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Jodi Harvey Brown, Bambi and His Mother

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.