6 Quick Writing Exercises to Help You Warm Up

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve shared tips about the end of the process – when you are completing a draft and getting ready to submit it. This week I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to take you back to the start of the process, and share some writing exercises to hopefully inspire you and help you flex your creative muscles.

Writing exercises are great to do for lots of reasons – you can warm up your imagination, they can help you come up with ideas if you don’t know what to write about; they’re good for exploring characters; you’re fun, but they don’t require much time or head space; if you’re feeling stuck they can help you look at things differently; and if you’re feeling disenchanted with a big piece of work, writing exercises can be a welcome distraction. So do give these a try and see how you get on!

Three rules to start with…

1. Set a timer as this will help you focus (could be 10 minutes or 30 minutes or an hour – any amount of time is fine – just pick a time that suits your schedule)
2. Keep the pen moving. Try not to plan it out or think it through, just write!
3. Don’t edit as you. This is about freeing your imagination, not being perfect.

Six Fun Writing Exercises

1. Write a diary for a day in the life of one of your characters. If you don’t have a character, write a diary for any one of these 3 characters:

2. Now, take 2 of the characters above. Write about how they know each other. Do they get along? What happens when they meet up?
3. It’s your first day of a new job. You walk into the office and below is what you find. Describe your day in 10 minutes (genre: drama).

4. Take 10 minutes to rewrite this idea as a comedy – how is your day different?
5. Granny takes her granddaughter out to the park. It’s the first time they have been alone together. The little girl leaves her favourite teddy behind by mistake. What does Granny do? She doesn’t get along with her daughter in law.

6. Now write for 10 minutes about teddy’s day, after he gets left behind.

That’s it, now get writing!

By the way, if you have a work in progress, see if you can tweak any of these exercises so that they relate to your own characters.

I’d love to know if you found this useful – and if you’d like more of this sort of thing? Or if you’d rather I focused on tips. Please let me know.

Also, is there anything that you’re struggling with in your writing? If so, get in touch, as I might be able to address your issue in a future post.

Finally, if you find my posts helpful, you can sign up for my weekly newsletter where I share tips on all aspects of writing, productivity, habits and different ways of marketing yourself and your work.

See you next week!