Writing Exercises?

[irishclover011]

Hi, I am trying to write short fiction which is difficult for me. Most of the time I write poetry. Does anyone have and writing exercises they use?

 

[Stewart]

Hi, I am trying to write short fiction which is difficult for me. Most of the time I write poetry. Does anyone have and writing exercises they use?

Pick this book up on Amazon Marketplace. I bought it many years ago and it has a number of workshops that may interest, inspire, and help.

 

[impalpable]

Stewart, does this have prompts/ideas for poetry as well, or just short stories?

 

[irishclover011]

Thanks! I'll check it out.

 

[Stewart]

Stewart, does this have prompts/ideas for poetry as well, or just short stories?

Just fiction, as per its title. For poetry you could do worse than The Ode Less Travelled.

 

[impalpable]

:lol: I didn't even look at the title. Thank you

 

[Kupov]

I am interested in developing skills as a writer too; not that I wish to pursue it as a career but it would always be nice to be able to express myself in a well written and interesting manner all the time.

Would this book be of assistance or are there others that you would recommend?

 

[vclouds]

The best exercise I ever encountered while in college was a list of first lines my professor would hand out. As an introduction to short story writing, she asked her class to pick one of the first lines and write a story. I don't remember most of them, but though it was years and years ago, I still remember the one I picked and the story that came of it.

The first line was this:

"I met him on the stairs."

So, try that. See if you can write a story with that interesting first line. If it absolutely doesn't tickle your fancy, try looking in some of your favorite novels and short stories to see if any of them have a first line you could use to build your own creation. Obviously you'd want to change the line if you ever attempted to get the story published, but since you asked for exercises, this one is useful.