Today’s online writing groups’ poetry and story exercises: 30 June 2014

Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends, when I get them). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…

Poetry Writing Exercises 386: Monday 30th June

Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes per exercise, having a break in between each one or move on to the next.

You can do them in any order.

1. Keywords: leading, failed, shown, janitor, basket
2. Random: the dark kitchen
3. Picture: what does this inspire?
4. Monologue Monday: Write a first-person poem – done it years ago

Have fun, and if you would like to, do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on! Remember though that it counts as being published so don’t post anything that you would want to submit elsewhere (where they require unpublished material).

See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…

• Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
• Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
• Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
• Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
• Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
• Title = The title for your piece.
• Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
• Random = whatever takes my fancy!

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Story Writing Exercises 390: Monday 30th June

Here are your four story exercises for today.

Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.

You can do them in any order.

1. Keywords: light, orchestra, alone, only, around
2. Random: late again
3. Picture: what does this inspire?
4. Monday Monologue: Your character is ungrateful for a friend’s help

Have fun, and if you would like to, do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on! Remember though that it counts as being published so don’t post anything that you would want to submit elsewhere (where they require unpublished).

See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…

• Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
• Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
• One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
• Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
• First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
• Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. 🙂
• Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. 🙂
• Title: This is the title of your story.
• Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
• Random = whatever takes my fancy!

Tips

• Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
• Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
• Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
• Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
• Only use repetition to emphasise.
• When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!

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Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com

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