One of the most effective literary techniques for unlocking our creativity is creative writing. These exercises allow us to erase the fear of the blank page and find new ways to narrate. Through this practice, many writers have found new ideas and inspiration for conflicts, dialogues, and characters. Join us!
What is creative writing and what does it cover?
Creative writing involves creating stories and texts that are not standard in literature. It seeks new ways of telling stories, uses innovative techniques, and aims to awaken the writer’s creativity. Therefore, the texts that arise from creative writing exercises do not constitute literary works in themselves, but they are often the spark that lights the fire of a novel, a story, or a poem.
Creative writing works on the writer’s skill and originality. Trying to go beyond the norm to tell a story is not an easy task, and for this reason, many exercises allow you to take that first step. Below we will tell you some of them.
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How to practice creative writing: exercises
There are several methods to practice creative writing: style exercises, idea generation, dialogue… Here are 7 creative writing exercises to unlock your mind and work on your style:
Describe a photograph
It can be a photograph of someone you know, a photo of yourself, or someone you can find on the Internet. The goal is to tell a story using the details you find in the image as a reference: you must imagine a story and explain it using your own best writing techniques.
Some questions you can ask yourself to get started are:
What is this person doing there?
What does your way of dressing and your hairstyle convey?
Where is he going, where is he coming from and who will he meet?
How do you feel? What do you want?
Tell something about your childhood
This exercise aims to focus on writing from introspection. It may be an uncomfortable process for some, especially at first, but writing about childhood can be a good way to work on detachment. The goal is to recognize behaviors and attitudes of people from your past that you had not thought about before because you were too focused on yourself.
Tell a story about a trip
It may be a transformative and exciting journey or a journey that did not turn out the way you would have liked. In any case, we must represent the experience in the characters we create and we will try to focus on our view of the events. What aspects do we want to highlight? What emotions do we feel? How do we react to unforeseen events? These are some of the questions we can ask ourselves.
Write about a house
You’ve probably heard it before: houses have a life of their own. Many writers think of the home as another character in the narrative, influencing the development of the plot and its protagonists. In this creative writing exercise, we suggest you think of a house, real or invented, and write about everything that happens inside it. When you do this, keep in mind how the house influences the action.
Alternative endings
Take a story as a reference, read it, and write 5 alternative endings. They can be of all kinds; open, closed, from the point of view of another character, etc. It is highly recommended to practice this exercise for a week, writing a different ending every day.
The life of an object
You can do this exercise by taking a random object or searching for an inspiring image on the Internet. The goal is to ask yourself where that artifact came from, how many people have had it, what its history is, etc. Try to do it in the most creative way you can, combining genres and formats to bring out your originality.
Write a discussion
This technique is highly recommended for working on dialogue. You must gather two or more characters and have them discuss a specific topic. How do they talk? What do they want? Why can’t they get it? Do they want to find a consensual solution, or are they just looking out for themselves? Writing a discussion not only works on your dialogue writing skills but also helps build strong characters.
Learn creative writing, exercises, and storytelling with Escuela Des Arts
Learn more creative writing techniques, exercises, and strategies to build fascinating stories with the Master’s in Creative Writing and Storytelling from Escuela Des Arts. Invest in your talent and take the next step to learn how to write like the professionals!
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