Writing Exercises

Can be done on the back of a napkin, on a piece of paper, or in a journal.

• Imagine a room that is all yours—a place of safety. What’s in it? Describe the sights, smells and sounds.
• If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live? Why? Tell a story about what a day in that place would be like.
• Make up a character: what does she dream, eat, keep secret, love, hate.  What does she look like?  Now put her in an interesting situation.  How does she act?
• Write a story beginning with the sentence: “he walked down the street with a bottle of poison”
• Empty your pockets. Write about what’s in your pocket. Make up a story or a poem that contains everything in your pockets (or purse? or suitcase?)
• Rewrite or update your favorite bedtime story. Put it in a new time period or a new setting.
• Create your own mythical character. Describe them.
• Write a letter to your former self at 15.
• Write a letter to your future self at 75.
• Write an exaggerated myth of your childhood/of who you were: “Little Mary was so angry when she yawned the windows broke.”
• Write an absolute lie about your life.
• Write a truth about your life—a truth you are afraid to tell anyone.