119 Best Creative Writing Exercises for Authors in 2025

What can be more basic than the simple who, what, why, when and where formula? This common sense plan has proved over and over again that it is not only one of the fastest ways to begin a story, but also an easy creative writing exercise to use when you only have a small chunk of time available.If you want this formula to work for you, then the best way to approach it is to answer those questions quickly. Forget about thinking, analyzing, and worrying until later. For now, let's just start writing. Here's an example to show you how easy it is to start.

• WHO? Sally _ an eco activist/policewoman
• WHAT? Having affair with a married politician so she can blackmail and manipulate him.
• WHEN? Now
• WHERE? In contemporary Ireland
• HOW? Recording his every move, generally spying on him in order to destroy him.

Put a timer on for 20 minutes. Spend the whole time jotting down ideas for a short story or novel. Don't worry if they're coherent _ or even if they're spelled right. From character names and traits, settings, pieces of dialogue, themes, lines of prose - anything that strikes you as being an interesting story element.

Elegant writers use their material with economy. If they write a scene that introduces a character, they might slip in many other things that are also important, whether it's a detail about Character A's birthday, Character A's relationship with Character B, or the weather. In this exercise, write a paragraph of no more than 300 words and try to fit in ten subtle facts about your character into it, without being obvious about it.

The next time you're about to write a long passage of dialogue, show it from the perspective of a stranger watching your characters from afar. The stranger cannot hear what is being said; he can only observe their behaviors, appearances, and actions. You'd be surprised how much you can deduce about two people from just their body language.

When you meet new people, how do you react? Tell a story to illustrate this.

Describe your world from above - as an eagle might see it.

Establishing how your character is perceived by others is a great way to give them greater context. It can provide the author with expectations to subvert for the reader and add an interesting mystique to the character. To give the Gatsby Method a go, write a scene in which your character is only present through the candid descriptions of him/her by others.

Sometimes in order to get over writer's block, you simply need to put word down after word. Keeping this in mind, set the timer to 15 minutes. Start writing whatever comes to your mind until time's up. Then do it again - but, this time, write stream-of-consciousness from the perspective of your protagonist.

What does your character want most? Now consider what he needs most. Is what he wants preventing him from gaining what he needs? Or will he have to find what he wants before he can achieve what he needs?

_Voice separates MEH stories from the ones that grab attention. _Voice is the unique way _a writer combines words and strings together sentences. It is _a story's personality, its manner of expression. _A compelling voice is the difference between "Oh, shucks!" and "Oh, slippery slush!" (Little Red Gliding Hood)_. Between "Charmaine's showing off" and "Charmaine's strutting hard enough to shame a rooster" (The Quickest Kid in Clarksville). And between "Pancake _escaped_" and "Pancake rappelled down a rope of linguini" (Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast)_. _Examine your story for common language - for example, circle blah verbs and insert something more unique.