18 Unusual Writing Ideas
When we think about writing ideas, what usually comes to mind are characters, plots, scenes, language, and images that might wiggle into our writing.
Ideas almost always have to do with concepts and matters of the mind, but what about the physical act of writing?
Most of us write at our computers, and many of us still use notebooks and journals with good old-fashioned pen and paper.
Isn’t it Ordinary?
It’s all rather ordinary and limiting – always sitting in the same position and using the same tools – day in and day out. Creativity gets stale with too much routine. Sure, you can take breaks. There are lots of writing tips that recommend getting out for some exercise and socializing, and there are plenty of creativity tips that help you think in new ways.
What about writing ideas that get you moving and positioning your body in new ways? Or touching different textures and being in an environment that’s nothing like your usual surroundings?
Get off that chair, step away from your desk and try standing or crouching. Put yourself into a different environment – leave the office and go outside. Lie on your stomach in the grass and scratch words, carve them, paint them, and let the stimuli of your surroundings and the tools in your hand gently guide your mind, your muse, your creativity – to a new dimension.
Unusual Writing Ideas
These 25 writing ideas are definitely unusual, and unlike most ideas, they don’t happen inside your head. You’ll make them happen with your body, your surroundings, and the tools you’re using to actually write.
- 1. Supersize it
- Get some extra-large, oversized paper and sprawl out somewhere – like in the grass or on the floor. Instead of typing or writing in the limited space of your computer monitor or notebook, use pens and pencils, and write until you fill up the entire sheet. Use big, enormous letters or itty bitty ones. Either way, it’s going to feel a lot different from what you’re used to.
- 2. Colored Markers
- A pack of colored markers
doesn’t cost much, and once you’ve got them, you can use them to write on that oversized paper, and that makes the previous idea sound a lot more fun. Putting down your words in color might spark fresh writing ideas, so use your markers to write in your notebook or journal, on post-its, and even on scratch paper when you’re jotting down quick notes.
- 3. Speaking of Post-its
- Try writing different parts of a story or poem on Post-its
. Limit yourself to a few words (for poetry) or just a line or two (for prose). On each post-it, write a line of dialog or some basic action (she walked toward the door). You’ll be writing in a tiny space, and that will make you choose your words more carefully, and when you’re done, you can have fun patching all the post-its together to complete your piece.
- 4. Chalk it Up
- Actually, chalk it down. Most department and toy stores sell big buckets of large, thick Sidewalk Chalk
, which is perfect for marking up sidewalks and driveways. This is a fun exercise to do with the kids, by the way. Chalk a poem or a piece of flash fiction. If you want to save it, take a photo before washing it all away.
- 5. Stand and Deliver
- There are lots of ways you can write while standing. You can stand at a counter, for example, and write in your notebook, but that’s not very unusual. In addition to standing, try writing on a flat, vertical surface. Tape paper to a wall, door, or (fun!) window and then let your words flow. You can also use an easel for this one.
- 6. Lie in the Grass
- The trick is lie directly on the grass. Do not use a blanket or a towel – just get flat on the green. The idea is physically connect with a texture you’re not used to. If grass is just too dirty for you, then try this on the sand or even on the pavement (I bet the pavement’s WAY dirtier than the grass). The important thing is to be outdoors, be lying down, and be writing.
- 7. Paint Your Words
- You don’t need fancy paints or paintbrushes – a set of watercolors
from the school supply aisle will do. You might want to use that oversized paper for this one. Paint your story or poem instead of writing it and if the mood strikes (and you’re feeling artistic), get some images in there too – or just let the colors run and see what happens to your words.
- 8. Get Super Old School
- Use a fountain pen
and an inkwell
(yes, they still make this stuff) and find out what it was like to be a writer hundreds of years ago. Remember, some of the greatest writers in history did it this way – dipping their nibs into the ink – Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson. If they could do it, you can too!
- 9. Scratching on Crayon
- This an old trick that school-aged kids use: Use pastel crayons to color in an entire sheet of paper. You can use a solid color, or make rainbows, or big bubbles and stripes. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. When you’re done, go over the whole thing with the black crayon until it’s colored solid black. Now, you can use your fingernail to write by scratching off the black layer, and voila! Your writing reveals a rainbow of color beneath.
- 10. Ambidexterity
- Are you right-handed? Write with your left hand. Left-handed? Use your right. It feels awkward at first, but if you concentrate, you should be able to scrawl something legible using your opposite hand (yes, I know this because I have actually done some of these crazy things. What? You think I make this stuff up?).
- 11. Stay at Your Computer
- Okay, so you want to switch things up, but you just can’t pry yourself away from your beloved computer. You can still get creative. Try writing in white text on a black background. Or try lime green on a dark purple background. Mix up your colors, make them bold, or put them in italics, and get busy writing.
- 12. And if You Want to Get Really Fancy
- Still don’t want to leave your computer? Well go find some unusual fonts and write with those. Try script fonts or big, bold fonts, and put them into different sizes. Get away from Times New Roman and use fonts that are not 10 – 14 in size.
- 13. Eat Your Words
- Remember Alpha-Bits cereal? Well, they’re back on the market, and that means you can use them to write. I confess, I haven’t tried this one and it could get messy. It might also be difficult – if you keep eating your letters, you won’t have anything to write with.
- 14. Wear Your Words
- If you can eat your words, you might as well wear them. All you need is a Sharpie
(better yet, try some colored Sharpies
) and a cheap, white t-shirt. Stretch the fabric around something solid and start writing. Hey, if you ever become a world-famous novelist, that t-shirt is going to be worth big bucks!
- 15. Make a Mural
- You can buy rolls of paper at art supply stores and even at home improvement stores. Roll it out and attach it to the wall. Masking tape works well for this, and a good place for this activity is on a garage door. Now you’re really mixing things up; you’re standing, writing on oversized paper, and as an added bonus, you can get out your colored markers or paints and really liven things up.
- 16. Revisit Your Childhood
- Earlier I mentioned writing with paints and paintbrushes. Try doing it with finger paints (I bet you’re going to need that oversized paper for this one). You’ll probably get nice and dirty, and this is another great one to do with the kids. Leave yourself some time to take a shower afterward.
- 17. Carvings
- You’d be surprised at all the things you can carve – pieces of firewood, a candle, your kitchen table. I’m kidding. Don’t wreck your kitchen table. But carving words slows down the writing process, which means you’ll put more thought into what you’re saying and you’ll take greater care with your grammar. Use an awl or other sharp instrument to whittle your tale.
- 18. Shoe Boxes
- I recently helped an old friend clean out her closet. She had some old stuff in there. Like a cardboard shoebox in which we’d written a story some twelve years ago. We had used nothing more than a cardboard box and a ball point pen (should have used a Sharpie), and here it was, over a decade later, hidden behind a pair of old sneakers. This one’s my favorite and that’s why I saved it for last.
I’m sure there’s some scientific reasoning that explains why these activities turn up the heat on creativity. I’m no scientist, but I do know when my own creativity is in high gear. I have actually tried several of these unusual and quirky writing ideas and techniques, and I clearly recall that they got me thinking in different ways, and I almost always came up with things to write about that otherwise never would have occurred to me.
So try a few of these out for yourself. Give yourself about 20-30 minutes so you have enough time to settle into the writing activity, and then see what happens.
Do you have any unusual writing ideas to add to this list? If you think of any other strange ways to write, leave your ideas in the comments and I can add them to this list later.
Give it a try and have fun with it. And keep on writing.
Ha!
. It’s scary how much addicted I am to it. But on other hand all good things come from it, seriously. I read, I write, I work, and I manage using it.
“Stay at Your Computer” is the easiest for me
But seriously, some of the ideas are really hit home with me and made me think – like “Eat Your Words” and “Wear Your Words”. Hmm… very creative
Very helpful – thanks for sharing!
Alik Levin | PracticeThis.coms last blog post..Program Yourself For Extremely Fast Performance
Yep, it gets harder and harder to pry oneself away from the computer, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s all the more reason to try one of the other ones? Heheh.
Gotta be careful though. I find that I stay at the computer so much that I don’t make the time to write and get distracted too much. Sometimes, you just gotta take a step away from it all and get away from the technology to get the writing in gear.
That’s the truth! It’s so easy to just be on the computer 24/7. Sometimes we have to make a special effort to step away.
I have been trying these ideas at various times over the years and find it to be fun to write in different ways. I had a friend who worked at a print shop for a while. He made these three foot by three foot “notebooks” and used jumbo pencils to create some of his work. He seemed to have a blast with it. He said it made him feel like he was in third grade again. I think he was trying to unlock the childhood wonder he had lost. I say keep writing.
Ooh, those notebooks sound like a lot of fun. We are mentally and physically used to a certain way of writing (or typing) and when we break out of that mold, not only does fun ensue, it also opens up new pathways to our creativity, which can be pretty exciting. I think the activities that work well for children, like finger painting, are especially helpful because when we think like children, our imagination can really go wild – and that’s good for our creative writing.
Melissa, I love this post and the posts like these. I am a subscriber to this blog, and I love your blog because of the combination of creativity and usefulness. I’m not saying this particularly well, but thanks for what you do.
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Thank you so much Jessica. Comments like yours always lift me up. This post is not my usual fare, and I woke up this morning wondering if it was too silly or over-the-top. The only thing keeping me grounded was the fact that I have tried many of these activities so I know they really do work. I appreciate your compliments, and I thank you for reading.
You’re on a roll this week, Melissa. What a FUN post! I used to write all my letters with a dip pen and differently colored inks. (Fountain pens, of course, you fill once and the write until they’re empty.)
Another good one? Use your left hand if you’re right handed, or vice-versa…
–Debs last blog post..Curse-Breaking
Thanks Deb! I had to use a fountain pen and black ink for a few projects in art class, and it’s much harder than I would have thought. You have to keep dipping, and dipping. I did do some writing with it, just to see what it was like, and it was strange, but kind of cool.
Beautiful set!
I like the freedom of Super Size It and I can’t help but to want some Alpha-Bits after Eat Your Words.
J.D. Meiers last blog post..Avoid Mental Burnout
Yeah, the Alpha-Bits activity sounds yummy, doesn’t it? I guess you could use Alphabet Soup for that one too, but that would be really messy! Another option would be to use magnetic letters or some children’s toy that consists of letters – or Scrabble! Yeah, Scrabble!
I love the idea of writing with a fountain pen. I use to love writing with them and even took calligraphy classes. Thanks for the reminder. I’ll have to dig mine out.
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Calligraphy has always impressed me – it’s so beautiful! In our fast-paced world, it’s hard to imagine that people actually once wrote everything like that.
Yes, standing at a writing easel! I’m still trying to put something like that together. I’ll let you know if I make good progress
What a fun list!
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Standing up and using oversized paper with markers is actually my favorite of all of these (I think). Using your arm to make bigger motions as you write (or draw) feels a lot different!
My favorite unusual writing tip have nothing to do with writing:
Spend two weeks with Indian shamans drinking witches brew and having spiritual revelations–thus changing your entire outlook from the deepest trenches out. Nothing will ever seem normal again. I wouldn’t recommend this to those with fragile psyches.
Cool Post! Excuse me while I write poetry on someones face
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Bobby, that sounds very Jim Morrison.
I meant “has nothing to do with” hahaha!
Bobby Revells last blog post..Concise Blogging or Blogging Laziness?
It’s strange, but just the idea of trying to write on different paper, in super-size, or with anything other than my computer keys or my standard blue bic and lined paper makes me queasy. I’ve become so fixed in my way that these standard tools pull me into state. When I sit at my keys, or have my purple notebook in front of me, the words come. In any other form I sit there a bit dumbfounded, as if I’ve no idea what these strange tools are for.
Doing other creative arts with these medium is wonderful to flex my creativity. I just can’t begin to write that way. Draw, squiggle, paint, color, craft, but not write.
It’s interesting how we all form our own way of doing things and sometimes, habit becomes ingrained and unchangeable.
PS: Your CommentLuv always seems to give me an error 28. Is it upgraded to the latest version?
I think doing other creative arts is just as useful as doing any of the writing activities on this list. As long as we step away from our usual routine and mix things up, our creativity will shift a bit.
I checked CommentLuv and it seems to be working fine – note that other commentators’ recent posts are showing up. So I don’t think the problem is on this side…(?)
I’ve done #10 in an art class in high school, and would write lines of poetry with both hands, or write it upside down, or backwards as if I was in a mirror. I enjoyed the projects that involved writing in my art class, and we even got to go super old school with the pen and ink!
I did #8 when I was a wee child and although it was messy, it was fun.
And another thing to carve that I still find to be good clean fun: soap!
Great ideas though and I really want to take a stab at some of these someday. Probably when it’s warmer outside because I don’t think I’d enjoy laying face down in the snow for very long.
Soap is a great idea for carving! You’d probably need a fine, sharp tool though, so you could carve tiny letters. Speaking of snow, what about writing in that? I’ve only been to the snow a few times in my life, so I have no idea if that would work.
I don’t really like spending more time than I have to in cold weather, but it is possible to use snow that has frozen over as a hard writing surface (either due to freezing rain, or snow that started to melt and then freeze again). I’ve never tried it, but if you can stand on it without it breaking, it should be strong enough to write on. Writing or not, untouched frozen snow is extremely beautiful under a full moon. Perhaps I’ll write a poem about it so you can see for yourself.
As for the soap, I will have to dig out my sculpting tools and buy a few cakes. I’m thinking Ivory would be good. It floats!
Sounds like snow should be added to this list. I probably wouldn’t sit out in the freezing cold writing poetry in the snow, but it does sound romantic in a way. I’d love to read a poem about that!
You mention in your post a bit of wonderment as to why these activities get our minds whirring with writing ideas. I think the big thing is that they all involve a rich amount of creativity. As we get older, we seem to put our imaginations on the backburner and place more focus on the hard reality. But imagination’s where all the good ideas are!
I recently skimmed a book that talked about how children are playing more video games today and not really going outside as much. The book worried that this movement towards more concrete games would cause kids to lose more of their creative edge.
I’m going to try some of these ideas and I’ll let you know how they go!
Yes, there’s much worry about kids today and how being immersed in technology will affect the way they think and function. It’s a legitimate concern, I think. I also think that as a result, creativity may become a more highly valued commodity in the future. I’ve already seen incredibly talented people give up their practice to pursue video games and it’s rather sad.
Hi! I don’t know if this is really unusual, but none of my writing buddies did this. When I told them about it, it really helped them.
Play “the Sims.”
I know that sounds weird, but the Sims is a great writing tool if you just need something to get you started. I’m not suggesting you use it for your full time writing.
Example : I had made a family, and put it on fast forward. The mom had the baby when no one was there expect the maid. So I wrote a story about how the maid delivered the child, and that was a springboard for my novel.
The game is also great if you’re having trouble making up surroundings, like a house, office building, park . . . its endless!
Oh yes, I used to play this game (warning: it’s addictive). I do like the idea of generating story ideas through game play – the Sims and many other games are good for this.
Don’t take writing for granted. Train your children to learn writing so that they won’t have a hard time catching up in their writing class. Effective and easy writing techniques await your children.
I agree that the best time to instill love of reading and basic writing skills is during childhood.