁢provide a starting point for your writing⁣ warm-up. Prompts can be found in books, websites, or even randomly generated online.

Q: How‍ does word association contribute to ⁢warming up before writing? A: Word association involves linking⁤ words together based on their connections or similarities. This exercise helps loosen up ⁤your mind and taps into your subconscious, expanding your vocabulary and triggering creative associations. Word ⁢association can ‌be done individually or ⁢collaboratively, allowing you to explore ⁤diverse ideas and perspectives.

Q: Are there any visualization techniques​ that can aid in writing warm-up? A: Yes, visualization techniques can be powerful warm-up tools. Before starting to write, take a few moments to picture vivid images⁤ related to your‌ topic. Imagine scenes, characters, or places associated with your writing piece. ‍Visualization exercises help you ‍immerse‍ yourself in the world you intend to‍ create, enhancing your descriptive⁤ abilities and overall ‌writing ⁤experience.

Q: How long should‍ writing warm-up exercises typically last? A: Writing warm-up exercises ⁤shouldn’t be ⁢time-consuming. Generally, spending 10-15 minutes on warm-up exercises is sufficient to boost creativity and get into a writing mindset. However, the duration can vary depending on personal⁢ preferences and ​the time available to allocate for warm-ups.

Q: Can writing warm-up ⁤exercises ⁢be beneficial beyond the initial stages of⁤ writing? A: Absolutely! Writing ⁢warm-up exercises ⁤provide benefits at every stage of the writing‌ process, not just ​during ⁢the initial stages.‌ They can help overcome writer’s‌ block, refresh your mind during long writing sessions, or even inspire new ideas when revising and editing your ⁣work.

Q: Is it necessary to do the same warm-up exercise every time, or can you switch it up? A: It’s not necessary to stick to one particular warm-up exercise. In fact, it can be ⁤beneficial to switch it⁣ up and explore different ⁢exercises to prevent monotony or creative stagnation. ⁢Trying​ out ⁤new⁢ warm-up techniques keeps your mind fresh, stimulates creativity, and⁤ encourages​ you to experiment with different‍ writing ‍styles and genres.

In conclusion, incorporating ​writing warmup exercises into your routine can help you overcome ​writer’s block and improve your overall ⁢writing skills. Try​ out different methods to find ​what works best for you. Happy writing! ⁣

Is Amazon Writing Exercise Timed? Time Constraints Explained

What Are Some Good Writing Exercises? Tried-and-Tested Tips

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Reach out to us for sponsorship opportunities.

Welcome to Creative Writing Prompts

At Creative Writing Prompts, we believe in the power of words to shape worlds. Our platform is a sanctuary for aspiring writers, seasoned wordsmiths, and everyone. Here, storytelling finds its home, and your creative journey begins its captivating voyage.

© 2024 Creativewriting-prompts.com

• Bookfox Academy (All Courses)
• Write Your Best Novel
• How to Write a Splendid Sentence
• Two Weeks to Your Best Children’s Book
• Revision Genius
• The Ultimate Guide to Writing Dialogue
• Your First Bestseller
• Master Your Writing Habits
• Writing Techniques to Transform Your Fiction
• Triangle Method of Character Development
• Children’s Book Editing
• Copy Editing
• Novel Editing
• Short Story Editing
• General Books
• Children’s Books

50 Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises

Good question.

Creative writing exercises are designed to teach a technique. They are highly specific, more specific than creative writing prompts, and much more specific than story generators.

Creative writing exercises for adults are not designed to lead the writer into crafting a full story, but are only designed to help them improve as a writer in a narrow, specific category of writing skills.

I’ve broken the exercises below into categories so you can choose what category of skill you’d like to practice. Can you guess which category in this list has the most prompts?

If you guessed characters, then you’re right. I think characters are the heart blood of every story, and that a majority of any writing prompts or writing exercises should focus on them.

But I also think any of these will help you create a narrative, and a plot, and help you generate all kinds of dialogue, whether for short stories or for novels. These writing exercises are pretty much guaranteed to improve your writing and eliminate writer’s block. 

Also, if you’re a fledgling writer who needs help writing their novel, check out my comprehensive guide to novel writing.

Enjoy the five categories of writing exercises below, and happy writing!

1. Think of the most deafening sound you can imagine. Describe it in great detail, and have your character hear it for the first time at the start of a story.

2. Have a man cooking for a woman on a third date, and have her describe the aromas in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she’s in love with him.

3. Pick a line from one of your favorite songs, and identify the main emotion. Now write a character who is feeling that emotion and hears the song. Try to describe the type of music in such a beautiful way that you will make the reader yearn to hear the song as well.

4. Have a character dine at a blind restaurant, a restaurant in pitch blackness where all the servers are blind, and describe for a full paragraph how the tablecloth, their clothing, and the hand of their dining partner feels different in the darkness.

5. Select a dish representative of a national cuisine, and have a character describe it in such detail that the reader salivates and the personality of the character is revealed.

7. Describe two characters having a wordless conversation, communicating only through gestures. Try to see how long you can keep the conversation going without any words spoken, but end it with one of them saying a single word, and the other one repeating the same word.

8. In a public place from the last vacation you took, have two characters arguing, but make it clear by the end of the argument that they’re not arguing about what they’re really upset about.

9. Write a scene composed mostly of dialogue with a child talking to a stranger. Your mission is to show the child as heartbreakingly cute. At the same time, avoid sentimentality. 

10. Have two character have a conversation with only a single word, creating emphasis and context so that the word communicates different things each time it is spoken. The prime example of this is in the television show “The Wire,” where Jimmy and Bunk investigate a crime scene repeating only a single expletive.

11. Pick an object that is ugly, and create a character who finds it very beautiful. Have the character describe the object in a way that convinces the reader of its beauty. Now write a second version where you convince the reader (through describing the object alone) that the character is mentally unstable.

12. Write down five emotions on slips of paper and slip them into a hat. Now go outside and find a tree. Draw one emotion from the hat, and try to describe that tree from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion. (Don’t mention the emotion in your writing — try to describe the tree so the reader could guess the emotion).

13. Describe a character’s bedroom in such a way that it tells us about a person’s greatest fears and hopes.

14. Root through your desk drawer until you find a strange object, an object that would probably not be in other people’s drawers. Have a character who is devastated to find this object, and tell the story of why this object devastates them.

15. Go to an art-based Pinterest page and find your favorite piece of art. Now imagine a living room inspired by that flavor of artwork, and show the room after a husband and wife have had the worst fight of their marriage.

16. Pick a simple object like a vase, a broom, or a light bulb, and write a scene that makes the reader cry when they see the object.

Ready to invest in your writing?

Sign up for my writing course “ Writing Techniques to Transform Your Fiction .”

• Learn the secret techniques used by great authors
• Practice writing exercises that will pump up your writing skills

Learn more by clicking the image or link above.

17. Make a list of the top five fears in your life. Write a character who is forced to confront one of those fears.

18. Write an entire page describing the exact emotions when you learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life. Now try to condense that page into a single searing sentence.

19. Think about a time in your life when you felt shame. Now write a character in a similar situation, trying to make it even more shameful.

20. Write a paragraph with a character struggle with two conflicting emotions simultaneously. For example, a character who learns of his father’s death and feels both satisfaction and pain.

21. Write a paragraph where a character starts in one emotional register, and through a process of thought, completely evolves into a different emotion.

Characters:

22. Create a minor character based upon someone you dislike. Now have your main character encounter them and feel sympathy and empathy for them despite their faults.

23. Have a kooky character tell a story inside a pre-established form: an instruction manual, traffic update, email exchange, weather report, text message.

24. Write about a character who does something they swore they would never do.

25. Have a character who has memorized something (the names of positions in the Kama Sutra, the entire book of Revelations) recite it while doing something completely at odds with what they’re reciting. For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty.

26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is.

27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game. Have the fight be about something related to the board game: fighting about money, have them play monopoly. Fighting about politics, let them play chess.

28. Write about two characters angry at each other, but have both of them pretend the problems don’t exist. Instead, have them fight passive-aggressively, through small, snide comments.

29. Describe a character walking across an expanse field or lot and describe how he walks. The reader should perfectly understand his personality simply by the way you describe his walk.

30. Write a first-person POV of a character under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and try to make the prose as woozy and tipsy as the character.

31. Describe the first time that a character realizes he is not as smart as he thought.

32. Describe an hour in the life of a character who has recently lost their ability to do what they love most (a pianist who has severe arthritis; a runner who became a quadriplegic).

33. Write an argument where a husband or wife complains of a physical ailment, but their spouse refuses to believe it’s real.

34. Write a scene where a stranger stops your main character, saying that they know them, and insisting your main character is someone they are not. Describe exactly how this case of mistaken identity makes your character feel.

35. Describe a small personality trait about a person you love, and make the reader love them, too.

36. Write a personality-revealing scene with a character inside a public restroom. Do they press a thumb against the mirror to leave a subtle mark? Do they write a plea for help on the inside of the stall door? Do they brag about the size of what they’ve just dumped off?

37. Give your character an extremely unusual response to a national tragedy like a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Maybe have them be aware their response is unusual, and try to cloak it from others, or have them be completely unaware and display it without any self-consciousness.

38. Have one of your main characters come up with an idea for a comic book, and tell a close friend about the idea. What about this idea would surprise the friend, upsetting what he thought he knew about your main character? Also, what would the main character learn about himself from the comic book idea?

39. Think of an illness someone you love has suffered from. How does your character respond when someone close to them has this illness?

40. Have your main character invent an extremely offensive idea for a book, and show their personality faults through discussing it with others.

41. Have your character write down a list considering how to respond to their stalker.

42. Write a scene where a man hits on a woman, and although the woman acts repulsed and begs her friends to get him away from her, it becomes apparent that she likes the attention.

43. Write about a 20-something confronting his parents over their disapproval of his lifestyle.

44. Have your character write a funny to-do list about the steps to get a boyfriend or girlfriend.

45. Have a risk-adverse character stuck in a hostage situation with a risk-happy character.

46. For the next week, watch strangers carefully and take notes in your phone about any peculiar gestures or body language. Combine the three most interesting ones to describe a character as she goes grocery shopping.

47. Buy a package of the pills that expand into foam animals, and put a random one in a glass of warm water. Whatever it turns out to be, have that animal surprise your main character in a scene.

48. Have your character faced with a decision witness a rare, awe-inspiring event, and describe how it helps them make their decision.

49. Imagine if your character met for the first time his or her long-lost identical twin. What personality traits would they share and which ones would have changed because of their unique experiences? 

50. If a character got burned by a hot pan, what type of strange reaction would they have that would reveal what they value most?

Once you’ve taken a stab at some of these exercises, I’d recommend you use them in your actual writing.

And for instruction on that, you need a guide to writing your novel . 

That link will change your life and your novel. Click it now.

Related posts:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

33 comments

John Fox, you have some excellent resources, and I thank you. I read your comments, then scrolled down to glance at the list of 50 exercises. The FIRST one, “loud noise’ is already in my head. My Hero is going to be side swiped in my Cozy. I was side swiped on a state highway here in Virginia a couple of weeks ago and, although the damage was minor, the sound of that big SUV “glancing” off my little car was SCARY!!! I once heard a fast-moving car REAR-END is stand-still car; that sound was something I’ll never forget. So, your exercise is very timely. THANK YOU!!!

This is a great list! Thanks!

You know what would be motivating? If we could turn these in to someone and get like a grade lol

I’ve been thinking a lot about “how to master writing,” and this is the first time that I found an article that makes it clear the difference between prompts and exercises. I fully agree with you. These are bound to make you a better writer if you focus on doing a variation of them daily.

An excellent list – thank you very much. I run a small writing group and we’ll be trying some.

Yes, thank you. I too run a small writing group and you got me out of a slump for tomorrow’s group!

yes,thank you . It’s good for improve your writing skills.

• Pingback: Writing Exercises for Adults That Can Help You Write Better

What a lovely list! I am working on the final draft of my very first novel, and am constantly working at improving the final product. Your exercises are just what I need to kickstart my writing day. Thank you so very much.

Thank you very much When I turned50 I received my diploma from Children’s Institute in West Redding Ct I got my inspiration from being near water however now that I am in Oregon I have had a writing block thanks to your list my creative juices are flowing

I suppose I better have good punctuation, seeing this is about Writing. Thank you for this great list. I am the Chair of our small Writing group in Otorohanga and we start again last week of Feb. I have sent out a homework email, to write a A4 page of something exciting that has happened over the holiday break and they must read it out to the group with passion and excitement in their voices. That will get them out of their comfort zone!

A formidable yet inspiring list. Thank you very much for this. This is really very helpful. I am from India, and very new to writing and have started my first project, which I want to make it into a Novel. This has been very helpful and is very challenging too. Prompts look sissy when compared to this, frankly speaking. Thank you very much again.

Where can I get the answers for these?

There aren’t “answers.” You create responses to these exercises.

Thank you so much for the detailed suggestions focusing on HOW to put the WHAT into practice; really helpful & inspiring.

Just started rough drafting a story I’ve always wanted to write. Do you have any advice for someone writing their first real story? I’m having trouble starting it; I just want it to be perfect.

I consider this very helpful. Just started my journey as a creative writer, and will be coming back to this page to aid my daily writing goal.

I have always loved writing exercises and these are perfect practice for my competition. I have tried lots of different things that other websites have told me to try, but this by far is the most descriptive and helpful site that i have seen so far.

This is really a creative blog. An expert writer is an amateur who didn’t stop. I trust myself that a decent writer doesn’t actually should be advised anything but to keep at it. Keep it up!

I’ve always enjoyed writing from a little girl. Since I’ve been taking it a bit more seriously as does everybody else it seems; I’ve lost the fun and sponteneity. Until now…..this is a marvelous blog to get back the basic joy and freedom in writing. Or should that be of?:) These exercises are perfect to get the creative juices flowing again…..thank you:)

These are interesting exercises for writing.

These are fantastic! I started reading a really awesome book on creative writing but it just didn’t get any good or easy to follow exercises. So I found your site and having been having a lot of fun with these. Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

creative and inspiring, thank you

I always wanted to have an exercise where a friend and I each wrote a random sentence and sent it to each other to write a short story from that beginning sentence, then exchange the stories for reading and/or critique. Maybe both writers start with the same sentence and see how different the stories turn out.

Thanks for these exercises. Some are really challenging. To truly tackle them I’m having to spend as long beforehand thinking “how the HECK am I going to do this?” as I do with ink on paper. Would be a great resource if other authors submitted their replies and thoughts about how they went about each exercise.

Start the conversation: submit one of yours.

I think I can use these to inspire my students.

Hi there. Thank you for posting this list- it’s great! Can I ask you to consider removing number 42 or perhaps changing it somewhat? I teach sex ed and every year am shocked by how many young people don’t understand issues around consent. Stories about woman who ‘say no but really mean yes’ are deeply unhelpful. Really appreciate your post but felt I had to ask. Thanks.

What’s wrong with the number 42?

It promulgates the belief that when a woman says no, she doesn’t mean it, potentially resulting in sexual assault.

I just make this list a part of my teaching in Creative Writing Classes. Very good list of ideas!

Thank you so much for posting this! I have used it to create a creative playwriting activity for my high school creative writing class–so much good stuff here for me to pick through and select for my kiddos that will allow them to shine and improve their knowledge of writing as a craft!

These exercises are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

10 Writing Warm-Ups to Engage Your Students in the Middle School ELA or High School English Classroom

In the public education setting, timed-writes are a required part of many standardized tests. Rather than try to cloak that reality, embrace it! One great way to do this is with fun and engaging writing warm-ups! Show your students that timed writing can be a fun challenge, and develop their expository and analytical prowess by beginning every class with a writing warm-up. These warm-ups should take only five to ten minutes, and you can easily implement them into your daily bell-ringer routine.

Here are 10 writing warm-ups  to build your students’ writing confidence:

1 minute story.

Get your students in the habit of writing from the word “go.” Set the time for 60 seconds and task them with writing a complete short story with a beginning, middle, and end in that time. The first time, many of them will probably find themselves caught up in the pressure or struggle over what to write. That’s okay! The more they practice, the better they will become at thinking quickly and excluding any unnecessary information. By the end of the school year, an essay in forty-five minutes will seem like a piece of cake! It’s best not to score these short stories. Instead, work on progress. If a student has trouble with this, encourage them to keep adding to their story with the one-minute you give them in class.

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Put an image up on the board, and have your students write a short paragraph about it. You can have them pen a short story, a long-form poem, or an explanation of what a student perceives the situation depicted to be. This exercise will encourage creative and critical thinking skills, both of which are essential in rhetorical analysis.

Note: the image should have as much or as little visual information as is appropriate for the type of response you are seeking. For example, for a poem, a picture of an apple would suffice; whereas, a stock photo of a couple might better suit a short story or analysis.

Teaching Resource: Descriptive Writing .

Musical Manuscripts

Using instrumental music is a great way to activate your students’ creativity and ability to write intuitively. Play the piece once in its entirety, and allow your students to make notes along the way. Then have them determine the mood of the song in a single word, and write a paragraph about why the song is “sad”, “happy”, “romantic”, etc. Because most of your students probably won’t yet have written a master’s thesis in music theory, this activity will force them to think analytically to get their point across. Plus they’ll get to listen to music in class!

Everyone’s A Critic

Have your students write a short review of a book, television show, or movie they recently read or watched! Reviews have a clear, if highly subjective, prompt: Was it good or bad? This warm-up is a wonderful practice for plot analysis, critical thinking, and supporting claims with evidence from the source. Plus, you may be able to avoid a bad film or two yourself. Kids are notoriously harsh critics, after all.

Alphabetical Order

This activity will make your students groan, but it will undoubtedly get them focused. This exercise will require your students to write a 26 line account of their day so far, each line beginning with the corresponding letter of the alphabet. For example: “ A bird flew by my window this morning. B irds are nice. “ C aw,” the bird said…” Students may experience frustration, but the structure will help them become used to producing fantastic work while working with strict guidelines. Furthermore, this activity will get them thinking about the process of writing.

Reverse! Reverse!

If you enjoy nonsensical fun, look no further! In this exercise, you will select any word out of the English language and present it to your students. Then reverse all the letters, creating an entirely new word. Each of your students will decide the meaning of this new word, and provide a dictionary entry for it, complete with a definition and an example sentence. This is a fun little exercise that gets the creative juices flowing and lets students feel more in control of language.

Tip: To make the activity more challenging, place specific guidelines on how the word fits into the English language, i.e., “this word is a verb,” etc.

Dear New Me,

Letters are a great, low-stress activity that still helps your students practice communicating their thoughts effectively in writing. In this exercise, students will write a short message to their future selves, detailing personal goals or worries about the near future. I recommend doing this at the beginning of a new unit or even before an extended assignment/project so that students can go into the next learning experience with a more focused mindset. Self check-ins are necessary and important!

Dear Old Me,

Here’s a fun mirror of the above warm-up, in which your students will write to their past selves! This can work in a broader sense, such as writing a letter full of things they’d wish they had known when they were six. They can also use this as a reflection upon the ending of a unit or project. It can even pair with the “Dear New Me” project, resulting in a constant stream of conversation that marks each student’s progress. It’s a great way to remind students that we are all learning and growing every day.

Dear Alter Ego,

Yet another twist on letter writing: This activity is one students can engage with every day and one that allows them a snippet of fantasy to liven up the classroom. Ask your students to create an alter ego for themselves. Then set aside a few minutes at the beginning of each class for your students to write to their alter egos. Not only is this an exercise in writing, but it’s also an exercise in self-esteem. Often alter egos are who we imagine ourselves as, but fear we are too plain or weak to be. The more acquainted your students become with their alter egos, the more they will realize that they are exalting themselves and their own potential.

Everything comes out better when love is added to the mix. When you ask someone about a subject they love, it seems as if they could talk for hours. Ask your students to write down a list of things they are passionate about: This can be anything from food to a sport to a stuffed animal they always keep on their bed. Have them choose one, set the timer, and let them write! They’ll surprise themselves with how much they have to say. Some more specific questions you can use to prompt them are: Why is ___ special to you personally? When did you first become interested in ___? What are 3 facts you know about ___?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

6 brainstorming warm-up exercises to activate your creativity

Reading time: about 8 min

• Organization and evaluation
• Teamwork and collaboration

At its foundation, brainstorming is a creative activity. It fosters out-of-the-box thinking to solve complex problems and deliver creative solutions. But creativity isn’t just a tap you can turn on and off. It’s a skill and a muscle that needs exercise. And just like any muscle, you should warm up your creative muscles before exercising them.

Jumping into a brainstorming session “cold” can reduce your and your team’s effectiveness. Your brain needs to warm up to perform at its best. 

So before you head to your next brainstorming session, learn how brainstorming warm-ups can help you, and try these brainstorming warm-ups to get the creative juices flowing. 

The benefits of brainstorming warm-up activities

You might think that brainstorming itself is a warm-up exercise that kickstarts creative thinking. But if you go into an ideation session without prepping, it will take longer for you to access your creativity and get into the “zone” mentally. Like a cup of coffee before an early-morning meeting, brainstorming exercises charge your mental batteries and get you ready for the task ahead.

Plus, brainstorming is about more than individual ideas. It’s also about collaboration.  

The best brainstorming sessions are about tapping into people’s collective creativity, bouncing thoughts off each other, and building on one another’s ideas. To do this successfully, team members have to trust one another and feel safe and comfortable enough to share openly—even if their thoughts are outlandish, unconventional, or not yet fully formed. 

And this is where warm-up activities can come in handy. 

Creative warm-up exercises help teams loosen up, break the ice, build trust, and shift their mental focus into a more relaxed and creative headspace. In other words, brainstorming warm-up exercises help get your mental gears moving before ideation sessions so that you and your team are ready to hit the ground running with original ideas.  

Top 6 brainstorming warm-up exercises 

How exactly do you warm up a brain? (Hint: It’s not by wearing a beanie.) 

Try the following brainstorming exercises to help you stretch your creative muscles and boost your innovation and problem solving skills.  

1. Alternate Uses

Alternate Uses is an ideation exercise that boosts divergent, out-of-the-box thinking.  

How it works:

• Set the timer for three minutes.  
• Pick an ordinary object, like a toothbrush. 
• Jot down as many ideas as you can of alternate ways you could use that object. For example, a toothbrush could be used to clean things, brush your eyebrows, or create a fun paint splatter effect for an art project.
• Go around the room and have each team member share their favorite ideas. 

This is a fun and easy exercise that works for groups of all sizes. And by the end, you should have a wide mix of practical, unusual, and silly ideas. You might even be surprised at how creative you can get after a couple rounds of exercises. This activity is a great way to warm up your brain and get comfortable with your team before diving into a serious brainstorming session.

2. Bad ideas

Brainstorming is all about generating ideas without judgment. The more creative and weird, the better! But getting people to share unpolished thoughts is easier said than done. 

The Bad Ideas exercise helps your team approach ideas with an open mind by encouraging them to consider all the possible benefits and applications of even the wildest proposals.

How it works:  

• Get in groups of two or three people. 
• Assign each group an objectively bad idea, like “Sandpaper Socks” or “Ketchup-flavored Popsicles.”
• Give the groups five minutes to discuss all the potential benefits, uses, and selling points for their assigned product. 
• Have each group pitch the team on their bad idea. 

Have fun with it. Bad Ideas is a simple activity that can kickstart out-of-the-box thinking and help your team focus on benefits and possibilities rather than all the ways an idea could fail—which is the perfect mindset for generating exciting and original ideas during your formal brainstorming meeting. 

3. The expert

The Expert is a lot like the Bad Ideas exercise. The goal is to get into an open mindset that focuses on possibilities instead of roadblocks. 

• Assign one person to be “the expert.”
• Have the rest of the group shout out two unrelated nouns. These will be combined into a new “product.” For example, let’s say the team suggests “table” and “sneaker.” The product would be a “sneaker table” or “table sneaker.”
• The assigned person then acts as the expert of that product and tries to sell the team on all its wonderful benefits and features. 

This is a challenging exercise and does put your “expert” on the spot. But if your team is game, it’s a great way to help your group think on their feet and creatively solve problems.  

4. Run-on story

You may have played this game during a party ice breaker. The Run-On Story is when a group creates a story one sentence at a time. 

• Pick a moderator and have them share a simple prompt (like “Harry’s beach vacation”). Keep it simple and broad so the group can fill in the details as they go.
• Go around the room, one person at a time. Each person shares one sentence that continues the story. 
• Keep going until the story finds a natural conclusion or after you’ve gone around the group a few times. 

The Run-On Story activity is an exercise in improvisation, which relies on quick thinking and creativity. It also encourages active listening as each person has to pay attention to how the story is unfolding so they can add to the narrative constructively when it’s their turn. 

These are essential skills for brainstorming, too. Teams that listen and collaborate well during an ideation session are better able to build on one another’s ideas to create innovative solutions (and they often end up with surprising conclusions).

5. Write with both hands

The left and right sides of our brains control different areas of thought and function. The left hemisphere primarily controls our logical and pragmatic thought (and the right side of our body). The right hemisphere controls our creative, spatial, artistic, and imaginative cognition (and the left side of our body). 

Brainstorming works best when both l imaginative ideas and logical problem-solving skills work together. This creative warm up exercise helps you tap into both sides of your brain function.

• Give a blank sheet of paper and two pencils to each person. 
• Instruct each person to write their full name simultaneously with both hands in opposite directions. So, your right hand would write your name normally while your left hand would write your name backwards, in a mirror image, right to left. 

This might be difficult at first, but stick with it. Once your group has mastered their names, you can up the ante by prompting them to draw a picture. Drawing simultaneously like this activates both sides of the brain and warms up your focus and attention to detail. 

From jumpstarting your mental process to breaking the ice with your team, creative warm-up exercises can help you go into your next ideation session primed for collaborative and creative brainstorming.

6. Do you agree?

Lucid’s Visual Activities are dynamic, engaging team activities that help you gain insights, understand opinions, and analyze data. They make it easy to catch up, align, and make decisions. Use one of our existing icebreaker templates or create your own, and in seconds, your team can gain consensus on their favorite books, the best burger toppings, and much more.

This activity is simple enough in concept, but it can really facilitate interesting discussions and promote creative individuality among your team, leading to unique ideas and perspectives.

• Open a Lucidchart document or Lucidspark board, and select the Visual Activities icon from the navigation menu on the left-hand side.
• Search for “Do you agree?” in the search bar and click on it.
• Take time to personalize the statements your team will express opinions on, and add more if you’d like.
• Preview your changes and click Save changes when you’re finished.
• Click Share for a link to send your team members.
• Once your team members follow the link, they can each click Start and click and drag each sticky note to the matrix. They’ll click Submit at the bottom once they’re finished.

When your whole team has submitted their answers, the responses will be presented visually so you can immediately identify and discuss commonalities and differences. Defend your most controversial thoughts, identify opinions you agree on, and more. This activity challenges individuals to think about their unique opinions and can set them up to give authentic opinions later in a brainstorm.

Now that you’ve got your team’s creative juices flowing, use these tips and tricks to facilitate ideation sessions in Lucidspark.

About Lucidspark

Lucidspark, a cloud-based virtual whiteboard, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This cutting-edge digital canvas brings teams together to brainstorm, collaborate, and consolidate collective thinking into actionable next steps—all in real time. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidspark.com.

Related articles

What is a mind map.

A complete guide to understand mind mapping, how mind maps are often used, and steps to make a mind map of your own.

How to use starbursting for brainstorming

In this article, we’ll cover what starbursting is, why you should use it, and how to use starbursting to produce better ideas, make better decisions, and solve problems more effectively.       

35 brainstorming questions to jumpstart creativity

In this blog post, we will cover how questions can boost creativity and provide a wide range of brainstorming questions that team leaders can use.  

Bring your bright ideas to life.

or continue with

By registering, you agree to our Terms of Service and you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy .