Creative Writing Ideas

I discovered a real gem of a creative writing exercise,  inspired by Austin Kleon’s newspaper blackout poems. He takes a newspaper and blacks out  words with a marker that he doesn’t want, leaving a poem with the remaining words. Now my aim wasn’t really to write poems, I just wanted to get the creative juices flowing.

What I did was pick up a magazine and chose a random article (you can use whatever type of text you like). I would scan the article randomly stringing words together. I didn’t worry about it making sense, or being proper grammar. You don’t want to really think about it, but the words should relate somewhat in the style of a haiku or other type of poem. Again don’t really think about it too much because you will edit and refine it later. You want to go very quickly, and just take stuff off the top of your head. You need to do this to keep your left brain quiet. I did use one rule, and that was that the words had to go in order  that they were in the original  text. This made sure I would go quickly and kept me from jumping back and forth, which would cause me to think too consciously about what I was doing. I would make about two or three short sentences or phrases. I use the term sentences very loosely. When I was finished, I had a sort of poem, that could be used as is, as a writing prompt, or a subject for my art journal.

The amazing thing was that while I was not consciously trying to make sense, my subconscious was actually creating, and my results actually had several layers of meaning. I then would tweak them just a little and add or remove words, or just edit them briefly to make a little more sense. The main idea was already there. I’ll give you an example:

Somehow years of working had frozen them. Forgetting the meaning. Worn and faded they keep to themselves, while they lose the memories they never make.

This is about forgetting how to live. Forgetting to create, forgetting to pass things on. Losing memories of things you never took the time to experience. Forgetting what is most important and getting lost inside yourself. Also “all work and no play…” From start to finish, this one took me maybe two minutes. When I looked it over I was really surprised that it was this filled with meaning. It was a lot of fun. Try it out and see what you think. You might also want to check out Austin Kleon’s blog at austinkleon.com.  Happy Writing!

You have an essay to write, or an idea for your story, or a character you want to develop; but you can’t seem to get started. Here are some methods I’ve used for myself and my kids that help. Some of these ideas also work for other kinds of creative block or getting projects started.

1. Free Writing: Just get started. Sometimes the problem is actually that we’re editing ourselves, before we even have anything down on paper. We want it perfect the first time, or maybe we just need to get rid of the critic in our heads. It doesn’t matter if you start out writing, “I don’t know what to write”, or “this is stupid”, or if you have some fragments of your subject or idea. Do this for at least 5-10 minutes, no censoring, no analyzing, no editing. Often this is enough to clear your head, get your brain in gear and shut that inner critic up. If you already have ideas for your paper/story, and you’re just not sure how to execute it, just start writing what’s in your head, and worry about what order it goes in, and making sense of it later. Since we don’t use stone to write on anymore, you can always change it!

2. Mind Mapping: Write your topic or idea in the  center of the page and circle it. Draw lines radiating from that word and write other  related ideas as they pop into your head, branching from those and adding others. Work quickly. You should be chaining ideas together as you work, using new branches for separate ideas. In other words: suppose our center word was apple; you might have a branch(or row) of lines connecting all the words about how apples look, then a separate branch for all the words about how they taste, etc.

3. Take a Walk: Get up and take a walk and do something totally unrelated to your  writing for a while (don’t get lost) then try again.

4. Consult Others: Talk to others or read what others have written on the subject. Sometimes others’ ideas will spark something for you. Sometimes it just helps to bounce ideas off of someone else. Often while asking for help, the solution comes to me.

I hope these are helpful. Happy Creating!

Here are some writing exercises to inspire you and broaden your perspective. Once you read them, you will probably come up with some of your own ideas, which is the point. The main goal is to use either use  different senses than you normally would to observe something, or  limit your observation of something to one sense only

1. Imagine you can’t taste and describe a food by the way it smells/feels.

2. Choose an object or a color and imagine how you could describe it to a blind person, such as how it feels, or the feelings it evokes.

3. Describe something using only one sense. For instance what does a pot of boiling water sound like? Or describe your favorite (or least favorite) smell; What does rain look like, smell like, feel like?

4. Using your description from #3, and elaborate by writing about how it makes you feel.

5. Go to a park, zoo, mall, etc. find a safe, comfportable spot to sit and close your eyes. For ten minutes just listen, then writie about everything you heard. Sensing

There are many, many, free writing courses online, ranging from open courseware at various universities, to articles claiming to be courses that describe the subject rather than actually teach you how; giving you little opportunity for involvement. I did some research, and so far, I found what I consider to be some real quality courses. They are really comprehensive and seem easy to follow. These range from screenplay writing, to technical writing, to fiction, and more.

Remember, all writing is creative in my book. If you’re creating something, or figuring out a new way to express something, that’s creativity. So here is what I’ve found so far. While most of these are higher level courses geared toward college students, I’m sure there are also high school students out there who would benefit. I hope you find it really useful!

1. Steven Barnes’ 9-Week Introduction to Screenwriting Course at lifewrite.com. This is an in depth course, which he’s taught for many years at UCLA. You can follow it online or download the whole course. No registration is needed.

2. Purdue University online writing lab, is a wonderful resource free to everyone. They offer instruction in “creative writing” topics  such as Patterns and Variations in Poetry, as well as technical, business, proofreading and grammar lessons. And this is only an overview, ANY writer should get to know this site.

3. Wikiversity offers some good technical writing courses including audience analysis, researching information, and the mechanics of technical writing itself .

4. Writer’s Village University currently has a free workshop on Character Building, no registration is required for this course, however you do have to become a member for a fee, to access other courses.

5. The American University in Cairo has an excellent free course called “How to Write an Essay in Ten Easy Steps.” This goes way beyond the basic five-paragraph essay descriptions you frequently see. It explains each of the ten steps in depth from how to research your topic, to analyzing the information, and writing the actual essay. Plan to spend a few hours here. Then look around the rest of the site because there are some other useful gems for writers here.