More Writing Exercises Would Amplify Creativity

[madelinemasoch]

I think more writing exercise posts (thank you, @StillStunned ) would help amplify creativity on the site. Even loose and somewhat open-ended prompts would help. I know it would help me.

This is a call for any prompts or exercises anyone may have in mind. Post away in this thread.

 

[NuclearFairy]

What exactly is a prompt?

 

[madelinemasoch]

What exactly is a prompt?

A suggestion of topic or subject matter.

Or just a pointer in any given direction.

 

[NotWise]

According to Google:

A writing prompt is a starting point or suggestion used to inspire and guide writing. It's like a spark that ignites your imagination and helps you overcome writer's block.

@StillStunned writing exercises are good examples.

 

[NuclearFairy]

A suggestion of topic or subject matter.

Or just a pointer in any given direction.

I suspected something like this, but wasn't sure.

@StillStunned writing exercises are good examples.

I quite enjoy reading the writing exercise threads.

 

[filthytrancendence]

I've been enjoying doing @StillStunned's as he bumps them. I might go find one that's been buried and do the bumping myself tonight.

I'm sure he's got more developed thoughts on this than I do, but on reflecting on what else to do it's a bit of a conundrum.

They don't seem to get a lot of takers when they get bumped, but I'm not sure if it's because 350 words is too long or too short or what. Seems like a good number to me to keep the thread from getting out of hand and be doable in 30-45 minutes.

So I guess the question to those of you that are interested but haven't participated lately in the 350 prompts, what would you rather see? Different length? More specific prompt? Less specific prompt? Some kind of timeframe or competition element?

I don't know, just throwing ideas out there.

 

[NotWise]

I've been enjoying doing @StillStunned's as he bumps them. I might go find one that's been buried and do the bumping myself tonight.

I'm sure he's got more developed thoughts on this than I do, but on reflecting on what else to do it's a bit of a conundrum.

They don't seem to get a lot of takers when they get bumped, but I'm not sure if it's because 350 words is too long or too short or what. Seems like a good number to me to keep the thread from getting out of hand and be doable in 30-45 minutes.

So I guess the question to those of you that are interested but haven't participated lately in the 350 prompts, what would you rather see? Different length? More specific prompt? Less specific prompt? Some kind of timeframe or competition element?

I don't know, just throwing ideas out there.

I don't think my responses have ever gone much over 200 words.

I'm fine with the way that @StillStunned is doing it.

You can find lists of writing prompts just by googling for them. The internet has tons of writers doing writerly things and offering them up for free. My addition to the prompts was A Conversation with Yourself. I should have been clearer that the conversation should have been a character's conversation. It was a lesson, I think, in making sure the prompt is worded carefully.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

@madelinemasoch Do you have any prompts to share? I love either coming up with them, or collecting them; I have a notebook getting filled with those that I've gathered online. I don't have one that I can share now yet, I'll have to go through the notebook.

There's one challenge I'm doing on my signature that I'll talk about on December, once I finish it. It's the one about writing about the same thing every single day for a year, and I just finished writing Day 181. Is not exactly a prompt, but having one thing to write about sure feels like it.

So I guess the question to those of you that are interested but haven't participated lately in the 350 prompts, what would you rather see? Different length? More specific prompt? Less specific prompt? Some kind of timeframe or competition element?

None of the above.

My reason for only participating once is because I'm not sure what to do. I mean, I know what do I have to do, that's kinda the whole point of the prompt. My issue is that I'm getting the perception that everyone is posting excerpts of their already published work rather than making new stuff up. My only participation was actually a fictionalized memory of me exploring a slightly bad place of my home city at 2 AM last year during an unique opportunity that would later devolve in political persecusion. Is not even from a WIP or anything, I only used a register of my journal to go back to that time that made me realize we've finally reached the Blade Runner, Thief (1981), Drive (2011), or Only God Forgives aesthetics here.

To be honest, I love flash fiction, and that was what I kinda was going for, and I love those exercises. It's just that I'm not really sure if I want to post original shorts here since now I'm also conflicted because of the no stories on the forum side rule, so yeah. let's just say I'm completely confused.

 

[filthytrancendence]

I'm getting the perception that everyone is posting excerpts of their already published work rather than making new stuff up.

Everything I've posted in the prompts has been new, for what it's worth

 

[StillStunned]

Morning all! Just dropping in to post a link to the Writing Exercises discussion thread, which has links to all the Writing Exercises so far.

@KittyOfSteele Most of the snippets that people have posted have been entirely new. Once or twice I've taken excerpts from stagnant WIPs, and several people have turned their snippets into complete stories.

The snippets aren't stories by themselves. They don't need to be complete pieces - in fact they shouldn't be. The mods have been very kind about us posting them, but I think it's important to self-police the threads. So keeping an eye on word counts, and not writing anything that wouldn't get published as a story.

 

[SkyBubble]

Ok, take a couple from one of your stories, and write their meet-cute.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

@StillStunned @filthytrancendence That clears things up. Thank you, I was really confused about it. Still a good practice to keep them saved just in case.

 

[StillStunned]

I've been enjoying doing @StillStunned's as he bumps them. I might go find one that's been buried and do the bumping myself tonight.

I'm sure he's got more developed thoughts on this than I do, but on reflecting on what else to do it's a bit of a conundrum.

They don't seem to get a lot of takers when they get bumped, but I'm not sure if it's because 350 words is too long or too short or what. Seems like a good number to me to keep the thread from getting out of hand and be doable in 30-45 minutes.

So I guess the question to those of you that are interested but haven't participated lately in the 350 prompts, what would you rather see? Different length? More specific prompt? Less specific prompt? Some kind of timeframe or competition element?

I don't know, just throwing ideas out there.

I try to space the Writing Exercises apart, so we're not swamped with them. I think one reason why people tend to respond is that they're not going on all the time. Too many in a row and they become a chore.

Keeping the Writing Exercises discussion thread near the top of the active threads list might help, so that people can see what Writing Exercises are out there and add their snippets as inspiration strikes.

@AH_Mod Perhaps it would be an idea to merge this thread into the Writing Exercises discussion thread? And perhaps pin that one so it stays available?

 

[AG31]

I posted this one about a half hour ago. Thoughts?

 

[NotWise]

I try to space the Writing Exercises apart, so we're not swamped with them. I think one reason why people tend to respond is that they're not going on all the time. Too many in a row and they become a chore.

Keeping the Writing Exercises discussion thread near the top of the active threads list might help, so that people can see what Writing Exercises are out there and add their snippets as inspiration strikes.

@AH_Mod Perhaps it would be an idea to merge this thread into the Writing Exercises discussion thread? And perhaps pin that one so it stays available?

Pinned threads seem to die once they're pinned.

 

[filthytrancendence]

I posted this one about a half hour ago. Thoughts?

I like it, though I'd call it more an exercise in criticism. Not that that's bad.

Gives me some ideas...

 

[AG31]

I like it, though I'd call it more an exercise in criticism. Not that that's bad.

Gives me some ideas...

Well, there was an invitation to come up with your own examples. Tiny, tiny, tiny writing exercises that caused some to rise to the occasion.

 

[filthytrancendence]

Well, there was an invitation to come up with your own examples. Tiny, tiny, tiny writing exercises that caused some to rise to the occasion.

Well, I'm aware that it reveals more about the way my mind works than it does about your post

 

[TheRedLantern]

I like it, though I'd call it more an exercise in criticism. Not that that's bad.

Gives me some ideas...

Is there a place that people go to get critiqued or to workshop openings/passages/chapters?

 

[AG31]

Is there a place that people go to get critiqued or to workshop openings/passages/chapters?

I forget the exact name of the thread, but Omenainen and AwkwardMD will sometime review stories jointly.

 

[filthytrancendence]

Is there a place that people go to get critiqued or to workshop openings/passages/chapters?

That's what this is, functionally. The title is a little scary, but we've been having some good back and forth there. I put an opening in a couple days back and got a lot out of it.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I've been enjoying taking part in the various exercises. I'd love to see more.

350 words is about right for me; enough to tell a bit of a story but not so many that I get bogged down sown writing this and not an actual story to publish. They're also quick and easy to read.

I am not sure I have any good ideas for prompts, but personally I don't mind them being slightly more specific than they have been. But the broad ones are good too. I particularly enjoyed the historical one.

 

[StillStunned]

350 words is about right for me; enough to tell a bit of a story but not so many that I get bogged down sown writing this and not an actual story to publish. They're also quick and easy to read.

It's fortunate that the word count that seems to be acceptable to the mods overlaps with a word count that makes it easy to write an interesting snippet without requiring too much effort from the readers.

I am not sure I have any good ideas for prompts, but personally I don't mind them being slightly more specific than they have been. But the broad ones are good too. I particularly enjoyed the historical one.

I liked the specific ones from early on - Jack and Jill, and watching the neighbours through the hedge - but more general prompts have generated more replies, with more creativity too. I'm always astonished by just how diverse the snippets are.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

One word with more than one meaning.

"John Lennon composed "Please Please Me" in Liverpool in June 1962; he wrote the song alone. Lennon first conceived it as a bluesy, slow tempo song. Lennon recalled: "I remember the day I wrote it, I heard Roy Orbison doing 'Only the Lonely', or something. And I was also always intrigued by the words to a Bing Crosby song that went, 'Please lend a little ear to my pleas'. The double use of the word 'please'. So it was a combination of Roy Orbison and Bing Crosby".

 

[TheRedLantern]

That's what this is, functionally. The title is a little scary, but we've been having some good back and forth there. I put an opening in a couple days back and got a lot out of it.

I was thinking of something a little different. That thread, and it's a valuable one so it's IMO better not to dilute it, makes the assumption "this piece of writing is the correct one for the purpose that I have in mind" and then tries to tune it. Perhaps it's my lack of experience and/or confidence, but I'm talking about a space where that first assumption is challenged (ie, "Does this/can this do what it's supposed to do?").

If I have a story hook, character intro, location intro, etc and I'm not sure whether it sets up the things it's supposed to set up, I want to pressure test that before fine tuning it on the "Rip Me To Shreds" thread (which, IMO, is a great name for it). I feel like that thread will help me polish something, but won't simply Quote my entire post and respond with the sleeping emoji when that might actually be the best advice I could get.

Does that make any sense to anyone besides me?