Writing Activities

We can all use writing activities to get writing, keep writing, and to work through writer’s block – never more so than in November.

do not disturbNovember ushers in the advent of NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month…that one month in the whole year that thousands of people set to work to writing a novel in just one month…one crazy, inspired, torturous, panicked, exciting, brain exploding, finger numbing month of writing!

 

It all started with 21 people in USA in 1999 and has grown and grown. Soon after came a website, then overseas participants. Now this non-profit organisation has to date (in 2013) seen 294,951 people sign up to write 50,000 words in 30 days! And (in case you’re interested) it’s not too late to join and play catch up.

 

For anyone who has written or tried to write a novel, you will know that writing inspiration can wax and wane. There can be times when you need to shake it up a little, when ideas seem thin on the ground. Sometimes you just need to write your way through the bumps and hiccups…and writing activities can help you do just that.

 

Writing Activities

  • Author, Jostein Gaardner said,  “I am, myself, the focus of my own work.” Why not bring a little autobiography to your writing. Take a current problem give it to your main character and write a possible outcome.
  • Take an event from history and re-write the outcome: perhaps Henry VIII didn’t get rid of all those wives after all!
  • Take your favourite photo, pick a word from the dictionary at random, select one sentence from your favourite book – and write them together somehow.
  • Is there a perfume that reminds you of something or someone? Get a sample of that perfume, use it to evoke your memory.
  • Take a well-known character from myth or fairy-tale (like Medusa, or Little Red Riding Hood, etc.) and pop them into your story – have them bump into your main character.
  • Get your friends to write down their weirdest aspect or quirk – put these together in one character.
  • Take the headlines from the front page of a newspaper – write these in somehow with your main character.
  • Complete the following:

 If I could read minds…

The most scared I have ever been was…

 I just can’t stand…

There are some things I can’t tell anyone…

I’d like to ask you a question…

Today should have been quiet…

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Hopefully, some of these activities get your creativity flowing. Who knows, they might even generate ideas for your novel. The important thing, as every NaNoWriMo-er knows, is to KEEP WRITING!

Good luck.

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Photo Credit: Do Not Disturb

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