Writing Ideas and Exercises

Here are some unconventional ideas that can shake you out of autopilot and push your writing into new territory:

1. Write with the “wrong” tool.

If you normally type, try handwriting with a cheap pen, or even dictating into your phone. The shift in medium rewires how you think and forces new rhythms.

2. Steal a structure, not a story.

Take the skeleton of something totally unrelated—a recipe, a legal contract, a dating profile—and write your scene or poem in that format. The constraints spark surprising creativity.

3. Stop mid-sentence.

When you’re on a roll, cut yourself off mid-thought. It makes picking up again much easier and often produces sharper ideas when you’re forced to complete it later.

4. Limit your word choices.

Ban a common word (like “the” or “is”) or only use one-syllable words. Constraint breeds originality.

5. Reverse the senses.

Describe sounds as if they were colors, or textures as if they were smells. Cross-wiring sensory input gives your writing a strange, memorable charge.

6. Write “shadow drafts.”

First, write a bad, exaggerated, over-the-top version of the scene. Then rewrite it cleanly. The exaggerated draft often frees you from stiffness.

7. Start with what you hate.

List clichés, tropes, or endings you absolutely don’t want. Then write deliberately against them—it forces fresher choices.

8. Borrow headlines, then betray them.

Snatch random headlines or clickbait titles and use them as story openers. Then swerve into something totally unrelated.

9. Time-warp the perspective.

Write a scene as if it happened 500 years ago—or 500 years in the future—even if the content is modern. That shift in lens creates surprising angles.

10. Use “found interruptions.”

Grab scraps of overheard conversation, spam emails, or error messages, and drop them into your draft. Treat them as if they belong. The clash is pure energy.

Want me to cook up a set of exercises based on these hacks that you could actually try in a single writing session? That way you’d leave with a concrete “toolbox workout” instead of just ideas.

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Perfect. Here’s a one-hour creative writing workout built from those hacks. Think of it like circuit training for your imagination:

Warm-up (5 min)

• Write one paragraph by hand (if you usually type) or dictate into your phone (if you usually handwrite/type).

• Topic: “The strangest object in my kitchen.”

• Don’t overthink. Just get words flowing in the new medium.

Round 1 – Constraint (10 min)

• Write a short scene (half a page) without using the word “the.”

• Don’t stop to fix grammar. Push through.

• You’ll discover sharper, more inventive phrasing when “the” safety net is gone.

Round 2 – Wrong Format (10 min)

• Take something ordinary (a character waiting for a bus, two people arguing, a kid finding a lost dog).

• Now write it as if it were a recipe.

  
  

  • Example structure: Ingredients → Instructions → Notes.

• 
  

• The content will be strange, but that’s the point—it forces metaphor and fresh language.

Round 3 – Sensory Flip (10 min)

• Describe a city street using smells for colors and textures for sounds.

• Example: “The car horns were rough sandpaper scraping at the edges of the air.”

• This cross-wiring makes the scene vivid and unexpected.

Round 4 – Shadow Draft (15 min)

• Pick a moment you want to write (a breakup, a fight, a confession, someone quitting their job).

• Draft it in the most overblown, melodramatic, soap-opera style you can imagine.

• Then rewrite it immediately in a quieter, realistic tone.

• Compare the two. The exaggerated version often unlocks hidden intensity.

Cooldown – Mid-Sentence Trick (5 min)

• Start writing a new scene for just a few minutes.

• When you feel yourself hitting a groove—stop mid-sentence.

• Tomorrow, pick it up exactly where you left off.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-3q0MiBgBM_9Wlp4cyberHR7Xcrw_aOI/view?usp=drivesdk