...where ideas work harder

Click above to read and subscribe to our blog Books For Writers   Writing Prompts                               Return to the writers' page Like athletes, writers need to train to remain in peak writing condition, or Literary Fit.   The more you write, the more creative and adaptable you are, leading to you becoming a better, more productive writer.   Here are some writing prompts inspired by the themes in Fiction Writing Exercises.   Set yourself a time limit of 30-60 minutes where you do nothing except focus on this scene.   If you'd prefer, think about the idea during the day and then sit down to write it up in the evening. Once you've completed the exercise, file it away somewhere - you never know when you might need a similar scene and you'll have one all ready to adapt. Even better, why not paste it into an email and send it to me for free feedback?   Or post it as a comment on my blog, Books For Writers, to bring it to an even wider audience. These exercises and other free articles can also be found on my dedicated writing blog - follow the link at the top left to read or subscribe.   If you enjoy the exercises, you'll find 120 writing prompts on 30 themes in my book, Fiction Writing Exercises, available from http://www.lulu.com/ as either a paperback or a less expensive e-book download.   The cover price includes free feedback on any scenes you write from the exercises, making it an online writing course rather than just a book.    Click the book's cover on the right to be taken to the dedicated sales page.  Keep writing! Write about the weather At some point in your novel-writing career you'll probably need to describe a scene featuring the weather. It can be a sunny day, a storm out to sea or a grey day in the centre of the city.   If, when writing the scene, you call simply on your imagination, you're missing a trick.   Why not make it easy for yourself by describing the weather as you experience it and then file it away for future reference? Don't write cliched phrases like, it was hot and sunny or the sky was grey.   Be more creative than this.   For example, if it's raining, how is the rain hitting the pavement?   What colour is the sky?   Where is water dripping from?   What's floating in the puddles?   How do people walk under an umbrella with rain beating down on them? Next time you come to write a rainy scene, your prose will have an authentic ring that you'd find it difficult to create from imagination alone.   And, as it's so easy to store words digitally, you could have lots of mini-essays on every type of weather to draw on in the future. Say goodbye to someone or something. Saying goodbye isn't always a time for tears and regret.   There can be a mixture of emotions.   For example, parents dropping off their daughter at university may be upset at their daughter moving out but they'll also be a great deal of pride and even some relief and having achieved her university place.   On the girl's part, she might be nervous but she'll also be excited at the thought of living independently, making new friends and staying out until the early hours! Farewell doesn't need to be the end of a chapter either.   It can also be a new start or a time for characters to reinvent themselves.   And don't feel that you always need to involve people in the scene.   Say goodbye to a house you once lived in or the town where you grew up.   How did you feel on selling your first car?   Have you ever had a pet die? Return to the writers' page