A Writing Exercise in Briefs (Not Underwear)

Writing exercises in brevity

Brett Legree, who blogs at 6 Weeks explains why blogging for profit is like collecting underpants.

Brett talks about love of craft but he never does ask (or answer) the question that’s on everyone’s mind: boxers or briefs?

Well, I’m here to tell you why some briefs belong on the page and not in your pants.

Boxers or Briefs?

If writing for the web has taught me anything, it’s brevity. I’ve always written short poems. In fact, my poems are so small, I could slide them up my legs and wear them like a bikini. But my other writing tends to be a bit wordy, more like boxers.

And like boxers, wordy writing is long, and that’s no good, especially for online writing.

Sometimes lengthy writing is necessary and it certainly has its place in many different types of writing, like literary novels. However, on the web, most people scan rather than read, so keeping text short and concise is beneficial because your readers will be able to quickly absorb your points without having to stare at the glaring screen for too long. You can also help your readers scan by including sub-headers and breaking up your text into short paragraphs.

But what if you have a tendency to write extremely lengthy prose?

A Writing Exercise in Brevity

Most writing exercises are designed to get creativity flowing. But this writing exercise challenges you to take a long piece and make it short and sweet.

Luckily, it’s easy. With a few well-placed edits, we can turn boxers into briefs in no time.

Here’s an example of some original text I pulled from one of my many unfinished short stories. I have gone through and crossed out parts that can be eliminated without compromising the integrity of the piece:

Saidra turned her head and took a good hard look up the street.Where were the walkers and joggers that usually passed by throughout the day?She looked the other way.Where were the mommies, with strollers and toddlers in tow, walking their young schoolchildren to their classrooms?She stared straight ahead.Every day, the little old lady across the street came out with her coffee, picked up the newspaper and enjoyed both on her front porch, under a basket of pink and lavendar fuscia.After a quick trip inside, Old Rose, as she was known, always spent the first part of her day tending the garden.Today she was nowhere to be found. The entire street was deserted.

Once I trimmed away the excess, I dressed it up a little, just to make sure it still sounds good and makes sense:

Saidra looked up and down the street.Where were the walkers and joggers?Where were the mommies, walking youngsters to the nearby school?She stared straight ahead.Every day, the little old lady across the street picked up her newspaper and enjoyed it with a cup of tea on her front porch. Today she was nowhere to be found. The entire street was deserted.

How do you like that? I took this from 119 words down to just 64, and in less than ten minutes. It’s like a strip show for word lovers! Hey, who says writing exercises can’t be sexy?

Take it Off

Now it’s your turn to tackle this writing exercise. No, you don’t have to take your clothes off. Then again, the weekend’s almost here so maybe you should. You do, however, have to unclothe a piece of your writing.

Pick a poem, story, or blog post that you’ve written. Go through and get rid of words and phrases that aren’t absolutely necessary. Then go through it again, reconnecting everything and rearranging the words that remain so they are compelling. See how short you’re willing to go.

Or, tackle my paragraph and make it even shorter and show off your skills in the comments section. Come on, I dare you!

If you have a writing exercise to share, feel free to post it in the comments or send it in as a guest post.

Writing Exercises for Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

photo credit: mallix

How comfortable are you with your writing?

Many writers specialize in a genre or niche. Creative writers are focused on fiction or poetry, copywriters specialize in web writing or marketing, and technical writers are steeped in jargon and code that other writers might find impossible to decipher.

Sure, some of us explore various types of writing, but how deeply are we willing to immerse ourselves in unknown waters?

A novelist might dip her toes in web writing. A copywriter might wade in children’s literature. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to dive into a completely new form of writing, or what it would be like to deeply explore a form you’ve only tested? Today’s writing exercises will challenge you to do just that.

Do more than test the waters

I’m often proud of the fact that I’ve tried my hand at so many different types of writing. I am an experienced poet and blogger. I get paid to write articles, website copy, and press releases. I’ve written some fiction. And here’s where I always stop and hold my breath. Right when I get to the F-word. Fiction.

Sometimes I say that poetry is my first love because that’s what I started writing. But the truth is, my first love was fiction, because that’s what I read and what I’ve been reading for longer than I can remember. It stands to reason, then, that as a writer, one of my goals is to write a novel or get some short stories published.

But fiction seems to elude me, which is odd, considering I’ve read more fiction than anything else. It should be a breeze but I’ve always struggled with it. It’s not like I can’t do it. I can and I have and usually whatever I write is somewhat decent. But I have a hard time finishing a piece of fiction. I’m great at character development (you wouldn’t believe how many character files I’ve got). I’m not so great at coming up with villains though. And plots – forget about it. Every time I come up with a plot, I scratch it out because I feel like it’s already been done.

Setting Goals

Over the past few years, my apparent inability to complete a piece of fiction (even a short story) has created a huge barrier for me. It’s almost like the fact that I haven’t been able to master fiction has made me want to avoid it or just put it off for an unknown length of time.

This is a problem since I really, really want to write a novel.

One of my goals for this year is to step out of my comfort zone and get real cozy with fiction writing. I’ve spent time thinking about my strengths and weaknesses in this area and I’ve promised myself that I will participate in NaNoWriMo this November and attempt to produce a 50-thousand word manuscript, complete with plot and villain.

Writing Exercises

For this week’s writing exercises, your objective is to explore unfamiliar territory. Are you one of those people who only get in the pool if it’s more than 80 degrees (Fahrenheit)? Then get yourself into the freezing waters of the northern Pacific Ocean! Choose some type of writing that you’ve never attempted before or choose something that you’ve only toyed with. Or, choose a writing style that you’ve struggled with in the past. Just pick something that you have not mastered and then set yourself the goal of developing your weaknesses in that type of writing.

It doesn’t take long:

• Write a piece of flash fiction under 1000 words
• Write a 250-word poem
• Write a brief, 2000-word essay
• Compose a newspaper column
• Write a page of a script

If you turn off the TV, unplug your video games, and close your web browser, you could probably do all of these writing exercises in a single weekend.

What are you waiting for? You’ve got your Friday writing exercises. Now go start writing!

If you have any writing exercises to share, feel free to post it in the comments or send it in as a guest post.

Rhythmic Writing Exercises

Writing exercises in musicality

Have you ever read a poem, story, or article that lacked rhythm? If a piece is lifeless, despite the fact that it uses vivid imagery, clear and expressive language, and a sympathetic voice, there’s a good chance that it’s off-beat in terms of musicality.

A well-written piece in any genre has cadence. This means the sentences vary in length as do the individual words. To achieve musicality in a written work, a writer must be aware of syllables and stresses. The overall result is a written piece that sings and makes the reader’s imagination dance.

Today’s writing exercises encourage you to pay closer attention to the rhythm in your writing. If you can infuse your work with a bit of musicality, you can make your readers want to dance through your pages.

Writing Exercises in Rhythm for Readability

These two writing exercises will help you generate written material that has rhythm. Try these and you’ll find that your work becomes more readable when it has a beat backing it up.

The first exercise is systematic, and asks you to go through a piece of writing intentionally checking it for rhythm. The second approach is a bit looser, and only requires that you listen to your writing and try to determine its musicality by ear. Complete both of these writing exercises or just try one of them.

The Systematic Approach

Select a short piece or an excerpt from something you’ve written or are working on (under 250 words). This could be a couple of paragraphs from your novel in progress, or a short story you wrote for school. It can be an essay, a poem, news or magazine article, even straight copy from your website.

Draw a line down the center of a sheet of paper. Label the right side WORDS and the left side SENTENCES. The words column will show the number of syllables for each word and the sentences column will show the number of syllables for each sentence.

Now, go through the piece and count the syllables. In the left hand column enter a number for each word, representing the syllables. In the right hand column, enter the number of syllables for each sentence. When you’re done, the left hand column should be considerably longer.

Example

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

WORDS | SENTENCES
1 ………………11
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1

Not a very rhythmic sentence. When working with several sentence, you want to see great variations in the sentence syllables. Within each sentence, the syllabic count of the words should also vary between one and four syllables.

This is a very systematic approach to evaluating the rhythm of your writing.

The Creative Approach

If you’d rather not deal with numbers, then try this:

Read a piece aloud, tapping along as you do so. You can tap your pen against the surface of your desk, or you can get really fancy and pull out an instrument such as a tambourine or bongo drum. You could even improvise with a wooden spoon and a couple of pots and pans. Bang out the syllables as you read the piece aloud, hitting harder on syllables that warrant greater emphasis.

Example

The quick brown fox jumps o-ver the la-zy dog. (Emphasis on bold syllables)

That’s how I read it anyway. By reading your piece aloud in this manner, you’ll notice quickly where it is lacking in terms of rhythm.

How Did These Writing Exercises Work for You?

If you decide to give one or both of these writing exercises a shot, come back and discuss what you learned. Or, try writing a piece from scratch that is rhythmic and melodic. Share an excerpt or share your thoughts in the comments.

If you have any favorite writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.

Writing Exercises to Engage the Senses

Writing exercises to engage the senses

Ah, the senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. How do these things relate at all to writing exercises?

We delight in the pleasures of the senses, but infusing writing with sensory stimulation is not an easy task. It takes a deft and creative writer to forge written images that trigger a reader’s senses.

So, why bother? Why attempt writing exercises that involve sensual triggers?

Well, when you engage your readers’ senses, your work becomes more compelling and more memorable. Some scientists say that smell is the strongest of the senses in terms of memorability. So, if you get your readers to experience scents, you’ll have them hooked.

These writing exercises are designed to help you write with more sense. Below, you’ll find a series of short writing exercises that culminate with creating a written piece that is peppered with sensory stimuli:

Prepare

• Start with a sheet of paper divided into five columns. If you prefer to do writing exercises like this on your computer, you can use Excel or Word or some other program.
• Label the columns: eyes, ears, mouth, hands, and nose.
• Spend a few minutes populating the columns with words and phrases that reflect the correlating senses. For example, in the smell column, you might write chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, a blooming rose, or the cat’s litter box. Be as descriptive as possible and avoid using only stimuli that please or entice; add a few that are unpleasant for balance.

Review

• Review your list carefully, testing each item on your list to see how it affects you. When you read something like throbbing bass coming from the car in the next lane, can you feel the boom?
• As you go through your list, cross out anything that doesn’t engage your senses.
• Highlight those items that really affect you – when you can feel the soft slick fabric of silk or hear the sound of a quiet breeze rustling dried and fallen leaves, you’re affected.

The Writing Exercises

• Try writing one sentence for each of the five senses. Make sure it’s a complete sentence, and try to generate a sentence that evokes a scene. In other words “The roses smell nice,” won’t cut it. Try for something like: “She bent down slowly, beckoned by the rose’s sweet perfume and dazzling red hue.”
• Next, try to do what I did in the sample sentence above. Combine two or more senses into a single, complete sentence. When you read it back, does your nose tingle? Do you see bright colors in your mind? Can you hear the sound that you tried to evoke?
• Finally, write a brief essay, poem, or short story in 500 words or less, and be sure to stimulate each of the five senses in the piece. As a bonus, you can work in the sixth sense as well.

Tips

• Need some ideas? Start by choosing a setting, such as an event, where it’s likely all fives senses would be stimulated. For example, at a wedding, there will be the scent of fresh flowers, the taste of a wedding cake, and the sound of “Here Comes the Bride.” Other likely events include concerts, parties, meetings, vacations, and – try this one – cleaning day.
• If you get stuck, refer to your brainstorm list or practice sentences and use that material for inspiration.
• Try not to make it too obvious. A reader shouldn’t be able to notice that you’re triggering all their senses, so be sure it flows naturally.

The purpose of writing exercises is to have fun while challenging yourself. If you try these stimulating writing exercises, feel free to post what you’ve written in the comments. Also, If you have any favorite writing exercises of your own, feel free to share them by leaving a comment.

And keep on writing sensibly!

Writing Exercises: Metaphor and Creativity

photo credit: franzi ♥ PHOTOS.

I recently realized that the posts I’ve written with metaphors always get a lot of positive feedback and everyone seems to embrace them. I thought why not make writing exercises out of this metaphor craze?

When I first wrote one recent post in particular, it didn’t tie in with food at all. But food became a running metaphor rather spontaneously while I was revising. The food metaphor was so delicious (or maybe I was so hungry) that I rewrote the entire post with food on the brain.

So, what makes a metaphor like this work?

I think the most effective metaphors trigger our senses by connecting an otherwise intangible subject to sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. If you can engage any of these senses through metaphor, your writing will take on new life. Not only will it become more entertaining and more memorable, it will be easier for readers to relate to what you’re saying.

Using metaphors in writing exercises is a great challenge for engaging readers’ senses. It will also be a lot of fun because tickling the senses is… well… sensual. So let’s try it, shall we? You will need a topic and a metaphor to go with it.

Topic

Just about any topic will do, but keep in mind that some discussions don’t need the help of a metaphor. Subjects like sex, food, music, and anything else that intrinsically affects the senses might not benefit from a metaphor the way more abstract topics will.

Think about subjects you’ve explored recently in your writing. Were there any topics that felt flat or dry? You can revisit those subjects and see how a metaphor adds dimension and makes a piece more compelling.

Also, be on the lookout for two types of metaphoric topics: ones that work and ones that don’t. Some metaphors are just tired and have fallen into cliché status (stopping to smell the roses comes to mind). Look for unique and original metaphors and notice which ones don’t quite make the grade.

Metaphor

Choose one of the senses and come up with something that affects that particular sense. Here are some examples:

• Sight: the bold colors of a Picasso painting, anything with motion (traffic, trains, the sea), scenic landscapes
• Touch: the warmth of velvet, the hard cool of steel, or the scratchy texture of wool
• Taste: foods or flavors — sweet, spicy, rich, or tart
• Sound: city sounds, nature (birds tweeting), music, a roaring engine, or absolute quiet
• Scent: spring showers, shampoo and soaps, swimming pools, a wet dog

There is one more metaphor that almost always grabs people’s attention, which has proven to be very effective in advertising, and which could arguably encompass every single one of the five senses. I’ll let you all guess what it is.

Writing Exercises

Now that you have a topic and a metaphor to go with it, it’s time to write. Think about how you can extend the metaphor and weave it throughout your piece. For example, if you’re going to use the bold colors of a Picasso painting, you can play off your metaphor by mixing in new metaphors about canvasses, paintbrushes, color, and light. You can even get into museums, history, and just about any other area where art is part of the context.

Metaphors work well in almost any type of writing so you can use this exercise to draft a blog post, a poem, or even a short story. Try going through your journal or files where you store pieces you’ve written and see if there’s anything that could be reworked and made more enticing through use of a metaphor.

If you don’t want to commit that kind of time to writing exercises like this, then simply jot down some ideas noting topics and metaphors that would complement them. Come up with titles or captions that incorporate both the subject and the metaphor in a clever, creative, and compelling way.

And then, of course, come back here and tell us all about it!

If you have any writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.

3 Writing Exercises of Great Length

Writing exercises of great length

Today, I’d like to share some writing exercises based on an assignment I had to do in college, which has always stuck with me.

It sounds pretty easy (write a 100-word sentence), but once you sit down and actually attempt it, you’ll find out just how challenging it is.

In fact, at first glance, you might think that you can run off lengthy writing exercises such as this in just a few minutes. But you’ll soon find out that it probably requires a greater investment of time than that. Still, you can probably finish it in ten to thirty minutes.

The Writing Exercises:

1. Write one sentence that is at least one hundred words long.

That’s it, but trust me, it’s harder than you think. It has to be a good sentence. You can’t use unnecessary, superfluous adjectives and adverbs. It has to make sense and sound right when read aloud. And it has to be punctuated properly. It can’t be a run-on sentence and it can’t be a series of sentences strung together with commas and semicolons. It can be about anything, but it has to meet the word count.

2. Complete the first exercise, then rewrite the sentence in ten words or less.

You have to say the same thing using a fraction of the words. Don’t leave out any important details!

2. Here’s the combo: Write two sentences – one must be 70 words long and the other exactly seven words. Oh and they have to comprise a paragraph.

The challenge here is in contrast. You go from writing an extremely long sentence to a relatively short one, and they have to be related so they can exist in the same paragraph.

Are You Up for the Challenge?

If you decide to tackle any of these writing exercises, post your sentences in the comments section.

Good luck, and keep on writing.

Do you have any favorite writing exercises you’d like to share? Leave a comment!

Writing Exercises: Writer, Know Thyself

Writing exercises: Writer, know thyself

Most writing exercises are designed to give you new writing ideas or hone your writing skills. This one asks you to look in the mirror and ask yourself a critical question:

Why Do I Write?

Every now and then I review all my projects and goals and spend some time determining which ones should be set aside and which are worthy of further pursuit. Inevitably, this always leads me to ask: What do I want to write? Am I a poet or a novelist? A copywriter or an essayist? A blogger or a journalist?

Why do I write anyway?

I recently mentioned that one of my goals is to write for change. Imagine reaching out and having a real impact on the world! Comics write jokes and then give the gift of laughter. Poets use words to captivate our imaginations, tickle our senses, and trigger emotions.

The Force That Drives

There are many forces that drive writers to the page. Some do it for love, for creative expression, or because writing is simply something they must do, a compulsion. Others do it for big money, for fame, or simply to make a living.

But it’s not easy to succeed as a writer. Wendi Kelly of Life’s Little Inspirations recently talked about writing a book, and she put it succinctly: “This is where self-discipline comes in I guess.”

On top of self-discipline, writers are competing in a field that’s saturated with dreamers and overrun with talent. Creativity is fleeting, gigs are scarce, and far too many novels end up half-finished and buried in the bottom drawer.

Intent to Succeed

For those of us who intend to succeed, to finish that novel, get that poem published, or earn a living wage as a freelancer, it’s imperative that we stay focused. Writing is also one of those endeavors that lends itself exceptionally well to distraction.

One trick for staying focused is to keep your eye on the ball.

Always know where you are in relation to your goals, but more importantly, always remember why you are on the field. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves what our real goals are. Other times, we have to remember why we set those goals in the first place.

Writing Exercises

Today’s writing exercises ask you to contemplate your goals as a writer and to explore why you are a writer. The exercises are simple: just answer the questions.

1. Why do you write?
2. What have you written in the past year?
3. What are you top three goals as a writer?
4. Why are each of these three goals important to you?
5. What are your writing goals for the next five to ten years?
6. What can you do over the next year to move closer to your top three goals and your five-year goals?
7. What can you do today?
8. What do you plan on writing tomorrow?

If you have any writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.

Writing Exercises: Freewriting

FREE writing exercises (literally)

One of the most valuable writing exercises I learned in college was freewriting.

When you sit down with a pen and paper and let words flow freely, amazing things can happen.

At first, it’s a bit of a struggle, but if you stick with it, you will produce some gems. The trick is to get out of the way, and let your subconscious take over. Most writing exercises ask you to think. This one requires you do anything but that.

This is not like other writing exercises because freewriting is also a tool that you can use to generate written material for a variety of projects. It will also help you clear your head or tap into your deeper thoughts.

Writing Exercises and Train of Thought

The first few times I tried freewriting, I botched it. I would describe everything I’d done that day, or jot down my thoughts on a particular subject in a random, messy way. Finally, in one of my creative writing classes, I got to hear some examples of freewriting and something clicked. Freewriting is not about train of thought, it’s about stream of consciousness, and there’s a big difference.

Here is an example of one of my early attempts at freewriting, from January, 1999. This was just one of the many writing exercises I did in college under the creative writing program:

I set the microwave timer for 30 minutes so that I wouldn’t write for too long – although I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt if I did. Usually I do freewrites in a journal. I have a tendency to reflect on the current events of my personal life during a freewrite.

Train-of-thought writing exercises are pretty coherent. For the most part, it makes sense, as you can see in the example above. The technique involves writing on a particular subject, or working with a concrete topic. This can be useful in many ways, but it won’t tap into your deeper creativity the way freewriting will.

I use train of thought for clearing my mind or to prepare for writing a nonfiction piece as a brainstorming method to churn out all the information I have in my head. But when I’m looking for poetic images or vivid characters, freewriting will do a much better job.

Writing Exercises and Stream of Consciousness

By February, 1999, I had a much better grasp on freewriting:

in moonshine eyelet lace a rhapsody of liquors dancing off light reflected in the cut glass spoons stirring iced candy meltdown of hopes washed out memories of faded photographs and standing in line at a supermarket eyeing the magazines their eyes watching you like cats high up in trees crying for freedom but afraid to come down

The key to stream-of-consciousness writing is to relax your thinking mind and let the images of your subconscious take over. For some people, it takes a little practice but once you get it down, it becomes a neat trick. So what can you do with it?

Applications for Freewriting

Once you’ve built up a nice collection of freewrites, you have created a repository of images and lines, sentences, and paragraphs. You can now go through and harvest the material for your various writing projects. As you can imagine, the fruits of freewriting lend themselves particularly well to poetry.

When I’m writing poetry, I often go through my freewrites with a highlighter, marking words and phrases that pop or strike me as especially meaningful or aesthetically pleasing. Then, I pull these from the freewrite and use them to compose a poem.

Freewrites can also be used to bring creative, colorful language into prose. Strong images and rich language generates work that is more literary in nature and if done well, it’s a lot more fun to read. It will help you create words that show rather than tell and make your story or essay come alive more easily in a reader’s mind.

Have you ever tried freewriting? Do you tend toward train of thought or stream of consciousness? Are there any other writing exercises you recommend for creating more vivid prose or poetry? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

And keep on writing.

If you have any writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments.

Writing Exercises for Crafting Catchy Titles and Headlines

Writing exercises for crafting catchy titles and headlines

Writing for newspapers, magazines, and blogs requires coming up with good, strong headlines. If you’re writing an essay, article, or book, it needs to have a catchy title.

Today’s writing exercises ask you to compose headlines and titles that make people want to read your work.

Headlines

Magazines use enticing headlines prominently displayed on the front cover to entice customers. Newspapers use them to draw readers into a story, and bloggers, as many of you know, use them to generate buzz, links, and tweets.

The best headlines and titles are alluring. They impart a teaser about what a reader can expect to find within the content. Therefore they engage the curiosity of the target audience. They are also often memorable and include familiar phrases. Here are some starters for popular headlines:

• The Top Ten…
• How to…
• Fifteen Ways to…
• Everything You Need to Know About…
• The Twelve Best… Ever
• What [someone] Never Told You About…

Other common strategies that are particularly effective with headlines include the use of words and terms that quickly capture people’s attention. Examples include sex, money, lose weight, and a host of celebrity names, especially the names of anyone who’s currently in the spotlight and generating a lot of news, or rather, gossip.

Titles

Titles, like headlines, should entice a potential reader and make them want to read the entire piece. An effective title piques a reader’s curiosity and tells a little bit about what the story or poem will be about. It rouses curiosity and often includes trigger words that engage a particular audience.

Some authors use titles as part of their brand. Sue Grafton is working her way through the alphabet with her Kinsey Millhone series (A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, etc.). Many romance novelists use word like kiss, love, romance, or dance in their titles. In the sci-fi realm, anything associated with space is fair game: galaxy, universe, Mars, and stars. And a well placed mythological term, such as dragon clearly marks a fantasy novel.

In addition to book titles, many authors have a separate title for a series. This allows the author to use two different titles on a single piece of work. New readers will be drawn in by the book title while existing fans will gravitate toward the series title.

In poetry, titles are far more creative. In some cases, the title may seem irrelevant to the poem. Many poets take a word or phrase from the poem and use it as a title. Others will use a title that works with the poem itself, which almost functions as part of the poem. The best poem titles invoke an image and gives the reader an indication of what the poem will feel like.

Writing Exercises

You can learn how to write good headlines and titles with the simple writing exercises below. In time and with practice, your headlines and titles will become great.

Instructions:

Write some compelling headlines and titles. Wait – there are a few details…

Write at least three headlines each for five different publications.

• Focus on newspaper and magazine headlines.
• Identify your target publication for each set of headlines.
• Include at least one publication that you would never read. If you’re a swinging, childless, single person, write headlines for a parenting magazine. If you’ve never left your home state, write some headlines for a travel rag.

Write at least three titles each for short stories, poems, and novels.

• Ask yourself whether short stories and novels have different requirements for titles.
• Should a poem’s title come from the body of the poem?
• You can use famous or obscure novels, poems, and short stories (rename your favorites) or you can use your own. However, be sure to title real material rather than nonexistent.

Come back and post a few of examples from your headline and title writing exercises in the comments section.

You never know, maybe one of those headlines will kick off a new writing project.

Keep on writing!

Do you have any writing exercises to share? Did you find these exercises helpful? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

This post was originally published in January, 2008. However, it has been updated with new content and republished for your reading (and writing) pleasure.

The Free-Lance Muse and Other Writing Exercises

Just days ago, I suggested you aspiring poets secure a copy of The Practice of Poetry because it’s full of wonderful creative writing exercises that will stir your inner wordsmith.

These writing exercises are designed as much for generating creativity as they are for helping writers craft poetry.

One of the pillars of creative writing is the exploration of different styles and genres. Die-hard poets should take a stab at fiction and short story writers should dabble in a little bit of poetry. Experimenting with different forms is fun and it will make your writing sparkle even more.

Today, I thought I’d choose an exercise from the book and share it with you.

Hopefully the authors, editors, and publishers don’t mind. Since I’m rallying sales for them, I doubt they will, so without further ado, I bring you “The Free-Lance Muse,” a creative writing exercise by Ann Lauterbach.

The Exercise

Imagine you are a free-lance muse, looking for work. In recent years you have had to supplement your life with various odd jobs — inspiring an ad executive at Nissan in Japan, writing political manifestos for East German dissidents, and typing numerous grant proposals. You’re tired and sad, and want a real poet. Write a job description for the poet you want to inspire.

Now, let me discuss why this exercise lends itself equally to poets, fiction writers, and copywriters. In fact, let me show you. I will tackle this exercise thrice for all the world to see:

Poem

Oh weary poet
I need you once more.
These writings have made me
A capitalist whore.

Fiction

The muse scrawled her ad in haste and sent it off to the printer. Those damn poets! Cheating on her with that digital network of nothingness they call the blogosphere. How dare they abandon her and leave her to sling her tweets at auto manufacturers and political wannabes? A muse typing! Whoever heard of such nonsense?

Freelancing

Feed the freelancer
ten cents a word

Putting the Creative into Writing Exercises

Now, I realize I didn’t totally adhere to the exercise. What makes writing exercises like this fun is letting them trigger your creativity. In another time and place, I might follow the guidelines more closely but I wanted to show how flexible writing exercises can be if you approach them with an open mind.

The interesting aspect of this exercise is that it pulls us into advertising, something all writers must become familiar with in order to get their work to a reading public. Of this exercise, Ann Lauterbach said that it allowed students “to begin to think about and examine what the role of the poet (and of poetry) might be in a consumer-driven economy.”

Care to give it a shot? Take any twist you like on this creative writing exercise and let’s see what you’ve got. In the comments. Virtual drinks are on me. Have a chipper weekend. Cheerio!

If you have any writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.