10 Writing Exercises to Help Your Creative Flow
Some days, our creative senses are craving to put words on paper; on other days, it feels impossible to get them going. Writing is comparable to activities such as going to the gym or waking up early in the morning—you’re not always going to feel motivated to do it. Sometimes you have to push through the barriers and simply write something, even if it’s not a piece you’re proud of.
On the days you’re struggling to put ink on your paper or your fingers to the keyboard, try following these 10 writing exercises to help your creativity flow.
Listen to a song
This is by far my favourite way to get myself in a creative headspace. Pick a song and listen to it all the way through. Sit back, close your eyes, and let the lyrics melt into your mind. Then play it a second time and start writing—it can be single words, phrases or sentences. Once you’ve got your ideas out, read everything and start putting them together to form a coherent piece.
Build a character
No matter what type of creative writing you’re practicing, whether it be poetry, short stories or novels, building strong characters is crucial. Because of this, sometimes it’s helpful to start by picking apart your characters. What does he or she look like? What are their hobbies? Quirks? Fears? Try to imagine what makes them unique. Odds are this exercise will spark how you want to tell a story.
Blackout poetry
You may be thinking, ‘how can blackout poetry be an exercise to help your creativity flow?’ While you can create innovative blackout poems, this form of poetry can also inspire you to create more. Grab a sharpie and cross out what you don’t want, leaving words that flow beautifully together. Then build on it. Blackout poetry is a great starting point.
Eavesdrop
You read that right—listen to other people’s conversations. I remember doing this as a creative writing exercise in high school, and felt a little uncomfortable. Now I find it’s a helpful way to get ideas. Sit back in a coffee shop, subtly tune into another table’s conversation and write down words or concepts that strike you, or use their dialogue and create a piece based around the conversation.
Pick a word you don’t know out of the dictionary
Grab a dictionary and choose a word you don’t know the definition to. You can either use this word in your piece, or simply use its meaning as a guide. This one can be quite a challenge, but I’ve found mixing things up can really motivate me to come up with new concepts. As a bonus, you learn new vocabulary.
Morning Pages
Julia Cameron coined the ‘morning pages’ method in her book The Artist’s Way. It’s essentially a journaling technique, suggesting you wake up early in the morning and fill three pages based on your stream of consciousness. You don’t have to do it in the morning; however, I would recommend it because you’re more likely to be productive throughout the day if you get your ideas flowing early.
Write single words
By this point, you may have clued into the fact that you don’t need to formulate sentences right off the hop. I often start by writing down a few single words. I like to write down between three and five words, and incorporate all of them into a piece. This forces you to start with something on the page, rather than just staring at an untouched paper in a slump.
List off your five senses
Head to a different location, maybe the park, the mall or a restaurant, and write down your five senses in depth. Again, this gives you a starting point. The key to any good writing piece is to show, not tell. Describe to your readers that the smell of bacon is wafting in the air, you can hear it crackling in the pan. It’s a little chilly as the winter air sneaks into the building when customers open and close the door. Set the scene, don’t simply say you’re in a restaurant. Starting off with listing your five senses can not only enhance your writing, it’s also bound to get your creative senses going.
Pick a news headline
This is the only time you’ll catch me saying just read the headline on a news article. Imagine what the story is about, who’s involved, and what they might say. It’s a great way to develop your own ideas and characters with inspiration from such a simple aspect of everyday life.
Read your old writing
You may be embarrassed by digging out your old journals and reading your work from when you were just learning, but now’s the time to improve on it. As a poet, I’m often writing several short pieces that I haven’t gotten the chance to fully develop. They’re easy to forget about. When I go back, I’m always thinking about how I can improve or recreate old work.
Hopefully at least one of those writing exercises will help get your creativity flowing when you’re inevitably feeling uninspired. There’s a common theme interwoven with each exercise—abandon that piece of you that constantly wants to stop and edit. When you you stop writing, you may be leaving ideas behind that could create a stunning piece of writing. The first draft likely won’t be perfect. Teach yourself to start by writing without any hesitation and you can go back and groom as many times as you need.
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About Jayda Noyes
Jayda Noyes is a journalist in Saskatchewan, Canada, but has been a lover of creative writing for much longer. She’s fresh out of university with a bachelor's degree in journalism, and now writes for a small city's daily newspaper. While she's passionate about giving others a voice, creative writing is how she gives herself one. She shares her poetry on Instagram and her website connecting and drawing inspiration from other creators.