Final Sneak Peek at 101 Creative Writing Exercises: Body Language
Final sneak peek at forthcoming book, 101 Creative Writing Exercises.
101 Creative Writing Exercises is slated for publication in early February.
This book of creative writing exercises will take writers on a journey through different forms and genres while providing writing techniques, practical experience, and inspiration.
Each exercise teaches a specific concept and each chapter focuses on a different subject or form in writing: journaling, storytelling, fiction, poetry, article writing, and more. Every exercise is designed to be practical. In other words, you can use these exercises to launch projects that are destined for publication. Read more
Fiction Writing Exercises for Developing Setting
Explore setting with these fiction writing exercises.
Setting is one of the most important elements in fiction writing. If your readers don’t know where the story is taking place, they’ll get lost and confused, and it will be hard for them to enjoy your tale.
Some stories have simple settings based on real places. You can use your own hometown or a major city. A setting can also be completely dreamed up, which is often necessary in speculative fiction writing (Wonderland and Never Land, for example). You can keep a setting in the background, referring to it only when necessary, or you can bring it to the forefront and allow it to function as a character in your story.
Some authors go to great lengths to take the reader through a story’s setting. Just last year, I read a book in which the character drove around Los Angeles. The author took us down L.A. streets, past parks, and into real neighborhoods and establishments. It was a bit much, but I’m pretty sure if I was a resident of L.A., I would have gotten a little thrill out of the familiarity. Read more
Fiction Writing Exercises for Exploring and Developing Theme
Explore theme with these fiction writing exercises
Good fiction is comprised of many parts: plot, characters, setting, scenes, and dialogue. But we rarely talk about theme, even though it’s critical to good storytelling.
There’s no clear and easy way to define theme. It has been called the worldview, philosophy, message, moral, and lesson within a story. However, these labels, taken alone or together, don’t quite explain theme in fiction.
We can think of a theme as an underlying principle or concept. It’s usually universal in nature. Some common themes include redemption, sacrifice, betrayal, loyalty, greed, justice, oppression, revenge, and love. Themes can be philosophical and they can ask questions or pit two ideas against each other: science vs. faith, good vs. evil, why are we here, and what happens when we die? Read more
Creative Writing Exercises: Report It
Report It from 101 Creative Writing Exercises
Today, I’m sharing another sneak peek into my forthcoming book, 101 Creative Writing Exercises. Writing this book has taught me a lot about publishing in general and self-publishing more specifically. The final proof is on my desk now, and once I give it a good, solid polish, publication will be right around the corner.
This exercise comes from “Chapter Two: It’s Personal.” The creative writing exercises in this chapter focus on writing of a personal nature: personal essay, memoir, and journal writing. I chose this exercise because it’s challenging and fun. It asks you to look at your own life from a fresh perspective and make yourself the subject of a news report.
Give it a try! Then, come back and tell us what you learned and how this exercise worked for you. Read more
Sneak Peek at 101 Creative Writing Exercises
Sneak peek at forthcoming book: 101 Creative Writing Exercises
I’m putting the final touches on my forthcoming book, which is titled 101 Creative Writing Exercises.
These exercises take writers on a journey through different forms and genres.
Each exercise teaches a specific concept and each chapter focuses on a different subject or form: journaling, storytelling, fiction writing, poetry, article writing, and more. All of the exercises are designed to be practical. In other words, you can use these exercises to launch projects that are destined for publication.
Today, I’d like to present one of the exercises to give you a taste of what to expect from the book. I hope you like it! From “Chapter Six: Storytelling,” this exercise is called “Oh No He Didn’t!”
Oh No He Didn’t! (from 101 Creative Writing Exercises)
Plot twists, cliffhangers, and page-turners. Oh my! These are the sneaky techniques writers use to keep readers captivated. And we’ve all been there: It’s late, and I’m tired. After this chapter, the lights are going out. Then there’s a cliffhanger, a shocking development in the story. Forget sleep! I have to find out what happens next.
Some writers are criticized for overusing these devices or for planting twists that are contrived or forced. But a good plot twist or cliffhanger is natural to the story and doesn’t feel like the writer strategically worked it in.
Some stories feature major twists in the middle of chapters. It’s placing such a twist at the end of chapter that turns it into a cliffhanger. Soap operas and television dramas are known, loved, and loathed for their application of these devices. It’s how they hook viewers, and it’s a way you can hook readers.
Each writer has to decide whether to use these techniques in storytelling. You might think they’re too formulaic or rob your story of its artfulness. Or, maybe you like the exciting edge that a good twist or cliffhanger brings to a story.
The Exercise
Write an outline for a chapter that ends on a cliffhanger. You can also use a TV episode as your model or a serialized short story. Approach the cliffhanger by building tension to the moment:
Bad guys are chasing the good guys. The bad guys are gaining on them. They’re getting closer! One of bad guys draws his gun, lifts it, cocks it, and aims right at our hero. He pulls the trigger. See you next week!
You can also plant a cliffhanger that comes out of nowhere. The chapter is winding down, everything is moving along as expected and suddenly a character walks into a room and tells her ex-lover that she’s pregnant and he’s the father. Uh oh!
Both types of cliffhangers work equally well.
Tips The best cliffhangers leave huge questions hanging in the air. Who did it? What just happened? Will they survive? How is that possible? What will happen next?
Variations: You can expand on this exercise by writing out a scene that ends on a cliffhanger. To expand further, write the follow-up scene and satisfy readers’ curiosity by answering the big questions raised by your cliffhanger.
Applications: If you want to be a commercially successful author, you will probably find that mastering the cliffhanger is a huge asset to your writing skills. The cliffhanger is almost mandatory in horror and mystery genres, so if that’s what you want to write, you’ll need to be able to execute a good clincher.
3 Fiction Writing Exercises
Fiction writing exercises for story building
Fiction writing exercises can help you discover storytelling techniques and provide ideas and inspiration for your fiction writing projects.
For writers who are young or just starting out with fiction, these exercises provide practice and experience. For more experienced writers, these exercises offer inspiration and can help you see a story from new angles.
Today’s fiction writing exercises are carefully chosen to help you develop some of the most critical components in a story. If you can create a few characters; identify a conflict, climax, and resolution; and choose a theme, you’re well on your way to writing a short story or novel that will resonate with readers.
These exercises are similar to assignments you would complete in a college-level fiction writing class, exercises that push you in the direction of writing material that can be submitted or published. You can tackle these exercises separately but I recommend using them to develop ideas around a single story.
1. Character Exercise: Sketching a Protagonist and an Antagonist
We often think of them as the bad guy and the good guy or the hero and the villain, but those terms are becoming outdated as modern storytelling increasingly embraces protagonists who are highly flawed and antagonists who aren’t especially evil.
The Exercise: Sketch two characters who are in conflict with each other.
Do not identify a protagonist or antagonist, just create two characters. Both characters should have the potential to be good or evil. Start with physical descriptions, then get inside the characters’ heads to establish their inner landscapes, and finally, work up a bit of backstory for each of them. Remember, these two characters have a fundamental conflict with each other. What is it? The core of this exercise is identifying that conflict.
If you’ve never done a character sketch or have trouble coming up with details for your character, check out this character development worksheet.
2. Plot Exercise: Conflict, Climax, and Resolution
The three-act structure is one of the simplest and most effective way to break down a story. Often, the acts are 1) Setup, 2) Confrontation, and 3) Resolution. I think of the three-act structure as 1) Conflict, 2) Climax, and 3) Resolution because those are the three pinnacles in each of the three acts. In the first part of a story we learn what the conflict is. The second (and largest portion) of the story builds up to a climax in which the conflict hits boiling point. Finally, the third act resolves the conflict.
The Exercise: Determine a conflict, climax, and resolution for a story.
You can use the two characters you created in the first exercise for this.
Conflict examples: Two people vying for the same job, a natural disaster, people-eating aliens landing on Earth.
Climax examples: In a big showdown, one job candidate smears the other and knocks the opponent out of the race. A natural disaster claims the lives of half of Earth’s population. Humans engage in a final battle with the people-eating aliens!
Resolution examples: The job candidate who got smeared makes a comeback and gets the job. Earth’s survivors rebuild after a planet-wide natural disaster. Against all odds, humans win the battle against aliens with superior technology.
3. Theme Exercise: Universal Ideas
Theme is difficult to explain, but Wikipedia does a good job:
A theme is a broad idea, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.
I usually think of theme as the big questions that a story asks or its underlying philosophy.
The exercise: Choose a theme and write a list of ways in which a theme can be executed through the course of a story.
You can choose a theme for the characters you sketched in the first exercise or for the three-act structure you developed in the second exercise. For example, in a story where two characters are vying for the same job, the theme might be dream fulfillment (if it’s one or both of the characters’ dream job).
As an alternative, try to identify themes in other stories. Think about your favorite books, movies, and TV shows and make lists of some themes you’ve found in storytelling.
Fiction Writing Exercises
Do you think about character, plot, and theme when you’re working on a story? Do you plan these elements in advance or let them unfold through discovery writing? Who are some of your favorite characters? Can you think of a truly original plot in modern storytelling? What themes in fiction appeal to you the most? And finally, do you use fiction writing exercises and if you do, how have they helped you improve your writing?
Three Poetry Writing Exercises
Stretch your writing muscles with poetry writing exercises
If you’re going to exercise, it’s a good idea to warm up first. That way, you’ll get your body geared up to do the heavy lifting, the hard running, and the strenuous workout.
Writing’s no different.
Poetry writing exercises are ideal for times when you’re feeling uninspired or lazy, or maybe your poetry is getting stale and you need to take it in a fresh direction. Maybe you’re getting ready to embark on a big, long writing project and want to warm up first.
Today’s poetry writing exercises are good starters and don’t require you to know anything about poetry or have any experience writing poems. In fact, some of these exercises are just that — exercises — no poetry writing required.
Poetry Writing Exercises
These poetry writing exercises are designed to get you thinking about rhythm, language, and imagery in your writing. Let’s jump right in!
1. Alliteration and Assonance Lists
Create a list of word pairs and phrases that are built around alliteration or assonance. Remember, alliteration is when words in close proximity start with (or contain) the same consonant sound (as in pretty picture). Assonance is when words in close proximity echo vowel sounds (bent pen). Try to come up with at least ten of each. The more, the better.
Bonus exercise: Use the words from your lists to write a poem.
2. Metaphors for Life
Make a list of significant life events – birth, death, graduation, marriage, having children, starting your own business. Next, come up with a metaphor for each of these events. Remember: a metaphor is when we say one thing is another thing. A simile is when we say one thing is like another thing.
Metaphor: Life is a dance.
Simile: Life is like a box of chocolates (as a metaphor, this would be life is a box of chocolates)
Tip: Choose metaphors that are visually interesting. Metaphors for life as a dance or box of chocolates are both concrete and easy for readers to visualize.
Bonus exercise: Write a poem about one of your life events using only the metaphor you have chosen. When it’s done, your poem should be a bit ambiguous; a reader will wonder whether the poem is literally about the metaphor or metaphorically about the life event.
3. Lyrics and Musicality
Choose a catchy song that you enjoy and rewrite the lyrics, but stick to the rhythm and meter. Try to go way off topic from what the original lyrics were about. You can play the song while you work the exercise or search for the lyrics online and use those as your baseline. The idea is to get your mind on the musicality in your writing.
These poetry writing exercises are meant to be helpful and fun. If you used any of these exercises, feel free to share your experiences in the comments. And keep on writing!
Do you have any poetry writing exercises to share? Have any special requests for exercises that deal with specific areas of writing? Leave a comment!
Top Secret Fiction Writing Exercises
“Ssh, don’t tell anyone. Put it in the vault!”
Most of us have had those very words whispered into our ear. In fact, most of us have probably whispered those words into someone else’s ear.
They say everyone has a secret. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that secrets sure pique people’s curiosity.
And if you can capture a reader’s curiosity, you’ll have them hooked.
That’s the essence of today’s fiction writing exercises.
The Power of Secrets
Don’t your ears perk up just a little bit when you hear the word secret? And don’t you just get all quiet and attentive when someone says, “I have a secret to tell you?” Secrets are powerful. They imply mystery and drama, they evoke suspense and build tension, and they capture people’s attention. Most importantly, they keep readers turning the pages.
Characters with Secrets
Secrets can be integral to a plot, but usually the secrets belong exclusively to the characters. In fact, sometimes a secret will shape a character’s personality. How would keeping a secret for decades impact a person’s behavior? What kind of secret would weigh on someone’s conscience? How do the other characters view someone who can’t keep a secret?
There are big secrets and little secrets, important ones and silly ones. Some secrets are cliché (she had a baby and gave it up for adoption!) and others are funny (one time, at band camp…).
The best secrets are surprising. I’m not talking about the sitcom variety of the overheard misunderstanding, where one character overhears another and gets the wrong idea. Think about the secrets in books like The Da Vinci Code or in films like The Usual Suspects — secrets that make you drop your jaw or think about the world in new ways.
Then, try to come up with some interesting secrets for your fiction. You can use the fiction writing exercises below to write a scene, a whole story, or maybe you’ll just come up with some really great character traits or plot twists.
Here are ten fiction writing exercises built entirely around secrecy:
Ten Secret Fiction Writing Exercises
- A character is harboring a secret that is preventing him from fulfilling his true desire.
- Two characters share a secret but it’s not what everyone thinks it is.
- It’s an old family secret and there’s only one person alive who knows about it. Will she take it to the grave?
- There’s a secret and everyone knows about it except one particular character and it happens to affect that character the most.
- There is a small group of people who meet in secret at regular intervals.
- A character has a secret and if anyone found out, it would destroy his life.
- One character discovers another character’s shocking, sad, or terrible secret.
- A character thinks she has a very private secret, but actually, most of the people close to her know about it.
- A character knows a secret that would destroy one person’s life but save the life of another person.
- There is a secret that would affect everyone on the planet but only a small, elite group of characters know the secret.
Secret Tips
Writing secrets into your story can make it a lot more exciting, and you can conjure up secrets whenever a character seems flat or the plot is thinning out. But you have to be careful with secrets. Here are a few final secret tips:
- Avoid common or stereotypical secrets unless you can give them a really intriguing twist. Examples: sordid affairs, the family member you never knew you had, the person who went to prison didn’t commit the crime, etc.
- Usually, the audience gets in on the secret before the key character does, but don’t let it out too early. If you can, reveal the secret over time and make it a guessing game for the reader to figure out.
- If you build a lot of tension, you better have a secret that delivers. There’s nothing worse than a lot of big build-up for something like “I’m the one who broke your favorite snow globe in second grade.” Try to come up with a real doozie.
Tell Me Your Secrets
If you have any secrets (real or made up), feel free to leave them in the comments. Or, if you want to have some fun, post a secret from a novel or a film that you thought was especially clever.
Have fun with these exercises (how could you not?), have a wonderful weekend, and keep on writing!
If you have any fiction writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.
Fiction Writing Exercises: A Story for a Song
photo credit: nyki_mArt Begets Art
A compelling story speaks to us much the same way that music does, communicating thoughts, feelings, and ideas in ways that go beyond concrete language.
The result?
A click takes place within the psyche. When you hear a song or read a story that resonates in this manner, you connect with it on a deep level. It almost feels like the author or songwriter was speaking for you, about you, or to you.
Some say that truly great art communicates directly with the subconscious. That’s why the arts coexist so naturally. Where you find a buzzing music scene, you can be sure a booming literary crowd is nearby. And where filmmakers toil with scripts and cameras, you can bet dancers aren’t too far off.
Creativity breeds creativity and we are like magnets, drawn not just into our own passion, but those that complement and support it. Music, film, and art all enrich and inform one another. So do the musicians, filmmakers, artists, and of course, writers.
Fiction Writing Exercises
Some people say that everything has been written, every story told. But that’s not true. There’s always another angle, a different perspective that can be taken. And writers have all the tools they need to grab that perspective and run with it. You just need a starting point and fiction writing exercises can help you find it.
Try starting with a song.
Some of the greatest stories of all time have been told through song. Remember Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee?” John Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane?” What about Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff?” Each of these songs tells a clear and distinct story.
On the flip side, we have ambiguous lyrics, like “Hotel California,” by the Eagles or “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. Tunes like these have inspired lively debates that ask, what are these songs about, anyway? And if we don’t know what the songs are about, why do they succeed at speaking to us? How do they become enormous hits that cross genre lines?
Story for a Song
For one of our fiction writing exercises, let’s double up on creativity and take advantage of hindsight. Choose a song and write the story behind it. This is kind of like traveling backward and trying to find those one thousand words that represent the value of a picture.
Some tips to make this more interesting:
- Choose a song that doesn’t have an overly obvious storyline.
- Make sure you aren’t familiar with the song’s video and that you don’t rewrite the video treatment.
- Pick a song you like, something you can tolerate listening to several times over. In fact the more you enjoy the song, the greater the chance you’ll have fun with this experiment.
Storytelling
Throughout history, great artists have collaborated and mixed mediums and media to come up with fresh takes on ancient truths. This writing exercise provides a new source for inspiration, gets you working in collaboration with other artists (musicians), and gives you creative license to put a new spin on something that’s been around for awhile.
And if you can do this with a piece of classical music (with no lyrics), I for one, will be doubly impressed!
You can write a paragraph, a few pages, or an entire novel. Write it as a piece of journalism or a script. And if you don’t feel like writing it down, just work it out in your head. Find the connection between music and storytelling and let it capture your imagination.
And have a great weekend! Keep on writing!
If you have any fiction writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.
Getting Into Character: Fiction Writing Exercises
Writers are not actors, but sometimes we need to get into character.
To truly understand the nature of a character, a writer must step into that character’s shoes. All the character sketches and descriptions that you develop will be two dimensional until you can get into your character’s head and understand what makes him tick.
This is not an easy thing to do. Your first impulse might be to act like a puppet master, pulling your character’s strings and controlling his actions. But what you really need to do is scoot over and get in the passenger’s seat. Let your character do the driving and ride along as an observer. And that’s exactly what these fiction writing exercises can help you do.
Tips for Getting Into Character
Many artists and creative people talk about entering “the zone.” This is a state of mind in which you’re running on automatic pilot. Your right (creative) brain is fully engaged and your left (logical) brain is snoozing with one eye open. It is in this state that people often get lost in an activity, lose track of time, and produce some of their best creative work.
When you’re getting into character, it’s best to be in the zone. Approach these fiction writing exercises when you’re calm and relaxed and willing to let your imagination override your logical thinking.
How do you do this? Before sitting down to tackle these exercises, try exercising. Take a walk, do some yoga, or go for a swim. You can also meditate or simply take a few minutes to lie down and relax and clear your mind of all the clutter. Listening to classical music or jazz is another effective way for getting into the zone. Once your mind is calmed, you’ll be ready to get into character and try the fiction writing exercises below.
Fiction Writing Exercises for Getting Into Character
Exercise #1: Chat
Launch your word processing software and start up a conversation with your character. Most of us have engaged in online chat or instant messaging. This is the same idea. If chat is not a comfortable medium for you, then try composing emails back and forth between you and your character.
Before you start, you might want to come up with a list of questions to ask your character. Also, this is a great exercise to use when you get stuck in a story that doesn’t want to move forward. Simply chat with your character to try and find out what’s holding him back from taking the next step.
Your chat might look something like this:
ME: So, you’re hearing voices in your head and you’re not sure whether you’ve gone crazy or are telepathic.
CHARACTER: Obviously, I’m telepathic. Don’t tell me you don’t believe in telepathy. I know you do.
ME: How could you possibly know something like that?
CHARACTER: Because I am reading your mind right now.
Exercise #2: Stand-in Situation
Put your character in a situation and see how he handles it. If you’re already working on a story, then try removing your character from it and placing him a completely different setting. Think of riveting scenes from books you’ve read or movies that you’ve seen, or use scenes from your own life.
A few quick ideas for scenes that will reveal how your character handles a situation:
- Your character is standing on the corner trying to hail a taxi when there’s a sudden distraction. This could be an accident in the street, a beautiful man or woman walking by, or an emergency phone call from a desperate friend or family member. Does your character hop in the cab and go about his day?
- Your character’s arch-enemy is is grave peril and the only person around who can save him is your character. Does he let his enemy die or save his life?
- Your character has been grossly betrayed by a close friend or family member. Is your character able to forgive? Does he seek revenge? Will he go on with his life, simply removing the betrayer from it?
Notice that all these scenarios test the character’s integrity. This is a great way to get a handle on what kinds of choices your character makes. Keep in mind as you work through this exercise that people are not perfect and characters needn’t be either. The most interesting characters are easy to relate to, and that means they are flawed in some way.
Exercise #3: Monologue
Monologues are a great way to get inside your character’s head, especially if the story you’re writing will be in third person. This is your chance to let your character’s voice be heard.
Write a piece in first person, from your character’s perspective. Choose a general theme for the monologue and start writing in the character’s voice. Some ideas for themes:
- Character is relating a significant event from his past – loss of a loved one, major life transition, or one of those everyday moments that change everything or stay with you forever.
- Character is faced with a serious challenge or decision and is discussing his options and what the effects of either choice might be.
- Character is in the middle of an emotional crisis and is overcome by grief, rage, envy, or some other intense feelings.
In a monologue, you can include action cues, but try to write them into the dialogue. For instance, if the character starts crying, make that evident through the narrative. If you’re feeling really brave (or if you’re an actor at heart), try recording yourself reading and playing out the monologue. That will add another dimension and allow your character’s speech, intonation, and inflection to come through.
How to Use These Exercises
Once you’ve completed the exercises, you can revisit the material you’ve written to gain a better understanding of your character.
Try to pinpoint any areas where you’ve stepped in and taken over. Maybe your character said something that you normally or frequently say. Or perhaps he did something that is just – well – out of character. You can edit and revise until you feel that your piece has truly captured your character’s behavior and personality.
Later, when you’re working on your story, you can pull out these fiction writing exercises to see if there are any clues about your character that you want to use. You may also use these exercises as you’re writing a story to help you get a better grasp on your character or learn his secrets.
As always, the most important thing when working through creative writing exercises is to have fun.
And keep on writing.
If you have any fiction writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.
Fiction Writing Exercises: How to Write a Complex Villain
When it comes to writing fiction, we each have our own unique challenges. For some of us, it’s a struggle to come up with names for our characters. For others, it’s hard to write realistic dialogue.
Maybe you’re like me, and find it difficult to write a really good villain. I mean – a really bad villain. Or even just a pretty bad nemesis.
The funny thing about our writing weaknesses is that sometimes all we have to do is identify them and suddenly we start coming up with tons of solutions.
That’s what happened to me about two years ago, when I realized that I was having trouble writing a nemesis for my main character. Time and time again, it was one of the key elements that was missing from the stories I wrote.
Once I noticed this pattern, I started seeing villains all around me – as if merely noticing their absence from my writing made them suddenly appear in my everyday life.
Villains Are Everywhere
A friend would forget to call me back and she’d become a self-absorbed boss who neglected and overworked her employees. My housemate would leave the milk out and suddenly he was a freeloading couch-surfer taking advantage of all his friends and acquaintances.
I would notice someone’s flaws and think about what they’d be like if those flaws were embellished and magnified to outweigh their good qualities and positive traits. Suddenly, my villains were born, one after another, like a little herd of evil trolls.
I make up characters in my head all the time. Sometimes I write down my ideas, drafting a character sketch. Most of them never make it to a story, but the really compelling ones do. Now that I’ve found a surefire way to harvest villains from the world around me, the characters in my head and my pages of character sketches have really started to pile up.
Fiction Writing Exercises for Creating Villains
Those of us participating in NaNoWriMo are probably hitting that point in our novels when the villains start to emerge. For anyone who wants to write good fiction, you need a character in there somewhere who creates tension and who is at odds with the forces of good. Even for poets and nonfiction writers, the ability to write a complex villain will only improve your writing and help you better understand the subjects you write about (especially if some of them are dirty rotten scoundrels).
For this week’s fiction writing exercises, pay attention to the people around you. Nobody’s perfect. Even those you love most dearly have shortcomings that you can compound to the point of villainy. Take their flaws, quirks, and moments of moral lapses and exaggerate them into a character fraught with nasty traits.
- Choose a model for your villain — an ordinary person, a celebrity, a notorious criminal from the news and examine that person’s flaws and weaknesses. How have they wronged others? Discard their positive traits, magnify their negative traits, and write a brief character sketch. What’s the character’s name? What does he or she look like? What is going on in the character’s head that allows him or her to treat others with disregard?
- Give your villain a shady past — what terrible things has your villain done throughout his or her life? Some villains are just trouble makers; others are deranged psychopaths. How extreme is your villain?
- Identify the source — what happened to your villain to turn him or her so evil? Was your villain born that way?
- Flawed villains do good things — the most interesting villains are not completely evil. They have a soft spot for puppies or they write cheesy love poems. Contrary personality traits add depth and realism to all characters. Describe your villain’s positive traits (but keep them brief!)
- Put your villain in a scene — make sure you include dialogue so you can work out how your character speaks. Try to give your villain a distinct voice. Is your villain disguised as a good guy? Does your villain spend every waking minute committing evil deeds?
Most importantly, have fun! That’s what fiction writing exercises are all about. Villains are the characters we love to hate because they often are the harbingers of obstacles and challenges through which the heroes of our stories prove themselves. Whether you write totalitarian bad guys like Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter fame or more subtle, complex nemeses like Catwoman from the Batman comics, give your villains plenty of color, character, and complications.
But don’t let them get too deep inside your head.
Have a great weekend writers! And keep on writing that fiction and those villains.
If you have any fiction writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.
Flash Your Fiction: Writing Exercises
These fiction writing exercises are designed to help fiction writers shave away the fluff and reveal the bare bones of a piece of fiction. We’ll start with one exercise that is best for helping writers assess the core structure of a story and then explore a few bonus flash fiction writing exercises that are good for developing concise writing skills.
What is Flash Fiction?
Flash fiction is a short story that is extremely brief. There is no official word limit, but generally, stories with less than 1000-2000 words would fall under the flash category.
Fiction Writing Exercises and Flash Fiction
Many writers have a habit of using gratuitous words and phrases in order to meet a word count, make a piece sound more rhythmic, or to enhance descriptive passages. Often, such words hinder a story because they leave less to the reader’s imagination. Other times, there is so much description that the plot and characters get lost in the fray.
Fiction writing exercises like the one below will help you pinpoint areas where excessive wording is creating a problem. In addition, it will peel away the layers of your story, revealing its core. Plus, it’s a very simple exercise and can be completed rather quickly if you’re using word processing software such as Microsoft Word.
Flash Your Fiction
Select a short story that you’ve written and is either completed or near completion. Try to choose one that is about ten pages long. Of course, you can do this exercise with an entire manuscript, or with a story that is just a couple of pages long, but ten pages is good to start with.
First, save the file with a new name so that you don’t lose your original work. Go through the piece removing every single adjective and adverb. Next, remove words, phrases, and sentences that do not move the action of the story forward, especially if they are solely there for description.
Finally, go through the story one last time removing as much as you can without making the piece unintelligible. A traditional example is:
Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy wins girl back.
Of course, this is an oversimplified example, but it certainly gives you an idea of just how much a story can be broken down into its basic movements.
More Flash Fiction Writing Exercises
If you don’t have any pieces that you feel are appropriate for this exercise, or if you want to try something a little different, or if you just want to do more flash fiction writing exercises, here are a few more projects you can tackle:
- Write a piece of flash fiction from scratch and try to keep it under 1000 words. If you really want to push yourself, aim for less than 500 words. It’s harder than it sounds!
- Instead of rewriting an entire piece, turn a scene or a chapter into a flash fiction story.
- Turn movies, novels, and other story sources into flash fiction writing exercises. Take the plot from a movie or book that you like and try to write it as a piece of flash fiction.
This exercise can be a lot of fun and it’s extremely eye-opening when you start to realize just how many unnecessary words we pack into our writing. It’s also interesting to see the raw skeleton of a story after stripping away its excess.
Are You Up For It?
If you decide to try any of these fiction writing exercises, feel free to post your story in the comments (as long as it’s not too long) or if you publish the story on your own blog, go ahead and post a link.
Have a great weekend and keep on writing!
If you have any fiction writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments.
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