Favorite Creative Writing Exercises?

[elivia05]

One of the exercises my university tutors set was based on photos.
You chose one photo with a person in and one with a setting then construct a narrative based on the two photos. Writing from prompts is one of the easiest ways I have found to begin writing, especially if you are stuck for an idea.

We did several of these exercises in my creative writing classes. They really help get thoughts flowing

[clint_csperry-org]

I have a couple... The first is using writing prompts. I love taking something and turning it into a story. These might be a series of words that I must create a story around, or it might be someones idea left dangling out there asking for completion.
The second is to take a story I've read and write the next couple of chapters. This works well with short stories. And it can be lots of fun. Of course you would not be able to do anything with it as far as publishing is concerned unless you substantially alter it so it is in no way similar to the original.
A third way, would be to take a story such as Tom Sawyer and introduce something different... Aliens land, a witch kidnaps Tom, Jim becomes a robot. The changes can be endless, it just takes a bit of imagination, and start writing.

[Inkroverts]

I suggest trying out the writingexercises.co.uk website, there are a lot of prompts there for writing exercise. I especially like the "first dialogue" prompt there.

[books_andpoetri]

I look out for writing prompts or read a poetry and write a story about it.

[sevencrows]

I like picking out a title from unread books my recommended in Goodreads without looking at the descriptions and writing a story from it!

[Drakka Reader]

I once did an exercise where you will write literally anything in the night. Sometimes it can be tough simply because you have so many options.

[FelDee]

I like to review a book I read or re-watch a movie and think of an alternate storyline or ending. For example in Divergent what if Tris joined Erudite with her brother or at the end of The Hunger Games Katniss shoves the berries into Peta's mouth at the last second.

This made me laugh out loud. Just picturing Katniss shoving berries into Peta's face makes me chuckle. Is that weird?

Something that I will do is think up an epic random fight scene or and intense argument between two people.

[Drakka Reader]

I also got another where you take a character or characters out of a story and input them in another setting or story without changing them into other characters.

[creativedesiress]

One good exercise is to look at a magazine and choose five things in it (example: a blue car, a dog, a child holding ice cream, a sign that says "sale", and a light bulb). Then, you have to challenge yourself to write a story with these things that you've found in the magazine. You could even watch TV or browse the internet instead of using a magazine

[SMAhmed]

There are two exercises I usually do when I find that I'm in a slump aka the dreaded Writer's block. The first is originally from screenwriting, it's where you take an existing story and flip the narrative. For example, making the good guy in the original story a villain and making the villain the good guy. It often yields interesting results. The second exercise is having the character write a letter to someone, this usually helps me to better understand the character and their relationships with various people while also allowing me to get a better grasp on a character's narrative voice.