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Similar exercises

Get your creative juices flowing with these similar writing prompts.

Stream of Consciousness

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.

3-2-1 Gone

Your protagonist opens a purse or a desk drawer and finds three objects. By the end of your piece there's only one item left. What happens to the other two?

Love Letters

If you're feeling stuck or intimidated about how to start writing, take five minutes before you jump into your writing project to pen a love letter (or hate letter) to the blank page in front of you. It's surprising where words - any words - will lead you once you put them down.

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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.

Pick-Up Line

Cheesy pick-up lines are the worst...but sometimes (when they work), they're the best conversation starters out there. Pick one of the pick-up lines from below and write down a conversation that you can imagine following afterward.

  • "Your smile is like Expelliarmus. Simple but disarming."
  • "Did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?"
  • "Are you a parking ticket? You've got fine written all over you."
  • "Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see."
  • "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together."