Writing Exercises

Writing exercises are a great way to increase your writing skills and generate new ideas. They give you perspective and help you break free from old patterns and crutches. To grow as a writer, you need to sometimes write without the expectation of publication or worry about who will read your work. Don’t fear imperfection. That is what practice is for. Pick ten people you know and write a one-sentence description for each of them. Record five minutes of a talk radio show. Write a 500-word biography of your life. Write your obituary. Write a 300-word description of your bedroom. Write an interview with yourself, an acquaintance, a famous figure or a fictional character. Read a news site, a newspaper or a supermarket tabloid. Write a diary or a blog of a fictional character. Rewrite a passage from a book, a favorite or a least favorite, in a different style such as noir, gothic romance, pulp fiction or horror story. Pick an author you like though not necessarily your favorite.

http://www.poewar.com/fifteen-craft-exercises-for-writers/

Write a Novel in a Month From Wired How-To Wiki Photo by Valeriana Solaris/Flickr/CC November is National Novel-Writing Month. If writing an entire novel in 30 days strikes you as damn near impossible, just head over to the NaNoWriMo website and check out how many people have actually done it: More than 165,000 people participated in 2009, and more than 30,000 managed to crank out the 50,000-word goal. Cliche Finder Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase... Over 3,300 clichés indexed! What exactly is a cliche?

English 50 Exercises for Story Writers English 50 – Intro to Creative Writing: Exercises for Story Writers Basic Theory: What is a short story? As soon as someone delivers a definition, some good writer will write a story that proves the theory wrong. About the only thing we can say for sure is that short stories are short and that they are written in what we call prose. The Resume Is Dead, The Bio Is King If you’re a designer, entrepreneur, or creative – you probably haven’t been asked for your resume in a long time. Instead, people Google you – and quickly assess your talents based on your website, portfolio, and social media profiles. Do they resonate with what you’re sharing? Do they identify with your story? Are you even giving them a story to wrap their head around? 23 Websites that Make Your Writing Stronger We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. ~Ernest Hemingway How strong is your writing? No matter how good you think it is, there’s always room for improvement.

writing project This piece is about collecting stories and ideas from life and from the internet. Writer Jonathan Harris, in this TED Talk explains his unique vision of how stories can be found in the artifacts left on a street corner, harvested from blogs with with bots, or captured by camera while exploring Inuit whaling camps in Barrow Alaska. The talk ends with a photo essay themed on happiness and wishes found in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Harris interviewed over a hundred folks found along the paths of Bhutan. He asked each to write one wish on a balloon. 25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer When George Plimpton asked Ernest Hemingway what the best training for an aspiring writer would be in a 1954 interview, Hem replied, “Let’s say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with.” Today, writing well is more important than ever.

Ten Tips for the Shy Job Seeker In my previous post , I discussed the challenges for shy (or introverted ) people in the job market. I offered some general advice, but in this post I'd like to highlight ten things you can do (or think about) that might give you the edge in the very situations you prefer to avoid. 1. First, stop apologizing for being who you are. Work with it-- find your strengths and get to know them so well that they are all you think of when you are in the interview. 50 of the Best Websites for Writers There are tons of reference sites on the web that can help you find a job or write a poem, essay or story. Here is a list of the best 50 websites for writers. Reference Websites

6+1 Trait® Writing Assessment Lesson Plans Submitted by NWREL Staff Name: Bad Analogies Traits: Ideas, Sentence Fluency Grade Level: Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12) Time: Two or more class periods Supplies:Examples (in pdf file) of bad and good analogies, writing materialsLesson Description: 1) This lesson should follow discussion and activities relating to literary terms. 2) Students are bound to write some bad analogies on their own, so this lesson brings them out into the open where everyone can have some fun with them. 3) Share some example of both good and bad analogies--what makes the good ones good, what makes the bad ones bad.

The 10 Best Questions to Ask at a Job Interview Karen Burns You’re interviewing for a job. After 20 or 30 minutes, you’re asked: “Do you have any questions?” The worst thing you can do is ask, “What is it your company does?”