Exercising, Part 2
Having gone on and on about how much I dislike writing exercises, I'm now going to talk a bit about how and when I think they're useful. That would be mainly as very specific, targeted ways of addressing particular problems or writing skills that aren't as developed as the rest of the writer's tool set.
Unpacking that a little: Most writers, in my opinion, don't need to do special exercises on (for example) dialog or description, because their stories give them plenty of opportunity to practice those things. Every once in a while, though, one runs across somebody who just can't get the hang of something. Maybe it's because they normally don't think that way, or maybe they picked up bad habits somewhere along the line, or maybe it's something that is their absolute least favorite thing in the world to write, so they unconsciously avoid it whenever possible.
Such writers can write whole novels without ever picking up the skill they're missing, because part of the reason it's missing is that they consistently leave whatever-it-is out of their work. Sometimes, they don't even notice that it's missing until half a dozen beta readers complain bitterly and at length. In my experience, the right writing exercise can go a long way toward fixing the problem, because it forces the writer to address it directly. They can't avoid writing dialog if the exercise is to do two pages of "talking heads" (dialog and nothing else).
Another use for writing exercises is in helping the writer understand more clearly how to use some of the basic tools in the writing toolbox, like language and punctuation. A lot of the exercises in Ursula le Guin's excellent Steering the Craft are this sort. Excercises can also help with understanding concepts like "show, don't tell" and the effect of using different types of viewpoint.
As with so many other things in writing, diagnosis is critical. Doing a bunch of dialog exercises isn't going to be much help if the real problem is with characterization or viewpoint. That said, here are a few of the exercises I found useful when I was teaching writing classes. If they don't appeal to you, or if you already know how, skip it and work on your ms.
1. Characterization, word choice, and description. Start with a character of average build, brown hair and eyes. Write a paragraph describing this character in such a way that the reader really likes him/her, using only the character's physical characteristics. Then describe the exact same character, using the same physical characteristics, so that the reader will dislike and mistrust the character.
2. Description again: Choose a picture of a place. With the picture in front of you, write three paragraphs of description without using any visual cues or images (that means no shapes, colors, etc.). Use only sounds, smells, sensations, and taste. Nouns are OK.
3. Viewpoint: Write a one-page scene in first person. Write it again, from the viewpoint of the same character, in second person, tight-third-person, camera-eye, and omniscient. (If all you do is change the pronouns, you're missing the point.) For bonus points, do it again in several different formats, e.g., letters, journal, first-person-over-the-shoulder. I did this by accident when I was writing the viewpoint handout I used in my writing classes. I used the same scene to illustrate each kind of viewpoint, and I was amazed by how much I got out of doing that, even though I'd thought I knew quite well what all the differences were.
4. Indirect characterization and description: Describe the contents of a woman's purse (or someone's junk drawer, or some other personal collection of miscellaneous useful stuff), so that by the time you're done, the reader knows a lot about the owner of the purse, junk drawer, or whatever, even though you don't get to say anything about that person directly.
5. Write two to four sentences summarizing (or "telling") an event or a character. Then write one-half to two pages dramatizing (or "showing") the same thing.
6. Viewpoint/characterization. Pick a character from something you're writing. In either first-person or tight-third-person, write a description of a place (inside, outside, doesn't matter) using that character as your POV. Pick a different character, and describe the same place in either first-person or tight-third-person from that character's viewpoint.
7. Anything out of Steering the Craft, mentioned above. I like the no-punctuation, no-adjectives, and short/long sentence exercises best, myself. These exercises aren't suited to everyone, and a lot of them seem to appeal more to experienced writers than to beginners, but I think they can be useful for anybody.
