5 Challenges for Writers
There is this guy, a bad writer. I bump into him all the time and I find him always staring at me. It's crazy! Is he following me? Why?! And how am I supposed to improve my writing if I have to deal with this guy day after day? Maybe I should get those damn mirrors off the wall.
Anyway, I'm doing my best to put on writing muscles. Yep, that's why I do these writing exercises. They're rumored to be helpful. They'd better be, because otherwise I'd need to help myself to some other avocation. And since you are a good friend of mine, I guess, I can share them with you. They are from the heart.
Challenge #1 - The Legend
Dig up a family legend. Ask your family members if anything interesting happened to them or to someone they know in the past.
They don't need to be convinced that it's true. If the story is not particularly interesting you can spice it up a bit, but it shouldn't loose its personal touch.
Challenge #2 - Displaced Story
Look at a local paper
from a foreign country (can be English-speaking) on the net. Try to
find a story that intrigues you, maybe something weird and read it
carefully. Can you imagine this same story happening in the streets of
your home town, maybe in your own street? What would change? What would
stay the same? What kind of characters might become involved?
Challenge #3 - The Safe
Imagine that two people are trapped overnight in a safe. It's a large safe but nevertheless a small, cramped, stifling place for two people.
You can decide who these two are, how they got into the safe, how they relate to each other, what their night spent together in the safe is like, what their emotions are when rescued in the morning.
Challenge #4 - Eavesdropping
Get out to the streets
maybe to a crowded park or square and look at your fellow citizens.
Pick one that you find interesting and follow them. Stay close enough
to be able to watch how they move and what they do. Try to overhear
what they say. Gather as much information about your target's life as
you can. Then write up some fiction about this character based on the
details you've collected.
Challenge #5 - Free Choice
Pick any of these topics:
- imagine your parents together before they got married and write about what they could be like back then,
- take an inspiring photo and write anything that comes to mind,
- take a personal secret or ask your friends for one and write a story about it,
- describe a ritual that you have in your life,
- pick an object you like and tell your story imagining yourself as that object.
If you do any of these stories please leave a comment and perhaps a link for me. I'd like to read them. Thank you. :)