A true library cat!

Dog reads about his cousin...

Group Exercises

• Develop characters and a plot for a short story. Have each group member write the story from a different character's point-of-view.
  
• Describe a scene (something from your current project, your daily life, anywhere), using sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.
  
• Pick several categories (say, Character, Place, Time, Event, Odd Object, Conflict) and have everyone write one or more suggestions for each. Put the suggestions into a hat (one category at a time), and have everyone draw a suggestion from each category. Then, everyone must write a story which includes the suggestions he or she pulled from the hat.
  
• When your group is in a public setting (such as a coffee bar), pick one person in the room and have everyone in your group write a detailed description of that person, including both appearance and mannerisms. Compare your descriptions to see what unique things each member noticed. OR
• Choose a person or people from another table and think of a story surrounding their reason for being there. It is interesting because one observes the tiny details (such as the way people are interacting, clothes, manner, etc.) and uses them to add truth to a story.
  
• Gather your group together in a circle. Have each person write an assignment for the person to his or her left (for instance, "Write about a seal taking a train to California" or whatever). Write for ten minutes on that assignment.
  
• Gather your group together in a circle. Someone will start the exercise by writing one sentence. Pass the paper to the left, and the next person will write the next sentence. Go on until the story ends, or until it gets so outrageous it can be brought to a close! OR
• Have your group write a progressive story. Select the order in which members will contribute by drawing numbers from a hat; then, each member may twist the story in any direction by contributing one page per turn.
• Have each member suggest a word (such as an item, character, or event), then have everyone write a story using all of the words suggested.
  

Poetry Exercises

• Divide a piece of paper down the middle. On the left side, write about nine nouns (not necessarily related to one another). On the right, write about nine words related to one certain occupation of your choice. Then draw lines from one column to the next, connecting one noun with one word from the right column. Choose one of these paired-off words and write a poem using them.
• Haiku Training Exercise
• Come up with twenty-five synonyms/images for the color red. (e.g., apple, bullfighter's cape, fingernails, rose-colored glasses, ketchup). Although this is kind of a cool exercise in itself, don't stop there. Try to use all, or most of, the words in a piece of writing, whether poetry or prose.

General Exercises

• Write a paragraph about or describing, love. Do not use the word "love" or any of its synonyms (or opposites) in your work. Now try the word "hate", "disappointment", "tragedy", or "family"
• Use your five senses...
• Create a character by starting with just a name. Add details until that character gets placed into a plot.
• Take an ordinary snippet of a memory, maybe from childhood, and embellish it, disguise it, turn it into a "new" recollection.
• Write about something embarrassing that once happened to you (or, if you're writing fiction, to your main character). Write it once as a cheerful letter or email to someone who you (or your character) doesn't want to know how painful it was: make this version humorous or light. Then write a journal or interior monologue version in which it is explored more fully and deeper.
• Just write anything off the top of your head: "The repair people come and go all day long." "I wish I had a new hat." Whatever. Either have each person choose one of their own openings to write about, or put them all into a hat and draw. Then take about 15 minutes to write. Take a few minutes to read over what you've done and see if it's going somewhere, then do another 15 minutes; could be a rewrite, a continuation, or a new tangent based on something in the first bit. Repeat. Do the write/read sequence at least three times-four or more if you have time-and try to end up with a story.
• The classic: Begin with the line "I remember" (or "I don't remember"), and write for fifteen minutes.
• Think of an important event in your life or in a project you are writing. Write the weather for the day it happened. This may require closing your eyes, counting down from ten, trying to empty your mind– whatever works for you to become focused. This exercise, of course, is not just about the weather, but about going deeper into the past by using the sense details of what it felt like to be in that place at that time
  
• Write a scene from your current project, from a different perspective (i.e., rewrite a scene from a different character's point-of-view, or from the same character's, but using first person instead of third).
  
• Write a story from the point-of-view of an ordinary object (for example, a rug).
• Observe someone's hands (this can be in memory or imagination. Describe them as fully as possible. Notice shape, skin texture, any jewelry or disfiguration. What clues do these hands give you about the person's life?
• Try this exercise, which can work with fiction or with memoir or other personal narrative. Have your character (or yourself) observe, remember, interact with-- a small child. This works especially well if you first spend some time observing the child and describing it-- especially how it moves, what it does.
• List 3-5 specific experiences that have made you the person you are, then list 3-5 relationships that have been important in your life, then list 3-5 unique things that you do (habitually), then list 3-5 places that have been important in your development, list 3-5 experiences you'd mention if someone asked you to explain why you do the work you do. THEN, circle the three list items that have the most story potential or that you're most interested in telling. THEN, free write for 10 minutes on one of those.

Non-Fiction Prompts

• Create a mini-biography of any former politician
• Create a list of ways to save money when feeding a large family
• Write a report about the newest break-through’s in prosthetics.
• Write a how to "Build a homemade compost bin using only recycled materials".
• Write about the end of the American Revolution.
• Comment on the first African-American President
• Compare the lives of Presidential children throughout the years.
• Discuss the traditions that have been passed from one generation to the next, in your family.
• How have social networks affected your time online?
• What major companies have joined the fight to save the rainforests?

Have your own favorite? Let us know!