It's nearly that time of year again. Time to celebrate with friends and family. Or, for some of us, time to hare about in a screaming panic, eyeing teetering piles of merchandise with increasing despair. Remember, it's all material. The exercises below are written in that spirit. And we hope you get round to the celebrating part of the holiday.
Pass it On
Why not try your hand at a daisy chain story? These are written as a series of small scenes and/or character stories with a linking element. Point of view shifts, where you jump into the head of each character and hear their thoughts, are positively encouraged in this type of story.
You could use an unwanted present as your linking element. Is it taken straight down to the charity shop, or wrapped up and passed on to someone else? Where does it go after that?
Or you could write a story about the presents that a family or set of friends give each other. The challenge is to say something about the character of the giver and the receiver in the choice of gift.
Gaie has written a chain story using a ten pound note. You can also use a gesture (a smile, a kiss), or show the knock-on effect of random encounters.
If you really want to give yourself a hard time, you can close the loop and get your final scene to link back to your first.
Christmas Gifts
Have a look at the suggested titles below, and use them as a starting point. They might be inspired by Christmas, but they don't have to lead to sparkly, twinkly stories. When you think about it, "Silent Night" could be quite sinister. Or maybe it's just us.
Twelve Days
Silent Night
The Gift
Homecoming
Fairy Lights
Feasting
Crowd Control
Bring a group of characters together for a celebration, and then prevent them leaving. Snow them in, break the airlock, becalm the ship. You can make the situation anywhere on the scale from inconvenient to life-threatening. Who takes action and who hits the bottle? Who says things that they can't take back? Who makes things worse?
Picture Seeds
Use one or more of the pictures below as a starting point and write for 15 minutes.
Strange Brew
Read, heard or seen anything odd lately? A snippet of overheard conversation, a half-seen advert, a really strange fact, or unfamiliar saying? Use one, two or three odd things in combination in a story. Here's some random weirdness we've collected:
"...stir-fried and served to the audience..."
"...the asockalypse..."
Icelandic ponies have a fifth gait called the "tolt".
The Earth travels through space faster in June than December (thank you, New Scientist).
Play with Your Toys
Do you have a favourite toy, or an unfavourite? Seen a really cute or a really creepy doll in a shop window? Imagine what it'd be like as a person. Does he or she have any special or secret talents? Write about your new character.
If you need a story situation to get started, you could write about a theft. Is your toy the victim, the thief, or a detective?
Out of the Blue
October is a good time for ghost stories. Here's a collection of various reports of a "Blue Man".
Blue Man
Full Moon Blue Man
Blue Man Again
Blue Uniform Man
Imagine they are all reports of the same thing. Who or what is he? Demon, ghost, alien? Create your own legend, ghost story, or consipiracy theory.
Picture Seeds
Use any or all of the pictures below as a starting point. Write for 15 minutes. Want an example? Have a look at this Friday Flash.
The Rule Of Three
A writing friend has a theory that it takes 3 ideas to make a story, and we believe this works.
Rummage through your old files and notebooks for story fragments, scenes and ideas that didn't go anywhere. Pick three that still interest you and combine them into a new, whole story. (For example, you could take the setting from one, a character from another, and a situation from the third.)
You may need to think about the ideas from different angles to get them to fit together. Stick with it for 20 minutes - the subconscious is very clever at finding links and patterns.
Dynamic Duos
Try out this tongue-in-cheek internet toy for generating crime-fighting partnerships. Keep clicking until you find elements that appeal to you. Take as much or as little as you want of the character descriptions. Write for 20 minutes: a scene, some dialogue, or a plot outline.
Odd Man Out
Take one of the characters from your current work and write them an unconnected scene or short story. It may be helpful to do this for one of the characters you like/understand/know the least.
Picture Seeds
Use any or all of the pictures below as a starting point and write for 15 minutes.
The plot medics are away on holiday for the first two weeks of August. While we're gone, we thought we'd give you some exercises that are fun to do with friends.
Desperate Scavenger Hunt
Set up:
Get each person in the group to select 3 items from around the house, and put them in a bag. Nominate one person to be caller, and another as picker. As the picker selects an item in the bag (so the caller can't see), the caller says who the item will be given to. Make sure that everybody in the group receives one item.
Writing Exercise:
Who desperately needs the item you've been given, and why? Write for 20 minutes.
Genre Bending
Set Up
Each person writes the names of 3 story genres on separate pieces of paper, folds them and puts them in a hat/bowl/receptacle of your choice. Examples include high fantasy, hard sf, Regency romance, amateur sleuth, bonk buster etc.
Writing Exercise
Pick two pieces of paper/genres and write for 20 minutes combining the two in a scene or a plot outline.
Stylish Plots
Set Up
Ask each of your friends to bring a selection of books written in a distinctive style/voice. Sit in a circle, and each select a book for the person on your left.
Now get each person to write 2 plot situations on separate pieces of paper, fold them, and put them in a bowl. Examples include "a birthday party goes wrong", "jewellery is stolen", "a body is found" etc. Pass the bowl round, and each take one piece of paper.
Writing Exercise
Allow 20-30 minutes for each participant to read a section of their book, and get a feel for the author's style. Then take 20 minutes to write a scene for the selected plot situation in that author's style.
Picture Seeds
Use one or more of the pictures below as a starting point and write for 15 minutes
Walk For Inspiration
Go for a walk and make a note (possibly just a mental one) of things in odd places, for example unusual items discarded on the pavement. Use the items in a story or write one explaining how they all got there.
Be Artful
Visit an art gallery (or an online gallery if you can't get to one) and look at any pictures showing a group of people. Don't read the descriptions, make up your own story about who they are and what's happening. (Magazine adverts can also be used for this exercise.)
Change the Scenery
Find a new place to write. Cafes and other public places are particularly good when you're feeling isolated and/or sulky. This can help you past a tough spot in an ongoing piece, or use your surroundings to inspire you to write a new one.
Picture Seeds
Use any or all of the pictures below for a starting point and write for fifteen minutes.
Make Excuses
Write down every excuse you’ve ever come up with for not writing. Then write down every excuse you can possibly think of that anyone ever might come up with for not writing (e.g. ‘I was just about to start Chapter II when: demons ate my notebook; the dog levitated; the tree outside caught fire…). Use one of them as a story starter.
Whinge on the Page
Start with "I don't like writing about" and write for 15 minutes.
Go Backwards
Think up an intriguing last line. Now work backwards from that. If you're stuck for a last line, borrow one from a book, story, TV show or piece of conversation.
If you borrow from somebody else's work, remember to come back and change the last line when you've finished your story. It's just there to get you started (or, er, finished).
Picture Seeds
You know the drill by now. Write for 15 minutes using one or more of the pictures below to inspire you. If you're feeling extra adventurous (or stuck) use the picture prompts in combination with one of the other exercises.
Your Life As Art
Start with "I remember" or "I don't remember" and write for 15 minutes. If you can't recall something exactly, make it up! Feel free to change anything if you sense a story shaping up.
Still Life
Write a story from the point of view of a household object (e.g. a coffee machine – Gaie's would be complaining of overwork…)
Get a Life
Borrow a bit of someone else's life. Keep your trusty notebook handy to collect any interesting or odd snippets of overheard conversation, and take one or more as a starting point for a story.
Or use this amazing piece of internet art, created by Jonathan Harris, to select a random section of a blog. Try it in "Madness" mode and click on circles until you get a sentence that inspires you. Or try "Montage" mode for a combination of words and pictures.
Warning 1: The program selects text from blogs that contain the words "I feel". Some contain (very!) adult material.
Warning 2: Playing with this program can eat your time.
Picture Seeds
Here's our monthly batch of picture prompts. Use one (or if you're showing off, all) of the pictures to inspire you. Write for 15 minutes and see where it takes you.
Magazine Clippings
Cut up words from a magazine and throw them into a hat/bowl/receptacle of your choice. Without looking, pick five and use as many of them as you can in a story.
Extra challenge: Use them all in your title or first line.
Let Fate Decide
Shuffle a tarot deck and pick the first three cards that come up. Build a story around them.
Haven't got a tarot deck? Then use a free online tarot reading. The "Three Fates" spread will pick 3 cards for you. You could try the Rider Waite deck, which is rich in symbolism, or really leave it up to fate and select "Choose for me".
Warning: If you do play around with the online site, remember to actually do the writing.
Come to Your Senses
Write an entire scene using a sense other than sight to describe what is happening.
Picture Seeds
Use one (or if you're showing off, all) of the pictures below to inspire you. Write for 15 minutes.
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