Playful writing prompts for nervous begins

October 2, 2007 9:00 AM

Really fun creative writing exercises for a group of mostly non-writers?

This previous question has some useful stuff, but I am specifically looking for really playful things that will get a group of tentative explorers going.

I'm leading a writing workshop for adults who are just beginning to explore writing. At our next meeting, I want to give them fiction-writing prompts to play with. I want them to stimulate creativity but be really fun. For an example, I still remember a workshop I participated in 15 years ago or more, in which the prompt was a short newspaper article about a high-school cheerleader who saved a car stranded on train tracks by signalling an oncoming train with her flaming batons. The writing that came out of that prompt was varied and good, but the prompt also set a playful tone. That's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

posted by not that girl to Writing & Language (15 answers total)

In high school, a teacher wrote a list of unrelated words on the board and the challenge was to use them all in a single story, written in 15 minutes. The words were all ordinary things, mostly nouns ("dictionary") but also some adjectives and verbs and such. We read them out loud afterwards, and there were all sorts of responses.

I might still have my story, and maybe I could find the words.
posted by matematichica at 9:07 AM on October 2, 2007

This might be a bit advanced for your class, but I recall a creative writing assignment where we could only write dialog - similar to a screenplay but the point was to become comfortable with HOW people speak and how that appears on the page.

It may sound sort of daunting, but when we read aloud each others dialog, introducing individual tenses, accents, etc into the mix, it was not only hysterically funny but as a writer, you got a terrific opportunity to see the "voice" of the narrative and understand the importance of an organic flow to written dialog.
posted by elendil71 at 9:17 AM on October 2, 2007

Print out a bunch of PostSecret images. Hand them out at random and have each student write the story that accompanies the image.
posted by booth at 9:41 AM on October 2, 2007 [2 favorites]

If they don't know each other well, have them pair up and write a fictional biography of their partner. Each pair could be assigned a genre or pick one (pulp fiction, crime thriller, fantasy, etc.). Good team building, as long as no one is overly serious about themselves.

Pick a bunch of random crap out at a thrift store, put it in a nice box. Tell them they found the box in their grandfather/grandmother's personal effects. Ask them to tell a story about something from the box ("Gramps pried this candelabra from the stiffening fingers of a Nazi torturer").

Have them write about their favorite childhood daydream ("I had a dragon named Ralf. He didn't breathe fire though, he breathed cookies.").

Search for WTF and similar tags on Flickr, print out the pictures, use those as prompts.

I have more if this is what you are looking for.
posted by JeremiahBritt at 9:44 AM on October 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I had an instructor who gave elendil71's dialog-only assignment, then had us rewrite the scene without dialog at all, using just body language.
posted by booth at 9:44 AM on October 2, 2007

The following have all worked for me in the past:

Character: Old photographs. Old portraits. This is a slightly less intrusive exercise than "See that guy on the street? Make up his life story." Sometimes this can be even more effective if you don't necessarily let the workshop participants choose the photo/picture they want, because it opens you up to writing about a character you don't immediately identify with.

Plot: Seconding the list of unrelated words, but I like limiting the number of words. A sort of "pick three out of a hat" idea. Newspaper headlines also aren't bad. I recommend local papers, especially if you also want to work on setting and context. The other option here is to go anecdotal, prompting your writers with something from their past--e.g. the first time you (ate a peach/ stole something from your mother's purse/ realized you couldn't fly/ etc.) Sometimes these can get pretty trite (first love, first death, etc) but most writers, even novices, have something to share. One of the best workshops I ever got was to rewrite a fairy tale. I was pretty young at the time, but I enjoyed it more than I thought and the subsequent workshop was uproariously funny.

Setting/Context: Sometimes spaces--regardless of tangible they may actually be--provide considerable inspiration. Challenge your writers to visit a place they wouldn't ordinary go (not necessarily a physical address) and describe it in whatever words they see fit. You might even think about convening your group somewhere out of the ordinary. I've always liked inventing cities and towns--and describing those could be an interesting exercise. And there's always the option of using the dream prompt--encouraging people to record and play off what they dream or where they dream. It's shaky ground and often what comes out of it only usable with a lot of additional revision.

Tone: One of my best friends is a playwriting professor. In her introductory course, she often plays music as a prompt, trying to summon up a tone or a general ambiance. This has never worked for me (and I'm a committed music fan) but a lot of writers I know work this way.

Style/ Genre: You can always try experimenting with "assignments." Write an anecdote (make sure you define the difference between story and anecdote.) Write a descriptive/expository piece with no dialogue. Write a dialogue with no description. Write something satirical. Write something completely earnest. Write something (for lack of a better term) "genre" (be it horror, mystery, romance, historical, etc). Write about some piece of your family history. I find the more specific you get with prompts, the more wide-open the results will be. Some of the weirdest shit I've ever read has come out of a fairly stream-lined prompt--and it will often completely contradict the assignment. An attempted satire about politics ends up being a completely sincere love story. A half-baked digression on the smell of grandma's baking cookies turns into an epic saga about conspiracy and espionage. The last terrible poem I tried to write actually turned into a novel. The first novel I ever tried to write was a much better play.

If you're worried about sounding too pedantic, you might be surprised how much your fellow writers will appreciate the direction, especially if they're unsure of how to start.

Finally, remind them that everything is a first draft. One of the best things about writing is that you're always able to revise--sometimes even after it's published

Good luck.
posted by thivaia at 10:04 AM on October 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

One of the best things about writing is that you're always able to revise--sometimes even after it's published


This is especially fortunately when you're as bad at editing yourself as as I am.
posted by thivaia at 10:10 AM on October 2, 2007

I only remember one exercise out of ten or twelve porkshows and it was: "Write about a childhood memory; use a lot of sensory details." It was great because even those of us who ended up with the usual "sketch that does not go anywhere" remembered long-buried things about our childhoods, and we all learned that childhood is a treasure trove of rich fodder for fiction blablabla. It actually turned out to be true, and a lot of people's childhood memory sketches became functioning stories. That was Marjorie Sandor's idea. She was a good teacher.
posted by Don Pepino at 10:16 AM on October 2, 2007

Since it's an adult group you could use one of my favourites:

Let each one write about an ordinary day at work or at home. BUT as if it was their favourite writer who wrote it.

Normally I set it up ask the group to think about a writer they really like and to think about what they like about that particular writer (characters, the settings, the writing/words etc).

Then I ask them to write "My day by xx" (beloved author) on top of a page and then write for 15-20 minutes straight. Shut of the inner critique and just write.

It's very liberating to masqeruade as an famous writer and pull out all the stops. And it gives an new perspective on your own daily life.

Take care.
posted by Rabarberofficer at 10:23 AM on October 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

It sounds like you're past your first meeting, but one exercise I used to use as a kickoff was to have people write down two things that were true about themselves, and one that was a lie, then go around and read them. (I'd warn them in advance about the reading aloud part.)

Some people wrote really outlandish lies, some people wrote very believable ones. It made for interesting discussion about ideas, along with the getting-to-know-you aspect.
posted by gnomeloaf at 10:28 AM on October 2, 2007

I recently put together a list of fun quick writing prompts; it's too long to post here but here's the link to them on my lj page.
posted by smoakes at 11:11 AM on October 2, 2007

Two ideas:

First, this is sort of a warm-up to help people break out of being too wordy and force different ways of approaching a concept.

Have them explain, in seven words exactly, a concept of your choice. What I've worked with categories, stuff like: Man, Devil, God. It generates some interesting stuff.

Secondly, write a scene wherein a character realizes discovers someone has been coming into their home to use their kitchen/bathroom/whatever without their knowledge. Stress that it doesn't have to be a horror.


The advice my writing prof gave me for character development was this: Invite one of your student's characters to the workshop, sit them down in a chair and have each person ask the character one question about their life. If the author cannot generate a response it means their character is too shallow.

Hope you find these interesting.
posted by apfel at 11:11 AM on October 2, 2007

The standard fiction writing prompt I've gotten in classes is "write a scene in which one character is trying to convince another character to give them something they don't want to give up"

Not as "fun" as your example, but I think it's just enough of a prompt to really focus on conflict, dialog, & character while at the same time allowing that "something" to be just about anything including abstract things like recognition or forgiveness.
posted by juv3nal at 12:05 PM on October 2, 2007

One of the most memorable writing prompts I ever had was having to start a story with whatever sentence the professor wrote on the board. In one case, the sentence was:

"In the morning, it was still hanging there."

Another prompt from that same class is probably a classic--write a 26-sentence story with the first letter of the first word of each sentence being in alphabetical order.
posted by faunafrailty at 8:24 PM on October 2, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for all of these--as well as for the implicit reassurance that I don't have to make it Disneyland to keep them engaged.
posted by not that girl at 9:20 AM on October 4, 2007