Writers: The Importance of Writing Exercises?

Writing exercises are my favorite part of writing! Just like an illustrator takes up page after page, practicing sketches, new forms, new techniques - writers should do the same.

Want to try to write in a new point of view? A writing exercise is the time to try it.

Want to try to write a story from the perspective of an inanimate object? Writing exercise.

Never attempted humor, or romance, or suspense? Writing exercise!

Writing exercises shouldn't be treated as final pieces. They're "sketches." But you never know when a brand new technique, character, description style, sentence phrasing, or metaphor will jump out at you and say "This is YOU! This technique or style can define you as a writer! Work on this more!"

If you continue writing only whole stories, and continue writing in the same old style, your growth as a writer will take much longer. In order to build a house, you need the right tools. In order to obtain the right tools, as a writer, you need to discover the ones that work best for you - the best techniques, styles, pacing and tone.

Some of my favorite exercises actually come from Yahoo Answers! Someone will say "What's a way to show flirty dialogue in a fight?" and I start writing an example for the answer.... then write an entire scene, trying to be "cute" and "romantic" which aren't usually my style.

I also have a book called "Write Now!" with tons of writing prompts from authors. Ones I love are:

• Create a simple character. Age/Sex/Location/First Name only. Then give that character a pet. Any animal at all, mythical, real, boring, exciting, talking.... it doesn't matter. Any pet. Give that pet a name. Write a scene of your character interacting with the pet. Are they a good owner? An evil owner? Does he/she talk to the pet? Kick it? How can you show your character's personality just by showing an interaction between them and their pet

• Go to http://www.flickr.com/ and click on "photos loaded in the last x minutes" - These are the random photos being uploaded right now in the world. Pick one photo from the front page, based only on the thumbnail, and write about it for 10 minutes without stopping. Invent a story for that photo.

• Pick up one of your favorite books. Go to a random chapter, and write down, word for word, the first 3-5 paragraphs. Then, try to rewrite the same content, but with a different tone. As if the story was being told by a sarcastic teenager. Or by someone from the 1500's who is telling the story. Or as observed by someone in the future.

• Think of a fairy tale, a classic story, or a story from your childhood: Cinderella, Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. Rewrite the story with the same beginning, but reverse the genders of the main characters. How does it change the story? How are the characters different?

Writing exercises are so fun! No pressure, no need for perfection. Just having fun practicing what you love :)

I only participate in writing exercises when involved with a group. Otherwise if there is something I am doing wrong me doing a prompt on my own certainly won't fix it as there is a good chance I won't even recognize it. Considering how flexible writing can be in some areas (especially creative work) you can never be sure if you have interpreted the assignment right let alone perfected the execution.

So yes. I do them when taking a workshop or class in order to participate and get solid feedback. My favorite one being the 5 senses activity and the write 500 words based on this picture or smell, and then the describe your walk here or a room in your house other than the one you are in...

Those three exercises aren't just about writing but helping to keep your mind in constant motion.

Good Morning JLT ^__^

now Every Successful Writer must know these things:

1-Imagination is very important for everyone who wants to write a story,picturing what would happen,the details,making the story, the characters, the place...ETC

2-Every writer must know how to write and speak English Correctly,and if anyone finish his/her story must return to it and read it again,2-3 times,see if they missed something or have Spelling wrong

3-every writer must focus on everything,not only one thing because the reader might get boring,if a writer make a character and put it in the book,he/she MUST put every single details about that character,even if it's role is small

4-Reading other books and using the Internet is a great Exercise when it comes to Making the Clothes of the characters and knowing what place you want your story to be'

irecommendcomend using the internet and getting Informationations in ever book

5-asking other authors and writers is really good if someone wants to write a story,because we can hear what kind of mistakes they had

i think this what makes a great author,i still have problems but i hope in the future i will solve it all ^__^

Writing should not be hard and should come almost freely, IF YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A WRITER! Doesn't sound like you should write a book. Maybe sell your idea to a movie studio? I read your story. It didn't seem to bad, all tho, you really need to fix you're grammar and punctuation. It also seems to me you don't really know English properly. For example you wrote 'I had girlfriend' - should be 'i had a girlfriend'. You are using way to many full stops. The word 'AND' should not be used after the full stop. Take away some full stops and replace them with commas. For example. 'He does not use his conscious mind no, he only uses his unconsciousness, Thus he has the ability to be completely random and unpredictable.' After the word unconsciousness i have placed a comma and deleted the full stop. I also added one after the 'NO', so your readers can take a breath after they read the first part. Try to ad as much passion in your story. Don't make it sound like a biography, but try to add more detail about your character. Example. 'There I stand on top the roof. my large green eyes searching the city of new haven in front of were i stood' Thats not perfect but it is an example. Good luck, keep trying and maybe one day you will have something. Its great to have ideas. If you sit in front of your laptop with no idea but wanting to write a story, you will not have much luck. Best of luck

Yep I do. I don't necessarily look up what to write, any prompts or such, but I just write. I think of an abstract sentence that comes to my mind and try to bring a story about it. I start writing it and I focus on a few key points I want to improve on:

---Grabbing the reader's interest

---Enthralling & appropriate amt. of description

---Making the reading go smooth

---Making it interesting

This little exercise helps me the best. I practice plotting & story development since I make myself think of something to write =)

I do this every time I hit a writer's block (which is usally caused by my disbelief in myself to write a good peice of lit.) So, maybe 1-2 times a month? It really depends. Sometimes I do this for fun.

--Edit-- I've actually found my writing exercises to be more well written than my big projects. Not trying to brag, but I've gotten better comments on a few exerices when I have posted in the past for critique. I think that I am trying too hard on my projects. Or I'm too attached, so I make them worse? Interesting question, JLT. Thanks for posting - it got me thinking!

I have done several writing exercises based on prompts. I have found them to be beneficial, especially if you want to work on certain aspects of your writing that you know are weak areas. It is even better if you do this as a member of a group and the other members of the group give an honest, impartial assessment about your piece.

Writing exercises also help to prevent the onset of writing entropy. Exercises usually involve short works, such as flash fiction, that keeps a writer "lubricated" until he/she is ready for a bigger project.

If they're carefully thought-out, they are extremely useful in teaching a writer certain skills, as well as breaking writer's block. I would always recommend them to anyone who is either new to writing fiction, or is just finding it hard to get inspired.

Pretty much any good fiction writing course will include a lot of writing exercises. The Open University has some particularly good ones.

Writing exercises are extremely important to me. I use them to teach myself new techniques that I am not familiar with. For example: I want to write a stream of consciousness piece soon, but I don't want to do it for my main manuscript-- so I would use a writing exercise or prompt to help me along. For practice things: I sort of like to use prompts because I'd rather waste my own imagination on my own plots.

Writing exercises gives me an opportunity to sharpen techniqies I am already familiar with.

How often do I use them? Maybe once or twice I month.

I haven't found any that are pointless.

Just Like,

I don’t do writing exercises simply because my writing is enough to merit a good amount of time spent on writing properly. In creating writing classes they often use writing exercises, but authors who have already made their mark, no matter how small, just use their story writing as a further learning experience.

PJ M

When I'm desperate enough I do look for specific exercises. My teacher once gave me a book called "Writing your way towards home" that was full of different exercises for different problems. It really helped me.

But mostly, just writing something/anything is enough of an exercise for me. It gets my inner editor to shut up and lets the words flow freely.