CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES

CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES TO BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY

When we talk about creative writing we often fall into the following trap: consider it as the result of "beautiful style" and the daughter of unspecified "innate qualities" from which it would spring automatically, as does water from a mountain source. Instead creative writing can be cultivated with constant exercises, and everyone can experience it. However, as if this were not enough, this trick hides another: to think that there are people who are gifted, educated and, therefore, custodians of the ability to write creatively and others, denied, who instead must be content with the words of others.
Let's face it, creative writing is nothing but the ability to make something happen naturally, and fix it on paper with words that did not exist before, not so. No flicker of the mind, therefore, no barocisms. Creative writing is to be present to oneself and, therefore, to know the joy of this presence. To the point of deciding to put it in common with others.In short, it is right to speak of awareness rather than creativity as an end in itself.
WORDS WORDS WORDS…
Open the dictionary or a book you like on a random page. Write down the first word that catches your eye. Repeat this for 10 times. Then write a text trying to use all the 10 words you wrote down.

CREATIVE WRITING: EVERY WORD HAS A SOUND

Choose a letter of the alphabet you like, for example the R or the S. Write one or two sentences that contain as many R or S as possible..

THE RHYTHM IS GIVING NUMBERS!

What if I told you 4, 4, 6, 7, 3, 5, 2, 9, 11, 13? What would you think? What do the numbers, of course! And in fact it is like this: do you want to try to write a short text composed of 10 sentences that contain respectively 4, 4, 6, 7, 3, 5, 2, 9, 11, 13 words each?

THE FIVE SENSES

Choose an item you have at home. Describe it in writing, paying attention to highlighting as many senses as possible: sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste.

CHAIN ??WORDS

What is the first word that comes to mind if I say cage? And the second? And the third? Well, choose a random word from the dictionary, write it down on a piece of paper and write down all the words that come to mind. Do not think too much, proceed in maximum freedom.

PERFECT KNOWN

Take a walk and photograph a person crossed on the street. You do not have to realize that you are photographing it, nor do you need to know it. So it's not worth taking a picture of your friend met by chance. When you come home you print the photo and, based only on the elements it contains (example: a red scarf, a gray coat, a funny hairstyle, green eyes or a pair of vintage glasses, a smiling expression) write a short biography of this person. Why that expression? Where did you buy the coat? Here, try to imagine it.

REPLY HISTORY WITH A STORY

Choose a historical character you know, even vaguely, life. Write down a few key words on a piece of paper that distinguish this character. The rule for this creative writing exercise is that you have to completely distort your character.

PEN PALS

Write a letter addressed to yourself (or yourself). You are the sender when you were ten years old. You are the recipient today, at your current age. There are many things that you have not said in all this time: perhaps it is appropriate to put them black on white. What do you think about it? What should your "you" child reveal to you?

"YESTERDAY HAS COME TO VISIT ME ..."

This is the incipit of a text that I ask you to write for this series of creative writing exercises. Start with these words, "Yesterday came to see me .." and instead of the ellipsis insert the name of an emotion that you have distinctly tried in recent days, or maybe for some reason come back to see you often. Have you felt happiness? Now, write a text that describes the following scene in detail:  rings the bell, you let him into the house and ... What happens then? Describe your emotion, if it were a human being, how would it be done? How would you dress? How would you speak and what would your past be? Where he was born, do you like soup? Why did he come to see you? What does he want to say? How did this meeting change you? Think of all the questions you would do and you would do, and enter the answers in this little story.

WRITING AND BREATHE!

Go to a quiet place. Even the park under your house is fine, but if you have the opportunity to get out of the city for a few hours and immerse yourself in the green, the better. Take a walk and stay in silence. Try not to be distracted by mobile phones, emails and various notifications. Listen to the silence around you and keep quiet inside you. If thoughts emerge, let them flow away. Just look at them as you would watch a boring TV program. There are, they manifest themselves, they leave: stop. At some point you will be able to be quite quiet. Well, focus on the breath. The air comes in, the air comes out. That's all. If, at this point, words emerge (such as "house, ice cream, fountain, luck, feet, sister, leaves, shoes, serenity, nature"), write them down in a notebook. Back home, write in absolute freedom a short text - choose the length - that contains the words you wrote down.