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Writing Forward, one of Writers Digest top 100 sites for Writers

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Below are exercises to engage your inner writer and help to unblock the dreaded writers block. If you choose to participate in any of the exercises below, and would like to hold a meeting where we critique what we've written using these exercises please email me!

St. Patrick's Day is on the way. In lieu of the success of this challenge, we've decided to do another one.  The first challenge is to write a poem, essay, or short story based on the prompt "Fighting Irish". The second part is to write a poem, essay, or short story that contains any 9 of the following words: green, clover, leaf, luck, rainbow, gold, leprechaun, charm, Irish, blessing, beads, drink, celebrate, kiss, pub, dance.

I thought it would be fun to try some writing challenges over the holidays. These challenges are strictly optional, but if you decide to do one or both, we can present them at the January 7th meeting. The first challenge is to write a poem. essay or short story around the theme "Nana's Fruitcake." The second challenge is to write a poem or anything else using nine of the following words: Sabbath, light, promise, lamb, fingers, language, necktie, holy, shepherds, gifts, bells, snow, wreath, carols, cranberry.

Let's see how everyone does. Please note: 11 of these words are not Christian in nature. If you celebrate Chanukkah or Kwanzaa, feel free to write on that theme or any other.

Pretending

In 500 words or less write about someone who is pretending to be someone or something that he is not.

W D I L M T S R P V

Using words that begin with the letters above - in the same order! - write an opening sentence.

Complication versus Situation:

Write 2 poems, short stories or novel excerpts with one focusing on a situation (where the character has control of  what is occurring) and one focusing on complication (during a situation the control is taken away from the character, i.e. an outside force entering the situation.)

 Fill in the Blank

Seven days ago, ____________________________. Now nobody will talk to me. 

Body English

 Write a "conversation" in which no words are said. It might be best to have a stranger observe this conversation, rather than showing us the thoughts of one of the people involved in the conversation, because the temptation to tell us what the conversation is about is so great from inside the conversation. 600 words.

Writing Prompts

If you could spend your birthday doing anything you wanted, what would it be and why?

Your neighbor has taken in an unusual pet and it does something unpleasant to your house/yard. Confront your neighbor.

 You wake up to the smell of sizzling French toast. You have to have some, but it's coming from your neighbors house and the two of you aren't on speaking terms. How do you get the French toast?

 If you could morph into anyone (alive, dead, fictional, etc.), who would it be and why?

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Try writing one of these descriptions from three points of view. It can be from the people listed or choose your own.

1. Describe the same campsite from the viewpoint of an experienced camper, a reluctant child, and an enthusiastic city-dweller on his or her first trip.
2. Describe a wheelchair-bound old man in a nursing home from the viewpoint of a teenager, his devoted daughter, his estranged daughter, and the nurse.
3. Describe a run-down part of town from the viewpoint of a contented resident, a resident desperate to leave, and an out-of-town visitor.
4. Describe an office from the viewpoint of a tired secretary, a secretary on her first day at work, and a secretary on her last day of work before retiring.
5. Describe the same interior of a car from the viewpoint of a prospective buyer, a husband getting into his wife’s car, and a person coming home from a hospital stay.
6. Describe your own living room from your own viewpoint. Then try it from the viewpoint of your spouse, your mother, your best friend, and your boss (or spouse’s boss).

Courtesy of The Writers magazine Vol. 122, Issue 10, www.WriterMag.com 

Instructions: Read the Following passage as if it were the beginning of a novel.

When he woke up that morning his backyard was full of new snow. When he was a child, he loved white cold snow. His mother used to say how he didn't know enough to come in from the snow, and it used to hurt his feelings. So when he saw all this snow piled up in his backyard, it reminded him of his mother, who was kind of white and cold herself, and he didn't know that somebody's  almost-dead body, was under the snow. Later that morning, his dog would start sniffing around and find the body, which was not quite dead yet, and it would eventually cause big problems for him. Get him in trouble. Almost cost him his life, even. But now he was just remembering his mother, who he hardly ever thought about, and how he used to love the snow.

 WORKOUT Instructions: Now identify the mistakes in the passage. Then revise it, creating your own opening scene in which a man finds an almost-dead body under the snow in his backyard.

 If you want, post your work to the forum!