MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week – making description stand out for all the right reasons
Good description never just tells you what something is like. It also does something else. Very often the something else adds to the emotional atmosphere of the story or helps … Continue reading
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week: using a writer’s notebook to create thumbnail sketches
First read this poem by the Polish poet Wislawa Szymorska THE ONE TWENTY PUB The bomb is primed to go off at one twenty. A time-check: one sixteen. There’s still … Continue reading
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week TURNING FACT INTO FICTION
Anyone who survives beyond the age of twelve has enough fictional material for the rest of her life. Flannery O’Connor Take an event from your own or a family member’s … Continue reading
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week: POETRY
This exercise comes from the poet Julia Darling who felt that often we write too literally, too logically or self-consciously, when some of our best work comes from imaginative leaps … Continue reading
Monday Creative Writing Exercise because it’s a good way to start the week: psychological horror
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR can take a magnifying glass to the conflict that exists within us – the battle between good and evil – as in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and … Continue reading
MONDAY creative writing exercise because it’s a good way to start the week: creating a character
Three pairs of red shoes: three characters Describe what she looked like when she first tried these shoes on. Where was it? What was happening around her? How did the … Continue reading
MONDAY creative writing exercise because it’s a good way to start the week. DESCRIPTION
This a great exercise for the days when you have no time to write. When you’re in the kitchen preparing dinner you can jot down ideas while the pasta is … Continue reading
Free creative writing magazine WHAT THE DICKENS PUMPKIN EDITION OUT NOW
Craft articles, creative writing competitions, author interviews, creative writing exercises, book reviews, social media advice, short stories, even an agony aunt for writers and their plots….there’s so much in it … Continue reading
CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE long and short sentences
When I’m teaching I often use this exercise in the first week of term and I thought others might like to try it. Varying the length of a sentence is … Continue reading
A 75-word writing challenge
Kate Mosse (the writer not the model) says writers should practice writing in the same way musicians practice the scales…. Here is a way that will also allow you to … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 