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

1. A character is harboring a secret that is preventing him from fulfilling his true desire.
2. Two characters share a secret but it’s not what everyone thinks it is.
3. It’s an old family secret and there’s only one person alive who knows about it. Will she take it to the grave?
4. There’s a secret and everyone knows about it except one particular character and it happens to affect that character the most.
5. There is a small group of people who meet in secret at regular intervals.
6. A character has a secret and if anyone found out, it would destroy his life.
7. One character discovers another character’s shocking, sad, or terrible secret.
8. A character thinks she has a very private secret, but actually, most of the people close to her know about it.
9. A character knows a secret that would destroy one person’s life but save the life of another person.
10. 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

Art 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.

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. Identify the source — what happened to your villain to turn him or her so evil? Was your villain born that way?
4. 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!)
5. 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.

Fiction Writing Exercises: Become Your Nemesis

These fiction writing exercises will benefit both fiction and nonfiction writers.

They are designed to help fiction writers gain a better understanding of antagonistic or elusive characters and will help nonfiction writers relate to contradictory or opposing viewpoints.

The idea is to try and view the world from a perspective that is completely different from your own and to get inside the head of someone who is not like you.

Fiction Writing Exercises

Fiction writing exercises are a great way to work your writing muscles, especially when you’re feeling uninspired. And while this exercise doesn’t exactly deal with politics, it sure is good practice for political and advocacy writers, as it will help with making predictions about an opponents’ arguments and addressing them in advance.

And like all fiction writing exercises, these are great for aspiring novelists and folks who enjoy penning short stories. Characters are the heart and soul of any story, and to make them real and vivid, you have to be able to get inside their heads. And that’s a challenge.

Never underestimate the power of a challenge. For example, can you put yourself in someone else’s shoes — someone who is completely your opposite?

Step into My Shoes – I Dare You!

By stepping into another person’s shoes, or writing from a viewpoint that contradicts our own, we can generate characters that are more realistic, and we can craft stronger arguments. For this writing exercise, you will select a person, position, or belief with which you are at odds. Do you have a neighbor who argues that he should not pay his share for the fencing on your shared property line? Are you for or against the death penalty? Do you adhere to the Ten Commandments?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

People

Think of a person that constantly has you gritting your teeth. It could be someone close to you, perhaps a relative. Or it could be someone in the media spotlight — a politician, celebrity, or sports star. It could even be a character from a book or movie. It needs to be someone with whom you feel inner conflict, and who possibly makes you uncomfortable.

When you sit down to write, you will write as if you are this individual. Write an essay, in first person, from this individual’s perspective, and make a concentrated effort to address those things that bother you.

Positions

Many of us have very strong positions on various issues. Some are serious and others aren’t very important in the grand scheme of things. Do you eat meat or are you a vegetarian? Are you a conservative or a liberal? Do you support stem cell research? Are you for or against the war in Iraq? Look at some of the top news stories this week for more ideas. Or, for a more lighthearted approach, look to lifestyle differences. Do people outside the mainstream intrigue or offend you? How important are table manners? Mac or PC?

Whatever your own stance is, write as if you held the exact opposite position. Argue against your own arguments and discover what the other side is thinking. This can build empathy and lead to discovery and insight.

Beliefs

What religion or philosophy do you adhere to? Chances are, whatever it is you believe with regard to ethics and spirituality, there are a whole bunch of someones out there who see things in quite a different light. Are you an atheist? Write as a Catholic. Do you believe in evolution or creation and intelligent design? Write as an agnostic.

Use this exercise to better understand the similarities and differences between contrary ways of thinking and believing.

The Nemesis

Write at least 1000 words as your own nemesis. The piece can take the form of a letter (especially useful if you choose a person), an opinion editorial, personal essay, or memoir. Don’t be afraid to get creative! Try writing a poem (great approach if you’ve chosen to write about beliefs) or flash fiction.

This is a great writing exercise to revisit, especially if you get stuck with one of your fictional characters. Can’t figure out what your villain would do next? Write a short piece in first person point of view from your villain’s perspective.

Remember, you’re not mimicking the other side, you are stepping into it. Try to relate to the way your opposite thinks and feels, and remember that each of us is shaped by our life experiences.

Good luck and try to have fun with these and other fiction writing exercises!

And keep on writing!

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

Fiction Writing Exercises: Step Out of Your Shoes

One of the most exciting and challenging aspects of being a writer is creating characters. It is an opportunity to step outside of your own reality and take on a completely different persona.

Unless you’re an actor, an undercover agent, or just plain crazy, you don’t get many chances in life to do that.

With fiction writing exercises that focus on character creation, you can start building skills that allow you get under your character’s skin and get inside his head. These types of fiction writing exercises will take you beyond writing character sketches and descriptions and will truly help you understand your characters and all their deep complexities.

Realistic Characters

For characters to truly resonate with readers, they must be vibrant and stir the audience’s emotions. Readers have to become attached to the characters, feel sympathy, compassion, even love (or hate) for them. It’s not easy to fabricate people (or other beings) that don’t really exist, have never existed, yet make them seem real. But it can be done.

So how do writers achieve this great feat?

Well, much credence has been given to the old adage write what you know. Base a character on a friend or family member or yourself. But what fun is that? If you’re an accountant by day, do you really want to play an accountant in your fantasy world too? Probably not. And when you create a character, that’s pretty much what you’re doing, playing a role. You have to get into the character’s mind, live the life, absorb the environment in which the character lives. You have to be your character.

Character Writing Exercises

So, here’s a challenge: write a character you know nothing about. If you grew up in the big city, write as a farm hand. If you grew up on a farm or small town all your life, write about an army brat who was raised living in dozens of towns, going to different schools each year. Are you a stay-at-home, married mom? Write as a single woman making it big in the big apple. If you’re a successful businessman, write as a prison inmate who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.

The idea is to get outside your comfort zone, and explore a different life than the one you know. Even if this is not the type of character you’d normally create, fiction writing exercises like this one will help you when you have to come up with a secondary character who’s not from the world with which you’re familiar. It will also expand the types of characters you’ll feel comfortable bringing into your stories.

This is not a character sketch. It’s more like a monologue. Write a one-page essay in first person from the perspective of a character you’ve created who is totally outside your realm of reality. Think about your wildest dreams or the most incredible adventure you’d like to have, and be that character. Or, if you’re really brave, try something that intimidates you. If you have a fear of flying, write as an airline pilot. Fear of drowning? Write as a SCUBA diver. Does math make you squirm? Write as a mathematics professor at university.

Fiction Writing Exercises for Fun and Focus

It’s just one page and one character, so this shouldn’t take too long. If it sticks and you get really into it, write several pages, or try doing this exercise with different characters. You might unveil a new side of yourself that you didn’t know you had. You might find it completely uncomfortable and decide to go back to writing what you know, but at least you will have tried something new.

Remember, fiction writing exercises are supposed to be fun, but their purpose is to challenge you to try new things and think in new ways, so be sure to focus on your character and make a conscious effort to get inside the character’s head as you work your way through this exercise.

Feel free to post comments about your character, or post the whole page. Who or what will you become? What shoes are you going to step into when you step out of your own?

Good luck 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.

Fiction Writing Exercises for the Holiday Season

Looking for creative writing ideas or fiction writing exercises this holiday season? You’re in luck, because I have a wacky one for you.

Before we start, a quick disclaimer: this is a fiction writing exercise in holiday customs rather than the holidays themselves, so this writing exercise is suitable no matter which holiday you celebrate, or even if you don’t celebrate any at all.

Before I reveal the challenge, let’s take a look at a few interesting holiday customs and traditions.

Holiday History

The Christmas Tree

We go outside, chop down a pine tree, then bring it into our home, where we set it up in our living room and attach colorful, twinkling lights all over it. Then, we hang an assortment of decorative items from the boughs. Finally, we top it off with a star or an angel and place a heap of gifts underneath. Then, for a few weeks, we look at the pretty lights, maybe sing a few songs or sit by the tree drinking eggnog until finally we get to open all those gifts. Once we do that, we undecorate the tree and dispose of it.

Menorah (Hanukkah)

On the first night, we light one candle. On the second night, two candles. On the third night, three. We do this for eight nights in a row. Over the course of those eight nights (and days), we distribute gifts, eat chopped liver, and we take out little wooden blocks decorated with strange glyphs and spin them on the floor.

Winter Solstice & Saturnalia

Throughout history, winter solstice has been celebrated by cultures throughout the world with a huge spectrum of traditions. The most interesting, perhaps, is Saturnalia, an ancient Greek festival. During Saturnalia, slaves were exempt from punishment and were allowed to treat their masters disrespectfully. Masters and slaves would also reverse roles and for a day, the slaves would learn what it was like to be master and vice versa.

Santa Claus

Every Christmas, a fat man in a red suit climbs into a sleigh pulled by eight nine magical flying reindeer (the ninth one has a red nose that lights up), and he travels all over the world in a single night, stopping at every house that has children sleeping soundly inside. At these homes, he lands on the roof, climbs down the chimney, and then leaves toys that were made by elves under the trees (see Christmas Trees above) for good boys and girls.

The Easter Bunny

It happens around springtime. A special rabbit named The Easter Bunny visits every house with children (note: this sounds awfully familiar). Unlike with Santa, we don’t know how he travels or how he gets in and out of the houses, but he leaves baskets filled with treats and goodies, plus, he hides colorful hard-boiled eggs all around the home (inside and out) for the children to hunt and find the following morning.

So Many Ways to Celebrate

One of the things I love about holidays is that there are so many of them, and they are each rich in their own unique customs. Actually, I celebrate more than my fair share of holidays, especially at this time of year, because I’m sort of a holiday mutt and I like a little bit of this and little bit of that.

But sometimes, I find myself wondering about these crazy customs. Who thought of them? Where did they begin? And why?

When did people decide to bring trees in from outside and decorate them? What gave a rabbit reason to hide eggs from small children? And where on Earth did Santa find those reindeer? Seriously, I gotta get me some of those!

And these holidays are just a small sampling. Think about Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day (leprechauns!), or the dragons of the Chinese New Year. Sure, you can research all of these holidays and find out where the traditions for observing them originated (I strongly suggest doing this sometime – it’s absolutely fascinating) – OR -

you can write your own holiday.

Holiday Fiction Writing Exercises

That’s right, invent a holiday of your own. Give it roots, a raison d’être. How did it start? What historical event does it observe?

Then, start thinking of the wild ways that people will celebrate this event. Will there be a special festival? Costumes or dresswear? What foods will be prepared and consumed? Are there any magical characters that arrive for this holiday? Gifts? Songs? Rituals?

Saturnalia is pretty wild (I’ve been fascinated by it ever since I first learned about it in a Shakespeare class) – imagine if we did that today. Teachers could reverse roles with students, parents with their kids, husbands with wives (is that possible?), bosses with employees (yeah!).

I encourage you to be as wild and wacky as possible and have a good time with this fiction writing exercise. The fantasy and speculative fiction writers out there will probably love this one, but it’s great for all types of writers because it does that thing that makes us tingle – gets our imaginations all fired up and burning as brightly as a Yule log.

Wait, Before You Go

If you  know about any other interesting holiday traditions, please share them in the comments. It’s always riveting to learn about different customs and cultures, and also great fodder for fiction writing exercises!

Happy holidays, and keep on writing!

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