Most people's first experiences with creative writing exercises were from high school English classes; where their teacher would likely let them know how to start and maybe follow up with an occasional prompt or two. The layout of these exercises is often, "Say this, now make something up, now say that"
It didn't just not teach you anything, it also limited your creativity at the same time - the worst of both worlds.
Could it be any wonder then that a lot of writers today wouldn't give creative writing exercises the time of day? They were bored half to death by them!
And this is rather sad, mainly because these exercises can genuinely provide many advantages, and give you the implements to improve your writing skills significantly - when they're done correctly.
The truth is, the way that your highschool teacher tried to direct you through those exercises was simply uninspiring (except perhaps for those of you that had the rare fortune of a good teacher). They could well have been merely waiting around for the bell to ring so that they were able to take another nap inside the teachers' lounge.
How then, should they be done?
Well, firstly, should have direction and purpose. The purpose of your highschool exercises was to write a story. However I feel we can all agree that to write a story, you don't actually need an exercise.
The aim of this type of exercise therefore, ought to be to practice a very specific writing skill in a way that puts strain on that skill and pushes you to improve it.
It's by doing this that you're able to focus on one of your sticking points, and then another, and then yet another, and so on and so forth, having the overall outcome of improving the caliber of your writing piece by piece, skill by skill - and not simply writing a story for the sake of writing a story.
Now we all know the benefits. Nevertheless, you could be thinking, "wonderful, but that still does not sound like a lot of fun."
Yet once again, that probably is more to do with the manner in which your old high school teacher taught them back in the day. Creative writing exercises can actually be fun and dramatically enhance your writing at the same time.
Something that many of us resented about them was the limitations put on their creativity by these kinds of exercises, when you are told what and how to write. What quality exercises try to accomplish however, is to leverage and empower your creativity to solve a problem. You've still got guidelines, but those guidelines are there to push you to adapt, and not just to conform.
It didn't just not teach you anything, it also limited your creativity at the same time - the worst of both worlds.
Could it be any wonder then that a lot of writers today wouldn't give creative writing exercises the time of day? They were bored half to death by them!
And this is rather sad, mainly because these exercises can genuinely provide many advantages, and give you the implements to improve your writing skills significantly - when they're done correctly.
The truth is, the way that your highschool teacher tried to direct you through those exercises was simply uninspiring (except perhaps for those of you that had the rare fortune of a good teacher). They could well have been merely waiting around for the bell to ring so that they were able to take another nap inside the teachers' lounge.
How then, should they be done?
Well, firstly, should have direction and purpose. The purpose of your highschool exercises was to write a story. However I feel we can all agree that to write a story, you don't actually need an exercise.
The aim of this type of exercise therefore, ought to be to practice a very specific writing skill in a way that puts strain on that skill and pushes you to improve it.
It's by doing this that you're able to focus on one of your sticking points, and then another, and then yet another, and so on and so forth, having the overall outcome of improving the caliber of your writing piece by piece, skill by skill - and not simply writing a story for the sake of writing a story.
Now we all know the benefits. Nevertheless, you could be thinking, "wonderful, but that still does not sound like a lot of fun."
Yet once again, that probably is more to do with the manner in which your old high school teacher taught them back in the day. Creative writing exercises can actually be fun and dramatically enhance your writing at the same time.
Something that many of us resented about them was the limitations put on their creativity by these kinds of exercises, when you are told what and how to write. What quality exercises try to accomplish however, is to leverage and empower your creativity to solve a problem. You've still got guidelines, but those guidelines are there to push you to adapt, and not just to conform.
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