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About Reedsy Terms PrivacyA Writer's Block Writing Exercise
Eight
Pick a fiction book from your shelf. Go to page eight and find the eighth sentence on the page. Start with that sentence and write an eight-line poem that connects in some way to your work-in-progress. For instance, write from the POV of a character, or set the poem in a story setting. Don't worry about poetry forms. Just write eight lines of any length that flow and explore some aspect of character, setting, or theme.
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Similar exercises
Get your creative juices flowing with these similar writing prompts.
Presidential Speech
Write a presidential speech about why your country needs more ice cream.
The Food Critic
Write a review of a restaurant at which you recently ate. Describe the food as much as you can. Feel free to be eviscerating as well.
Beginnings
Getting started is one of the most difficult tasks that faces every writer. Julie Parsons is an international bestselling author. For this exercise, she's giving you the opening lines from some of her books. Take the following lines and use them to write the beginning of your own chapter:
- You could say it began with a phone call."
- Michael had watched them both for weeks."
- She remembered the way it was the first time she saw the prison."
- Midsummer, no time to be in New Orleans."
- With the dawn came the light."
Telephone Directory
It is commonly known that a telephone directory might be the most boring text in the entire world. Here is your challenge: write a page of a telephone directory and figure out SOME way to make it interesting.
Translate Your Memories
This exercise is particularly helpful for those who write for children and youth. Study an old photo of yourself or your family from your childhood. It's probably easy to remember the who, the where, the what. But for this exercise we want to go deeper.Close your eyes and remember the details of the event. Then remember how you felt at the event in that photo. How did you feel when anticipating the event? How did you feel if it was a surprise? How did you feel if it didn't turn out as you anticipate? How did others at the event treat you? How did you react/respond to them?Now, translate those FEELINGS into an event, place, child that would take place today.
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