Happy
Scream
Guard
Evil
Whirlwind
Cactus
King
Chaos
Angry
Desert
Laugh
Heart
Give each participant a couple of pieces of paper at random. The first person says the first sentence of a story and they must use their first word as part of that sentence. The second person then continues the story and must include their word in it, and so on. Go round the group twice to complete the story.
You can also do this creative writing exercise with story dice, your own choice of words, or by asking participants to write random words down themselves, then shuffling all the cards together.
Every Christmas adults tell kids stories about Santa Claus. In this exercise you write a Christmas story from an alternative dimension.
What if every Christmas Santa didn't fly around the world delivering presents on his sleigh pulled by reindeer? What if gnomes or aliens delivered the presents? Or perhaps it was the gnomes who are trying to emulate the humans? Or some other Christmas tradition entirely that we humans have never heard of!
If you're working with a group, give everyone a couple of minutes to write two possible themes for the new Christmas story. Each theme should be 5 words or less.
Shuffle the paper and distribute them at random. If you're working online, everyone types the themes into the Zoom or group chat. Each writer then spends 10 minutes writing a short story for children based on one of the two themes, or their own theme if they really want to.
If working alone, choose your own theme and spend 15 minutes writing a short story on it. See if you can create the magic of Christmas from another world!
In a murder mystery story or courtroom drama, there's often conflicting information and lots of links between characters. A mind map is an ideal way to illustrate how everything ties together.
Split into groups of 3 or 4 people each and place a blank piece of A3 paper (double the size of A4) in the middle of each group. Discuss between you who the victim is and write their name in the middle of the piece of paper. Then brainstorm information about the murder, for example:
Feel free to expand out from any of these, e.g. to include more information on the different characters involved.
The idea is that everyone writes at the same time! Obviously, you can discuss ideas, but anyone can dive in and write their ideas on the mind map.
If you’re writing a piece of fiction, ask yourself how your protagonist would react to an everyday situation. This can help you to gain a deeper insight into who they are.
One way to do this is to imagine what their New Year’s resolutions would be.
If completing this exercise with a group, limit it to 3 to 5 resolutions per person. If some participants are historical fiction or non-fiction writers, they instead pick a celebrity and either write what their resolutions will be, or what their resolutions should be, their choice.
Stephen King said, "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops."
He also said, "Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence. It never fails. Rocks explode. Jane transmits. Mountains float. These are all perfect sentences. Many such thoughts make little rational sense, but even the stranger ones (Plums deify!) have a kind of poetic weight that’s nice."
In this fiction writing exercise, start by brainstorming (either individually or collectively) seven verbs on seven different pieces of paper. Put those aside for later. Now brainstorm seven nouns. Randomly match the nouns and verbs so you have seven pairs. Choose a pair and write a piece of fiction for ten minutes. Avoid using any adverbs.
It’s the end of the world! For 5 minutes either:
If working as a team, then after the 5 minutes is up each writer reads their description out to the other participants.
For use after your first draft
I’ve listened to a lot of masterclasses on writing by successful authors and they all say variants of your first draft won’t be good and that’s fine. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman summarise it the best:
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
Terry Pratchett
“For me, it’s always been a process of trying to convince myself that what I’m doing in a first draft isn’t important. One way you get through the wall is by convincing yourself that it doesn’t matter. No one is ever going to see your first draft. Nobody cares about your first draft. And that’s the thing that you may be agonising over, but honestly, whatever you’re doing can be fixed… For now, just get the words out. Get the story down however you can get it down, then fix it.”
Neil Gaiman
Once you’ve written your first draft, it will need editing to develop the plot, enhance the characters, and improve each scene in a myriad of ways – small and large. These seven creative editing exercises are designed to help with this stage of the process.
Read the first paragraph of the novel, in particular the first sentence. Does it launch the reader straight into the action? According to On Writing and Worldbuilding by Timothy Hickson, “The most persuasive opening lines are succinct, and not superfluous. To do this, it is often effective to limit it to a single central idea… This does not need to be the most important element, but it should be a central element that is interesting.” Ask yourself what element your opening sentence encapsulates and whether it’s the best one to capture your readers’ attention.
Consistency is crucial in creative writing, whether it’s in relation to location, objects, or people.
It’s also crucial for personality, emotions and motivation.
Look at scenes where your protagonist makes an important decision. Are their motivations clear? Do any scenes force them to choose between two conflicting morals? If so, do you explore this? Do their emotions fit with what’s happened in previous scenes?
As you edit your manuscript, keep the characters’ personality, emotions and motivation in mind. If their behaviour is inconsistent, either edit it for consistency, or have someone comment on their strange behaviour or be surprised by it. Inconsistent behaviour can reveal that a character is keeping a secret, or is under stress, so characters don’t always need to be consistent. But when they’re not, there has to be a reason.
This exercise is the first in The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. It’s a writing guide with a plethora of editing exercises designed to help you reenergize your writing by thinking of what your character is feeling, and giving you the tools to make your reader feel something.
Search for the following words in your book:
Whenever these words occur, ask yourself if you can demonstrate how your characters feel, rather than simply stating it. For each occasion, can you use physiological descriptors (a racing heart), actions (taking a step backwards) or dialogue to express what’s just happened instead? Will this enhance the scene and engage the reader more?
Find a scene where your characters disagree – in particular a scene where your protagonist argues with friends or allies. What happens next?
It can be tempting to wrap up the action with a quick resolution. But what if a resentment lingers and mistrust builds? This creates a more interesting story arc and means a resolution can occur later, giving the character development a real dynamic.
Review how you resolve the action and see if you can stretch out the emotions for a more satisfying read.
Ensure that the words used don’t detract from the enormity of the events your character is going through. Can you delete words like, “Quite”, “Little”, or “Rather”?
Of “Very” Florence King once wrote: “ 'Very' is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen .” Delete it, or replace the word after it with a stronger word, which makes “Very” redundant.
“That,” is another common word used in creative writing which can often be deleted. Read a sentence as is, then reread it as if you deleted, “That”. If the meaning is the same, delete it.
When talking about chapter endings, James Patterson said, “At the end, something has to propel you into the next chapter.”
Read how each of your chapters finish and ask yourself does it either:
Review how you wrap up each of your chapters. Do you end at the best point in your story? Can you add anticipation to cliff hangers? Will you leave your readers wanting more?
The editing exercises are designed to be completed individually.
With the others, I've always run them as part of a creative writing group, where there's no teacher and we're all equal participants, therefore I keep any 'teaching' aspect to a minimum, preferring them to be prompts to generate ideas before everyone settles down to do the silent writing. We've recently gone online and if you run a group yourself, whether online or in person, you're welcome to use these exercises for free!
The times given are suggestions only and I normally get a feel for how everyone's doing when time's up and if it's obvious that everyone's still in the middle of a discussion, then I give them longer. Where one group's in the middle of a discussion, but everyone else has finished, I sometimes have a 'soft start' to the silent writing, and say, "We're about to start the hour and a half of silent writing now, but if you're in the middle of a discussion, feel free to finish it first".
This way everyone gets to complete the discussion, but no-one's waiting for ages. It's also important to emphasise that there's no wrong answers when being creative.
Still looking for more? Check out these creative writing prompts or our dedicated Sci-Fi and Fantasy creative writing prompts
If you've enjoyed these creative writing exercises, please share them on social media, or link to them from your blog.
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Have you ever heard these questions or statements from your students?
If so, you won’t want to miss these creative writing activities.
Activities that teach creative writing serve as drills to exercise your student’s writing muscle. When used effectively, they help reluctant writers get past that intimidating blank paper and encourage the words to flow.
When I think of creative writing exercises , writing prompts immediately come to mind. And, yes, writing from a prompt is certainly an example of a creative writing activity (a highly effective one).
However, writing prompts are only one way to teach creative writing. Other types of activities include games, collaboration with others, sensory activities, and comic strip creation to name a few.
Unlike writing assignments, creative writing activities aren’t necessarily meant to create a perfectly polished finished project.
Instead, they serve as more of a warmup and imagination boost.
Picture-based writing exercises are especially fun. You can download one for free below!
How to use creative writing exercises effectively.
When teaching creative writing , the most effective exercises inspire and engage the student.
Remember that worn-out prompt your teacher probably hauled out every year?
“What I Did This Summer…”
Cue the groaning.
Instead of presenting your student with lackluster topics like that one, let’s talk about ways to engage and excite them.
Early writers tend to possess misconceptions about writing. Many picture sitting down for hours straight, polishing a story from beginning to end.
Even for experienced writers, this is next-to-impossible to do. It’s preconceived ideas like these that overwhelm and discourage students before they’ve even started.
Instead of assigning an essay to complete, start with simple, short writing exercises for elementary students such as:
Creative writing exercises don’t have to end in a finished piece of work. If the exercise encouraged creative thinking and helped the student put pen to paper, it’s done its job.
Creative writing activities for middle school can be a little more inventive. They now have the fundamental reading and writing skills to wield their words properly.
Here are some ideas for middle school writing exercises you can try at home:
Your high school student may be starting to prepare for college essays and other important creative writing assignments.
It’s more critical than ever for her to exercise her writing skills on a regular basis.
One great way to keep your high schooler’s mind thinking creatively is to have her make “listicles” of tips or facts about something she’s interested in already.
Another fun and effective creative writing exercise for high school is to have your student retell classic stories with a twist.
No matter what age range your students may be, I think you’ll find something that suits their personality and interests in this list of creative writing ideas. Enjoy!
One of the best ways to encourage students to write regularly is by providing fun creative writing activities .
They serve to encourage both the habit and mindset of writing with imagination. If you need extra help with that, check out Creative Freewriting Adventure :
About the author.
Good question.
Creative writing exercises are designed to teach a technique. They are highly specific, more specific than creative writing prompts, and much more specific than story generators.
Creative writing exercises for adults are not designed to lead the writer into crafting a full story, but are only designed to help them improve as a writer in a narrow, specific category of writing skills.
I’ve broken the exercises below into categories so you can choose what category of skill you’d like to practice. Can you guess which category in this list has the most prompts?
If you guessed characters, then you’re right. I think characters are the heart blood of every story, and that a majority of any writing prompts or writing exercises should focus on them.
But I also think any of these will help you create a narrative, and a plot, and help you generate all kinds of dialogue, whether for short stories or for novels. These writing exercises are pretty much guaranteed to improve your writing and eliminate writer’s block.
Also, if you’re a fledgling writer who needs help writing their novel, check out my comprehensive guide to novel writing.
Enjoy the five categories of writing exercises below, and happy writing!
1. Think of the most deafening sound you can imagine. Describe it in great detail, and have your character hear it for the first time at the start of a story.
2. Have a man cooking for a woman on a third date, and have her describe the aromas in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she’s in love with him.
3. Pick a line from one of your favorite songs, and identify the main emotion. Now write a character who is feeling that emotion and hears the song. Try to describe the type of music in such a beautiful way that you will make the reader yearn to hear the song as well.
4. Have a character dine at a blind restaurant, a restaurant in pitch blackness where all the servers are blind, and describe for a full paragraph how the tablecloth, their clothing, and the hand of their dining partner feels different in the darkness.
5. Select a dish representative of a national cuisine, and have a character describe it in such detail that the reader salivates and the personality of the character is revealed.
7. Describe two characters having a wordless conversation, communicating only through gestures. Try to see how long you can keep the conversation going without any words spoken, but end it with one of them saying a single word, and the other one repeating the same word.
8. In a public place from the last vacation you took, have two characters arguing, but make it clear by the end of the argument that they’re not arguing about what they’re really upset about.
9. Write a scene composed mostly of dialogue with a child talking to a stranger. Your mission is to show the child as heartbreakingly cute. At the same time, avoid sentimentality.
10. Have two character have a conversation with only a single word, creating emphasis and context so that the word communicates different things each time it is spoken. The prime example of this is in the television show “The Wire,” where Jimmy and Bunk investigate a crime scene repeating only a single expletive.
11. Pick an object that is ugly, and create a character who finds it very beautiful. Have the character describe the object in a way that convinces the reader of its beauty. Now write a second version where you convince the reader (through describing the object alone) that the character is mentally unstable.
12. Write down five emotions on slips of paper and slip them into a hat. Now go outside and find a tree. Draw one emotion from the hat, and try to describe that tree from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion. (Don’t mention the emotion in your writing — try to describe the tree so the reader could guess the emotion).
13. Describe a character’s bedroom in such a way that it tells us about a person’s greatest fears and hopes.
14. Root through your desk drawer until you find a strange object, an object that would probably not be in other people’s drawers. Have a character who is devastated to find this object, and tell the story of why this object devastates them.
15. Go to an art-based Pinterest page and find your favorite piece of art. Now imagine a living room inspired by that flavor of artwork, and show the room after a husband and wife have had the worst fight of their marriage.
16. Pick a simple object like a vase, a broom, or a light bulb, and write a scene that makes the reader cry when they see the object.
Sign up for my writing course “ Writing Techniques to Transform Your Fiction .”
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17. Make a list of the top five fears in your life. Write a character who is forced to confront one of those fears.
18. Write an entire page describing the exact emotions when you learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life. Now try to condense that page into a single searing sentence.
19. Think about a time in your life when you felt shame. Now write a character in a similar situation, trying to make it even more shameful.
20. Write a paragraph with a character struggle with two conflicting emotions simultaneously. For example, a character who learns of his father’s death and feels both satisfaction and pain.
21. Write a paragraph where a character starts in one emotional register, and through a process of thought, completely evolves into a different emotion.
22. Create a minor character based upon someone you dislike. Now have your main character encounter them and feel sympathy and empathy for them despite their faults.
23. Have a kooky character tell a story inside a pre-established form: an instruction manual, traffic update, email exchange, weather report, text message.
24. Write about a character who does something they swore they would never do.
25. Have a character who has memorized something (the names of positions in the Kama Sutra, the entire book of Revelations) recite it while doing something completely at odds with what they’re reciting. For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty.
26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is.
27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game. Have the fight be about something related to the board game: fighting about money, have them play monopoly. Fighting about politics, let them play chess.
28. Write about two characters angry at each other, but have both of them pretend the problems don’t exist. Instead, have them fight passive-aggressively, through small, snide comments.
29. Describe a character walking across an expanse field or lot and describe how he walks. The reader should perfectly understand his personality simply by the way you describe his walk.
30. Write a first-person POV of a character under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and try to make the prose as woozy and tipsy as the character.
31. Describe the first time that a character realizes he is not as smart as he thought.
32. Describe an hour in the life of a character who has recently lost their ability to do what they love most (a pianist who has severe arthritis; a runner who became a quadriplegic).
33. Write an argument where a husband or wife complains of a physical ailment, but their spouse refuses to believe it’s real.
34. Write a scene where a stranger stops your main character, saying that they know them, and insisting your main character is someone they are not. Describe exactly how this case of mistaken identity makes your character feel.
35. Describe a small personality trait about a person you love, and make the reader love them, too.
36. Write a personality-revealing scene with a character inside a public restroom. Do they press a thumb against the mirror to leave a subtle mark? Do they write a plea for help on the inside of the stall door? Do they brag about the size of what they’ve just dumped off?
37. Give your character an extremely unusual response to a national tragedy like a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Maybe have them be aware their response is unusual, and try to cloak it from others, or have them be completely unaware and display it without any self-consciousness.
38. Have one of your main characters come up with an idea for a comic book, and tell a close friend about the idea. What about this idea would surprise the friend, upsetting what he thought he knew about your main character? Also, what would the main character learn about himself from the comic book idea?
39. Think of an illness someone you love has suffered from. How does your character respond when someone close to them has this illness?
40. Have your main character invent an extremely offensive idea for a book, and show their personality faults through discussing it with others.
41. Have your character write down a list considering how to respond to their stalker.
42. Write a scene where a man hits on a woman, and although the woman acts repulsed and begs her friends to get him away from her, it becomes apparent that she likes the attention.
43. Write about a 20-something confronting his parents over their disapproval of his lifestyle.
44. Have your character write a funny to-do list about the steps to get a boyfriend or girlfriend.
45. Have a risk-adverse character stuck in a hostage situation with a risk-happy character.
46. For the next week, watch strangers carefully and take notes in your phone about any peculiar gestures or body language. Combine the three most interesting ones to describe a character as she goes grocery shopping.
47. Buy a package of the pills that expand into foam animals, and put a random one in a glass of warm water. Whatever it turns out to be, have that animal surprise your main character in a scene.
48. Have your character faced with a decision witness a rare, awe-inspiring event, and describe how it helps them make their decision.
49. Imagine if your character met for the first time his or her long-lost identical twin. What personality traits would they share and which ones would have changed because of their unique experiences?
50. If a character got burned by a hot pan, what type of strange reaction would they have that would reveal what they value most?
Once you’ve taken a stab at some of these exercises, I’d recommend you use them in your actual writing.
And for instruction on that, you need a guide to writing your novel .
That link will change your life and your novel. Click it now.
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John Fox, you have some excellent resources, and I thank you. I read your comments, then scrolled down to glance at the list of 50 exercises. The FIRST one, “loud noise’ is already in my head. My Hero is going to be side swiped in my Cozy. I was side swiped on a state highway here in Virginia a couple of weeks ago and, although the damage was minor, the sound of that big SUV “glancing” off my little car was SCARY!!! I once heard a fast-moving car REAR-END is stand-still car; that sound was something I’ll never forget. So, your exercise is very timely. THANK YOU!!!
This is a great list! Thanks!
You know what would be motivating? If we could turn these in to someone and get like a grade lol
I can really see the benefit of doing these writing exercises. (Versus using prompts) The purpose is so much clearer. Some I can imagine my response fairly easily. (Though the task of not jumping on the obvious might make it harder than I imagine at this point) Some however I would struggle with ( number 42 for example), where I have zero sympathy for the main character’s plight. Hhhmmmm. But maybe they are the very ones I should be tackling – to see if I can develop them in a way that explains their behaviour and so creates sympathy. Thank you. Much food for thought.
I’ve been thinking a lot about “how to master writing,” and this is the first time that I found an article that makes it clear the difference between prompts and exercises. I fully agree with you. These are bound to make you a better writer if you focus on doing a variation of them daily.
An excellent list – thank you very much. I run a small writing group and we’ll be trying some.
Yes, thank you. I too run a small writing group and you got me out of a slump for tomorrow’s group!
yes,thank you . It’s good for improve your writing skills.
What a lovely list! I am working on the final draft of my very first novel, and am constantly working at improving the final product. Your exercises are just what I need to kickstart my writing day. Thank you so very much.
Thank you very much When I turned50 I received my diploma from Children’s Institute in West Redding Ct I got my inspiration from being near water however now that I am in Oregon I have had a writing block thanks to your list my creative juices are flowing
I suppose I better have good punctuation, seeing this is about Writing. Thank you for this great list. I am the Chair of our small Writing group in Otorohanga and we start again last week of Feb. I have sent out a homework email, to write a A4 page of something exciting that has happened over the holiday break and they must read it out to the group with passion and excitement in their voices. That will get them out of their comfort zone!
A formidable yet inspiring list. Thank you very much for this. This is really very helpful. I am from India, and very new to writing and have started my first project, which I want to make it into a Novel. This has been very helpful and is very challenging too. Prompts look sissy when compared to this, frankly speaking. Thank you very much again.
Where can I get the answers for these?
There aren’t “answers.” You create responses to these exercises.
Thank you so much for the detailed suggestions focusing on HOW to put the WHAT into practice; really helpful & inspiring.
Just started rough drafting a story I’ve always wanted to write. Do you have any advice for someone writing their first real story? I’m having trouble starting it; I just want it to be perfect.
I consider this very helpful. Just started my journey as a creative writer, and will be coming back to this page to aid my daily writing goal.
I have always loved writing exercises and these are perfect practice for my competition. I have tried lots of different things that other websites have told me to try, but this by far is the most descriptive and helpful site that i have seen so far.
This is really a creative blog. An expert writer is an amateur who didn’t stop. I trust myself that a decent writer doesn’t actually should be advised anything but to keep at it. Keep it up!
I’ve always enjoyed writing from a little girl. Since I’ve been taking it a bit more seriously as does everybody else it seems; I’ve lost the fun and sponteneity. Until now…..this is a marvelous blog to get back the basic joy and freedom in writing. Or should that be of?:) These exercises are perfect to get the creative juices flowing again…..thank you:)
These are interesting exercises for writing.
These are fantastic! I started reading a really awesome book on creative writing but it just didn’t get any good or easy to follow exercises. So I found your site and having been having a lot of fun with these. Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
creative and inspiring, thank you
I always wanted to have an exercise where a friend and I each wrote a random sentence and sent it to each other to write a short story from that beginning sentence, then exchange the stories for reading and/or critique. Maybe both writers start with the same sentence and see how different the stories turn out.
Thanks for these exercises. Some are really challenging. To truly tackle them I’m having to spend as long beforehand thinking “how the HECK am I going to do this?” as I do with ink on paper. Would be a great resource if other authors submitted their replies and thoughts about how they went about each exercise.
Start the conversation: submit one of yours.
I think I can use these to inspire my students.
Hi there. Thank you for posting this list- it’s great! Can I ask you to consider removing number 42 or perhaps changing it somewhat? I teach sex ed and every year am shocked by how many young people don’t understand issues around consent. Stories about woman who ‘say no but really mean yes’ are deeply unhelpful. Really appreciate your post but felt I had to ask. Thanks.
What’s wrong with the number 42?
It promulgates the belief that when a woman says no, she doesn’t mean it, potentially resulting in sexual assault.
I just make this list a part of my teaching in Creative Writing Classes. Very good list of ideas!
Thank you so much for posting this! I have used it to create a creative playwriting activity for my high school creative writing class–so much good stuff here for me to pick through and select for my kiddos that will allow them to shine and improve their knowledge of writing as a craft!
These exercises are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Every writer NEEDS this book.
It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.
Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.
I believe there’s a writer inside of all of us.
Even if you don’t think you write well, you do have something to say.
You have a story to tell, knowledge to impart , and experiences to share.
You’ve lived a full life that’s packed with observations and adventures, and you shouldn’t exit this Earth without chronicling them in some way.
Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, your life is the laboratory for creating a great book or story.
If you can talk, you can write — even if you need to brush up on grammar and spelling. You’ll naturally become a better writer the more you write.
You’ll learn how to organize ideas, make smooth transitions, and expand your vocabulary.
Reading also improves your writing, so if you have the tiniest desire to write well, read a wide variety of books in different genres.
You can accelerate your writing competence with some simple writing exercises.
Your inner creative muscle needs exertion to stay fit and strong — but writing exercises don’t need to be drudgery.
They can be fun and exciting as you see how much creative juice you have just waiting to be squeezed.
These creative exercises should be practiced without self-judgment, inner filters, or concern about what a reader might think.
The purpose is to allow your creative mind complete freedom to cut loose.
You don’t have to show these writing exercises to anyone if you don’t want to.
It’s a good weekly practice engage in writers exercises to what catches your imagination and awakens your inner author .
2. write a letter to your younger self., 3. use writing prompts., 4. write about your expertise. , 5. write a stream of consciousness page., 6. write a story told to you., 7. pretend to be someone else. , 8. write about something or someone who changed your life., 9. describe your surroundings., 10. pick a number., 11. describe a dream of yours — or the life of your dreams., what are creative writing exercises.
“Perfect” writers don’t exist. Even Ernest Hemingway and Alice Walker honed the craft right up to their waning days. Growth, improvement, and experimentation are the clarion calls of professional and aspiring scribes. And those who succeed put in the work.
That’s where creative writing exercises come in, as they’re designed to help you play with words in a non-judgmental environment.
Common “craft-sharpening” writing games and tools include:
Serious writers — and people serious about becoming better writers — are perpetually composing pieces that will never see the light of day. But just as a tennis player hits thousands of serves during practice sessions, writers scribe thousands of short language exercises. To continue the sports analogy: Writing exercises are the equivalent of an athlete stretching before a game or match.
In this exercise, you’ll use three questions to stimulate creative thought. You can write these questions yourself, but I’ll give you some examples to show you what to do.
You want to answer the questions as quickly as you can, with whatever ideas pop into your mind.
Write as much or as little as you wish, but just allow the words to flow without pondering too much what you want to say.
In this exercise, you are writing to yourself at a younger age. It can be your childhood self or yourself just a few years back.
You can offer advice, compassion, explanation, forgiveness, or praise.
Or you can simply recount an experience you had and how it impacted you as your adult self now.
Try to see this younger self as a real and separate person when you write the letter. This exercise helps you think about your reader as a real person with emotions — a person who can be moved and inspired by your writing.
Again, try not to overthink this exercise. Spend a few minutes deciding the core message of the letter, and then just start writing without filters.
A writing prompt is an idea that jumpstarts the writing process.
The prompt can be a short sentence, a paragraph, or even a picture, but the purpose is the same — to ignite your creativity so you’ll begin writing.
Writing prompts can help you when you feel stuck while writing your book.
If you take ten minutes to work on a writing prompt, you can go back to your book writing primed to get down to business. It stimulates ideas for a writer and releases the creative process.
Here are a few prompts you can use:
Think about something you know how to do well. It can be anything from washing the dishes to selling stocks.
Write a few paragraphs (or more if you wish) explaining some aspect of how to do what you do.
Assume your reader is completely ignorant about the subject.
This writing shouldn’t sound like a dry instruction manual. Try to write in a conversational style, as though you’re verbally explaining the process.
Break down the steps in a way that makes the reader understand exactly what to do, without using business jargon or buzzwords.
This is an easy and fun exercise. You want to write it in longhand rather than typing on your computer, as handwriting slows down the process and allows more time for your creative brain to do its work.
Grab a pen and blank pad and simply start writing. Write down whatever comes into your brain, no matter how nonsensical or disjointed.
There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages — they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.
In this exercise, you want to recount a story told to you by another person.
It can be a story one of your parents or grandparents shared about something that happened many years ago, or it can be a more recent event a friend or family member recounted.
Or you can tell a story you learned in school or through reading about a well-known person or event.
The story can be funny, sad, or educational — but it should be interesting, entertaining, or engaging in some way.
Whether your book is fiction or non-fiction, readers love stories. They enjoy relating to the lives and experiences of other people.
When you share stories in your writing, you humanize your writing and take your readers on a small journey.
In this exercise, you’ll practice writing from another person’s perspective. You can choose a person you know well, or you can write from the point of view of an imagined character.
Put yourself in this person’s shoes, see things through their eyes, and react the way they would react.
Choose one situation, encounter, or setting, and write what you see, hear, think, and feel about the scenario. Get inside of this person’s brain, and try to be as descriptive as possible.
You can write a paragraph or several pages if you’re inspired.
In this exercise, rather than telling the story of someone else or pretending to be another person, you want to share your story from your perspective.
Write about a person or event that has profoundly impacted you and changed your life.
Rather than simply recounting the situation, talk about how it made you feel, what your reactions were, and how you were changed on the inside as well as the outside.
Pour your heart into this writing. Remember, you don’t have to show it to anyone, so be completely vulnerable and real in this exercise.
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Simply write a paragraph or two about your surroundings.
You can write in first person (“I am sitting at my desk, which is littered with papers and old coffee cups.”), or write in third person, simply describing what you see (“The room is bleak and empty except for one old wooden chair.”).
Challenge yourself to use descriptive language to set the scene.
Rather than saying, “The light is shining through the window,” you might say, “The morning sun is streaming through the window, spotlighting a million dancing dust particles and creating mottled shadows on my desk.”
Whether you write fiction or non-fiction , you want to write intriguing descriptions that invite the reader into the setting so they can “see” what you see.
Even numbers can serve to inspire writing. This exercise combines numbers with something else you probably have at your disposal.
Pick a random number between 1 and 30. We’ll call it number n. Then look to your bookshelf (real or virtual) and choose the nth book.
( Note: If you have more than 30 books on your shelf, you can choose a bigger number).
Then you’d open that book to the nth page and go to the nth sentence on that page.
Write that sentence down and make it the first sentence of a new freewriting exercise. Just write whatever comes to mind for the next sentence and the one after that, and so on.
Write at least as many sentences as the number you chose.
Think of a dream you remember and describe it in as much detail as you can recall.
From there, you can take that dream and turn it into a story or play with possible interpretations — serious or just for fun.
Or you can write about the life you dream of living. Describe a perfect day in that life, from the time you wake up to the time you lie back down.
Describe the home in which you live or the places you want to go. Imagine you’re living there in the locale of your choice for as long as you wish.
Don’t bother trying to make it sound realistic.
Just let the words flow, and enjoy the ride. Part of the fun of learning how to practice writing fiction is letting your imagination take over — without any heckling from your inner editor.
At first explanation, writing exercises may sound a tad tedious. But people who do them improve by leaps and bounds.
For starters, it all comes down to the human brain’s wiring. In short, every thought and idea we have is conducted by electrical impulses that torpedo around our nervous systems. When we practice something, the associated “circuits” grow myelin, a biological cushion that protects nerves. The added shielding optimizes the relevant electrical paths, rendering them more efficient.
In other words: The more you do something, the better you’ll get. It doesn’t matter if you have an IQ of 80 or 180. Practice yields results. With writing, the more you do it, the better work you’ll produce.
Specifically, creative prose lessons also:
No matter how experienced you are as a writer, you can always improve and tap deeper into the wellspring of your own creativity.
You can always learn new ways to express yourself and delight your reader.
View these writing exercises as a means to opening doors of insight and imagination and enjoy the process of becoming a better writer.
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Lower the stakes and help them get started.
“I don’t have a story. There’s nothing interesting about my life!” Sound familiar? I don’t know a teacher who hasn’t heard students say this. When we ask our students to write about themselves, they get stuck. We know how important it is for them to tell their own stories. It’s how we explore our identities and keep our histories and cultures alive. It can even be dangerous when we don’t tell our stories (check out this Ted Talk given by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and share it with your students for more on that). Storytelling is essential for every subject, not just English Language Arts; students dive deeper and engage when they practice thinking about how their own stories intersect with historical events, civic engagement, and the real-world implications of STEM. These 10 creative writing activities can work in every subject you teach:
1. write an “i am from” poem.
Students read the poem “I am From” by George Ella Lyon. Then, they draft a poem about their own identity in the same format Lyon used. Finally, students create a video to publish their poems. We love this one because the mentor text gives a clear structure and example that students can follow. But the end result is truly unique, just like their story.
How can you use your unique perspective to tell a story? We want our students to learn that they are truly unique and have stories that only they can tell that other people want to hear or could relate to or learn from. In this activity, students watch two Pixar-in-a-Box videos on Khan Academy to learn about storytelling and perspective. Then, they identify an interesting or poignant memory and design a social media post.
How do you show emotion using a single line? In this activity, students watch a Pixar in a Box video on Khan Academy to learn about how lines communicate character, emotion, and tension. Then they experiment with these aspects as they write their story. We love using this for pre-writing and to help students explore their story arc. Also, for students who love to draw or learn visually, this can help them get started telling their story and show them that there are many different ways to tell a story.
Sharing the story behind our name is a way to tell a story about ourselves, our culture, and our family history. And if there isn’t a story behind it, we can talk about how we feel about it and describe what it sounds like. In this activity, students use video to introduce themselves to their classmates by discussing the origin of their name. This project asks students to connect their names (and identities) to their personal and familial histories and to larger historical forces. If you’re looking for a mentor text that pairs well with this one, try “My Name” by Sandra Cisneros .
Give students the time to create a character sketch of themselves. This will help them see how they fit into their story. In this lesson, students create a visual character sketch. They’ll treat themselves like a character and learn to see themselves objectively.
Building a story spine is a great way to show students how to put the parts of their story in an order that makes sense. It’s an exercise in making choices about structure. We like this activity because it gives students a chance to see different examples of structure in storytelling. Then, they consider the question: how can you use structure to set your story up for success? Finally, they design and illustrate an outline for their story.
Sometimes our students get stuck because they aren’t inspired or need a different entry point into telling their story. Give them a lot of writing prompts that they can choose from. Pass out paper and pencils. Set a timer for fifteen minutes. Then, write 3-4 writing prompts on the board. Encourage students to free-write and not worry about whether their ideas are good or right. Some of our favorite prompts to encourage students to tell their story are:
Part of what makes writing your own story so difficult for students is that they are just building their identity. In this activity, students explore how they and others define their identity. What role does identity play in determining how they are perceived and treated by others? What remains hidden and what is shown publicly?
Encourage students to think about how to tell the story of a day they faced their fears. Students consider the question: How can you use different shot types to tell your story? They watch a video from Pixar in a Box on Khan Academy to learn about different camera shots and their use in storytelling. Then, they use Adobe Spark Post or Photoshop and choose three moments from their story to make into shots. We love using this to help students think about pace and perspective. Sometimes what we leave out of our story is just as important as what we include.
Laurie Powers created a process where you read a poem and then select two lines from it. Students start their own writing with one of those lines. Anytime that they get stuck, they repeat their jump-off line again. This is a standalone activity or a daily writing warm-up, and it works with any poem. We love how it lowers the stakes. Can’t think of anything to write? Repeat the jump-off line and start again. Here are some of our favorite jump-off lines:
High interest, low readability books for every student. Continue Reading
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Make writing less boring with these 12 fun creative writing activities for kids.
When most children think of writing, they think of lined paper with thousands of words written on it, line by line with the occasional spacing for paragraphs. But writing doesn’t need to be that boring and gloomy. Today we bring you12 creative writing activities to make writing fun and colourful!
It is important to show your kids that there’s more to writing than just homework and long essays. Writing can be fun and it doesn’t always involve writing thousands of words in a formal structure. It’s time to stop worrying about sentence structure, grammar and spelling mistakes. Instead, encourage your kids to explore their creativity and write down their thoughts as they come in any format they like. Here are 12 fun creative writing activities that will boost your child’s creativity, imagination and encourage them to write for fun.
Use story maps.
Story maps are a great way to unleash your child’s imagination. You can either create your own or print out one of these free story map templates . To create your own story map, you’ll first need a location. This could be anywhere, a planet , an island , the woods or even your hometown. Don’t worry, you don’t actually need to leave your home to enjoy this activity.
Next draw out a simple map of the location. The map must have a starting point and an endpoint. Here is an example of our treasure island story map:
You can see that we marked the starting point with a star. And the end point with a red cross. Once this is done, you need to put loads of obstacles, challenges and interesting things on the map for your child to explore and engage with in their imagination. This could be a giant octopus monster, a lava lake, a cunning princess or even some secret symbols or lettering.
Once you have completed creating your action-packed story map (or printed out one of our free templates) – It’s time for the real adventure to begin. Give the map to your child and together you can pretend that you have landed in a whole new location.
Start from your bedroom (or your imaginary pirate ship) and make your way through the obstacles to find the secret treasure located in a mysterious cave (or the shed in your backyard). As you go through the map, think about the characters you might encounter, items you might find and even challenges you could face.
After your little adventure, your child will be inspired and ready to write about the adventure they just experienced! Go ahead and check out these free story map templates to get you started:
Puppets and toys are a great way to stimulate imaginative play. In particular, creating your own paper finger puppets is a brilliant creative activity to boost your child’s imagination and make story-telling more fun. When creating your own finger puppets, your child can create any character they like. If they love football , try creating some famous football players, and if they love Harry Potter , get them to create some wizard themed characters. Whatever your child’s interest, combine it with story-telling, and make storytime extra fun.
To get you started, you can download our free paper finger puppet templates by signing up to Imagine Forest:
Create your own paper characters, props and background. Then let the role-playing begin!
Kids love playing games. The Would You Rather game is a great way to boost logical thinking and communication skills. Print out our free Would You Rather game cards pack, to get a mix of funny, gross and Disney themed questions. Then get at least three players in a team to begin the game. The purpose of the game is to convince the whole team that your answer to the question is the best one and to get other players to agree with you. This game is guaranteed to get your kids laughing and thinking logically about the answers they pick.
Another brilliant creative writing activity is the Telephone Pictionary Game . The basic idea behind this game is to write a story collaboratively with your team using drawings and phrases. Together as team members take turns to write/draw something down. They’ll be improving skills such as creativity, teamwork and communication skills. And when the game is over, they’ll have a really funny story to read!
Poetry is a quick and short writing activity to get kids engaged in creative writing. But writing a typical haiku or limerick can get boring over time. To add a little more excitement gets your kids to write poems in the shape of something. For example, your child could write a poem about cats , in the shape of a cat:
Not only are these poems great to read, but they also make wonderful pieces of artwork. For more inspirations, check out our Alice in Wonderland inspired shape poetry .
The finish the story game is the simplest creative writing activity in our list. In a team of at least 2 players, each player takes turns completing a story. Start off with a random story starter and then each player takes turns to continue this story. Which way will the story go? No-one knows. And that’s the real beauty of this game. Let your child explore their imagination and come up with wild ideas to keep the story interesting. And by the end of the game, you’ll have a really unique and funny story to read.
Image prompts are a great source of inspiration. And can be used in a number of ways to encourage your child to write. For instance, you can ask your child to write a quick snappy slogan for a random image or photograph. Alternatively, you could play a whole game centred around a single image, such as the Round Robin Tournament game explained in our post on storytelling games using image prompts .
Inspiration is key in making writing fun for kids. That’s where story cubes come in handy. You either buy ready-made story cubes or make your own story cubes at home. If you’re interested in making your own story cubes, check out these 9 free story cube templates for ideas. Once you have a bunch of story cubes, you can simply roll them like dice and then challenge your kids to write a story based on the images they get. For game ideas using story cubes, check out this post on how to use story cubes .
If your kids hate writing but love drawing, then comic strips are a great creative activity to sneak in some minor writing with huge levels of imagination. Pick a topic, any topic you like. This could be related to your child’s interest and then ask them to create a short comic strip about that topic. For example, if you child loves dinosaurs, ask them to create their own comic strip about dinosaurs. For more inspiration and ideas, check out this post on how to create your own comic strip and comic books at home.
Another fun way to get your kids to write more is by creating your own pop-book books. Pop-up books seem really complicated to create, but in reality, they are really easy to make at home. All you need is some paper, scissors and glue. Check out this super easy tutorial on how to create your own pop-book at home for quick step-by-step instructions. Similar to comic strips, pop-up books are a great way of combining drawing with writing to get your kids writing more in a quick and fun way.
Turn your child’s story into a real book! You can buy blank books from Amazon or create your own mini paper book, using this easy mini notebook tutorial . With this tutorial you can create a fully customisable book, with your own cover, back page and you can even draw your own illustrations inside! This is a really fun and cute way to gets your kids writing in their spare time.
Forgot ordinary boring letters! Check out our Paper craft animal envelopes to encourage your kids to write letters to their friends, family, heroes, aliens, anyone they like! Inside the child can write any message they like, such as “how were your holidays…” or “We’re having a party this weekend…” And on the outside they can create any animal or creature they like as envelopes.
Ask your child to draw their own monster or character and describe it. – What are its strengths, and weaknesses, where does it live, what does it like doing and so on? This creative writing activity is quick, simple and full of imagination! And you could even take this a step further by creating your own monster flip books !
Use story starters to inspire reluctant writers. These can be simple sentences, such as “It was Timmy’s first day at school and he was excited…” and your child can continue writing the rest of the story. Or you could use photos and your child’s drawings to inspire story-writing by asking the child to describe what’s happening in this image. Take a look at this post on 60+ first-line prompts to inspire you or you could view our mega list of over 300 writing prompts for kids .
Get your child to create their own Christmas cards , greeting cards or get well cards to send to someone they know. They can write their own personal message inside and draw a picture on the outside. Quick activities like this are a great way to sneak in some writing with some arts and crafts.
Ask your child to write their own newspaper article or create their own newspaper about the daily events that happen at home or at school. Remember the use of the 5 W’s and 1 H when writing newspaper articles. Our newspaper challenge online activity is great for creating fun newspaper articles.
Get the kids involved in the weekly grocery shopping! Ask them to write the shopping list with drawings. If the grocery shopping list is too boring, then get them to create a wish list of items they dream of owning or even a list of goals they want to accomplish. You can buy some really pretty shopping list pads from Amazon , which could be a great way to encourage your kids to get writing!
Fairytales have been around for centuries and by now they need a modern twist. Challenge your child to update an old classic. And you could even use this free ‘Retell a fairy tale pack ’ to help you. Re-telling a fairytale is a lot easier than creating a whole new one – Simply ask your child to change one or two key elements in the story and see how it changes the entire fairytale. For example, what if Cinderella was the villain? Alternatively, you could go wacky and add a whole new character to a classic fairytale, such as Spiderman making an appearance in Jack and the Beanstalk. The possibilities really are endless!
Ask your child to write their own short movie script, they can create a cast list and give all the different characters different things to say. You can find a free script and cast list template here ! Think about the conversation between the characters, what problems would they encounter, who is the villain in this story? We also think these free finger puppets printable could be great for story-telling.
Ask your child to keep a simple hand-written blog about their hobbies and interests. This can be done in a journal or notebook. Ask them the following questions: What do they like doing in their spare time and why do they enjoy this. Maybe ask them to provide instructions on how someone else can also be good at this hobby. They can update their hand-written blog everyday with new tips and interesting pieces of information on their hobby.
Create a ‘Wanted’ poster for famous villains in storybooks, such as Miss Trunchbull from Matilda or Cinderella’s Stepmother. You can find a free blank template here . Alternatively try out the Most Wanted online activity on Imagine Forest, to create your own wanted posters online:
Writing a whole story down can be cumbersome. That’s why storyboarding can make a really good creative writing activity. Instead of asking a child to write a whole story down, get them to think about the key events in the story and plan it out using a storyboard template . Planning their story out beforehand could even encourage your child to write a complete story down afterwards. The first step is always planning out what you are going to write, and this could give your child the confidence to keep going.
Know anymore fun writing activities for kids? Tell us your ideas below.
Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.
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What are the best creative writing activities worth your time? And how can these activities help you become a better writer? Good creative writing activities should help you write faster and enjoy the process more. It shouldn’t take too long to try or require any fancy tools or software.
For years, I struggled with writer’s block, until I began experimenting with various fun creative writing activities.
Now in this article, I offer several creative writing activities that will help solve a problem like writer’s block or write a better story for your readers.
2. keep a daily journal, 3. try free writing, 4. research your subject , 5. write without interruption, 6. collaborate with someone else, 7. let your writing sit, 8. get feedback on your writing, 9. change the point of view or tense, 10. read your writing aloud, bonus creative writing activities: reward yourself, how do you make creative writing activities fun, what are creative writing activities.
If you want to write, consider keeping a record of books you want to read or quotes that inspire you. I also recommend building a personal library of writing prompts.
A writing prompt is simply a question, statement or single sentence that serves as a springboard into your creative work. You can buy books of creative writing prompts or alternatively, you can record your own.
If you opt for the latter approach, I recommend using the first line from books you love. They’re kind of like templates upon which you can jump off into the unknown.
You may also want to try brainstorming a list of creative writing prompts to use for your short story, essay or book chapter.
Lots of writers also keep journals where they record daily observations about their lives or work. Essentially, these journals are where writers gather their ingredients for their next work.
You can’t cook a stew with just water, just like you can’t write without having something to say.
Many cooks keep clippings from their favourite chefs and recipe books. They use these as inspiration for meals to cook.
You can do so on your phone or in a paper notebook (I like the over-priced Moleskine notebooks ). A notepad and paper by your bedside is a good idea for when inspiration strikes at 4am. Alternatively, apps like Day One make it easier to journal on a mobile phone.
The habit of daily observations is a good practice for any writer . I recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their writing skills as it encourages you to sit down and write consistently.
Even if these observations sound silly in hindsight, you may be surprised by what turns up.
Free writing describes the act of writing about whatever is on your mind for a predetermined period. While free writing, your job is to get words down on the page without stopping to self-edit or censor yourself.
This type of exploratory creative writing is useful for solving problems like writer’s block. It can also help reluctant writers increase their daily word-count. Free writing makes for a great story starter too.
You can free write on your writing app of choice, on a piece of paper, in the notes app on your phone.
If you’d like to learn more about free writing, check out the excellent book Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg.
If you write nonfiction, start with a clear brief of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it.
For example:
Journalists receive a brief for a story from their editor (i.e. here’s today’s news agenda) or a source (i.e. “I have information for you about…”).
They also also spend time compiling lists of possible interviewees and deciding on questions to ask, just as a chef shops around for the finest ingredients.
Academics and educators decide for themselves what they want their work to taste like, albeit with the help of a tutor. They also spend time reading academic papers in their area of study and conducting qualitative and quantitative research.
Bloggers sign up to various blogs, using a feed reader to aggregate content and by keeping up to date on industry trends.
Having a clear brief for an article or book helps with critical thinking.
Lots of writers have various routines they follow before writing. Some people like to cook while enjoying a glass of wine. (I like to write and drink coffee).
Other writers describe how they disable their internet access when they want to get some serious work done.
If you are an academic , preparation may involve taking key findings from your research papers and applying it to your area of study.
This stage also usually involves completing a literature review prior to engaging in the act of essay writing.
If you are a journalist , this exercise involves interviews with sources and newsworthy figures. It also involves collating relevant news articles and findings.
And if you are a blogger , focus on one theme or topic and research what search volume around this topic using a keyword analysis tool.
Sure, having a quiet place to write is important, but sometimes it’s helpful to work with another writer or an editor on your piece. Alternatively, perhaps you can borrow ethically from work you admire.
A good sentence, like a stew, isn’t going to write itself. Some pieces of work are light and easy to prepare. Other meaty pieces of work take longer to cook.
An academic will write several drafts of their paper or chapter, all the while assessing how it compares with current literature and weighing it against their central thesis.
A journalist will type out transcripts of their interviews, and consult with their editor or colleagues. They will search for a newsworthy angle and may even draw conclusions, depending on the tone of their piece.
A blogger will look for relevant posts by other bloggers to link. They will also frame the topic in such a way that it appeals to what readers are searching for. She or he will also consider supporting multimedia content.
If you’ve finished writing a story, article or book chapter, let it sit on your computer or in your drawer for a while. Your subconscious will continue working on the idea while you do something else.
Cooks recommend leaving a stew simmering for several hours before serving. Similarly, a piece of writing is best left to marinate in a drawer (be that physical or digital).
This way, when you look at your work after a break, the words won’t be as hot, and you’ll be able to see if you need to season the piece with more facts or spice it up with some colour (i.e. unusual adverbs, similes and metaphors).
For an academic , this could involve letting a chapter rest for a few days and then making some quick edits before submitting to tutor for feedback.
A journalist , may have less time for their stew to prepare and will normally consult with their editor or sub-editor to finalise their piece.
A blogger has more leeway here, as they are normally their own bosses. They can take this time to season posts with relevant links, pictures, meta descriptions, ALT tags and a call to action.
The act of writing is more about turning up than it is about divine moments of inspiration. A lot of the time writing feels like drudgery, but there’s a pleasure in watching your sentences slowly improve.
Writers learn faster if they get feedback from other writers, knowledgable readers or editors.
A good stew is best eaten in company. Lots of writers have this idea that they should write for themselves. Instead, it’s far better to share what you’ve created with friends, family and the wider public.
This essentially involves publishing your work. A blogger will upload their post onto their platform of choice and support it with social media comments. An academic will submit to an identified journal and a journalist will publish a story in a newspaper.
Writing in a public forum carries a degree of vulnerability, but it’s a great way develop a consistent, recognisable voice. It also opens the writer up to criticism.
An editor or tutor will provide this anyway (it’s their job), but if you are writing for yourself, consider asking a friend or subscribers to your blog for feedback.
Some criticism may be constructive and some of it won’t help at all. Your fiercest critics could become your biggest enablers for better writing.
And there’s always an argument for killing those sentences that give you the most pleasure.
In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” ― William Faulkner
I learnt this exercise while enrolled in a creative writing workshop years ago in the Irish Writer’s Centre in Dublin.
If you have time to spare, consider rewriting a troublesome piece from the point of view of a different character. Alternatively, switch it from the past tense to the present tense.
Like many reluctant writers, at first I was sceptical when I heard about this creative writing exercise.
But for some odd reason, I was surprised to discover it worked.
These days, I find it easier and faster to write in the present tense, and whenever I’m blocked on an article or story, I rewrite it in that tense.
Perhaps the act of reviewing a piece of work and quickly editing it helps. The writing process is sometimes odd like that.
It’s sometimes fun and instructive to read an extract from your piece aloud for others to listen to and critique. This creative writing activity works well in classrooms and in small groups.
The act of reading it aloud will help you listen for sentences to edit and rewrite.
The person facilitating the workshop or class should also offer the following writing instructions:
Why all the rules?
Well, you can’t control how readers react when they consume your published pieces in the privacy of their own homes.
If everyone read a piece aloud, the process will feel fair.
Writing is hard work. If you’ve accomplished a writing goal, reward yourself. Journalists tend to get paid for this, but some academics and most bloggers don’t.
A reward could be a short break to watch a favourite TV programme or a walk in the park.
You could eat out after trying a creative writing activity successfully.
Just like dining in a fancy restaurant can give you ideas about what you’d like to cook next, reading other peoples’ works (especially outside your preferred genre) is food for inspiration.
If the work is more involved, it could be a guilt-free purchase or even a holiday. These writing breaks are important because they refresh the writer’s appetite.
An enjoyable creative writing activity is usually easily to apply and doesn’t require a lot of time or fancy tools. It’s fun if the writer in question can approach the activity without fear of failure or judgment.
There are many to choose from but popular examples include journaling, free writing, using writing prompts, exploratory writing and writing to a tight deadline or low word-count.
Teaching Expertise
January 4, 2024 // by Milka Kariuki
Creative writing can be tough for learners of any age. From knowing where to start to establishing the vocabulary to develop their story, there are a bunch of different skills they’ll need to perfect their creative writing pieces. There are so many creative writing activities out there, but which ones are best for your kiddos? Our list of 51 creative writing activities is the perfect place to start looking if you’ve got a creative writing unit coming up! Read on and see which ones might grab your little writers’ attention!
We bet your kiddos just love comic books! Let them create their very own in the style of the super popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid books! Encourage your students to come up with their own plot, dialogue, and illustrations to spark their creativity. Even your most reluctant writers will love this fun activity!
Learn More: Puffin Schools
Using Mad Libs is a super popular way to develop your little creative writers! Use these free printables to get their creative juices flowing as they try to come up with words to fill the gaps to create weird and wonderful new stories. The best thing is that you can use these printables as many times as you like as their answers will be different each time!
Learn More: Teacher Vision
Flash fiction is a fantastic way to get your kiddies writing creatively while keeping things short and sweet! Use the range you prompts included in this resource to challenge them to write a creative story in less than 100 words. Flash fiction is amazing because your students won’t be overwhelmed by a huge writing task and it also means that your more confident writers will need to focus on the quality of their work, not the quantity!
Learn More: TES
Test your students’ creativity by providing them with writing prompts that start at the end! In backward story writing, your budding writers will need to plan and pen a story that eventually leads to the ending you give them. This idea is a fantastic way to turn your traditional creative writing lesson on its head and in many ways take the pressure off your kids, as ending their stories is often the most difficult part for them!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
Your learners will love this fun and creative found poetry activity. You can encourage them to collect words or a group of words from a favorite story or song then write them on a piece of paper or cut them out of a printed page. The overall goal is to have them rearrange the words differently to make an interesting poem with a unique writing style or genre!
Learn More: Homeschooling Ideas
A picture dictionary is a brilliant way to support every member of your younger elementary class in their creative writing. The words paired with pictures give your writers a ‘dictionary’ that they can use pretty independently, so your less confident writers or non-native English-speaking students can still access your writing lessons!
Learn More: Twinkl
Why not start a creative journal with your kiddos? Have them engage in daily journaling activities by giving them a different creative prompt each day. For instance, write a story about what would happen if dogs took over the world or what would you do if you were the security guard at a zoo and someone stole an animal? The fun is never-ending with these prompts!
Learn More: Think Written
Roll-a-Story is one of the best ways to help any of your kids who are suffering from a bout of writer’s block! They’ll roll the dice to discover the character, setting, and problem for their story then set to work weaving their creative tale! It could be a story about a wise doctor being chased by a mysterious creature in a casino, or maybe a rich artist losing their wallet in a library. Then it’s up to your students to fill in the gaps!
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There’s no telling quite where this fun writing game will end up! Start by writing the first sentence of a story on a piece of paper then pass it around your class, having your kids come up with a sentence that continues the story. The paper is then passed around the whole class until every student has contributed. Finally, once it makes its way back to you, read out your collaborative story to the whole class!
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Creative writing prompts activities test not only your little ones’ imaginations but also their ability to craft a story and dialogue from that. Display an intriguing picture prompt for your class and have a discussion about it, recording their ideas. You could discuss what the person or animal in the picture is doing or what they’re thinking, where they think the picture was taken, and much more. They can use your collective notes to inspire their story!
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What’s the Question is a simple, yet super engaging game that requires your young learners to think creatively. Spark their creativity by writing an answer on the whiteboard such as “the moon would explode,” and task your kiddos with coming up with a question to match it. There’ll be lots of laughs as everyone shares what they came up with!
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This website is absolutely full of quick and fun graphics for children that’ll encourage their creative writing! The cute graphics and simple directions make it an easy bellringer activity for your writing class. Just print out some of these cool sheets and let your students get creative as they write thank-you notes to helpful heroes or finish little cartoon comics!
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Nothing says creative writing quite like figurative language! Grab some of these free paint swatches from your local home improvement store and have your students create metaphors about their chosen color! We love this low-prep activity as once your kids have finished their poems, they’re a ready-made multi-colored display that’ll brighten the walls of your classroom!
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Once again, these Jarrett Lerner activities do not disappoint! Your students will have a blast pretending they are the principal for a day and they’ll get to create their very own rules for the school. Not only will this be an engaging writing exercise that we’re sure they’ll love getting creative with, but it also challenges children to think about why rules in school are important.
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Story bags are a fantastic way to destroy any kind of writer’s block! Grab an assortment of random objects from your home or classroom and pop them into the story bag. Next, gather your students around and pull out all the objects in the bag. Can they then write a story connecting all the items? Be sure to leave time to let them share their stories at the end of the lesson!
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An easy way to ease your kiddos into the writing process is by having them rewrite part of a story. Grab their favorite read-aloud, and challenge them to come up with a new ending! They’ll need to finish the story in a way that makes sense, but aside from that, they can be as creative as they like! Your reluctant readers will like this one as much of the work on setting and characters has already been done!
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BUT WAIT – there’s a twist…This fun writing practice is perfect for older middle or high school but could also be simplified for younger students. Write these twist prompts on notecards and have your kids draw one each before letting them go off and write a story around their chosen twist! They’ll be eager to share their finished work with classmates at the end. After all, who doesn’t love a good plot twist?
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Every kid loves the book The Day the Crayons Quit for its creative narrative about this familiar box of coloring supplies! This extension activity rolls art and creative writing into one! Your students will have fun coming up with dialogue for each of the different crayons and you could even make it into a fun display for your classroom walls!
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Personalizing writing activities always makes it more engaging for kids! Print out a picture of yourself with a blank speech bubble, and model how to add in some dialogue. Then, let your kiddos practice speech bubbling with a photo of themselves, a pet, or a favorite celebrity, and have them come up with some interesting things for each of their subjects to say!
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Your students will be creative writers in no time after practicing their figurative language with food tasting! Not only do tasty treats make this activity incredibly fun, but it also brings the writing process of metaphors and hyperbole to life. Just give each of your kids a few pieces of candy or snacks, and have them practice writing figures of speech relating to each one! They’ll have the words on the tip of their tongue- literally!
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One of my favorite writing concepts as a teacher is ‘exploding the moment’. This method is perfect for showing your kiddies that even the smallest moment can be turned into an imaginative, descriptive story! Start by having them brainstorm some ideas and expand on tiny memories like losing a tooth, getting a pet, or making a winning goal in a soccer game!
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Round-robin storytelling is the perfect collaborative creative writing activity! This one can be done verbally or in writing, and it challenges your class to build a story using a given set of words. They’ll have a fun and challenging time figuring out how to incorporate each piece into one cohesive story.
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Acrostic poetry is one of the least intimidating creative writing exercises as there are no rules other than starting each line with the letter from a word. Challenge your kiddies to use each letter in their name to write lines of poetry about themselves, or they could choose to write about their favorite food or animal!
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This exercise requires minimal prep and can be used in so many different ways. All you’ll need are some craft sticks in which you will write sentences with blanks and word banks. Your young writers can then pull a stick and fill in the blanks to practice creative thinking! Task them with a different goal each time; can they make the sentence silly or sad for example?
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These fun prompts require your kids to think creatively and answer a range of interesting questions. They’ll be excited to write stories about waking up with a mermaid tail or describe what is in a mystery package delivered to their doorstep! These creative prompts are perfect for bellringers or transitions throughout the school day!
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Do you remember playing with fake money and fake food when you were younger? This idea takes it a step further by incorporating some writing practice! All you’ll have to do is print the templates for dollars, shopping lists, and recipes then let your little learners have fun with these play-pretend writing ideas!
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Your class will be on a roll with these amazing question cubes! Whether the cubes are used for responding to a story, brainstorming the plot of a story, or practicing speech and listening, they are an easy, affordable tool for your little readers and writers! You can snag some foam dice at the dollar store and hot glue questions on each side to spark some creative writing ideas for your class.
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Not only is Balderdash an addicting board game, but it can even be used in the classroom! Your little learners will have a blast as they create made-up, imaginative definitions for words, important people, and dates. Whoever guesses the real answer out of the mix wins the points!
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This creative writing exercise is best for older students and would be a great one to try out around Halloween! You’ll be challenging your learners to write a story that runs chills up their readers’ spines, but there’s a twist…the story can only be two sentences long! Your kiddos will love writing and sharing their writing to see who can come up with the spookiest short story!
Another game that your kids will be begging to play over and over again is telephone pictionary! The first player will write down a random phrase, and the next person must draw their interpretation of the phrase. The third player will write what they think the picture is and so on!
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You need at least two players for this fun creative writing game. Each pair or group of kids will start by having one person write a random phrase and conceal it by folding the paper. Then, they pass it to the next student to fill in the blank using the prompt. Once all the blanks are filled in, let them unfold the paper and get ready to reveal some seriously silly stories!
Story wands are a fun way to have your kids respond to stories and study what makes something their favorite. Responding to what they’re reading is a super helpful exercise in preparing them for creative writing as it allows your students to connect to their favorite stories. By figuring out what elements make stories great, this is sure to help them in their own creative writing assignments!
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Probably my favorite creative writing activity, this one is infused with social-emotional learning and self-esteem building! Let your students get to choose their favorite physical characteristics about themselves; whether it be their eyes, hands, feet, etc. Then, they take a picture to attach to their written reasoning! Make sure to boost the creative element of this writing task by encouraging your learners to use a bunch of adjectives and some figurative language!
Learn More: Sarah Gardner Teaching
Challenge your kiddos to get creative by coming up with 26 different words to describe themselves! Me From A-Z gives your students the opportunity to explore who they are by coming up with words describing them in some way using each letter of the alphabet. Why not let them decorate their lists and turn them into a display celebrating the uniqueness of each of your class members?
How-to writing is a great way to get the creative writing wheels turning in your kiddies’ brains! They’ll have a fun time coming up with their instructions and ways to explain how to make hot chocolate! Do they have a secret recipe that’ll make the best-ever hot cocoa!? Once they’ve written their instructions, be sure to try them out and do a taste-test of their recipes!
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Hands up if you love this idea! For this creative writing activity, have your little ones trace their hand on a piece of paper and decorate it with accessories. Then, encourage them to write a list of all the different things they do with their hands all over their tracing! This is a great warm-up to get the creative gears turning.
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A word picture poem is a fantastic way to challenge your kids to write descriptive poetry about a common object! Your little poets will learn to find beauty in ordinary things and strengthen their sensory language skills and their vocabulary. For some added fun, you can even task them with writing a short story about the item as well! The results are sure to be fun to read!
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Shape poems are some of the most creative poetry as they combine words and art into one! First, your young poets can choose an object to use as their muse and lightly trace an outline onto some paper. Then, they’ll write words along the outlined shape in the form of a poem that describes the object! The result is a bunch of fun and striking poems that’ll look great displayed around your classroom!
Here’s another one that combines writing and art! Start by guiding your kiddos in drawing a self-portrait then adding some crazy hair by blowing watercolor paints around! After the paint dries, have your kids come up with a short but creative poem describing their hair art.
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Nothing is more creative than getting your kiddies to let down the barriers in their mind and tap into their stream of consciousness! Show them how to pick a topic and then let their words flow straight from mind to paper in a swirling pattern. This fingerprint idea can be used for a get-to-know-you activity as well!
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Put a fun twist on classic haiku poetry! Your students will have a paw-some time writing three-line poems about dogs which they can then illustrate afterwards! Before starting the activity, you can use Dogku by Andrew Clements as a read-aloud to get your class hooked on this idea!
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Ever wondered if the Big Bad Wolf was framed? Or if Sleeping Beauty was actually a snorer? Your writers in training will have a fun time taking a classic fairytale and putting their own spin on it! Following five simple steps, your kids will be funky fairytale authors in no time!
These creative letter-writing prompts are sure to boost your kiddies’ imaginative writing skills! Whether writing to a pen pal or a favorite celebrity, letter writing is a great way to practice handwriting, word flow, descriptive language, and communicating all rolled into one! Have your writers grab their pencils and let the creativity flow as they write fun response letters to these prompts!
Teach sensory language and similes by connecting this tasty treat with the sense of taste! Your students will have a lovely time brainstorming how chocolate connects to each of our senses and applying that knowledge by writing some sweet similies! What a fantastic way to teach them how to use these essential creative writing tools!
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Another great way to teach sensory details is to have your learners write poems about their favorite foods! Task them with writing a line for each sense to describe the food! Everyone will be hungry after this creative writing lesson so it might be a good idea to have some snacks on hand!
Learn More: Mrs. Tice’s Class
Each season of weather has an array of characteristics making this the perfect activity to practice personification in creative writing! Allow your little writers to choose a season to write about as if it were a person with human characteristics. Winter is a no-brainer! It’s Elsa!
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To be creative writers, your kids need to know how to create realistic characters for their stories. For this class book, you’ll start by giving each student two opposing character traits. Next, have them demonstrate these traits by illustrating two characters and displaying them through dialogue!
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With Instagram being all the rage these days, your kiddos will have a fun time creating a ‘socialgram’ on paper! Challenge them to create a descriptive and engaging caption to go along with their “photo” in the post. Then, classmates can comment on each other’s work!
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Creative writing worksheets are a simple, minimal-prep tool to use in your creative writing units. Print out a variety of options, and have your kids practice their skills by finishing imaginative story introductions. By giving them a place to start their story, you can really take the pressure off your kids which will help ease them into the creative writing process!
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Here’s another low-prep option for the last-minute planners! Pre-written dialogue can help guide the mood of the story and allow your kiddies to just focus on filling in the characters’ actions. This is also a great way to model how dialogue is spaced out and balanced in a story!
Learn More: ESL Writing Worksheets
In this personalized character trait activity, your students will create a poster of themselves and label it with a bunch of different character traits. Descriptive, interesting characters are what make a story captivating, so this is a great introduction to understanding characters and their physical as well as personality traits! This is an activity that’s sure to help them build a strong foundation for their creative writing skills to build from!
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Engage your students as soon as they walk into your classroom with my best-selling, full-year bell-ringer set. Each day includes a unique and creative task. Topics include grammar, vocabulary, writing, and figurative language.
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I’m a curriculum writer, literacy educator, and all around book lover with a passion for helping English teachers engage their students with creative, high-quality resources. My mission? To make teaching English a whole lot easier for you, teacher friend!
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Incorporating engaging, hands-on activities for novels or short stories can breathe new life into any ELA unit! If you’re looking to get out of the book report rut, differentiate a novel study for learners of all abilities, inspire students to engage more deeply with their reading, or get a squirrelly class up and moving, a little bit of creativity can go a long way!
This week, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite engaging activities for novels and short stories. They work with any fictional text, and – best of all – many of them involve very minimal prep work! Here are 50 (yes, you read that right – FIFTY!) creative assignments and activities you can use with any novel or short story !
Good readers know how to make connections between texts, themselves, and the wider world. These activities for novels and short stories help students explore the various connections they can make to their reading.
Characters are the heart of any work of fiction. All these activities for novels or short stories are designed to help students understand and explore characters more deeply.
Encourage students to go beyond simple summaries with these creative activities for novels and short stories related to plot and writer’s craft !
All stories need a setting! Support students as they explore the locations and time periods where their text takes place with these creative activities for short stories or novels.
Good readers make good writers! Help students express their ideas confidently and creatively with these writing activities for novels or short stories.
I love seeing what students can do with a little bit of creative freedom to express their understanding of a text. Here are some of my favorite outside-the-box activities for any text.
There you go! I hope these activities give you plenty of ideas to help you make the most of your next short story or novel study!
For another similarly versatile activity that works well with most fiction texts, have a look at my post for Turning a Story Into a Video Game.
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These ten creative writing activities have enough variety for everyone. I use creative writing exercises to encourage young writers and have fun.
Creative writing encompasses more than fictional writing. Creative nonfiction, braided essays, traveling writing, and blogging can all fit under the umbrella of “creative writing.” The activities matter: We language arts teachers want students to explore and find themselves. Previously, I’ve written about how my attitude as a creative writing teacher sets students on the path to seeing themselves as writers. A combined set of powerful activities and attitude can create a dynamic creative writing course.
I use creative writing exercises throughout the school year with survey classes, and I sprinkle these activities during a creative writing class. You can check out my bundle , but you can create variations of these with your own inspiration.
However you incorporate these, you and your students will have great discussions and final products.
As I look at the standards and consider the needs of students, I want all my young writers to feel inspired and confident in their abilities to create, to entertain, to participate to the tapestry of social storytelling.
No matter how you adjust these activities, you and your students will have fun with them.
Students read tips from experts for basic life experiences. They have knowledge too! Shopping for a prom dress? Lifting weights for football? Interviewing for a job for the first time? Applying for college?
Students have a unique perspective to help others. Don’t make this paper is a “normal” step-by-step directions. Students will share their experiences and build confidence as writers. Capitalize on students’ experiences with this paper.
You have seen this activity with various twists in teacher groups and on social media. Overall, students add “googly eyes” which is ALSO what most people call the activity. Students will adhere googly eyes (often on sale around Halloween) to an inanimate object and make the object into a person. Students adhere the eyes to smashed milk bottles, doors, and skeletons. They then create a character, write a poem, or any other fun activity.
I have students share the lesson that the object has learned. A marker among many other markers learns that it must take turns. I
Reviewing products has become a genre on its own! Students will find a goofy product, write reviews for it, and write questions and answers for the product.
I use the banana slicer and milk . Other teachers have suggested the giant ball .
Provide students with a list of options for a character to have. Instead of seeing this activity as a “checklist,” encourage students to see the options as a brainstorming for a bigger character sketch.
I have used this activity at various times for fleshing out characters in a narrative. However, I often use this sheet as a one or two day writing assignment for students to create a character. As we close, students read their character sketch, and their peers draw and explain the character. The writer receives immediate feedback concerning the accuracy of the portrayal.
Who wants to write about food? I have used food poetry in two ways! Students can write a poem about food, or you can randomly assign food for students to examine and then write about. Bringing in the food helps and makes for a fun class period.
This activity is perfect for focusing on figurative language, describing texture and taste, and thinking.
A pencil? A phone? Simple?—Nope! Students will examine an object and write about that object as they explain the object to an audience unfamiliar with the object.
Real authors query their work with a letter. This assignment will work with any other activity as students will explain why the work should be published.
The query letter is the perfect reflection piece. You can ask students to write a query letter about any assignment.
A super short story is not easy to create even though students might think that it is.
Flash fiction is short, but students must ensure that all components of a story are present. This activity is perfect for working on editing and revising because every word must count in flash fiction.
Plus, punctuation matters a great deal in flash fiction, so you can hit language standards too.
Writing a children’s book is incredibly flexible because you can determine the length and the requirements (pictures, format). Students also understand the depth of children’s books by analyzing one.
You can grab inexpensive paper books at a dollar store, or students can create digital books.
Writing a profile is a difficult practice, and I often save this activity until the end of the semester. The process requires several stages, and writers must consider their subject from a unique angle. After students have worked with me for a few weeks, they understand the depth required in designing a profile. Students will practice interviewing and research skills while learning about a person. A profile requires that writers take an “approach” in telling their subject’s story. Students enjoy this creative nonfiction activity!
Actually, students enjoy all creative writing exercises because they can showcase their interesting beliefs and understandings of the world. They are flexible for grade and ability levels, so you can use them at various times.
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creative writing creative writing activities writing activities
Use the following worksheets to help you write your own poems or other creative works!
A Day at the Beach: Sensory Details
Summer First: A Silly Simile and Metaphor Activity
Selfie Poem
Acrostic Poem
Personification Worksheet
Cinquain Poems
Activities from our very own Creative Writing Club!
More writing activities open books book review (all ages).
Use this template to review a book you’ve read. Then, share your book review with others.
Create your own poem by using a marker to cross out words in these story excerpts. The words that remain will become your poem!
Open books blackout poetry (english) (grades 3-12), open books blackout poetry (spanish) (grades 3-12).
By andy minshew.
Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? While your young learners are probably not ready to write an entire book, this month is a great time to practice creative writing skills with your students. Not only can creative writing be helpful for teaching vocabulary and sentence structure, but it can also encourage students to use imaginative thinkin g —and even find a genuine love of writing!
All of these 20 creative writing activities can be used with elementary school students to practice reading and writing skills. We’ve included options for both early elementary students, who may still be learning to write, and elementary students in upper grades who are ready to work on projects of their choosing.
1. Join the NaNoWriMo organization’s Young Writers Program (YWP) ! Together, your students can work on all sorts of age-appropriate writing challenges and activities throughout the year—including a project of their choice in November!
2. To practice pre-writing skills and collaborating on a project, try these shared writing project activities .
3. If you have any budding cartoonists in your class, this Finish the Comic activity from author Jarrett Lerner can be a great way for younger students to practice writing dialogue.
4. Teach your students about adjectives and writing descriptions with this Popcorn Adjectives activity .
5. Students can learn about creative writing by studying imagery and poetry by established authors. Using this writing worksheet , kids can write out their thoughts about a poem and draw images that stand out to them.
6. To teach creative thinking skills with kindergarteners and early elementary students, try this Mystery Seed writing activity .
7. Get families involved, too! Share these fun home writing activities with your student’s families to help them practice at home.
8. Print out and put together a Writing Jar with tons of creative writing prompts to inspire your students.
9. Check out this resource for even more writing prompts focused on imaginative thinking.
10. Try blackout poetry , an activity that encourages students to make their own beautiful art from a work that already exists.
11. Creative writing isn’t limited to fiction. This narrative writing activity can teach students to write events clearly and in sequence from their real life.
12. For a creative writing project that’s just plain fun, try this Roll a Story activity.
13. This nonfiction project helps children learn to write a letter as they write to a loved one of their choice.
14. If you want to give your students some freedom in choosing a writing assignment, hang up this Writing Prompt Choice Board in your classroom and let them answer whichever prompt they’d like!
15. Encourage students to keep their own journal throughout the year. You could even give them time each morning to respond to a journal prompt .
16. Use this journal page template to help students structure and compile journal entries.
17. These printable Mad Libs can teach children different parts of a sentence while they use their imaginations to create a story.
18. Use this What? So What? Now What? exercise (#6 at the link) to help students structure their creative writing projects.
19. To teach children how to create descriptive sentences, play this Show, Don’t Tell writing activity .
20. If you’d like to hold a month-long creative writing activity, try this 30-Day Writing Challenge for kids .
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This list reflects recently published (2017) books that I’ve been reading. Of course, you can find many more picture books that also are wonderful writing prompts. Please leave any favorites in the comments!
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Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.
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This is a favorite of ours https://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Pamela-Zagarenski/dp/0544416864/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491658303&sr=8-1&keywords=the+whisper Thanks for this list. I’m off to add some to me wish list 🙂
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Need a creative lift as a writer? Try these 7 creative writing exercises for writers to boost your writing skills.
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Has your creative well run dry? Are you struggling to find inspiration for your next written work? Creative writing exercises could be the answer.
Just like any other skill, the art and craft of writing will benefit from the frequent working and reworking of your practices and habits. Creativity exercises for writers could unlock that writer’s block that you have been struggling to overcome and spur you on to new and exciting creative directions.
Creative writing exercises can take on many forms and can mean different things to different people. However, certain elements are common to most examples of creative writing exercises.
They are often produced in short, intense bursts, for one thing, and they are often entirely improvised. Improvisation is one of the earmarks of the creative writing exercises employed by many writers.
One other factor that most creative writing exercises have in common is that they often encourage the exploration and expounding of familiar subject matters in novel ways.
Many classes and guides that focus solely on developing creative writing techniques involve adopting short and spontaneous approaches.
Regardless of what form a creative writing exercise takes, it is smart for writers to adopt these practices and incorporate them into their daily routines. The goal is to expand their writing skills and develop the ability to tell the same story in as many different ways as possible.
Start by writing a few lines once or twice a week, spending only a few minutes each session. Gradually increase the length of each session and how many times you sit down to write per week.
Eventually, you could work up to about ten minutes per session, performing these exercises several times throughout the week.
If you feel like taking a break from a writing assignment or are between projects, you can try your hand at these creative writing exercises. They can also serve as inspiration for your next opus or strengthen your creative muscles.
Many writers have become conditioned to feel a great deal of stress or worry about being confronted by a blank page. This exercise will help you address this fear head-on.
Get a piece of paper and start writing the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t even think about what you are writing or edit your thoughts. This type of writing is known as “free writing”. Author Julia Cameron referred to this as the “morning pages” in her award-winning book, The Artist’s Way .
If you find yourself struggling with expressing yourself, try switching up your point of view. Take a chapter from your favorite book, or even just a scene if you want to start slow. Write everything that takes place from the point of view of another character. The goal here is to communicate the story in another way.
You could also vary this exercise by writing as if you are the main character by changing their point of view. If the story is written in the first person, try writing it from the third person. Be aware of the details that are omitted when you switch viewpoints. This frequently leads to an interesting new twist to the story.
Writing prompts or story starters can be invaluable writing tools that could encourage you to explore unfamiliar but interesting creative directions. These are sentences or short passages that could serve as springboards for writing spontaneous stories.
We have many writing prompts lists here at ThinkWritten you can use for inspiration, including 365 Creative Writing Prompts , 42 Fantasy Prompts , and 101 Poetry Prompts .
See what it’s like to write a letter or converse with yourself. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have a conversation with your younger self, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
You can choose any subject you want, from a significant social or political event or some words of wisdom to your younger version. Try to be as honest and as forthcoming as possible. The results might surprise you.
Try to crank out a piece of flash fiction. As with other creative writing exercises, don’t spend too much time at it. Simply sit down in front of the computer or a piece of paper, and begin writing. Flash fiction doesn’t usually go beyond 500 words, so try to keep it short.
Note: It might be helpful to differentiate flash fiction from the freewriting exercise discussed earlier. While freewriting involves generating words and ideas in an unbridled stream of consciousness, flash fiction is more about writing within a set of guidelines. In this particular exercise, try incorporating structural elements such as plots, conflicts, and character development, all in the goal of developing a logical story arc.
Writing fake advertisements is another potentially useful exercise. Few tasks can flex your creative muscles than trying to sell a product, person, company, or idea. You don’t need a lot to get started either. All you have to do is to select a word at random from a magazine or newspaper and get started writing an ad for it.
It might help to write one ad in a more formal tone, similar to the classified ads published in newspapers. This exercise will train you in using a few words effectively to sell your subject. You can then write another ad in a style similar to that published in online marketplaces, which allow for longer text. In both exercises, try to convince your readers to purchase the product in as definitive terms as possible.
Consider adopting a story from someone else and making it your own. Unlike the exercise that involves writing a story from another point of view, this one involves telling the same story from the same viewpoint but using your own words.
It could be any story you want to write about, from something a family member told you about or an urban legend that has long made the rounds of your town.
Whichever story you choose, try to write it as if it happened to you. If certain details are missing–which is often the case with old stories–don’t hold back from adding your own touches. You could even take a well-known story and write it as if you were there when the events took place.
There are only a few of the creativity exercises for writers you can try. There are many more variations that you could use to help you get back into the pattern of writing creatively.
If you ever find yourself stuck and unsure of what your next step should be, consider taking some time off and working on some creative writing exercises instead. After some time, you might find yourself becoming more eager to get back into it and more inspired than ever.
Tell us what you think! Do you enjoy creative writing exercises? Do you have any additional ideas for ways writers can continue to build and work on their writing skills? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Eric Pangburn is a freelance writer who shares his best tips with other writers here at ThinkWritten. When not writing, he enjoys coaching basketball and spending time with his family.
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105 Creative Writing Exercises To Get You Writing Again
100 Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors
This list of creative writing activities will inspire you while providing practice and encouraging you to try new things. Try one activity or tackle them all. ... Choose a piece of writing (it can be a book, an article, an essay — anything) and then write an analysis of at least 2,000 words (or about four pages).
Creative Writing Activity Packet
A selection of fun creative writing exercises that can be completed solo, or with a group. Some are prompts to help inspire you to come up with story ideas, others focus on learning specific writing skills. Intro. I run a Creative Writing Meetup for adults and teens in Montpellier or online every week. We start with a 5 to 20 minute exercise ...
And, yes, writing from a prompt is certainly an example of a creative writing activity (a highly effective one). However, writing prompts are only one way to teach creative writing. Other types of activities include games, collaboration with others, sensory activities, and comic strip creation to name a few. Unlike writing assignments, creative ...
101 Creative Writing Exercises takes you on an adventure through the world of creative writing. Packed with fun and practical tools, techniques, and writing ideas, this book will motivate and inspire you: Explore different forms and genres by writing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Discover effective writing techniques and expand your ...
8 Creative Writing Exercises to Strengthen Your ...
50 Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises
11 Creative Writing Exercises To Awaken Your ...
Here are 10 of our favorite story telling activities that inspire students: 1. Write an "I am from" poem. Students read the poem "I am From" by George Ella Lyon. Then, they draft a poem about their own identity in the same format Lyon used. Finally, students create a video to publish their poems.
Here are 12 fun creative writing activities that will boost your child's creativity, imagination and encourage them to write for fun. 18+ Fun Creative Writing Activities ... Pop-up books seem really complicated to create, but in reality, they are really easy to make at home. All you need is some paper, scissors and glue.
An easy lesson plan for creative writing that will pay off later is to activate prior knowledge. Brainstorm creative, memorable, unforgettable stories with students. Share your thoughts too! You will start to build relationships with students who share the same tastes as you (and those that are completely different!).
Creative Writing Skills is an activity book geared towards younger kids (ages 7-13, I'd say) that is designed to help them expand their imaginations and write a story/become an author. Each chapter tackles a different "lesson" in writing, such as character development, setting, plotting, and dialogue.
10. Read Your Writing Aloud. It's sometimes fun and instructive to read an extract from your piece aloud for others to listen to and critique. This creative writing activity works well in classrooms and in small groups. The act of reading it aloud will help you listen for sentences to edit and rewrite.
This extension activity rolls art and creative writing into one! Your students will have fun coming up with dialogue for each of the different crayons and you could even make it into a fun display for your classroom walls! Learn More: Buggy And Buddy. 19. Dialogue Pictures. Personalizing writing activities always makes it more engaging for kids!
Help students express their ideas confidently and creatively with these writing activities for novels or short stories. Letter to the Author: Students can take the opportunity to tell the author of the novel or story what they liked about the book, and ask thoughtful questions! Blog Review: Taking on the role of a famous literary blogger ...
These ten creative writing activities have enough variety for everyone. I use creative writing exercises to encourage young writers and have fun. Creative writing encompasses more than fictional writing. Creative nonfiction, braided essays, traveling writing, and blogging can all fit under the umbrella of "creative writing.".
Creative Writing Activity Packet. Activities from our very own Creative Writing Club! Download. Scattergories Download. More Writing Activities Open Books Book Review (All Ages) Use this template to review a book you've read. Then, share your book review with others. Download.
This narrative writing activity can teach students to write events clearly and in sequence from their real life. 12. For a creative writing project that's just plain fun, try this Roll a Story activity. 13. This nonfiction project helps children learn to write a letter as they write to a loved one of their choice. 14.
Try these thirteen creative writing exercises to practice and improve.
Imagine a City by Elise Hurst. Whimsical artwork accompanies prompts to imagine a more unique world — one with flying fish buses and teatime with gargoyles. This book would make a wonderful drawing or writing prompt. Pick an illustration and use it as a foundation for your own world. Boat of Dreams by Rogerio Coelho.
5. Try Writing Flash Fiction. Try to crank out a piece of flash fiction. As with other creative writing exercises, don't spend too much time at it. Simply sit down in front of the computer or a piece of paper, and begin writing. Flash fiction doesn't usually go beyond 500 words, so try to keep it short.