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50 Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises

Good question.

Creative writing exercises are designed to teach a technique. They are highly specific, more specific than creative writing prompts, and much more specific than story generators.

Creative writing exercises for adults are not designed to lead the writer into crafting a full story, but are only designed to help them improve as a writer in a narrow, specific category of writing skills.

I’ve broken the exercises below into categories so you can choose what category of skill you’d like to practice. Can you guess which category in this list has the most prompts?

If you guessed characters, then you’re right. I think characters are the heart blood of every story, and that a majority of any writing prompts or writing exercises should focus on them.

But I also think any of these will help you create a narrative, and a plot, and help you generate all kinds of dialogue, whether for short stories or for novels. These writing exercises are pretty much guaranteed to improve your writing and eliminate writer’s block.

Also, if you’re a fledgling writer who needs help writing their novel, check out my comprehensive guide to novel writing.

Enjoy the five categories of writing exercises below, and happy writing!

1. Think of the most deafening sound you can imagine. Describe it in great detail, and have your character hear it for the first time at the start of a story.

2. Have a man cooking for a woman on a third date, and have her describe the aromas in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she’s in love with him.

3. Pick a line from one of your favorite songs, and identify the main emotion. Now write a character who is feeling that emotion and hears the song. Try to describe the type of music in such a beautiful way that you will make the reader yearn to hear the song as well.

4. Have a character dine at a blind restaurant, a restaurant in pitch blackness where all the servers are blind, and describe for a full paragraph how the tablecloth, their clothing, and the hand of their dining partner feels different in the darkness.

5. Select a dish representative of a national cuisine, and have a character describe it in such detail that the reader salivates and the personality of the character is revealed.

7. Describe two characters having a wordless conversation, communicating only through gestures. Try to see how long you can keep the conversation going without any words spoken, but end it with one of them saying a single word, and the other one repeating the same word.

8. In a public place from the last vacation you took, have two characters arguing, but make it clear by the end of the argument that they’re not arguing about what they’re really upset about.

9. Write a scene composed mostly of dialogue with a child talking to a stranger. Your mission is to show the child as heartbreakingly cute. At the same time, avoid sentimentality.

10. Have two character have a conversation with only a single word, creating emphasis and context so that the word communicates different things each time it is spoken. The prime example of this is in the television show “The Wire,” where Jimmy and Bunk investigate a crime scene repeating only a single expletive.

11. Pick an object that is ugly, and create a character who finds it very beautiful. Have the character describe the object in a way that convinces the reader of its beauty. Now write a second version where you convince the reader (through describing the object alone) that the character is mentally unstable.

12. Write down five emotions on slips of paper and slip them into a hat. Now go outside and find a tree. Draw one emotion from the hat, and try to describe that tree from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion. (Don’t mention the emotion in your writing — try to describe the tree so the reader could guess the emotion).

13. Describe a character’s bedroom in such a way that it tells us about a person’s greatest fears and hopes.

14. Root through your desk drawer until you find a strange object, an object that would probably not be in other people’s drawers. Have a character who is devastated to find this object, and tell the story of why this object devastates them.

15. Go to an art-based Pinterest page and find your favorite piece of art. Now imagine a living room inspired by that flavor of artwork, and show the room after a husband and wife have had the worst fight of their marriage.

16. Pick a simple object like a vase, a broom, or a light bulb, and write a scene that makes the reader cry when they see the object.

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17. Make a list of the top five fears in your life. Write a character who is forced to confront one of those fears.

18. Write an entire page describing the exact emotions when you learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life. Now try to condense that page into a single searing sentence.

19. Think about a time in your life when you felt shame. Now write a character in a similar situation, trying to make it even more shameful.

20. Write a paragraph with a character struggle with two conflicting emotions simultaneously. For example, a character who learns of his father’s death and feels both satisfaction and pain.

21. Write a paragraph where a character starts in one emotional register, and through a process of thought, completely evolves into a different emotion.

Characters:

22. Create a minor character based upon someone you dislike. Now have your main character encounter them and feel sympathy and empathy for them despite their faults.

23. Have a kooky character tell a story inside a pre-established form: an instruction manual, traffic update, email exchange, weather report, text message.

24. Write about a character who does something they swore they would never do.

25. Have a character who has memorized something (the names of positions in the Kama Sutra, the entire book of Revelations) recite it while doing something completely at odds with what they’re reciting. For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty.

26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is.

27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game. Have the fight be about something related to the board game: fighting about money, have them play monopoly. Fighting about politics, let them play chess.

28. Write about two characters angry at each other, but have both of them pretend the problems don’t exist. Instead, have them fight passive-aggressively, through small, snide comments.

29. Describe a character walking across an expanse field or lot and describe how he walks. The reader should perfectly understand his personality simply by the way you describe his walk.

30. Write a first-person POV of a character under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and try to make the prose as woozy and tipsy as the character.

31. Describe the first time that a character realizes he is not as smart as he thought.

32. Describe an hour in the life of a character who has recently lost their ability to do what they love most (a pianist who has severe arthritis; a runner who became a quadriplegic).

33. Write an argument where a husband or wife complains of a physical ailment, but their spouse refuses to believe it’s real.

34. Write a scene where a stranger stops your main character, saying that they know them, and insisting your main character is someone they are not. Describe exactly how this case of mistaken identity makes your character feel.

35. Describe a small personality trait about a person you love, and make the reader love them, too.

36. Write a personality-revealing scene with a character inside a public restroom. Do they press a thumb against the mirror to leave a subtle mark? Do they write a plea for help on the inside of the stall door? Do they brag about the size of what they’ve just dumped off?

37. Give your character an extremely unusual response to a national tragedy like a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Maybe have them be aware their response is unusual, and try to cloak it from others, or have them be completely unaware and display it without any self-consciousness.

38. Have one of your main characters come up with an idea for a comic book, and tell a close friend about the idea. What about this idea would surprise the friend, upsetting what he thought he knew about your main character? Also, what would the main character learn about himself from the comic book idea?

39. Think of an illness someone you love has suffered from. How does your character respond when someone close to them has this illness?

40. Have your main character invent an extremely offensive idea for a book, and show their personality faults through discussing it with others.

41. Have your character write down a list considering how to respond to their stalker.

42. Write a scene where a man hits on a woman, and although the woman acts repulsed and begs her friends to get him away from her, it becomes apparent that she likes the attention.

43. Write about a 20-something confronting his parents over their disapproval of his lifestyle.

44. Have your character write a funny to-do list about the steps to get a boyfriend or girlfriend.

45. Have a risk-adverse character stuck in a hostage situation with a risk-happy character.

46. For the next week, watch strangers carefully and take notes in your phone about any peculiar gestures or body language. Combine the three most interesting ones to describe a character as she goes grocery shopping.

47. Buy a package of the pills that expand into foam animals, and put a random one in a glass of warm water. Whatever it turns out to be, have that animal surprise your main character in a scene.

48. Have your character faced with a decision witness a rare, awe-inspiring event, and describe how it helps them make their decision.

49. Imagine if your character met for the first time his or her long-lost identical twin. What personality traits would they share and which ones would have changed because of their unique experiences?

50. If a character got burned by a hot pan, what type of strange reaction would they have that would reveal what they value most?

Once you’ve taken a stab at some of these exercises, I’d recommend you use them in your actual writing.

And for instruction on that, you need a guide to writing your novel .

That link will change your life and your novel. Click it now.

32 comments

John Fox, you have some excellent resources, and I thank you. I read your comments, then scrolled down to glance at the list of 50 exercises. The FIRST one, “loud noise’ is already in my head. My Hero is going to be side swiped in my Cozy. I was side swiped on a state highway here in Virginia a couple of weeks ago and, although the damage was minor, the sound of that big SUV “glancing” off my little car was SCARY!!! I once heard a fast-moving car REAR-END is stand-still car; that sound was something I’ll never forget. So, your exercise is very timely. THANK YOU!!!

This is a great list! Thanks!

You know what would be motivating? If we could turn these in to someone and get like a grade lol

I’ve been thinking a lot about “how to master writing,” and this is the first time that I found an article that makes it clear the difference between prompts and exercises. I fully agree with you. These are bound to make you a better writer if you focus on doing a variation of them daily.

An excellent list – thank you very much. I run a small writing group and we’ll be trying some.

Yes, thank you. I too run a small writing group and you got me out of a slump for tomorrow’s group!

yes,thank you . It’s good for improve your writing skills.

Pingback: Writing Exercises for Adults That Can Help You Write Better

What a lovely list! I am working on the final draft of my very first novel, and am constantly working at improving the final product. Your exercises are just what I need to kickstart my writing day. Thank you so very much.

Thank you very much When I turned50 I received my diploma from Children’s Institute in West Redding Ct I got my inspiration from being near water however now that I am in Oregon I have had a writing block thanks to your list my creative juices are flowing

I suppose I better have good punctuation, seeing this is about Writing. Thank you for this great list. I am the Chair of our small Writing group in Otorohanga and we start again last week of Feb. I have sent out a homework email, to write a A4 page of something exciting that has happened over the holiday break and they must read it out to the group with passion and excitement in their voices. That will get them out of their comfort zone!

A formidable yet inspiring list. Thank you very much for this. This is really very helpful. I am from India, and very new to writing and have started my first project, which I want to make it into a Novel. This has been very helpful and is very challenging too. Prompts look sissy when compared to this, frankly speaking. Thank you very much again.

Where can I get the answers for these?

There aren’t “answers.” You create responses to these exercises.

Thank you so much for the detailed suggestions focusing on HOW to put the WHAT into practice; really helpful & inspiring.

Just started rough drafting a story I’ve always wanted to write. Do you have any advice for someone writing their first real story? I’m having trouble starting it; I just want it to be perfect.

I consider this very helpful. Just started my journey as a creative writer, and will be coming back to this page to aid my daily writing goal.

I have always loved writing exercises and these are perfect practice for my competition. I have tried lots of different things that other websites have told me to try, but this by far is the most descriptive and helpful site that i have seen so far.

This is really a creative blog. An expert writer is an amateur who didn’t stop. I trust myself that a decent writer doesn’t actually should be advised anything but to keep at it. Keep it up!

I’ve always enjoyed writing from a little girl. Since I’ve been taking it a bit more seriously as does everybody else it seems; I’ve lost the fun and sponteneity. Until now…..this is a marvelous blog to get back the basic joy and freedom in writing. Or should that be of?:) These exercises are perfect to get the creative juices flowing again…..thank you:)

These are interesting exercises for writing.

These are fantastic! I started reading a really awesome book on creative writing but it just didn’t get any good or easy to follow exercises. So I found your site and having been having a lot of fun with these. Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

creative and inspiring, thank you

I always wanted to have an exercise where a friend and I each wrote a random sentence and sent it to each other to write a short story from that beginning sentence, then exchange the stories for reading and/or critique. Maybe both writers start with the same sentence and see how different the stories turn out.

Thanks for these exercises. Some are really challenging. To truly tackle them I’m having to spend as long beforehand thinking “how the HECK am I going to do this?” as I do with ink on paper. Would be a great resource if other authors submitted their replies and thoughts about how they went about each exercise.

Start the conversation: submit one of yours.

I think I can use these to inspire my students.

Hi there. Thank you for posting this list- it’s great! Can I ask you to consider removing number 42 or perhaps changing it somewhat? I teach sex ed and every year am shocked by how many young people don’t understand issues around consent. Stories about woman who ‘say no but really mean yes’ are deeply unhelpful. Really appreciate your post but felt I had to ask. Thanks.

What’s wrong with the number 42?

It promulgates the belief that when a woman says no, she doesn’t mean it, potentially resulting in sexual assault.

I just make this list a part of my teaching in Creative Writing Classes. Very good list of ideas!

Thank you so much for posting this! I have used it to create a creative playwriting activity for my high school creative writing class–so much good stuff here for me to pick through and select for my kiddos that will allow them to shine and improve their knowledge of writing as a craft!

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

The best writing exercises bring out our latent creativity. Especially if you ever feel stuck or blocked, making creative writing exercises part of your daily writing practice can be a great way to both hone your skills and explore new frontiers in your writing. Whether you’re a poet, essayist, storyteller, or genre-bending author, these free writing exercises will jumpstart your creative juices and improve your writing abilities.

24 of the Best Free Writing Exercises to Try Out Today

The best creative writing exercises will push you out of your comfort zone and get you to experiment with words. Language is your sandbox, so let’s build some sand castles with these exercises and writing prompts.

Write With Limitations

The English language is huge, complicated, and — quite frankly — chaotic. Writing with self-imposed limitations can help you create novel and inventive pieces.

What does “limitations” mean in this context? Basically, force yourself not to use certain words, descriptions, or figures of speech. Some writing exercises using limitations include the following:

Write without using adverbs or adjectives.
Write without using the passive voice – no “being verbs” whatsoever. (Also called “E-Prime” writing.)
Write a story without using a common letter – just like Ernest Vincent Wright did .
Write a poem where each line has six words.
Write without using any pronouns.

Among exercises to improve writing skills, writing with limitations has the clearest benefits. This practice challenges your brain to think about language productively. Additionally, these limitations force you to use unconventional language – which, in turn, makes you write with lucidity, avidity, and invention.

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Freewriting & Stream of Consciousness

What do you do when the words just don’t come out? How can you write better if you can’t seem to write at all? One of the best poetry exercises, as well as writing exercises in general, is to start your day by freewriting.

Freewriting, also known as “stream of consciousness writing,” involves writing your thoughts down the moment they come. There’s no filtering what you write, and no controlling what you think: topicality, style, and continuity are wholly unnecessary in the freewriting process. While the idea of freewriting seems easy, it’s much harder than you think – examining your thoughts without controlling them takes a while to master, and the impulse to control what you write isn’t easy to tame. Try these exercises to master the skill:

Do a timed freewrite. Start with five minutes.
Freewrite until you fill up the entirety of something – an envelope, a receipt, a postcard, etc.
Freewrite after meditating.
Freewrite off of the first word of today’s newspaper.

Among daily writing exercises, freewriting is one of the best writing exercises. Poets can use freewritten material as inspiration for their poetry. Prose writers can also find inspiration for future stories from the depths of their consciousnesses. Start your writing day with freewriting, and watch your creativity blossom.

Copy What You Read

Plagiarism is still off the table; however, you can learn a lot by paying attention to how other people write. This is what we call “reading like a writer.”

Reading like a writer means paying attention to the craft elements that make an excellent piece of literature work. Good writing requires different writing styles, figurative language, story structures, and/or poetry forms, as well as key word choice.

When you notice these craft elements, you can go ahead and emulate them in your own work. As a fiction writer , you might be drawn to the way Haruki Murakami weaves folklore into his stories, and decide to write a story like that yourself. Or, as a poet, you might be inspired by Terrance Hayes’ Golden Shovel form — enough so that you write a Golden Shovel yourself.

Read a favorite poem, and write your own poem in the same poetic form.
Blackout poetry: take another poem, cross out words you don’t want to use, circle words you do, and write a poem based on the circled words.
Copy a single sentence from a favorite novel, and write a short-short story with it.

Among free writing exercises, this is a great way to learn from the best. The best kinds of exercises to improve writing skills involve building upon the current canon of works — as Isaac Newton said, you achieve something great by “standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Write From Different Perspectives

The conventional advice given to writers is to “write what you know.” We couldn’t disagree with that statement more. The best creative works force both the writer and the reader to consider new perspectives and learn something new; writing from a new point-of-view makes for a great exercise in expanding your creative limits.

Try these ideas as daily writing exercises:

Write a story with the same plot, but with two or more perspectives. For example, you could write a lover’s quarrel from two different view points.
Write from the point-of-view of a famous historical figure.
Write a story or poem from the perspective of an object: a statue, a doll, a roomba, etc.
Write from the perspective of a person you dislike.

While playing with perspective makes for a great fiction writing exercise , poets and essayists can do this too. Patricia Smith’s poem “Skinhead,” for example, is a persona piece written from the perspective of a white nationalist, but the poem clearly condemns the speaker’s beliefs.

Thus, perspective writing also works as a poetry exercise and an essay writing practice exercise . If you’re stuck in your own head, try writing in someone else’s!

Write Metaphor Lists

All creative writers need figurative language. While metaphors, similes, and synecdoches are more prominent in poetry , prose writers need the power of metaphor to truly engross their reader. Among both exercises to improve writing skills and fun writing exercises for adults, writing metaphor lists is one of the best writing exercises out there.

A metaphor list is simple. On a notebook, create two columns. In one column, write down only concrete nouns. Things like a pillow, a tree, a cat, a cloud, and anything that can be perceived with one of the five senses.

In the other list, write down only abstract ideas. Things like love, hate, war, peace, justice, closure, and reconciliation — anything that is conceptual and cannot be directly perceived.

Now, choose a random noun and a random concept, and create a metaphor or simile with them. Delve into the metaphor and explain the comparison. For example, you might say “Love is like a pillow — it can comfort, or it can smother.”

Once you’ve mastered the metaphor list, you can try the following ideas to challenge yourself:

Create a coherent poem out of your metaphor list.
Turn your metaphor list into a short story.
Try making lists with a different figurative language device, such as personification, pathetic fallacy, or metonymy.

Any free creative writing exercise that focuses on figurative language can aid your writing immensely, as it helps writers add insight and emotionality to their work. This is an especially great creative writing exercise for beginners as they learn the elements of style and language.

Daily Journaling

Of course, the best way to improve your creative writing skills is simply to write every day. Keeping a daily journal is a great way to exercise your writing mind. By sitting down with your personal observations and writing without an agenda or audience, a daily writing practice remains one of the best writing exercises , regardless of your genre or level of expertise.

Consider these ideas for your daily journal:

Track your mood and emotions throughout the day. Write those emotions in metaphor — avoid commonplace adjectives and nouns.
Write about your day from the second- or third-person.
Journal your day in verse. Use stanzas, line breaks, and figurative language.
Write about your day backwards.
Write about your day using Freytag’s pyramid . Build up to a meaningful climax, even if nothing significant seemed to happen today.

Learn more about keeping a journal here:

How to Start Journaling: Practical Advice on How to Journal Daily

Writing Exercises: Have Fun with Them!

Many of these writing exercises might feel challenging at first—and that’s a good thing! You will unlock new ideas and writing strengths by struggling through these creative challenges. The main point is to have fun with them and use them to explore within your writing, without indulging too many monologues from your inner critic.

Are you looking for more exercises to improve your writing skills? Our instructors can offer prompts, illuminating lectures, one-to-one feedback, and more to help you improve your craft. Check out our upcoming creative writing courses , and let’s put these skills to practice.

Sean Glatch

Thank you for this. I’ve been stuck for months—more than that, actually, and you’d think that a pandemic stay-at-home would be the perfect time to do some writing. But no. I’m as stuck as ever. In fact, the only time I seem able to write consistently and well is when I’m taking one of your classes! I’m still saving my pennies, but these exercises will hopefully get me writing in the meantime. Thanks again!

Hi Kathy, I’m glad to hear some of these tips might spark your creativity 🙂 I feel the same way, I was hoping the stay-at-home order might spark some creativity, but we shouldn’t push ourselves too hard – especially in the midst of a crisis.

The best part about writing: all you have to do is try, and you’ve already succeeded. Good luck on your writing endeavors!

Bravo….!What a great piece! Honestly I learnt a lot here!

I picked interest in poetry just a week ago after reading a beautiful piece which captivated my mind into the world of writing. I’d love to write great poems but I don’t know anything about poetry, I need a coach, a motivator and an inspiration to be able to do this. This piece really helped me but I will appreciate some more tips and help from you or anyone else willing to help, I am really fervid about this.

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for your comment! I’m so excited for you to start your journey with poetry. We have more advice for poetry writing at the articles under this link: https://writers.com/category/poetry

Additionally, you might be interested in two of our upcoming poetry courses: Poetry Workshop and How to Craft a Poem .

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at [email protected] . Many thanks, and happy writing!

[…] 24 Best Writing Exercises to Become a Better Writer | writers.com […]

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As a writer, I often struggle to break free from the chains of writer’s block, but this blog has gifted me with a map of inspiration to navigate through those creative storms. It’s like being handed a box of enchanted writing exercises

From 101 Creative Writing Exercises: Symbols and Symbolism

by Melissa Donovan | Feb 20, 2024 | Creative Writing Exercises | 4 comments

Symbolism and symbolism in fiction writing.

Today’s post comes from my book 101 Creative Writing Exercises (aff link). This is from “Chapter 5: Fiction.” Let’s take a look at symbolism in fiction.

Symbols and Symbolism

In Alice and Wonderland , a white rabbit appears, and Alice follows him down the rabbit hole that leads to Wonderland. The white rabbit is a herald — a character archetype that signifies the first challenge or the call to adventure. This is the change in the main character’s life that marks the beginning of the story.

Symbolism in Fiction

The white rabbit can function as a traditional symbol or as a reference to Alice in Wonderland. Such is the case with the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane.

Symbolism occurs whenever one thing represents something else. For example, a book could represent knowledge. A caged bird could represent oppression or imprisonment. In a story, the repetition of a symbol (every time the book or caged bird appears) can have significance to the story. Maybe every time a character fails because he doesn’t know enough, there’s a book in the scene. Or perhaps a person who is oppressed keeps a caged bird but doesn’t recognize the irony (that he is imprisoning a living creature while suffering his own oppression).

The Exercise

Develop a list of five to ten symbols. Invent your own symbols rather than using ones that commonly appear in fiction. If you’re working on a story or novel, make a list of symbols that you might use in your project. Symbols are often linked to big themes: love, revenge, sacrifice, redemption, narcissism, etc.

Tips: You might find it easier to choose a theme or issue and then look for a symbol that represents it. On the other hand, if you have an interesting image (a red scarf, a snow globe), you might find a way to turn it into a meaningful symbol.

Variations: Choose one symbol and write a list of ways it can be used throughout a story. For example, a white rabbit in a story could appear in a pet store. It could be somebody’s pet. It could be in a science lab. It could be part of a magic show. Make sure you don’t give the symbol more importance than the plot or characters. A symbol is present to add depth and give the story greater meaning. It’s an accent to the story, not the central focus of it.

Applications: Symbols enrich a piece of writing, adding layers to the themes and meaning of the piece.

This is a very interesting concept.I never used this ever in 6 years that I have been writing.

Symbols work best when they are subtle. I think a lot of people have to actively look for them. I always try to find symbolism in fiction.

Very interesting and as I am a third of a way through my novel it’s an idea worth exploring…Thank you 🙂

You’re welcome!

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7 Creative Writing Exercises For Writers

Need a creative lift as a writer? Try these 7 creative writing exercises for writers to boost your writing skills.

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Has your creative well run dry? Are you struggling to find inspiration for your next written work? Creative writing exercises could be the answer.

Just like any other skill, the art and craft of writing will benefit from the frequent working and reworking of your practices and habits. Creativity exercises for writers could unlock that writer’s block that you have been struggling to overcome and spur you on to new and exciting creative directions.

What are Creative Writing Exercises?

Creative writing exercises can take on many forms and can mean different things to different people. However, certain elements are common to most examples of creative writing exercises.

They are often produced in short, intense bursts, for one thing, and they are often entirely improvised. Improvisation is one of the earmarks of the creative writing exercises employed by many writers.

One other factor that most creative writing exercises have in common is that they often encourage the exploration and expounding of familiar subject matters in novel ways.

Many classes and guides that focus solely on developing creative writing techniques involve adopting short and spontaneous approaches.

How often should writers practice creative writing exercises?

Regardless of what form a creative writing exercise takes, it is smart for writers to adopt these practices and incorporate them into their daily routines. The goal is to expand their writing skills and develop the ability to tell the same story in as many different ways as possible.

Start by writing a few lines once or twice a week, spending only a few minutes each session. Gradually increase the length of each session and how many times you sit down to write per week.

Eventually, you could work up to about ten minutes per session, performing these exercises several times throughout the week.

Here are 7 Creative Writing Exercises for Writers

If you feel like taking a break from a writing assignment or are between projects, you can try your hand at these creative writing exercises. They can also serve as inspiration for your next opus or strengthen your creative muscles.

1. Follow your stream of consciousness.

Many writers have become conditioned to feel a great deal of stress or worry about being confronted by a blank page. This exercise will help you address this fear head-on.

Get a piece of paper and start writing the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t even think about what you are writing or edit your thoughts. This type of writing is known as “free writing”. Author Julia Cameron referred to this as the “morning pages” in her award-winning book, The Artist’s Way .

2. Work with different points of view.

If you find yourself struggling with expressing yourself, try switching up your point of view. Take a chapter from your favorite book, or even just a scene if you want to start slow. Write everything that takes place from the point of view of another character. The goal here is to communicate the story in another way.

You could also vary this exercise by writing as if you are the main character by changing their point of view. If the story is written in the first person, try writing it from the third person. Be aware of the details that are omitted when you switch viewpoints. This frequently leads to an interesting new twist to the story.

3. Take advantage of writing prompts.

Writing prompts or story starters can be invaluable writing tools that could encourage you to explore unfamiliar but interesting creative directions. These are sentences or short passages that could serve as springboards for writing spontaneous stories.

We have many writing prompts lists here at ThinkWritten you can use for inspiration, including 365 Creative Writing Prompts , 42 Fantasy Prompts , and 101 Poetry Prompts .

4. Have a Conversation With Yourself

See what it’s like to write a letter or converse with yourself. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have a conversation with your younger self, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

You can choose any subject you want, from a significant social or political event or some words of wisdom to your younger version. Try to be as honest and as forthcoming as possible. The results might surprise you.

5. Try Writing Flash Fiction

Try to crank out a piece of flash fiction. As with other creative writing exercises, don’t spend too much time at it. Simply sit down in front of the computer or a piece of paper, and begin writing. Flash fiction doesn’t usually go beyond 500 words, so try to keep it short.

Note: It might be helpful to differentiate flash fiction from the freewriting exercise discussed earlier. While freewriting involves generating words and ideas in an unbridled stream of consciousness, flash fiction is more about writing within a set of guidelines. In this particular exercise, try incorporating structural elements such as plots, conflicts, and character development, all in the goal of developing a logical story arc.

6. Practice writing fake ads

Writing fake advertisements is another potentially useful exercise. Few tasks can flex your creative muscles than trying to sell a product, person, company, or idea. You don’t need a lot to get started either. All you have to do is to select a word at random from a magazine or newspaper and get started writing an ad for it.

It might help to write one ad in a more formal tone, similar to the classified ads published in newspapers. This exercise will train you in using a few words effectively to sell your subject. You can then write another ad in a style similar to that published in online marketplaces, which allow for longer text. In both exercises, try to convince your readers to purchase the product in as definitive terms as possible.

7. Rewrite someone else’s story

Consider adopting a story from someone else and making it your own. Unlike the exercise that involves writing a story from another point of view, this one involves telling the same story from the same viewpoint but using your own words.

It could be any story you want to write about, from something a family member told you about or an urban legend that has long made the rounds of your town.

Whichever story you choose, try to write it as if it happened to you. If certain details are missing–which is often the case with old stories–don’t hold back from adding your own touches. You could even take a well-known story and write it as if you were there when the events took place.

There are only a few of the creativity exercises for writers you can try. There are many more variations that you could use to help you get back into the pattern of writing creatively.

If you ever find yourself stuck and unsure of what your next step should be, consider taking some time off and working on some creative writing exercises instead. After some time, you might find yourself becoming more eager to get back into it and more inspired than ever.

Tell us what you think! Do you enjoy creative writing exercises? Do you have any additional ideas for ways writers can continue to build and work on their writing skills? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Eric Pangburn is a freelance writer who shares his best tips with other writers here at ThinkWritten. When not writing, he enjoys coaching basketball and spending time with his family.

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365 Creative Writing Prompts

The article was inspirational but I wish that there was a place to show case our writing. I have written a novel and will love to have someone read and edit it.

Yeah, I agree.

14 Fun Virtual Creative Writing Group Activities

Write a story collaboratively . I recently did this with my group for Halloween and it was a great success! One week before Halloween, we decided to write a ghost story collectively by opening a Google Doc and making a list of who would start the story, who would go second, third, etc. We each could write as much or as little as we wanted, but we had to make sure we all got it done by Halloween.

First Line Prompts . Basically, someone generates the first line for a story, like “It was a dark and stormy night.”, and everybody in the group writes a story including that first line.

Last Line Prompts . Like the first line prompt activity, someone generates a possible last line of a story, such as “She never went into that house ever again.”, and everybody in the group includes that line at the end of their story.

Weekly Draw: Poetry, Short Story, or Screenplay? Each person randomly selects (virtually) which type of writing they will pursue that week. Will they try their hand at a poem, a short story, or the first few pages of a screenplay?

Picture Prompts . Each person selects a picture from a random collection provided by the initiator and writes a story, movie, or a poem using the picture as their topic.

Collective submission for recent calls for stories . Each person writes and submits something to the same publisher’s call for writing. This activity gives members of the group practice submitting their work for publication.

Story-sharing . The initiator can set aside some time at the beginning or conclusion of the meeting where members can each share something they are writing or books they are currently reading. This is a good opportunity for people to get feedback for their writing as well as receive book recommendations to help inspire future writing. Reading is, after all, one of the best ways to become better writers (and vice versa).

Poetry Workshop : each person reads some poetry and then writes a free verse, haiku, sonnet, limerick, or a villanelle. This could be a good opportunity for those who are not very familiar with different forms/structures of poetry to learn different ways of writing it.

NaNoWriMo Workshop . This month a few members of my group are trying to write a certain amount a day so that their stories can be finished by the end of November. So far, we are communicating by giving feedback on their work via Google Doc comments and messaging. While this is a good opportunity for members to write, set deadlines, and strive to meet them, it’s also nice for those who are not necessarily in the mood to write to read others’ work and practice their editing skills.

Storyboarding . While this is ideal for helping screenwriters, who may use sticky notes with different scenes scribbled on them, find out where to put certain scenes in their film, this can work for stories as well. What comes first? Should the story start at the end? Or should it be told linearly?

A-Z Story . I did this once in a creative writing undergrad class. We were invited to tell a story starting each sentence with the next word in the alphabet. It was pretty instrumental in helping me to find different words to tell a story and it actually helped me to do what I was not very good at: finishing a story.

POV Activity . Tell a well-known tale from the point of view of a character other than the protagonist. For example: the view of the Prince in Sleeping Beauty, through the eyes of Voldemort from Harry Potter, the inner monologue of Jane from Pride and Prejudice, etc.

Tense & Narration Switch Up . Give everybody the same prompt, but they each need to write it in a different tense (past, present, or future). This would also be fun if each person writes it from a different type of narration (such as first person, second person, or third person).

Write a version of a popular story/fairytale in a different genre . For example, what if Snow White was a princess in a dystopian society? What if the tale of Dracula was a historical fiction story set during WWII?

For more ideas, visit the teacher resources page for Purdue’s website here .

One thought on “ 14 Fun Virtual Creative Writing Group Activities ”

Collaborative writing sounds like a lot of fun, though I haven’t found someone I’d wanna do it with yet. First I’ll need to find a group lol. Thanks for this list, Ashley!

WEEKLY WRITING PROMPTS

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Heavenly bodies, set your story in a world where astrology and the movements of celestial bodies deeply impact the lives of inhabitants..

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People have gathered to witness a once-in-a-lifetime natural phenomenon, but what happens next is not what they expected.

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Never miss a prompt! Get curated writing inspiration delivered to your inbox each week.

Write a story where time functions differently to our world.

Write a story about a character who wakes up in space., write a story from the point of view of a non-human character., write a story with a strong sense of place. how is the setting of your world the same as, but different to, our own, write a story imagining 'what if' one historic invention had never happened. how would our world be different now, start or end your story with a character who gets trapped inside a museum overnight., write about two characters who meet and/or fall in love in a museum., write about an art thief who is struggling to commit the perfect heist., write about someone who accidentally destroys a museum’s most valuable artifact., write about a gallery whose paintings come alive at night., win $250 in our short story competition 🏆.

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Creative Writing Prompts

When the idea to start a weekly newsletter with writing inspiration first came to us, we decided that we wanted to do more than provide people with topics to write about. We wanted to try and help authors form a regular writing habit and also give them a place to proudly display their work. So we started the weekly Creative Writing Prompts newsletter. Since then, Prompts has grown to a community of more than 450,000 authors, complete with its own literary magazine, Prompted .

Here's how our contest works: every Friday, we send out a newsletter containing five creative writing prompts. Each week, the story ideas center around a different theme. Authors then have one week — until the following Friday — to submit a short story based on one of our prompts. A winner is picked each week to win $250 and is highlighted on our Reedsy Prompts page.

Interested in participating in our short story contest? Sign up here for more information! Or you can check out our full Terms of Use and our FAQ page .

Why we love creative writing prompts

If you've ever sat in front of a computer or notebook and felt the urge to start creating worlds, characters, and storylines — all the while finding yourself unable to do so — then you've met the author's age-old foe: writer's block. There's nothing more frustrating than finding the time but not the words to be creative. Enter our directory! If you're ready to kick writer's block to the curb and finally get started on your short story or novel, these unique story ideas might just be your ticket.

This list of 1800+ creative writing prompts has been created by the Reedsy team to help you develop a rock-solid writing routine. As all aspiring authors know, this is the #1 challenge — and solution! — for reaching your literary goals. Feel free to filter through different genres, which include...

Dramatic — If you want to make people laugh and cry within the same story, this might be your genre.

Funny — Whether satire or slapstick, this is an opportunity to write with your funny bone.

Romance — One of the most popular commercial genres out there. Check out these story ideas out if you love writing about love.

Fantasy — The beauty of this genre is that the possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

Dystopian – Explore the shadowy side of human nature and contemporary technology in dark speculative fiction.

Mystery — From whodunnits to cozy mysteries, it's time to bring out your inner detective.

Thriller and Suspense — There's nothing like a page-turner that elicits a gasp of surprise at the end.

High School — Encourage teens to let their imaginations run free.

Want to submit your own story ideas to help inspire fellow writers? Send them to us here.

After you find the perfect story idea

Finding inspiration is just one piece of the puzzle. Next, you need to refine your craft skills — and then display them to the world. We've worked hard to create resources that help you do just that! Check them out:

How to Write a Short Story That Gets Published — a free, ten-day course by Laura Mae Isaacman, a full-time editor who runs a book editing company in Brooklyn.
Best Literary Magazines of 2023 — a directory of 100+ reputable magazines that accept unsolicited submissions.
Writing Contests in 2023 — the finest contests of 2021 for fiction and non-fiction authors of short stories, poetry, essays, and more.

Beyond creative writing prompts: how to build a writing routine

While writing prompts are a great tactic to spark your creative sessions, a writer generally needs a couple more tools in their toolbelt when it comes to developing a rock-solid writing routine . To that end, here are a few more additional tips for incorporating your craft into your everyday life.

NNWT. Or, as book coach Kevin Johns calls it , “Non-Negotiable Writing Time.” This time should be scheduled into your routine, whether that’s once a day or once a week. Treat it as a serious commitment, and don’t schedule anything else during your NNWT unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Set word count goals. And make them realistic! Don’t start out with lofty goals you’re unlikely to achieve. Give some thought to how many words you think you can write a week, and start there. If you find you’re hitting your weekly or daily goals easily, keep upping the stakes as your craft time becomes more ingrained in your routine.
Talk to friends and family about the project you’re working on. Doing so means that those close to you are likely to check in about the status of your piece — which in turn keeps you more accountable.

Arm yourself against writer’s block. Writer’s block will inevitably come, no matter how much story ideas initially inspire you. So it’s best to be prepared with tips and tricks you can use to keep yourself on track before the block hits. You can find 20 solid tips here — including how to establish a relationship with your inner critic and apps that can help you defeat procrastination or lack of motivation.

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Home / Book Writing / 17 Character Development Exercises for Writers

17 Character Development Exercises for Writers

Character development exercises are short forms of deliberate practice to improve your writing skills and round out your characters.

They are typically not used in the final novel, but are little extras that help you understand the personalities that you are writing.

Because for some of us, nailing down that perfect character can be hard. And to help with that, we’ve assembled 17 different exercises to improve your characters.

Why character exercises are important
A list of 17 different exercises that you can implement today
Examples and advice to improve your characters

Why Are Character Development Exercises Important?
Exercise #1: Write a FULL Description
Exercise #2: Play Dress Up
Exercise #3: Write a Description Scene Through the Character’s Eyes
Exercise #4: Practice Showing Emotion
Exercise #5: Write a “Slice of Life” Episode
Exercise #6: Write Other People Gossiping About Your Character
Exercise #7: Write a Progression Short Story
Exercise #8: Draw the Character
Exercise #9: Create a Character Profile
Exercise #10: Conduct a Character Interview
Exercise #11: Play the “Why” Game
Exercise #12: Create a Character Based on Someone You Know
Exercise #13: Imagine What Happens Before and After the Novel
Exercise #14: Put Them in Horrible Situations (Muahahahahah)
Exercise #15: Create a Timeline
Exercise #16: Do a Little Fan-fiction
Exercise #17: Use Character Writing Prompts

So why use a character development exercise in the first place?

This may be a valid question, especially for authors like myself, who just want to dive into the writing and let the characters unfold as I write.

But honestly, a little work up front can save you a load of headache afterward.

Running through a handful of these exercises will help you to:

Understand your character’s emotions
Give you practice writing in their voice and from their point of view
Find out what sets them apart from other characters
Flesh them out to create round and dynamic characters
Establish the relationship between your characters and the setting, or other characters
Deliberate practice of the process to create complex and well-written characters

In short, it’s a great way to deliberately practice writing and reduces the need to go back and do extensive revisions on your characters.

That said, this might not be the best thing to do if you’re a pantser and just want to dive in and discover your characters along the way. But it can be a great tool in your author tool belt.

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So without further ado, here are 17 of our best picks for character development exercises.

Exercise #1 : Write a FULL Description

When it comes to writing characters, most of us focus on the facial features, things like hair color, eye color, etc.

A great way to begin getting to know your character is to do a full description of them. In a book, we might not do this to the extent you might in a creative writing exercise, which is why it’s good to practice here.

Here are some things to consider:

Skin/hair/eye color
Do they have any warts or moles?
What is their hair style?
What is their build?
Do they have any scars, tattoos, etc.
What is their general complexion. Is their skin smooth and silky, rough and calloused, or even bruised and battered?
What default facial expression do they have?
What does he/she smell like?

Exercise #2 : Play Dress Up

What we choose to wear says a lot about a person. Someone wearing an extravagant French-style outfit from the 18th century will give you a completely different impression than a cut business suit from the 21st century.

The problem is that most authors, when they’re writing about their characters, often forget to add a lot of detail about the clothes they are wearing. It’s easy to see these things in your mind and forget that your readers don’t see what you see. They see what you write.

One way to help overcome this oversight is to continue the exercise above, but focus on clothing.

And don’t just focus on any one type, because your protagonist will most likely use several types of clothing throughout the course of your novel. Here are just some examples:

Travel clothing
Clothes for a night on the town
Clothes for wilderness survival
Combat wear

Exercise #3 : Write a Description Scene Through the Character’s Eyes

Ideally, every character should experience the same thing differently, depending on their background, their wants and desires, and their tastes.

Additionally, great prose is often written from the perspective of the character making the observation.

For example, let’s say you have two people, one who has grown up in a desert their whole life, where water is scarce, and the other who grew up in a place where water was plentiful.

Imagine these two people on a hot day, observing a third person splashing water on their face. If you’re writing from the first character’s perspective, you could describe this as “and the man took a handful of water and wasted it on his face.” The second person might describe it this way, “I watched as the man poured the cool liquid and splashed it all over his face. I wish I were him right now.”

Do you see the difference there? In one, the character sees using water in one way as a waste, and for the other, it’s something to be sought after.

Exercise #4 : Practice Showing Emotion

We’ve all heard the adage to “show, don’t tell,” but what does this really look like for most characters?

This is something that really only comes with practice. Once you’ve done it enough times, you’ll recognize instances where you’re saying things like “he felt hungry,” and can replace them with something like “He winced and put a hand to his stomach as it growled, and he swallowed hard.”

Character emotion is one of these areas where showing rather than telling can really enhance your novel.

Exercise #5 : Write a “Slice of Life” Episode

There are a lot of scenes in a book, and most of them have a purpose. That said, there are many scenes that probably occur in that character’s life, but that we don’t talk about because they’re not important for the story.

However, you as the author should have an idea of what happens in these less important moments.

Some examples of a “slice of life” episode might include:

Having dinner with family
Going to the bathroom
The morning routine
A conversation with a co-worker
Late-night conversations with a spouse
Cooking a meal
Going on vacation
Playing with their kids
Coming home a little too drunk
Visiting a museum

Exercise #6 : Write Other People Gossiping About Your Character

Very often, we learn more from others about ourselves that we might not have known on our own. Others can provide unique perspectives, and in some cases expose huge biases (on both sides).

For example, a proud character might not realize that he/she is proud, but it’s easy for an outside observer to spot this.

Exercise #7 : Write a Progression Short Story

In real life, people change a lot, and characters should change in stories too (most of the time).

A great way to show this is to write a short story that examines the character at different parts of her/his life. You can focus on key moments in their life, but you could also just follow exercise #5 and focus on a few more everyday events.

The purpose of this exercise is to show how that person may have changed. Do they view the world differently as a working adult, vs as a teenager? A child? An elderly person?

What about before or after experiencing some kind of trauma?

Exercise #8 : Draw the Character

I’ll be honest, I’m not an artist. But I am a visual person, and getting some solid visuals of the character can be a huge boost in helping me understand them.

If you’re like me and really have no design skills , then finding a few photos is fine.

I’d recommend several photos though, since one might not be enough. You could have some for their face and general appearance, one for their clothes and how they look, etc.

If you know a program like Photoshop, you could even crop these together to get an even better sense of what you character looks like.

This is a great exercise for understanding the feel of a character, which is often harder to put into words.

Exercise #9 : Create a Character Profile

Imagine you work for the FBI, and you have to draft up a dossier about your character. What might that look like?

Fortunately, we’ve done a whole article about this topic, so you should definitely check that out, and also don’t forget to pick up our character profile template, which can easily help you through this process.

If you want a thorough process to identify the character’s appearance, personality, background, and more, this is the way to go.

The best aspects to focus on are the flaws, motivations, and fears of your character. What prompts them to action? Understanding these things will help you get at the core of your character’s personality traits.

Exercise #10 : Conduct a Character Interview

Imagine you sat in a darkened room, across the table from you is your character. You can ask them anything, they won’t be offended, and they will understand the question.

What do you ask them about?

Writing a character interview is almost like writing yourself into a short story where you get to personally meet your character and ask them questions.

This is huge for helping you understand the character’s voice, but also a good strategy for building solid character backstory and character traits.

To help, we’ve already assembled over 200 character development questions that can aid you in this process.

Exercise #11 : Play the “Why” Game

This goes along with the idea of an interview, but sometimes in order to dig really deep into the motivations of your character, you’ve got to ask why.

Is your character aggressive? Ask them why.

From there you might find out that his mother shouted at him as a kid, and he saw his parents fight a lot. Ask why.

You might learn that his father had a drinking problem and it meant that his mother took it out on him. Ask why.

From there, it might come out that his father had lost a lot of money in a business deal, leading him to turn to drink.

I hope you get the idea. The more you ask why, the more you’ll dig deeper into your character’s past, and the better you will understand them.

Exercise #12 : Create a Character Based on Someone You Know

This can be a little dangerous, because to be honest, most of the people we know are not that interesting. And we also want to avoid lawsuits for defamation if the comparison is too obvious.

That said, the people we know can be a huge inspiration to pick and choose ideas to incorporate into your characters.

For example, my own father and uncle have a really fun way of talking to each other. They’re always ribbing on each other and calling eachother weird, made-up names. You can tell that they love each other, but it’s an uncommon way of showing it.

This might make a good relationship between two people in a book.

Exercise #13 : Imagine What Happens Before and After the Novel

The writer is mostly concerned with what happens during the plot of her novel. But if written well, a character will feel like they exist long before and long after the pages of the book.

So it’s a good idea to try dreaming up what happens to these characters in that time.

It can be dramatic, or it can be mundane. Impactful, or ordinary. It doesn’t matter much. All that matters is that you have a past and future in mind for that character (unless you plan to kill them off of course).

And who knows, you might even come up with some good ideas for other books involving those characters.

Exercise #14 : Put Them in Horrible Situations (Muahahahahah)

I’ve heard it said that you should basically put your characters through hell in a story, and never let up.

While this is good advice, it’s not always practical. That said, putting your characters through the meat-grinder is a great way to learn how they react to conflict.

These scenarios don’t have to be trials you will actually use in your novel. These are just different ways to put your character in pain and see how they react (I know I sound like a very unethical scientist, don't @ me).

Here are some possibilities:

The loss of a loved one
A diagnosis of cancer
The loss of a limb
Getting tortured
Breaking up with the love of their life
Losing everything they own
Being betrayed by a friend

Exercise #15 : Create a Timeline

Sometimes it’s hard to keep every part of a character’s life straight. That’s where a timeline can be helpful.

A timeline is a simple list of events in the character’s life, though they can get more complex and interesting, and you can even put some design skills to work if you want.

But timelines only have to be a simple list of events. They can include events from before their birth to their death, or they can be focused on a specific period of their life.

It will depend on the character and the story you will want to tell.

Exercise #16 : Do a Little Fan-fiction

When we’re writing a story, we might not have a full grasp on it yet, and that’s where writing fan fiction can help.

Imagine your character interacting with characters from a story you already know? Imagine the ultimate crossover between your story and your favorite franchise.

For example, what Hogwarts house would your character belong in? What might it look like when he/she is sorted and interacts with other characters in that house or other characters from the Harry Potter books.

It’s a great way to lean on characters you already know, to help unveil more about the characters you’re trying to discover.

Exercise #17 : Use Character Writing Prompts

There are a bunch of character-related creative writing prompts out there, and many of them can be quite helpful in getting your brain to think outside of the box.

In theory, we could have a list much longer than 17 if we wanted to include more of these prompts, but that would end up being too much.

Instead, I recommend this post , or checking out our list of character questions to give you ideas.

Final Thoughts on Character Development Exercises

If you’ve made it far, first of all, well done.

Second of all, you might be a little overwhelmed, but don’t worry. This list is not meant to be a checklist for everything you should do to expand on your characters.

Instead, this is a handful of ideas that you can take (or leave) and use them to better understand your characters.

As you apply these exercises, I can pretty much guarantee that you will grow as a writer, become more familiar with your characters, and increase your chances of having a great dynamic character in your books.

Let us know how it goes!

Jason Hamilton

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Teach Creative Writing In High School With 10 Fun Activities

Creative writing is a meaningful aspect of literature that mandates you to utilize your expertise, ingenuity, and story to depict a critical message, emotion, or plot. It defies the traditional bounds of other forms of writing and is completely subjective to our preferences and experiences. In creative writing, it’s all about imaginativeness!

Using creative imagination and originality to convey feelings and concepts in a unique way is at the heart of creative writing. Simply stated, it’s about infusing your own ‘flair’ into your writing, moving beyond academic or other technical kinds of literature.

In this post, we will explore the various activities which would be advantageous for a high schooler who wishes to indulge in creative writing!

What Happens When Creative Writing Is Put To Use?

Creative writing is any form of writing that deviates from traditional professional, investigative journalism, educational, or technological forms of literature. It is typically distinguished by emphasizing narrative craft, character development, literary tropes, or various poetic traditions.

Here are the few ways how high schoolers can benefit from creative writing –

1. Imagination

When you write creatively, you expand your imagination by creating new environments, scenarios, and characters. This way, you are also boosting and stretching your imagination, as well as “thinking out of the box.” This allows you to concentrate your energy on many other things and improve your ability to find fresh ideas and alternatives to problems you’re having. Whether you’re a researcher or a businessman, creative writing will increase your imagination and help you think more creatively, and push the boundaries.

2. Empathy and Communications skills

When you create characters, you’ll be constructing emotions, personalities, behaviors, and world views that are distinct from your own. Writers must conceive personalities, emotions, places, and walks of life outside of their own lives while creating universes with fictional characters and settings.

This can give children a good dose of empathy and understanding for those who aren’t like them, who don’t live where they do or go through the same things they do daily. Writers are better equipped to communicate when they have a greater understanding of other points of view. They can come up with creative ways to explain and debate subjects from multiple perspectives. This ability is crucial in both professional and personal situations.

3. Clarification of Thoughts

Creating structures in creative writing allows you to organize your impressions and emotions into a logical procedure. You may express both your thoughts and your sentiments through creative writing. For example, if you’re a marketing executive, you could create a short tale in which your clientele reads your promotional emails. You can guess what they’re up to, where they’re seated, what’s around them, and so on.

This enables you to focus on the language and strategies you employ. Alternatively, if you’re a technical writer writing on a new desktop platform, you could create a creative scenario in which a user encounters a problem.

4. Broadens Vocabulary and gets a better understanding of reading and writing

You’ll learn a larger vocabulary and a better understanding of the mechanics of reading and writing as you begin to practice writing exercises regularly. Even if you’re writing a budget report, you’ll know when rigid grammar standards work and when they don’t, and you’ll know what will make your writing flow better for your readers. Exploring different ways of expressing yourself when writing creatively allows you to extend your vocabulary.

You’ll notice a change in your use and range of language as you improve your writing over time, which will be useful in any professional route and social scenario. You’ll be able to bend and break the rules when you need to, to utilize your voice and make what you’re writing engaging without coming off as an amateur, dull, or inauthentic once you’ve grasped the fundamentals of writing professionally and creatively.

5. Building Self-Belief

When you write creatively, you’re actively involved in an activity that allows you to fully develop your voice and point of view without being constrained. You have a better chance to investigate and express your feelings about various issues, opinions, ideas, and characters. And you’ll feel more at ease and secure stating your thoughts and perspectives in other things you write as a result of this.

Writers who don’t write creatively may be concerned about appearing authoritative or trustworthy. They accidentally lose their voice and sound like drones spouting statistics by omitting to include their perspective on the topics they’re writing about. As a result, they miss out on using their distinct voice and presenting themselves as an expert with real-world expertise.

Creative Writing Activities That Will Strengthen Your Writing Skills

Short spurts of spontaneous writing make up creative writing activities. These writing exercises push a writer to tackle a familiar topic in a new way, ranging from one line to a lengthy tale. Short, spontaneous projects are common in creative writing programs, but any writer should make them a regular practice to extend their abilities and learn new tactics to approach a series of stories.

These activities must be performed for ten minutes at a time, several times a week – by creative writers. They’re designed to help you improve your writing abilities, generate fresh story ideas, and become a better writer.

1. Free Writing

Writing is the first and foremost activity that is going to give your creative writing a boost. Start with a blank page and let your stream of thoughts and emotions flow. Then simply begin writing. Don’t pause to think or alter what you’re expressing. This is known as “free writing.” This writing activity is referred to as “morning pages” by Julia Cameron, the author of ‘The Artist’s Way.’ She recommends that authors do this every day when they first wake up. Stream of consciousness writing can provide some intriguing concepts.

Allow your intellect to take the lead as your fingers type. Or write a letter to your younger self. Consider a topic you’d like to discuss, such as a noteworthy event, and write it down. Give guidance or convey a message that you wish you had heard as a youngster or a young adult.

2. Modify a Storyline – Read

Most of us like to read. However, just reading won’t really help augment your creative writing skills. While reading bestows insight into the deeper meanings of numerous things, you need a more concrete approach to better your aptitude. To do this, you can modify any storyline. Take an episode from a chapter, if you’re feeling brave—from one of your favorite books and recreate it. Write it from the perspective of a different character. Swap out the main character in this exercise to examine how the story may be conveyed differently.

Take Percy Jackson’s thrilling conclusion, for instance, and rework it with Annabeth as the primary character. Another way to approach this creative activity is to keep the primary character but switch viewpoints. Rewrite a scene in the third person if the writer has told a story in the first person.

3. Add Creative Writing Prompts or Create Flash Fiction

Use writing prompts, often known as narrative starters, to produce writing ideas. A writing prompt is a sentence or short excerpt that a writer uses to start composing a story on the spot. You can look up writing prompts online, pick a sentence out of a magazine at random, or use a brilliant line from a well-known work as the start of your short scene.

Another thing you can do to accentuate your writing is to create flash fiction. Sit down at your desktop or pick up a pen and paper and write a 500-word story on the spur of the moment. This isn’t the same as just writing whatever comes to mind. With no fixed guidelines, free writing generates a stream of consciousness. All of the basic components of a story arc, such as plot, conflict, and character development, are required in flash fiction, albeit in a shortened form.

4. Create a Fictitious Advertisement

Pick a random word from a nearby book or newspaper and create a fictitious commercial for it. Write one ad in a formal, abbreviated newspaper classified format to require you to pay special attention to your word choice to sell the item. Then write one for an online marketplace that allows for longer, more casual text, such as Craigslist. Describe the item and persuade the reader to purchase it in each one.

5. Engage in Conversations

Engaging in conversations with your friends/family – or simply communicating can help brush up your writing skills. Talk to your loved ones about their hobbies, career, views on societal issues – any suitable topic for that matter. This helps implement others’ points of view and expands your mental ability. Another useful thing that you can do is – make another person’s tale and create it by implementing your own thoughts. Then talk about it in an impeccable manner. Also, talk in complete sentences. This goes to show your Linguistic intelligence proficiency – and helps augment your creative writing skills.

6. Create Your Own Website/Blog

Start your search for blogging. There are a million writing suggestions out there, but they all boil down to the same thing: write. Blogging is excellent writing practice because it gives you a place to write regularly.

To keep your fingers and mind nimble, write a post every day. Like most bloggers, you’ll want to restrict your subject—perhaps you’ll focus on parenting or start a how-to site where you can tell stories from your point of view.

7. Participate in Debates/Extempores

Participating in debates, extempores – anchoring for your school function, giving a speech, all of these activities help boost your creative spirit. These group events make you understand what other people are envisioning, which in turn helps you generate new ideas, approaches, and methods. Not only do they improve your articulation and research skills, but they also develop critical thinking and emotional control abilities. All of these promote a better creative writing aptitude.

8. Start a YouTube Channel or Podcast

Starting a YouTube channel or podcast will definitely level up your creative game. YouTube is a never-ending platform, covering myriads of topics. Choose a particular niche for your channel.

Then do your topic research, create content, manage SEO, approach brands, talk to clients and influencers – do all the good stuff. Communicating with other influencers and creating content will take your creative writing skills to another level. Starting a podcast will have a similar impact.

9. Love them? Say it with your words!

We have many festivals, occasions, birthdays, parties, anniversaries and whatnot! You can employ these special days and boost your creative writing skills. You can make a token of love for them – writing about your feelings. You can also make gift cards, birthday cards, dinner menus, and so on. So let’s say, it’s your mother’s birthday, you can write her a token of love, elucidating your feelings and letting her know what all she’s done for you and that you’re grateful. Do this for all your near and dear ones. This not only spreads positivity and love but helps you develop your creative aptitude.

10. The What-if Game

The What-If game is an incredible way to upgrade your creative abilities. You can play this game with your friends, cousins, relatives, or solo. Here, you need to find links to many interesting hypothetical questions. For instance, what if the sun doesn’t rise for a week? What if there’s no oxygen for one minute? Play it with your peeps, or ask these questions to yourself. It can be anything random but concrete. If you don’t know the answers to the questions, look them up on Google. This way, you’re training your mind to learn new concepts all the while enhancing your visualization process.

We can conclude that creative writing encourages students to think creatively, use their imaginations, imply alternatives, expand their thinking processes, and improve their problem-solving skills. It also allows the child to express themselves and grow their voice. Besides, it enhances reasoning abilities. The principle behind the creative writing concept is that everyone can gain the qualities that are needed to become a successful writer or, rather become good at writing. Creative writing is all about using language in new and innovative ways.

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Creative Writing Unit for High School Students

My creative writing unit for high school students allows for adaptations and for fun! With plenty of creative writing activities, you’ll have flexibility.

If you are looking for a creative writing unit, I have ideas for you. When I taught middle school, I sprinkled such activities throughout the school year. As a high school teacher, though, I taught an entire creative writing course. With no textbook and very little established activities, I largely worked from a blank slate.

Which. . . turned out well. I love teaching creative writing!

ELA Specific Classes

Older students often can choose electives for their ELA classes, and Creative Writing is a popular class. I’ve condensed my ideas into one post, so I organized the ideas by creative nonfiction and fiction writing and added pictures to organize this information for you.

EDIT: This post about my creative writing unit for high school writers has exploded and is about three times as long as a normal blog post. If you’d like to skip around to get inspiration for teaching creative writing, you can use the pictures and headings as guidance.

ANOTHER NOTE: I attempted to outline the days I spend on each topic, but several factors went into my estimates. First, each class differs in what they enjoy and what they dislike. If a class dislikes a specific topic, we will wrap it up and move on. If a class has fun with an assignment or needs more time to work, the days might vary.

What are the key elements of a creative writing unit?

Key elements of a creative writing unit include introducing different writing genres, teaching basic writing techniques, encouraging imagination and creativity, providing writing prompts and exercises, offering constructive feedback and revision opportunities, and fostering a supportive writing community.

How can we organize such activities?

Starting with creative nonfiction has worked for my classes, small pieces like paragraphs. I believe the success is because young writers can write what they know about. Then we can switch to fiction for the second quarter. Again, the days spent on each assignment varies, and I honestly do not stress about creative nonfiction being nine weeks and fiction being nine weeks.

All of the material listed below is in my newly updated Creative Writing Bundle . The pieces are sold separately, but that creative writing unit includes bonus material and a discount.

Ok, settle in! Here are my ideas about teaching creative writing with high school students.

creative activities for writing students

First Week of School for a Creative Writing Unit

The first day of school , we complete activities that build awareness into the classroom environment about “creativity.” Do not shy away from setting a foundation of support and understanding as you engage with young writers. During my first creative writing classes, I neglected to spend time establishing expectations and community. The following semester, the time invested early paid off with engaged students later.

Those first days, we also discuss:

Published vs. private writing. I tell writers they may share whatever they like with me and the class. As a community of writers, we will share with each other. Most of our writing will be public, but some will be private.
A community of writers. Writing and sharing ideas requires maturity and acceptance. Not everyone will agree is largely my motto (about negotiables, not human rights), and I stress with students that they may read and provide feedback with topics in which they do not agree.
Routines. Writers write. That sentence might sound silly, but some people believe that humans are born with a skill to write or they are not. Writing well takes practice. The practice can be short and unconnected to a larger product. I typically begin each week with a quick writing prompt , and we share our responses, which of course, builds that community of writers.

Whatever you are teaching—a creative writing unit or a creative writing class—spend some time establishing your expectations and goals with your students. Laying a foundation is never a waste of time! In fact, I believe so much in the power of the first week of a creative writing class that I have a blog post devoted to the concept.

Time: 2-3 days

First weeks: creative nonfiction

Creative nonfiction seems to be the genre of our time. Memoirs, essays, and hermit-crab essays flood bookstores and journals.

When students read captions on social media, profiles of their favorite artists, or long Threads, they are reading creative nonfiction. Not only should students be able to dissect this form of writing, but they should also be able to write in our society’s preferred genre.

Below, I’ve outlined creative nonfiction activities that work with teenagers.

Nonfiction Narrative Writing

Writing narratives (and meeting those standards) are trickier with older students. As a teacher, I struggle: Students will often tell me deep, meaningful, and personal parts of their lives, and I am supposed to grade those writings!

When students write a narrative , I address this situation immediately. Share with writers that their narrative ideas are strong (I believe that to be the truth!), and that in no way are we grading their ideas. Rather, we want their excellent narratives to be communicated in the best light; therefore, we will provide guidance about the structures of narrative writing.

The topic for a nonfiction narrative varies. Often, students write about themselves as learners or as community members. Framing students in a positive way allows them to explore their strengths in life and to build confidence as writers.

Time: 7-9 days

a creative writing unit for high school students should include plenty of fun activities

Object Essay

An object essay might sound like a “blah” type of assignment, but the simplicity allows students to push past their normal experiences. An object essay is simple, so they can experiment with their writing.

What object? I have assigned this essay several ways. For instance, I have brought in a very plain object (like a rock) and had students explain it. I like this approach because students can work together to discover the best descriptions.

Another way, my preferred way, is to allow students to choose the object. Students write about a coffee cup, water bottle, car keys, or bus pass. When students choose, the essays are richer with meaning.

Neither approach disappoints me, though! With a plain object, students must stretch themselves to be creative. Judge what your class needs and get students writing!

Time: 3-4 days

add a creative writing unit to your ELA classroom

How-to Paper

No, not a “how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich” paper. A fun and meaningful how-to paper can encourage classes as they see themselves as experts.

What I like about a how-to paper is students get to be the expert in their paper. Finding a used vehicle to buy? Shopping for a formal event? Saving money? Cleaning a closet? Selling at consignment stores? Each writer has an area in which they shine, and a how-to paper allows them to share their knowledge with others. They write about “behind the scenes” or little known secrets.

Of all the creative writing activities, I assign the how-to paper early. It builds confidence in young writers.

Time: 5 days

Sell this Apple

Why an apple? When I wanted students to creatively sell something, I searched for something they could all have in common but sell in different ways. I wanted classes to have one object but to witness the multiple approaches for advertising. Apples (which I could also afford to bring to class) fit nicely.

What do students sell when they “sell an apple”?

Dips for apples.
Apples for preschool snacks.
Charcuterie apple boards.
Apple crisp.
Red and green apple rainbows.

Basically, students can create a marketing plan for multiple age groups and other demographics. For instance, they can write a blog post about safety in cutting pieces for young children (and complete some research in the process). They can then “promote” a local apple orchard or fruit stand.

Another advertisement is an apple pie recipe for a Thanksgiving brochure for a supermarket.

When I gave students something simple, like an apple, they ran with the idea. Then, we can share our ideas for selling apples.

A profile is difficult to write, so this assignment is normally my last assignment of the quarter. Before we switch to writing fiction, we apply all our concepts learned to writing a profile.

Profiles are more than summaries of the person. Writers must take an angle and articulate the person’s traits utilizing Showing vs. Telling. Of all creative writing assignments, the profile, might be the most difficult. I place it in the middle of the semester so that writers understand our goals in class but are not tired from the end of the semester.

Time: 10-12 days

Final weeks: fiction

Fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, romance: Students consume a variety of fiction via books, movies, and shows. Fictional creative writing activities invite young writers into worlds they already consume.

Below, I’ve outlined some that work with teenagers.

send students around the community or school for this creative writing project

Alternative Point-of-View

Grab some googly eyes or some construction paper and send students loose. (A few guidelines help. Should students remove the googly eyes from the principal’s office door?) Have them adhere the eyes to an inanimate object to make a “being” who learns a lesson. They should snap a picture and write a quick story about the learned lesson.

What type of lesson? Perhaps an apple with a bruise learns that it still has value and is loved with blemishes. Maybe a fire extinguisher realizes that its purpose is important even if it isn’t fancy.

Honestly, the creativity with the googly eyes adhered to inanimate objects is so simple, but it always is my favorite event of the semester. I officially call it the “ alternative point-of-view ” activity, but “googly eyes” is how my writers remember it.

Time: 2 days

creative writing activities for high school students

Create a Superhero with a Template

A superhero does not need to wear a cape or fancy shoes. Rather, in this creative writing activity, students build a superhero from a normal individual. When I created the activity, I envisioned students writing about a librarian or volunteer, but students often write about a grandparent (adorable).

Since students enjoy graphic novels, I wanted students to experience making a graphic novel. The colorful sheets allow students to add their ideas and words to pages that fit their messages.

After students create a comic book, they will also write a brief marketing campaign for a target audience. Learning about who would buy their graphic novel typically leads them to parents and librarians which should lead students to discover the importance of reading. The advertising campaign additionally serves as a reflective component for the initial activity.

imagination is a key part of creative writing lessons

Product Review

Product reviews and question/answer sections are a genre all their own. SO! Have students write reviews and questions/answers for goofy products . Students will find a product and write several reviews and questions/answers.

This quick activity lends itself to extension activities. Once, a teacher emailed me and said her school bought some of the goofy products for a sort of “sharing” day with the school. Since students have access to pictures of the item, you can make a “catalog” for the class out of a Canva presentation and share it with them and your colleagues.

Here are a few examples:

Banana slicer .
Horse head .
Wolf shirt.

Aside from the alternative point-of-view activity, the product reviews remain my personal favorite part of a creative writing unit. Writers find random products and write goofy workups that they share with the class.

Time: 3 days

Character Creation

Creating a well-rounded and interesting character requires prep work. The brainstorming part of the writing process, the pre-writing? We spend lots of time in that area as we create fleshed out characters.

I like to start with a multiple-choice activity. We begin my imagining the main character. Next, students take a “quiz” as the character. How does the character eat? What sort of movies does the character enjoy? hate? After the multiple-choice activity, they can derive what those pieces explain about their characters. Finally, they can begin to brainstorm how those pieces will develop in their story.

Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a simple, short story. Writers might cheer when they hear I expect a 300-word story, but often, they discover it is a challenging assignment from class. A large part of a creative writing unit is giving students a variety of lengths so they can practice their skills under different circumstances.

Historical Fiction

Historical fiction is a popular genre, and classes are familiar with many popular historical fiction books. I find it helpful to have several books displayed to inspire students. Additionally, I read from the books to demonstrate dialogue, pacing, theme, and more.

Since my historical fiction activity takes at least two weeks to accomplish, we work on that tough standard for narrative writing. To that end, these activities target the hardest components:

Pacing within a narrative.
Developing a theme .
Building imagery .
Creating external conflicts in a story.
Establishing a setting .

First, I used pictures to inspire students, to get them brainstorming. Second, I created those activities to solve a problem that all writers (no matter the age!) have: Telling vs. Showing. I found that my writers would add dialogue that was heavy on explanation, too “world building” for their narrative. The story sounded forced, so I took a step back with them and introduced mini-activities for practicing those skills.

Third, the above creative writing activities can EASILY be assignments independently for short and fun assignments. I teach them with historical fiction because that activity is at the end of the semester when my expectations are higher, and because students enjoy writing historical fiction so they are invested.

But! You can easily add them to another narrative activity.

Time: 10-12 days

A clean tabloid! Tabloids are largely replaced by online social sharing creators, so they are fun to review with students. Students might not be familiar with tabloids at the grocery store checkout, but they are familiar with catchy headlines. They will be completely ready to write a tabloid !

To ensure a clean tabloid, I ask students to write about a children’s show, something scandalous happening from a cartoon. The results are hysterical.

Time: 4 days

Children’s Book

I have two introductory activities for the children’s book. One, students answer questions about a mentor text (another children’s book). Two, students evaluate the language of a specific book to start them in their brainstorming.

My students write their children’s book as a final activity in class as it requires all the elements of creative writing. When a school requires me to give a final exam, students write a reflection piece on their children’s books. If you are looking for a finale for your creative writing unit, a children’s book is a satisfying ending as students have a memorable piece.

Time 10-12 weeks

Final note on creative writing activities and bundle

I intended for this post to inspire you and give you ideas for teaching either a creative writing unit or a creative writing class in ELA. My first time through teaching creative writing, I worried that my lessons would flop and that students would not find their groove with me. I found success, but with modifications, I formed a cohesive semester.

The first time through, I did not frontload information and expectations. (Spending time at the start of class is my biggest message! Please establish groundwork with students!) I also did not provide concrete enough guidelines so students understood the differences between the assignments. After a few semesters, I developed my creative writing unit . With a variety of activities and an appropriate amount of structure, I found success, and I hope you do too.

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creative writing creative writing activities

Writing Activities

18+ Creative Writing Activities To Make Writing Fun

Make writing less boring with these 12 fun creative writing activities for kids.

When most children think of writing, they think of lined paper with thousands of words written on it, line by line with the occasional spacing for paragraphs. But writing doesn’t need to be that boring and gloomy. Today we bring you12 creative writing activities to make writing fun and colourful!

How to Make Writing Fun

It is important to show your kids that there’s more to writing than just homework and long essays. Writing can be fun and it doesn’t always involve writing thousands of words in a formal structure. It’s time to stop worrying about sentence structure, grammar and spelling mistakes. Instead, encourage your kids to explore their creativity and write down their thoughts as they come in any format they like. Here are 12 fun creative writing activities that will boost your child’s creativity, imagination and encourage them to write for fun.

18+ Fun Creative Writing Activities

Use story maps.

Story maps are a great way to unleash your child’s imagination. You can either create your own or print out one of these free story map templates . To create your own story map, you’ll first need a location. This could be anywhere, a planet , an island , the woods or even your hometown. Don’t worry, you don’t actually need to leave your home to enjoy this activity.

Next draw out a simple map of the location. The map must have a starting point and an endpoint. Here is an example of our treasure island story map:

You can see that we marked the starting point with a star. And the end point with a red cross. Once this is done, you need to put loads of obstacles, challenges and interesting things on the map for your child to explore and engage with in their imagination. This could be a giant octopus monster, a lava lake, a cunning princess or even some secret symbols or lettering.

Once you have completed creating your action-packed story map (or printed out one of our free templates) – It’s time for the real adventure to begin. Give the map to your child and together you can pretend that you have landed in a whole new location.

Start from your bedroom (or your imaginary pirate ship) and make your way through the obstacles to find the secret treasure located in a mysterious cave (or the shed in your backyard). As you go through the map, think about the characters you might encounter, items you might find and even challenges you could face.

After your little adventure, your child will be inspired and ready to write about the adventure they just experienced! Go ahead and check out these free story map templates to get you started:

Forest Story Map
Island Story map

Create Some Paper Finger Puppets

Puppets and toys are a great way to stimulate imaginative play. In particular, creating your own paper finger puppets is a brilliant creative activity to boost your child’s imagination and make story-telling more fun. When creating your own finger puppets, your child can create any character they like. If they love football , try creating some famous football players, and if they love Harry Potter , get them to create some wizard themed characters. Whatever your child’s interest, combine it with story-telling, and make storytime extra fun.

To get you started, you can download our free paper finger puppet templates by signing up to Imagine Forest:

free printable paper finger puppets template

Create your own paper characters, props and background. Then let the role-playing begin!

Would You Rather Game

Kids love playing games. The Would You Rather game is a great way to boost logical thinking and communication skills. Print out our free Would You Rather game cards pack, to get a mix of funny, gross and Disney themed questions. Then get at least three players in a team to begin the game. The purpose of the game is to convince the whole team that your answer to the question is the best one and to get other players to agree with you. This game is guaranteed to get your kids laughing and thinking logically about the answers they pick.

Telephone Pictionary Game

Another brilliant creative writing activity is the Telephone Pictionary Game . The basic idea behind this game is to write a story collaboratively with your team using drawings and phrases. Together as team members take turns to write/draw something down. They’ll be improving skills such as creativity, teamwork and communication skills. And when the game is over, they’ll have a really funny story to read!

Create Some Shape Poetry

Poetry is a quick and short writing activity to get kids engaged in creative writing. But writing a typical haiku or limerick can get boring over time. To add a little more excitement gets your kids to write poems in the shape of something. For example, your child could write a poem about cats , in the shape of a cat:

Not only are these poems great to read, but they also make wonderful pieces of artwork. For more inspirations, check out our Alice in Wonderland inspired shape poetry .

Finish The Story Game

The finish the story game is the simplest creative writing activity in our list. In a team of at least 2 players, each player takes turns completing a story. Start off with a random story starter and then each player takes turns to continue this story. Which way will the story go? No-one knows. And that’s the real beauty of this game. Let your child explore their imagination and come up with wild ideas to keep the story interesting. And by the end of the game, you’ll have a really unique and funny story to read.

Use Image Prompts

Image prompts are a great source of inspiration. And can be used in a number of ways to encourage your child to write. For instance, you can ask your child to write a quick snappy slogan for a random image or photograph. Alternatively, you could play a whole game centred around a single image, such as the Round Robin Tournament game explained in our post on storytelling games using image prompts .

Story Cubes To Inspire

Inspiration is key in making writing fun for kids. That’s where story cubes come in handy. You either buy ready-made story cubes or make your own story cubes at home. If you’re interested in making your own story cubes, check out these 9 free story cube templates for ideas. Once you have a bunch of story cubes, you can simply roll them like dice and then challenge your kids to write a story based on the images they get. For game ideas using story cubes, check out this post on how to use story cubes .

Create A Comic Strip

If your kids hate writing but love drawing, then comic strips are a great creative activity to sneak in some minor writing with huge levels of imagination. Pick a topic, any topic you like. This could be related to your child’s interest and then ask them to create a short comic strip about that topic. For example, if you child loves dinosaurs, ask them to create their own comic strip about dinosaurs. For more inspiration and ideas, check out this post on how to create your own comic strip and comic books at home.

Make Your Own Pop-up Book

Another fun way to get your kids to write more is by creating your own pop-book books. Pop-up books seem really complicated to create, but in reality, they are really easy to make at home. All you need is some paper, scissors and glue. Check out this super easy tutorial on how to create your own pop-book at home for quick step-by-step instructions. Similar to comic strips, pop-up books are a great way of combining drawing with writing to get your kids writing more in a quick and fun way.

Create Mini Booklets

Turn your child’s story into a real book! You can buy blank books from Amazon or create your own mini paper book, using this easy mini notebook tutorial . With this tutorial you can create a fully customisable book, with your own cover, back page and you can even draw your own illustrations inside! This is a really fun and cute way to gets your kids writing in their spare time.

How to Make a Mini Paper Notebook Tutorial

Write A Letter With a Fun Twist

Forgot ordinary boring letters! Check out our Paper craft animal envelopes to encourage your kids to write letters to their friends, family, heroes, aliens, anyone they like! Inside the child can write any message they like, such as “how were your holidays…” or “We’re having a party this weekend…” And on the outside they can create any animal or creature they like as envelopes.

Describe a Monster

Ask your child to draw their own monster or character and describe it. – What are its strengths, and weaknesses, where does it live, what does it like doing and so on? This creative writing activity is quick, simple and full of imagination! And you could even take this a step further by creating your own monster flip books !

Use Story Starters

Use story starters to inspire reluctant writers. These can be simple sentences, such as “It was Timmy’s first day at school and he was excited…” and your child can continue writing the rest of the story. Or you could use photos and your child’s drawings to inspire story-writing by asking the child to describe what’s happening in this image. Take a look at this post on 60+ first-line prompts to inspire you or you could view our mega list of over 300 writing prompts for kids .

Create Your Own Greeting Cards

Get your child to create their own Christmas cards , greeting cards or get well cards to send to someone they know. They can write their own personal message inside and draw a picture on the outside. Quick activities like this are a great way to sneak in some writing with some arts and crafts.

step-5-pop-up-christmas-tree-card-tutorial-for-kids-imagine-forest

Create Your Own Newspaper

Ask your child to write their own newspaper article or create their own newspaper about the daily events that happen at home or at school. Remember the use of the 5 W’s and 1 H when writing newspaper articles. Our newspaper challenge online activity is great for creating fun newspaper articles.

imagine forest newspaper writing activity

Make A Shopping List

Get the kids involved in the weekly grocery shopping! Ask them to write the shopping list with drawings. If the grocery shopping list is too boring, then get them to create a wish list of items they dream of owning or even a list of goals they want to accomplish. You can buy some really pretty shopping list pads from Amazon , which could be a great way to encourage your kids to get writing!

Re-tell some fairytales

Fairytales have been around for centuries and by now they need a modern twist. Challenge your child to update an old classic. And you could even use this free ‘Retell a fairy tale pack ’ to help you. Re-telling a fairytale is a lot easier than creating a whole new one – Simply ask your child to change one or two key elements in the story and see how it changes the entire fairytale. For example, what if Cinderella was the villain? Alternatively, you could go wacky and add a whole new character to a classic fairytale, such as Spiderman making an appearance in Jack and the Beanstalk. The possibilities really are endless!

Write Your Own Movie Script

Ask your child to write their own short movie script, they can create a cast list and give all the different characters different things to say. You can find a free script and cast list template here ! Think about the conversation between the characters, what problems would they encounter, who is the villain in this story? We also think these free finger puppets printable could be great for story-telling.

Hand-written Blogs

Ask your child to keep a simple hand-written blog about their hobbies and interests. This can be done in a journal or notebook. Ask them the following questions: What do they like doing in their spare time and why do they enjoy this. Maybe ask them to provide instructions on how someone else can also be good at this hobby. They can update their hand-written blog everyday with new tips and interesting pieces of information on their hobby.

Wanted Posters

Create a ‘Wanted’ poster for famous villains in storybooks, such as Miss Trunchbull from Matilda or Cinderella’s Stepmother. You can find a free blank template here . Alternatively try out the Most Wanted online activity on Imagine Forest, to create your own wanted posters online:

Storyboarding

Writing a whole story down can be cumbersome. That’s why storyboarding can make a really good creative writing activity. Instead of asking a child to write a whole story down, get them to think about the key events in the story and plan it out using a storyboard template . Planning their story out beforehand could even encourage your child to write a complete story down afterwards. The first step is always planning out what you are going to write, and this could give your child the confidence to keep going.

Know anymore fun writing activities for kids? Tell us your ideas below.

Top 10 Writing Activities to Make Writing Fun!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

Write a Letter to Your Best Friend prompts

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Creative non-fiction writing exercises

(Re-posted from: http://www.keepwriting.net/prompts.htm)

Writing Prompts

These prompts are intended to help inspire your creativity. Try your hand at any one of them or use them as quick ten minute writing exercises. More exercises will be added as time goes by, so please check this page periodically – the most recent prompts appear at the top. Remember what Natalie Goldberg says about writing practice: Keep your hand moving. Note: prompts #1 through #10 are preserved from the original Keep Writing classes, hosted by Linda Rome.

# 18: Self-Searching

When you’re struggling with what to write about, sometimes it helps to get reacquainted with yourself…who you are…what matters to you. Here is an exercise designed to help you discover, and inspire you to explore in your writing, those things you feel most passionate about.

Take out two pieces of paper. Now answer every question in Phase One on the list below. If you would be willing to share your answers with the wider world, put those answers on the first sheet of paper. Any answers you are not willing to share should go on the second piece of paper. But all questions must be answered fully and honestly.

Once you’ve finished with Phase One, go through all your answers carefully, expanding on them by answering the corresponding questions in Phase Two.

If you find that those things you feel most passionate about are the ones you aren’t willing to share…don’t despair. Creative writing recreates reality – frequently changing events and characters, times and places – while staying true to the heart of the story – its emotional truth.

Pick one of your answers and recreate it into a story, an essay, a poem, a performance piece, that you would like to share.

# 17: Sketching

Think you might enjoy writing about some far-off place and time…or maybe even inventing an imaginary place and culture all your own? Here’s a basic exercise to help you define place, time, and cultural mores as a context for your story.

# 16: Characterization

Use the following format to create your own character. No cheating. Do not simply fill in the blanks by describing yourself or someone you know. Instead, fill in the blanks describing someone you’d find it interesting to know. Then, remembering that conflict is the essence of all dramatic writing, repeat the process by imagining a character whose value, attitudes, etc. would likely put them in opposition to the first character you invented.

Full Name: Nicknames: Sex: Age: Height: Weight: Hair: Eyes: Skin: Posture: Appearance: Health: Birthmark: Abnormalities: Heritage: Where born: Where live: Favorite food: Favorite subject in school: Favorite game as child: Best memory: Worst memory: Smoke/Drink/Drugs Profile: Favorite section of newspaper: Favorite type of music: Last book read: Last movie seen: Morning or night person: Introvert/Extrovert: Indoor or outdoor person: Greatest fear: Closest friend: Dearest possession: Favorite season: Class: Occupation: Education: Family: Home Life: IQ: Religion: Community: Political Affiliation: Amusements/Hobbies: Reading Interests: Sex Life: Morality: Ambition: Frustration: Temperament: Attitude: Psychological Complexes: Superstitions: Imagination

# 15: Word Lists

Word lists can sometimes be a great spur to creativity. Try this one. Set your timer for ten minutes, then read the word list below and attempt to write something (a poem, a story, a short play) that contains all nine of these words.

Once you’ve completed this exercise, reread what you have written. Is there a character or a situation worth pursuing farther?

Another variation of this exercise is to create your own word list, listing only words that in some way are significant to you as a person. Then, use this list as your jumping off place, following the same rules as those given above.

# 14: Recollections

Write some memoirs about a favorite teacher..

# 13: Celebration

Write about a special birthday.

# 12: Reinvention

Write about an incident in your past that you would like a chance to relive and do differently.

# 11: Suspense

Write in any form (poetry, drama, short story, nonfiction, memoir, etc.) a piece that incorporates the phrase, “Don’t pick up the phone.”

# 10: Explorations

A. Write a paragraph or story about noise.

B. Make a list: Start each phrase with “It would be crazy to. . . ” Go until you run out of sentences. Then, write the other side of the coin: Start each phrase with “It would be perfectly sane to. . . .”

C. Explore the differences of the two lists – either in an essay or poem or put two characters in a dangerous situation together where one is more likely to have said the “it would be crazy” statements and the other would be more likely to say their opposite.

D. Put on a piece of music and write where it takes you.

E. Comment on a newspaper or T.V. clip.

F. Imagine yourself as a child, looking at your mother’s wallet. What do you see? How do you feel? Tell a story from this child’s perspective.

# 9: Disclosures

A. Make up a word and tell us what it means. Use it in a sentence, a story, a scene. The word can reflect something you always thought needed a word or it can be a set of sounds that trigger your imagination. Try it as a verb, an adverb, or a noun. Be playful.

B. Write a short paragraph/essay about something you used to do with your grandmother or grandfather that you still do today. Questions you might ask and answer: Why do I still do whatever it is? Do I enjoy it, how have my feelings for the activity changed? Why? Have I passed this on to my children? Explore the then and now.

C. Look at a picture. What is the secret hidden in the picture? Explore it, push the characters until they reveal the secret knowledge, power, or pain that they conceal.

# 8: New Perspectives

A. Write a story about a person turning eighty.

B. Write a dialogue between two people who have to share a seat on a plane and who are attracted to one another. Introduce an obstacle to the smooth sailing of this attraction.

C. Write about an ugly moment between two people, but don’t label it. Make the reader experience it without you telling them what is going on.

E. Choose one aspect of the natural world that you feel has something to teach you. What specific quality does it express that speaks to you about your own life? Cluster your thoughts and shape them into a poem. (From Poetic Medicine by John Fox).

F. Write about a birthday.

G. Write the saddest thing you know about friendship.

H. Go back to one of the exercises you’ve done since the beginning of class and edit it with an eye to new ideas, different approaches, clearer sentences. Add a sustaining metaphor or an apt simile. Approach it creatively.

# 7: In the Moment

Today celebrate what you still don’t know. Make a list of the elements you are unsure of in the plot of your story; the ideas as yet undeveloped in a poem; or the point of an essay that hasn’t yet crystallized. These are your reasons to keep on writing. Or, write the phrase “I still don’t know” as a diving study and fill the page with whatever comes out. Select one thing you don’t know to write/learn about today. — From Bonni Goldberg, Room to Write

A. In this exercise we’re going to practice being present to what is around us and reflecting that present reality in our writing. Get up and walk around the house, the porch, the deck, and/or the yard. Spend five or six minutes. Then write three pages about whatever comes to mind. This isn’t even a rough draft; this is just flow; pure mental, emotional, associative pure flow.

B. Go through your three pages and underline the sentences or paragraphs, phrases, or ideas you think are most interesting, provocative, amusing, enlightening. Underline or bracket them. With these thoughts in mind, again walk around. Then sit down and write something you might be willing to share, building on your first efforts. Let the ideas and subject matter pick the form.

# 6: Motivation

“Always do what you’re afraid to do,” Ralph Waldo Emerson’s visionary Aunt Mary advised him. We tie ourselves in knots to sabotage the energy that might be unleashed if we move resolutely ahead. The risks of making changes are great. . . especially great changes. — Gail Sher, One Continuous Mistake

Write out all the things you are afraid to do concerning your writing and your writing life. Do not simply make a list, but use sentences so you can experience the flow of your thoughts. If you are stuck, start your sentences with something like, “I am afraid my writing will. . . .” or “I am afraid writing is . . . .”

Now make a list of other things you’re afraid of doing. Be as outrageous as you can.

In this exercise, we’re going to use quotations as our jumping off place into writing. You may choose the form: narrative or essay or dialogue. Spend the first five minutes thinking, jotting notes, clustering, doodling, gnashing your teeth, or wandering around, if you choose. If no response comes together for you, write three pages on what is going on in your mind, starting with the quote:

“Where we are going is here.” or “Both ways are best.” or “What is the straight within the bent?”

Who might say such words? In what context? You may use them as dialogue or images or theme. Write a poem or a story or a reflection. Let yourself play.

# 5: Dialogues and Expositions

A. Write about a day in the “life” of an inanimate object. (Suggestions: a mirror, football, computer, refrigerator, rug, or paperclip.)

B. Write some funny dialogue between a father (or mother) and his/her daughter (or son) who must explain explain why she/he is two hours past curfew.

C. Expository essays that define call for short or extended definitions to help both the reader and the writer understand the meaning of a word. Depending on its length, you may develop your definition by examples, comparisons, and/or functions. Fill in the blank. Go for 10 minutes. Bad luck is __________.

D. Write a story about a factory.

E. Describe a lake as seen by a young man who has just committed murder. Do not mention the murder. (Exercise taken from John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction .)

F. Look around the room you’re in. Write about an object that you have an emotional attachment to or that triggers an emotional response in you. Some tips for writing ten minutes a day: Try to do it around the same time every day. It helps build a habit. Go with your first thoughts. Get down the sentences as they occur to you. Trust yourself. You can edit later. This ten minutes is for writing, not editing, not note taking, not planning. If you pick up a piece from the day before, you must make forward progress – at least one sentence. Keep writing!

# 4: Narratives

Writing has tremendous energy. If you find a reason for it, any reason, it seems that rather than negate the act of writing, it makes you burn deeper and glow clearer on the page. Ask yourself, “Why do I write?” or “Why do I want to write?” but don’t think about it. Take pen and paper and answer it with clear, assertive statements. Every statement doesn’t have to be one hundred percent true and each line can contradict the others. Even lie if you need to, to get going. If you don’t know why you write, answer it as though you do know why. — Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

Tip: If you feel stuck, start out: I don’t know why I write, but . . . . or I feel that as a writer I have something to say, but. . . . But? But what? Stay with this “but” until you are about “but,” the most knowledgeable person in the world.

Since everyone likes a good story, it’s no wonder that the narrative is such a popular form of writing. Fairy tales, anecdotes, short stories, novels, plays, comics, and even some poems are all examples of the narrative form. Simply stated, a narrative is a story based on fact or fiction. Any type of narrative (or story) writing is built on a series of events. By telling about these events one after the other, just as they occurred, your story will satisfy a reader’s curiosity about what happens next. (A more complex narrative device of moving back and forth from past to present within a story is call the flashback technique.) A narrative composition can be used to entertain, make a point, and/or illustrate a premise.

A. Write a story about wanting and glue and staring.

B. Respond to the following quote. Follow where the words lead you.

A man’s life is nothing but an extended trek through the detours of art to recapture those one or two moments when his heart first opened. — Albert Camus

# 3: Highlighting Details

A. Start a story with a word that starts with the letter B – any B, any word.

B. Pick a particular time of day and a particular window. Spend 10 minutes each day for three days describing what you see out of the window.

C. Write about what you hate most about writing.

D. Create a lovable character with one disappointing flaw. Put that character in the same room as you and a very favorite small child in such a way that the disappointing flaw is evident. What happens?

E. Remember haiku? Those 5-7-5 syllable poems that have a touch of nature and a hint of epiphany in them? Try writing one every day this week. Or try your hand at a sonnet!

# 2: Found Objects

A. You find a checkbook on the ground-perhaps you’re in a park, jogging along the highway, or in the parking lot at the Mall. You decide to return it. What happens next?

B. You’re tired. Who isn’t? You make a mistake, a costly mistake. What happens next?

C. Question of the year: What do you see in that new piece of art your spouse or significant other brought home? How do you feel when you find out it cost the equivalent of three months pay? Write this story in the third person.

D. Let’s revisit the expensive piece of art your significant other brought home. Write a story from the point of view of the person who brought it home.

E. Paper clips. How important are they? Pick up your pen and write about paper clips for ten minutes.

F. Pick out one piece of your writing. Look in Writer’s Market or some other marketing tool and pick out three possible places to send it. Write them down, bookmark them. Or type up a query and send off your piece.

G. Pick out three current market listings that sound appealing to you. Think of an article idea that you would be able to write for that market. Write your idea and the approach you’d take down. Write down the names of possible contacts to interview or the titles of books for quotes you might need or use. Play around with a first sentence. Write a rough draft. (Take ten minutes to do each of the previous directions.)

# 1: Observe and Analyze

A. Sit in your favorite chair. Write about the view. If you want to write a piece of fiction, imagine someone who is the total opposite of how you see yourself, and put him or her in that same chair. How does the view change?

B. The pair of shoes, scuffed and worn, stood sentinel, at the door. Use the previous sentence as the beginning or ending sentence for a short story-maximum 1200 words.

C. Today, notice all the people that grease your day but who you rarely think about: the newspaper delivery person, the mailman, the elevator doorman, the pizza delivery guy, the cashier at the grocery store or the hostess at your favorite eatery. One of them is a murderer. What’s the story here? Who tells it? What happens next?

D. Pick out one page of your work. Look at it very carefully, sentence by sentence. Cull 10% of the words. Look at the verbs in each sentence. Punch them up by choosing more vigorous, more active verbs. On your word processor, take out all the adjectives and adverbs. Add them back sparingly.

E. Pick out another page of your work. Look at it very carefully, sentence by sentence. Where do you make leaps of logic that may leave your reader confused? Where do you make assumptions about what the reader knows? Are those assumptions valid? Do you actually portray the scene you see in your mind’s eye-or are there important details you’ve left out? Add them in. Pay attention to the sensory details: add in whatever is necessary to make the reader hear, smell, taste, or feel what’s going on in the scene (or essay or poem).

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What is Creative Writing and How to Start Writing Fiction Techniques for Sparking Creativity?
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COMMENTS

️ 100+ Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors
Eight. Pick a fiction book from your shelf. Go to page eight and find the eighth sentence on the page. Start with that sentence and write an eight-line poem that connects in some way to your work-in-progress. For instance, write from the POV of a character, or set the poem in a story setting. Don't worry about poetry forms.
105 Creative Writing Exercises: 10 Min Writing Exercises
Creative writing exercises are short writing activities (normally around 10 minutes) designed to get you writing. The goal of these exercises is to give you the motivation to put words onto a blank paper. These words don't need to be logical or meaningful, neither do they need to be grammatically correct or spelt correctly.
8 Creative Writing Exercises to Strengthen Your Writing
Whether you're taking a break from a work in progress or are in between writing projects and need some inspiration, regular creative writing exercises help you strengthen your writing process. Incorporate these eight exercises into your writing routine. 1. Let your stream of consciousness run. Start with a blank page.
30 Writing Exercises To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
Exercise #1: Write a story in six words or fewer. This is an activity for extended prose writers who love a challenge. Found across Reddit, Tumblr and its own dedicated website, the six-word story challenge draws its inspiration from Hemingway's iconic 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn'.
18 Creative writing and editing exercises for adults
Focus on faces. Onomatopeai, rhyme and alliteration. The alphabet story - creating a story as a group. A question or two. Murder Mystery Game. The obscure movie exercise. How to hint at romantic feelings. A novel idea. Creative writing prompts.
50 Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises
2. Have a man cooking for a woman on a third date, and have her describe the aromas in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she's in love with him. 3. Pick a line from one of your favorite songs, and identify the main emotion. Now write a character who is feeling that emotion and hears the song.
24 of the Best Writing Exercises to Become a Better Writer
Write from the point-of-view of a famous historical figure. Write a story or poem from the perspective of an object: a statue, a doll, a roomba, etc. Write from the perspective of a person you dislike. While playing with perspective makes for a great fiction writing exercise , poets and essayists can do this too.
13 Creative Writing Exercises: Become a Better Writer
4 - Take one of your favorite short stories, either one you've written or one you've read, and write it in a different genre. For example, take a romance and write it as horror. This is a super fun exercise, and it lets you practice using tone and perspective! The tone of a story can change the meaning.
From 101 Creative Writing Exercises: Symbols and Symbolism
Today's post comes from my book 101 Creative Writing Exercises (aff link). This is from "Chapter 5: Fiction." Let's take a look at symbolism in fiction. Symbols and Symbolism. In Alice and Wonderland, a white rabbit appears, and Alice follows him down the rabbit hole that leads to Wonderland.The white rabbit is a herald — a character archetype that signifies the first challenge or ...
7 Creative Writing Exercises For Writers
5. Try Writing Flash Fiction. Try to crank out a piece of flash fiction. As with other creative writing exercises, don't spend too much time at it. Simply sit down in front of the computer or a piece of paper, and begin writing. Flash fiction doesn't usually go beyond 500 words, so try to keep it short.
14 Fun Virtual Creative Writing Group Activities
14 Fun Virtual Creative Writing Group Activities. Write a story collaboratively. I recently did this with my group for Halloween and it was a great success! One week before Halloween, we decided to write a ghost story collectively by opening a Google Doc and making a list of who would start the story, who would go second, third, etc. We each ...
1800+ Creative Writing Prompts To Inspire You Right Now
Here's how our contest works: every Friday, we send out a newsletter containing five creative writing prompts. Each week, the story ideas center around a different theme. Authors then have one week — until the following Friday — to submit a short story based on one of our prompts. A winner is picked each week to win $250 and is highlighted ...
PDF Creative Writing Activity Packet
Wonka Words is a creative argument-writing game. Works for slightly older students, although all can compete. Groups of three players or more. One player is the judge, and the judge thinks of something that the rest of the players have to guess. They can think of anything (a puppy, their grandpa, the table everyone is sitting at,
17 Character Development Exercises for Writers
Exercise #17: Use Character Writing Prompts. There are a bunch of character-related creative writing prompts out there, and many of them can be quite helpful in getting your brain to think outside of the box. In theory, we could have a list much longer than 17 if we wanted to include more of these prompts, but that would end up being too much.
Teach Creative Writing In High School With 10 Fun Activities
1. Free Writing. Writing is the first and foremost activity that is going to give your creative writing a boost. Start with a blank page and let your stream of thoughts and emotions flow. Then simply begin writing. Don't pause to think or alter what you're expressing. This is known as "free writing.".
Creative Writing Lesson: Fictional Narratives
Grade. 7-12. Brief Description. With this creative writing exercise, students use introspection and visioning to create a fictional narrative. Objectives. Students will. explore narratives in fiction and journalism. use introspection, visioning, creativity and collaboration during the writing process. learn and apply best practices for writing ...
5 Writing Exercises for Vivid Settings in Fiction
You'll want to let your reader know what it feels like for them, what it sounds and smells and tastes like. No matter what kind of world you're creating, this technique can bring more vividness to your writing. 5. On an unlined sheet of paper, create a map of your world. Pay attention to detail: Even the smallest moments can help you ...
Creative Writing Unit for High School Students
If you are looking for a finale for your creative writing unit, a children's book is a satisfying ending as students have a memorable piece. Time 10-12 weeks. Final note on creative writing activities and bundle. I intended for this post to inspire you and give you ideas for teaching either a creative writing unit or a creative writing class ...
18+ Creative Writing Activities To Make Writing Fun
Telephone Pictionary Game. Another brilliant creative writing activity is the Telephone Pictionary Game. The basic idea behind this game is to write a story collaboratively with your team using drawings and phrases. Together as team members take turns to write/draw something down.
Creative non-fiction writing exercises
A. Write a story about a person turning eighty. B. Write a dialogue between two people who have to share a seat on a plane and who are attracted to one another. Introduce an obstacle to the smooth sailing of this attraction. C. Write about an ugly moment between two people, but don't label it.
5 Exercises for the Nonfiction Writer
8. Photo by Bookblock on Unsplash. There are numerous writing prompts and exercises for fiction writers, but finding quality creative nonfiction prompts can be difficult. When I teach creative writing, the non-fiction unit produces the most initial resistance. It is hard to share and sometimes even more challenging to know where to begin.
Creative Nonfiction Writing Exercises
Sit down and write your stream of conscious thoughts for 5-10 minutes. Follow these two simple rules: never lift your pen from the paper, and when you can't think of anything new to write, simply ...