Kill Writer's Block

Senses have it

2009-12-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

What are your most dominant senses? Are you a sniffer, a taster, a touchey toucherson? In this exercise, allow your least used sense to dominate. Describe what it feels like to perceive with this sense, observing the limitations and your feelings regarding it. Go into the experience and write it out.

The meeting, p2

2009-08-06T18:56:00.001-07:00

Write about someone you want to meet, living or dead, only this time, make this meeting go terribly wrong. Use trivial blunders or serious dreadful deeds; tap into the ultimate worst case scenario and run with it.

Favorite passage re-write

2009-01-13T15:46:00.000-08:00

Pick a page out of your favorite book, or a paragraph you like that evokes a mood for you. Now take all of the words on the page and mix them up and come up with something original. This exercise will allow you to experiment with the mood of words and if you only add a few of your own, you might discover something truly unique for yourself. Or it might suck. Who can say? Just try it.

The road trip.

2008-10-10T13:27:00.001-07:00

What was the best (or worst) road trip you ever took? Where did you go, and who was with you? Recreate that time on paper, recalling as many details as you can, or make a couple up.

You can also imagine you are stuck for 8 hours in the car with one other person and the radio is broken. Who are you with, what are you doing, and how do you feel? What sorts of things do you do to pass the time?

The Song List

2008-10-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Make a list of your 'personal soundtrack'. These are titles of songs that have meant the most to you in your life. There should be between 10-16 songs on the list.

Now, take those titles and use them in a story, either as the inspiration for the title, or a sentence in the story, or the main theme. Use the feelings that song evokes in you. You can try to work the themes from each song into one story, or you can use them each independently.

The picnic mystery

2008-10-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

You or your character is planning a picnic. What do they bring, where do they go? Is there anyone else there? What happens as the picnic proceeds? What are the scents, sounds, and the hopes of the participants?

The most awful sound

2008-10-05T14:46:00.000-07:00

What is a sound you cannot stand? Describe the sound, or invent a scenario which includes this dreadful aural punishment.

Meeting a character

2008-10-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you meet and what would happen during that meeting? Imagine and write an ideal meeting between you and this person. You can also write the scenario from the other person's point of view and meet yourself.

Publilius Syrus Quote

2008-10-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

"Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he."

Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? Write an answer in your journal, or use a story that illustrates this maxim from your perspective.