Writing Exercises

If You Want To Be Creative…

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If you want to be creative… be a 5th grader!

Tuesday night I conducted short writing workshops at Davis Reads Family Literacy Night. More students than ever attended the event (super exciting to get stuck in traffic for a literary event)!

I handed out paper and pens as the students entered the room, and we got to work quick. Fifteen minutes is a short time to talk about developing characters while doing a bit of writing and sharing. I presented different scenarios based on the age of the majority of my students. Elementary students got a bring your pet to school day mishap, while the teens worked with a public shaming situation. We hit on three main points: description (the easiest part), motivation (what the character wants), enemies (who or what is stopping the character from getting what he/she/it wants?)

Many students shared interesting ideas, characteristics, and unique responses to the situations, but the true out-of-the-box thinking came from 5th graders. Ten and eleven-year-olds possess solid skills, but they haven’t reached that point of self-consciousness that hits with puberty. That gives them such creative freedom! And, oh, they love to share and share and share.

The craziest idea of the night involved a hippo! The story worked!

Older teens don’t share much. The ones who show up for family literacy nights really, really want to write. They listen attentively, write furiously, but they don’t dare allow anyone to judge their work publicly, especially a room full of strangers. Teens stay after to privately ask important and deep questions.

I’ve noticed that the teens who do share in public often stick close to the established YA cannon when creating their work. A sameness often seeps into the work of students once they hit the age of twelve.

Many years ago I judged the PTA Reflections contest at a neighborhood elementary school. Wow! The fifth graders wrote amazing stories and poems–clever, personal, fresh. The 6th graders, on the other hand, wrote almost as one mind. Safe subjects, safe interpretations. I’ve observed this same split while teaching in the classroom. I have to push 6th graders to dare to be different, not to worry about what others will think.

That brings me to my own creative life. How many times do I secretly fret about what others will think about my writing? Do I dare write about              ? What will people say? Will my neighbors stop talking to me if it gets published? What will people say to my husband at work? What if people think that I’m like my characters?

I, too, could use a good dose of my inner 5th grader!

Still Collecting Characters…

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One of my favorite neighborhood “characters” is a man who walks three little dogs every morning. With his dark shoulder-length hair, bushy beard, and old-fashioned coat, he looks like someone from another era. He should be wandering cobblestone streets in the mist, not dodging early morning sprinklers watering manicured lawns in a dry climate.

Seeing him, I sometimes wonder if there’s a time travel portal hidden among the white vinyl fences in my neighborhood…

But today I saw him walking his three little dogs, wearing shorts–Richard Simmons shorts. Oh, no! It turns out he’s a man from another era alright, but that time is 1980!

Well, at least he can still be a time-traveling nomad in my imagination.

Collecting Characters

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Summer vacation is here and that means a break from big chunks of quiet writing time. But that’s okay because I plan to spend the next few weeks researching my next story; it’s easier to squeeze reading between fun activities. But I’m still writing every day.

My challenge: collect 50 characters before school starts.

So far I’ve imagined a Starbuck’s employee’s tumultuous breakup, written a voicy piece about a rebellious teenage couple who actually have a really good relationship, and I stretched myself by seeing things from a too-curious Seeing-Eye puppy-in-training’s point of view (I wish I had a photo of that cutie!). Last week I found a grocery list on the floor of my supermarket and wrote about the woman behind the ingredients. Here’s the list so you can try it too:

Today I plan to write about the teen who wore her zebra snuggie to the pharmacy.

Is it wrong to take sneaky photos of strangers? Maybe. But I guess my friend gave me a “Careful, or I’ll put you in my novel…” tote bag for a reason!

Exercising, but not that kind

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This time of year everyone is talking about exercise, you know, getting your body “bikini ready” whatever that means. Skimpy swimwear aside, exercise is important to keep your body healthy. But what about creative exercises? (And I’m not talking about weird yoga poses.)

I like to exercise my writing. It’s a good way to stretch my skills, warm-up before attacking a blank page, come up with new ideas, and keep perfectionism at bay. No one ever sees my writing exercises, but I have turned some of them into sold magazine stories, novel scenes, or used them to develop characters.

Right now these are my favorite exercise books.

I have had so much fun with my Wreck This Journal. The tasks are sometimes crazy! But it’s been a sanity saver as I wait to hear from my editor or agent or just plain worry about stuff over which I have no control. Last night I listed all kinds of “sticky” situations before dripping honey all over the page as requested. So liberating! Even my non-artsy daughter has begged for her own copy–not wanting to miss out on the fun. Here are a couple of other pages:

The other book I’ve really enjoyed is called The Write-Brain Workbook.


The exercises are short, but unique, plus there’s a bonus refection exercise that asks you to think about your writing life in a unique way. Here’s a sample:

Even if you don’t consider yourself a “writer,” try doing some creative exercises–in a no pressure, just for fun kind of way. We all need to exercise our creativity in some way, right?

How do you show your creative side?