How to Get Creative: 6 Exercises

I’m close to finishing the first very rough draft of Lightning Strikes, which is so exciting! I have a *phenomenal* beta reader and am really and truly happy with the progress I’ve made. Once it’s edited and polished, I’m going to start querying agents, and I hope to begin that process in March.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share this article from Writer’s Digest that offers six easy writing exercises to fuel your creativity. It was written by Gabriela Pereira, “…the founder and instigator of DIYMFA.com, Gabriela’s mission is to empower writers to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growth. She earned her MFA in creative writing from The New School and teaches at national conferences, local workshops, and online. She also hosts the podcast ‘DIY MFA Radio,’ where she interviews best-selling authors and book industry insiders about the art and business of writing.”

Pereira believes that “…Creativity is more like a muscle: If you practice regularly, flexing and training your mind to absorb inspiration from various sources, that muscle will get stronger. Eventually, you’ll be able to come up with ideas on demand, almost like turning on a faucet.” She offers the following six exercises as means to strengthen your muscle of creativity, so that no matter what kind of writer you are, they can all be beneficial.

Image file
This is basically a picture prompt. You can Google Search images or collect favorites from postcards, magazines, etc. The picture can be a source of inspiration; what’s going on in the picture? Who’s in the picture? “A single image can spark an entirely new story, or help you go deeper into a story you are currently developing. Landscapes or cityscapes can serve as settings where you can place your existing characters to see how they react.“
Character compass
I think this will come in handy when editing.

3. Color theory
What a cool, refreshing, abstract way to think about characters!

4. Negative space
I can personally attest to how great this exercise is. My laptop is filled with snippets of scenes I may never use but definitely inform the story as a whole. “If you find yourself getting stuck, write a short scene where you follow a supporting character ‘offstage’ or into the negative space. Even if you never use that scene in the story itself, you will get a better understanding of that supporting character and her motivations.”

5. Word Box
Pereira pulls five to seven random words from a box and uses them as her inspiration. If you don’t have a “word box,” on your desk, she provides the link for an online generator: https://www.randomlists.com/random-words

6. Acrostics & Word Puzzles
“Start by writing a name or word vertically, one letter per line. Now craft a poem or paragraph of prose around that vertical word. You can make each letter the first in a sentence, or you can simply embed those letters into the text at random. Keep in mind, however, that if you want someone else to be able to “decode” your puzzle, you will need to follow some sort of logic in how you hide the letters. Another fun way to use this tool is to create an acrostic bio for a character in your story. In this case, each letter of the name corresponds to some trait or quality of that character.”

Give some of these exercises a try over the next week and let me know in the comments how you do!

Also, if you’re interested in reading the rough draft of Lightning Strikes, reach out!

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