Writing exercises discussion thread

[StillStunned]

I'm starting a new thread so as not to clutter up the existing ones.

I get the impression that people enjoy doing them, although perhaps there might be a bit of burnout after @nice90sguy's epic undertaking. But I don't want to make them "my" thing. If nothing else, there'd be too much emphasis on E&V, as @Bamagan noted in the other thread.

Perhaps we could make this a weekly thing, with someone volunteering to write a prompt. Maybe go through the Lit categories one by one, so that everyone gets to indulge their kink.

Any other suggestions?

Edit: a list of all the various Writing Exercises so far (might be incomplete):
Writing Exercise 1: Show us your style
Writing Exercise 2: A lifelong secret is revealed
Writing Exercise 3: Something for the weekend
Writing Exercise 4: There's a demon under my bed!
Writing Exercise 5: Write a kink you don't have
Writing Exercise 6: A party from the past
Writing Exercise 7: The League of Enlightened Wives and Daughters
Writing Exercise 8: fairy tales
Writing Exercise 9: Hot Stuff
Writing Exercise 10: In the dungeon
Writing Exercise: First Kiss
Writing Exercise: History Is Written
Writing Exercise: City Life
Writing Exercise: Love Story
Writing Exercise: A conversation with yourself
Writing Exercise: Night
Writing Exercise: You Can't Believe You're Going To Try This

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I like the idea of multiple people contributing prompts, a frequent schedule, and the understanding that not every prompt will appeal to everyone. If we can line up enough prompts, it would take the pressure off everyone involved. People can submit more niche prompts that they're personally interested in, and people can participate or not as their schedules allow, knowing there will be another opportunity along soon enough.

I'll put my money where my mouth is. Here are a few prompts, which you are welcome to use, with or without changes:

1. Write flirtation. Could be a meet cute, could be an established couple, could be a missed connection or a rejection. Write at least one person signalling sexual interest.
2. Write an argument. Could be productive or unproductive, a civil debate or a nasty row. What to put on the pizza, where he or she was last night, whose turn it is to take a hit for the team.
3. Tell me about someone without telling me anything. Let their words and actions speak for themselves.
4. Make me hate someone. Show them to be dishonest, cruel, selfish, whatever.
5. Make me like someone. Show them to be faithful, hard-working, smart, kind, etc.
6. Describe a setting clearly inspired by a real-world culture without explicit reference to that culture.
7. Two people are doing an exercise where one person has a diagram and the other a pencil with which to reproduce the diagram based on the first person's verbal instructions. What do we learn about these people or this setting?
8. This is a terrible place to work. Show me why.
9. Show me a person who is very good at one thing and very bad at another. Bonus points if these are related.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

Just for funsies, I'll share a link to my favorite list of writing prompts, courtesy of Dan Wiencek in McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Worth a quick read.

Thirteen Writing Prompts

 

[SimonDoom]

I like the idea, because I like any thread idea that gets us to talking about the craft of writing as opposed to getting sidetracked into silly disputes or diversions. Once a week seems like too often to me, but once a month would be good. Joy of Cooking has good ideas. I'd prefer to concentrate more on erotica, though, since that's what we write here. So I might tweak some of these and add a few:
1. Write an argument between two people about a sexual topic.
2.Write about two strangers meeting and being attracted to each other.
3. Make me be sexually attracted to someone. How would you do that as a writer?
4. Write about sexual attraction between two people in the workplace.
5. Pink a kink you do NOT have and try to write a short convincing scene.
6. Write a short scene in the kind of setting that would most easily get you in the mood. How would you describe the setting?

 

[alohadave]

Perhaps we could make this a weekly thing, with someone volunteering to write a prompt.

Someone will need to manage nominating the volunteers. Otherwise, it'll just fizzle out after a week or two.

 

[KeithD]

I wrote something to the first prompt because the concept was interesting and something to write leaped to mind. I respond to a lot of such exercises, and I think they are beneficial to new writers. I don't do it as a personal development exercise. I've been all through all of that. If something springs to mind when an exercise is brought up, I'll write up something. Otherwise, I'll get on to writing/reviewing/submitting my regular stories. I don't think that everything that turns out to be a success has to then be regularized.

 

[intim8]

As great as the 'guess the author' thing was, I don't think it bears repeating. But just a prompt, and you put up a scene, say 500 word limit again, but points for doing it in less, that would be fun.

But maybe we can bring an element of that back, without burdening that week's host too much. At the start of the thread we can each volunteer to post each someone else's scenes, just one each, where we put the real author's name at the bottom, masked. So we get to guess, but then we can just look and see if we were right.

 

[StillStunned]

Because it seems to have been buried: a third writing exercise.

 

[intim8]

Prompt ideas:
--a cruise ship sinks, two men and eight women get washed up on a deserted island. Category: gay male

--an atheist pretends to be a believer to be with a girl he likes, and she takes him to a religious retreat. Category: E&V

--a man wins a contest whetr the prize is a weekend at the Playboy Mansion, or something equivalent. Category: Non Erotic

--a 40+ year old man gets locked out of his apartment nude. Two hot college girl neigbors see him. Category: first time.

 

[THBGato]

Sounds cool. I'm about to get buried under rapid-fire deadlines at work, so probably won't be here much until mid-June. If you are still going with these by then I'll join in...

 

[StillStunned]

If we go the "different Lit categories" route, it would be an excellent opportunity for the category veterans to share what works and what doesn't, and for the category newbies to get a feel for something they otherwise might not try.

 

[intim8]

Tell me about someone without telling me anything. Let their words and actions speak for themselves.

I especially like this one.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I don't think picking a specific category is necessarily a good idea because sometimes it can be too limiting and feel exclusive.

The short word count/limit (250 or 500 words) and relatively open prompt is what appeals to me. It's something I want to put together in fifteen or thirty minutes for fun, not a chore. Then comparing/contrasting with how other people interpreted the prompt is the interesting part.

 

[Omenainen]

I’m theoretically all for writing exercises. I do, however, have the attention span of a squirrel on meth, so I don’t promise to ever actually participate, but I think it’s a splendid idea.

 

[TheLobster]

The short word count/limit (250 or 500 words) and relatively open prompt is what appeals to me. It's something I want to put together in fifteen or thirty minutes for fun, not a chore.

Out of curiosity, what kind of prompts do people find easier to write to?

Something "relatively open" that nevertheless establishes at least a general premise and some absolute basics about the characters, either explicit or easy to infer? Basically the @StillStunned style, voyeurism optional of course.
Or something more vague and open, that asks the writer to provide everything from the setting to characters but allows for much more creative flexibility? So something more akin to @nice90sguy's exercise, or @joy_of_cooking's prompts earlier in this thread.

For me, it is the first kind that's much, much easier to put something together for. It's just about 15 or 20 minutes of a fun essay in the craft. I suspect it might get repetitive after the fifth time, but writing is an endlessly creative process so you can always spice it up for yourself.

The second kind, on the other hand, I found much more difficult and labor-intensive. To even start, you basically have to come up with a premise than in other circumstances could be a basis of an entire story, of any length you choose. But now you also have to trim it down to the given word limit which is an extra challenge.

I wonder what other people think about this dichotomy.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

For me, it is the first kind that's much, much easier to put something together for. It's just about 15 or 20 minutes of a fun essay in the craft. I suspect it might get repetitive after the fifth time, but writing is an endlessly creative process so you can always spice it up for yourself.

The second kind, on the other hand, I found much more difficult and labor-intensive. To even start, you basically have to come up with a premise than in other circumstances could be a basis of an entire story, of any length you choose. But now you also have to trim it down to the given word limit which is an extra challenge.

I wonder what other people think about this dichotomy.

I think the more specific the prompt, the less variety there is in responses. So I personally prefer more openness, but I can understand that with an open prompt if inspiration doesn't strike, it's hard to think of something.

I like the idea of not needing to include a specific part of the story (opening or ending or whatever) and just being able to do whatever part inspires you.

 

[StillStunned]

For me, it is the first kind that's much, much easier to put something together for. It's just about 15 or 20 minutes of a fun essay in the craft. I suspect it might get repetitive after the fifth time, but writing is an endlessly creative process so you can always spice it up for yourself.

That was my thought exactly when I posted the first one. The skeleton is there, all you have to do is flesh it out in your own style.

I wonder what other people think about this dichotomy.

Huh-huh, huh-huh, you said "dick".

 

[TheLobster]

Huh-huh, huh-huh, you said "dick".

I don’t know how you Bri’ish people say but it’s die-kat-uh-mi where I’m standing ;p

 

[Bamagan]

I liked the first prompt game, in part because it was kind of new, and because the choice of names and setting seemed to be picked to be deliberately referential, which made it very easy to get drawn in (although that was apparently sort of accidental). It was kind of a 'write a snippet from a sexy parody' contest, which struck me as fun.
The later versions of the game have seemed more 'formal' to me in a sense, perhaps in part because the level of interest in the first one made it seem like it could be a 'thing' here. And maybe it could! I don't know that there's a 'best practice' for picking the prompts, but things like song lyrics or nursery rhymes are probably quicker and easier. Assuming one is familiar with the topic at all, part of the concept is already lurking in one's brain, ready for perversion of some kind.

 

[Bamagan]

I don’t know how you Bri’ish people say but it’s die-kat-uh-mi where I’m standing ;p

I believe they pronounce it dick-o-tommy, and it's customarily spotted with raisins.

 

[StillStunned]

I believe they pronounce it dick-o-tommy, and it's customarily spotted with raisins.

That's how I've always heard it pronounced. But the raisins are optional: you always have to decide with or without.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Out of curiosity, what kind of prompts do people find easier to write to?

Ones that aren't just funneling the writers into the prompter's fave kink.

How about a brief scene where one character shows up dressed totally appropriately and another shows up dressed completely inappropriately for whatever function it happens to be? It would be an exercise in visual descriptions and juxtaposition.

 

[yowser]

Interesting potential.

A couple thoughts, one already mentioned: too often and I think it will fizzle out quickly. Many of us often require refractory time between our mass coronal ejections of creativity. Monthly might be feasible but not more frequent than that.

An intriguing prompt. MrNiceGuy tossed out one that turned into at least two more developed stories (750 worders) so I think writers who are intrigued enough to develop a story will be attracted with something they can get their teeth into. (Right, easier said than done...)

 

[intim8]

Many of us often require refractory time between our mass coronal ejections of creativity. Monthly might be feasible but not more frequent than that.

Not everybody has to do it every week. My CME of creativity might not sync up with yours. But also, the threads will hang around and there is no deadline like there was with the 'guess the author' one.

 

[Bamagan]

If the 'guess the author' game gets played again, it should probably be attenuated somewhat. Having 18 snippets all at once is kind of too much, both from a management standpoint and a reading/guessing standpoint (if it's going to be a regular thing, anyway). Even at only 250-500 words each, when combined they'd be the equivalent of two or three Lit pages of content to sort through.
Releasing them in smaller batches, say four or five at a time once a week or so (or whenever enough have been submitted), might help to encourage wider participation.