My goal for this website to provide helpful advice and ideas to get writers with children and other part-time or busy writers writing more, and writing more productively.
Get writing again through exercises and prompts
One of the best ways to get writing again, or to get writing quickly when you have a short space of time available, is by writing to a specific exercise or prompt. In this section, I will provide a variety of general prompts and then more specific prompts that relate to all aspects of creative writing, from character specific exercises, to plot and structure related exercises; and exercises related to the various forms of creative writing, from short story to the novel, and occasionally exercises that are applicable to screenwriting, and writing for television. There will also be short exercises and prompts available to get the juices flowing, and longer exercises for when you might have more time available.
I will also include some of my favourite writing exercises from other sources, along with references and links.
Writing Workbook in progress…
My end goal is to provide a list of exercises, that if one follows, will eventually lead to developing and writing your novel or short story, or treatment and plot points for a screenplay. I love the idea of workbooks, and having a template to follow; at least for when I’m starting a project, just to give me some sort of framework or ‘map’ to follow. But I understand that this may not be for everyone.
There are many ways to approach writing, and structuring and plotting a story. And the best advice I could give in this regard is to just try different things, and develop what is right for you; be it following a list of exercises and prompts, or developing a plot point or scene list and writing from that, or just free writing straight from the hip.
What will follow is sometimes right for me. Sometimes I follow this, but other times I branch off and try free writing. Occasionally, I’ll try to find some new strategy altogether, and usually, I’ll find some new course or book to invest my time in, instead of just sitting down and writing. This is my way of procrastinating. But at least having fun and stimulating writing exercises and prompts on hand to begin, has helped, more often than not, to avoid procrastinating and start taking action, and making the most of my most precious spare time.
Tell us what works for you?
If you have an exercise or prompt that is a favourite and think others would benefit from, please share below; I would love to hear what works for you 🙂
