Writing Exercises

Star has been posting some writing exercises on her blog; I don’t really want to try them right now, but I’d like to take a crack at them eventually. But if I don’t save them somewhere, I will undoubtedly forget them and/or lose them. So! They’re being saved here.

Writing Exercise #1
Exercise paraphrased and slightly modified from Fiction Writer’s Workshop by Josip Novakovich.

This one should take about two pages, and runs from Monday, January 4 to Sunday, January 10.

The exercise is all about description and setting — no narrative required or involved. (Or, OK, not much.) Start by recalling a favorite place in nature. Novakovich suggests a bridge, but we changed this because I don’t actually have a favorite bridge. I do have a favorite beach, and I’ll be using that; you could use whatever sort of location you’re familiar enough with to describe it in detail.

Got it? Okay. Now you’re going to write two descriptions of that place (one page each), seeking to capture two different moods. In the first one, describe the place from the perspective of someone who has just been offered a really good job. In the second, describe from the perspective of someone whose significant other has just committed suicide. Don’t tell us about the person’s emotions directly. Don’t describe the person’s plans, regrets, thoughts at all. Show us how he or she feels by the way the details of the setting are perceived. In the example of the bridge, Novakovich suggests looking at the stones of the bridge, the river traffic, the vegetation along the banks, the water.

Have fun!

Writing Exercise #2
Exercise paraphrased and slightly modified from two exercises appearing in Fiction Writer’s Workshop by Josip Novakovich.

This one should take about three pages, and runs from Monday, January 11 to Sunday, January 17.

This exercise focuses on dialog. Your scene: Two men and a woman eating dinner. Man #1 is in love with the woman, who is in love with Man #2, who in turn is in love with himself. (I’m sure you could rearrange genders as you please.) You want to show your reader this without coming out and saying it. Illustrate it through body language, through the way they speak and act toward one another. A secondary goal in addition to the descriptive bits is to practice mixing dialogue and action or description. As you’re doing this, also be sure that you keep each character distinct. Let us know who’s talking without using dialogue tags.

Happy writing!

That’s all for now- I have writing to do!

Autumn // Kat