Making Things Up

Making anything up is a great exercise for the creative mind.  Anything you make up from scratch in your head offers the chance to practice.  I offer the silliest of little exercises here to keep you working, so forgive me, but if you do find any prompts or inspirations, I've done my work.


There are all sorts of holidays.  The big ones are New Years, Halloween, Fourth of July, etc.  They honor dates from history; the oldest of customs; beginnings, ends; famous historical figures.  The little ones, sometimes created on purpose for commerce; fun; or whatever other reason Groundhog Day or Sadie Hawkins Day came into existence.


Come up with a new holiday.  What does it celebrate?  What day is it?  Is it every year or only some?  What is it based on?  How is it celebrated?  What gets sold, what gets eaten, do people get together for dinner or a party or go out on the town?


Write it up however you want...

Here's What I Think...

Here's a quick non-fiction exercise.  Op-ed pieces are short essays about a current topic of interest, and the author puts their own personal opinion on the subject up front and obvious.  When you're out with friends, and a subject comes up for conversation, aren't there always one or two people who feel the most strongly about it?  They tend to talk the most, the loudest, and their sentences start having more punch.  Everyone trying to sum it up and make it so impossible not to agree with them as quickly as possible.

I'm sure there's something you believe in passionately.  Maybe with humor, or perhaps with cursing or anger, write up as succinctly as you possibly can your feelings on a touchy subject that you feel passionately about.

Writing Inspiration -- Situation: Snow Storm

We're hunkering down here for a very long snowstorm.  It's supposed to snow for the next 24 hours.  Last night the supermarket was crazy, everyone stocking up for a few days holed up in the house.  I was one of those people, stocking up on chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, oatmeal and honey, wine.  We've got stacks of DVDs and movies.


Come up in your head with a few characters who face a day of being stuck at home.  What's their relationship with each other?  Did they play properly like I did?  Are they happy about being unable to get out, or are they stressed out?  How about with being stuck with each other?


Write about what they did before the big snow-in, how they planned (or didn't).
Then write about the start of the snow... when did it?  Did they wake up to it?  Did they think for a while it wasn't actually going to happen, then it did?
And finally, write out what happens during the snow-in.  How do they pass the time?  Is there gonna be a big fight?  Or maybe romance blooms?
Have fun with it.

Using a Cliche

There are a lot of cliches in writing, but sometimes they can get you inspired to start writing.  Sometimes what we think of as an over-used concept got that way because it's an easy springboard to getting a story started.  If it gets a character or course of action started in your head, then maybe it's worth it.  Once the arc of a story gets started in your head, you can always take the cliche out of it later.  But even if that doesn't work, at least it's a fun writing exercise.

A man or woman lying on his or her deathbed, looks back at a single episode in life.  Who is this person?  Where are they, at home, hospital, nursing home?  What did he do for a living?  Does she have a family?  What is the single episode this person is looking back at, a good memory or a bad?  Is it a decision he made or one not made?  Is it the greatest moment in her life, or is it a regret?  Is he remembering the way it was or coming to a new realization?


Write one up.  If you like it and want to share, send it to me.  If it's really good, and you agree to allow me, I'll post it here to inspire other writers.

Constrained Writing Exercise #4

OK, I promised a harder exercise a few back.  Then I suggested a writing exercise of a short-short story of exactly 100 words.


Ready to drive yourself a little crazy?  Now write a short-short story of exactly 100 words... and... don't use the same word twice.  Yes, that's right!  100 unique words.


Now, the results will get a little poetic sounding, because you can't use the same word twice, and that includes pronouns, the's, prepositions, my, your, his, her... it's tough referring to the same person several times, or doing on in first person only being able to use on I, my, me...


After you finish, an easy way to double check yourself to make sure you didn't duplicate a word... enter your entire 100 word story in a spreadsheet in one column, one word per cell.  When you finish, sort it alphabetically.   A quick survey down the column will show you any duplicates.


Try it.  It's fun to think about different words to use.  It'll get you out of your comfort vocabulary.  If you love your result, share it with me at SMHIOF@aol.com.

You're Telling a Story...

There are a lot of different forms of writing.  They each have their own rules of length, narrative, and style. Try writing in lots of them.  There's a big difference between writing a prose short story and writing a non-fiction feature article for a magazine.  There's even a big difference between writing a news story for a newspaper and a feature in the very same periodical.  Have you ever noticed how you get the entire story in the first sentence of a front page news story, then the further along you read the more of the details are revealed?  'Three men were found dead in a parked car last night in a church parking lot of New Street."  In fiction writing you would rarely divulge like that.  But for a newspaper article, it's a must, 'Don't bury the lead.'


Read a bunch of news stories, listen to television news broadcasts.  Try writing a fake news story about something serious happening locally.  Make up the details, but stay true to the way a news story is laid out.


Even if you're goal is writing fiction, it's a great exercise in narrative flow.

Constrained Writing Exercise #3

Here's another quick little writing exercise.  It'll drive you a little nuts with word choice.  Write a sentence or two as long as you can with each word starting with a subsequent letter of the alphabet, starting of course with A.


I wrote this one, got as far as W.  Okay, okay, X is really tough...


A billowing canopy, draped elegantly for graduation hung in June; Kate looked mesmerized, nervously opened papers, quickly realizing she's the university valedictorian!  "What!?!"