Introduction and Guidelines
I wrote this book after I went to a bookstore looking for one like it and couldn’t find one. All I wanted was a small book of exercises I could do to get the creative juices flowing. So, I ended up putting together 500 exercises, a few of which I worked in the process
I have worked to make sure there are no exercises that are the same or similar to another exercise. For example, if I say, “Write about food,” then say, “Write about cake,” they’re the same exercise.
There are no rules to use this book. Just relax, commit to an exercise, and set that clock to five minutes. Grammar is not the most important part of an exercise. The point is that you get used to just writing whatever comes to mind and seeing where the story takes you.
Do take chances and experiment with exercises, reverse them, manipulate them.
Do not hold yourself back by thinking an idea you have for a project is stupid before you even begin. What you think is stupid in the beginning, could turn out to be awesome by the end. This is not an English class. No one is going to penalize you for anything.
There is a mixture of exercises ranging from opening to closing sentences, word association, and completion projects. I find that most people have the most trouble starting a project. We just don’t know where to begin a novel or paper or whatever. That being the case, there are a lot of projects to help with openings. However, just because something says it’s an opening exercise doesn’t mean it can’t be a closing one. The tricky thing about closing exercises is getting to that last sentence before your time runs out. However, they can be very interesting. Wherever you are in your exercise when time runs out, write in the sentence that’s supposed to be at the end, no matter if it makes sense or not. Some pretty funny things can happen.
If you come to a point where you’re at a comfortable end in the project and still have time left on the clock, start the project over using a different subject. Challenge yourself. Mostly, just have fun. Who knows? A five-minute exercise could turn into a NaNoWriMo project or your next bestseller. You have five-minutes to make something great and have a great time. Take advantage of it.
5-Minute Writing Exercises
1. Write an opening using “This never would have happened…”
2. Write an opening using: “Well, if it were so important…”
3. Write about your last birthday (what you did, how you felt, etc.)
4. Write an ending using: “And that was it. That’s how I ended up here.”
So, it all started when I went out for a walk with my dog, Fabio. I saw an old lady also walking a dog, a Chihuahua, standing at the corner and decided to help her cross the street. So, I took her dog leash for her and when the light turned green we began our trek. Well, mid-way through the intersection, our dogs started fighting. The old lady blamed me. I blamed little Bingo, her dog. She hit me over the head with her purse. Meanwhile, our light turned red, on-coming traffic turned green, and I’m standing in the middle of the intersection with two fighting dogs and a crazy old lady hitting me over the head and horns honking at us. Finally, I said, “screw it.” I picked her old behind up and carried her to the other side of the street, dragging the dogs with me. She yelled for the cops saying I touched her heinie. And that’s how I ended up here.
5. Group project. Get with a group of people. Take turns saying one sentence at a time while someone writes down what’s said.
6. Create a world where parents must obey their children.
7. Write about a lie you’ve told.
8. You’ve recently received a new phone number. Unbeknownst to you, it’s a number that’s been in circulation many times before. Now you’re getting all kinds of strange phone calls. Write about it.
9. “There are many ways to be successful. I do ten of them everyday.”
10. Your character is a warrior whose only weapon is a Swiss army knife. Write a battle scene.
11. “I just need nine more.”
12. “You’re just with him because you need to work out your daddy issues.”
13. “When I agreed to go camping…”
14. A woman walks past you, crying hysterically. You’re on your way home after a long day. You’re really tired, but you know this is more than just a broken heart. You go and talk to the woman against your body’s pleas for a nice soft bed. What do you find out?
15. Write an opening using: “How could you/she/he not remember…”
16. Write an opening using a body part in the first sentence.
17. “Must be easy to do so much evil when you can’t see your reflection.
18. Write an opening using: “You are not going to believe what happened to me.”
19. Write about the last movie you saw.
20. You’re a nun. What do you do for fun?
