MEMORY MAPPING
Many people would love to write their memoirs or use segments or events from their own life to fuel their fiction writing. Using your own memories will give you a world of material to use during your creative process.
ADDING TIME PRESSURE
Write a dialogue between two people. One is trying to tell the other something important while a third character (off screen maybe or outside) interrupts them up to four times with the sentence: Hurry up! We are going to be late!
DON’T MAKE A SOUND
The bad guy is trying to figure out if there are children hiding in the house. The owner of the house knows where they are and so does the reader but is trying to convince the bad guy that he knows nothing.
I’M NOT HERE
Three friends are in the room. Two of them are having a conversation about the third. The third person can hear them but does not take part in the conversation.
SAY IT WITHOUT SAYING IT
This exercise is a classic!
A woman just found out that her husband has been cheating. The husband comes home and they have a conversation. They don’t talk about the cheating. What could they be talking about?
HOW TO SAVE A KITTEN
Two men hear the sound of a scared kitten coming from a pit.
BLAST FROM THE PAST & BACK TO THE FUTURE
Go back to when your character was much younger. Preferably when they were a child, a teenager or in their early twenties taking the first steps in life as an adult.
MOOD SWINGS
Your character is in a terrible mood. What could possibly cheer them up?
SHOPPING LIST
Write a shopping list for your character. What kind of things would they shop for on a weekly basis?