• Write a dialog between a cop and a suspect in an interrogation room.

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• Write a back story for a villain.

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• Write a treatment for a modern story based on a Shakespeare plot. A treatment is a short version of the story in narrative form. It’s more than an outline but less than a full-blown work.

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• Write a blurb for a book that’s nothing more than a gleam in your eye right now.

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• Write a profile of a person you find fascinating. The person can be living, dead, or fictional, but they must be widely known.

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• Write about a historical event you find fascinating. Pretend you’re a journalist on the spot.

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• Come up with a smashing book title and write an outline or treatment for the work.

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• Write a character description or profile that doesn’t use adjectives.

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• Write a historical look back at a current event.

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• Plan a new blog. List the first 20 entry titles.

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• Write a review of a book you wish you’d written. Be hard on yourself.

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• Write an article about something you love to do for fun.

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• Invent a place you’d like to set a story. Be detailed.

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• Write about yourself in the first person. Then write the same piece in the third person.

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• Write a love scene that’s full of tension.

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• Write a dialog between a middle-aged person and their elderly parent.

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• Change the ending of a story you’re familiar with.

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• Plot a mystery.

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• Write an op-ed piece for a newspaper or magazine.

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• Go to a public place and observe people. Make notes.

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• Read a classic novel and pay attention to how it’s written.

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• Look at the room you’re sitting in. Now, set a scene there.

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• Write a scene that makes the reader feel hungry.

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• Quick! Give someone a really good picture of yourself in two minutes.

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• Make the reader feel scared.

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• Go to a bookstore and pick a topic you’d like to write about. Check out the competition. Is there a hole you can fill? Be sure to look inside the books to see what they cover and how.

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• Write an inner monologue for a character that’s wrestling with a problem. You can paraphrase Hamlet if you get stuck.

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• Research the market for your book. Who will buy it and how will you reach them? You are not allowed to say “Everyone is my market.” “Everyone” is impossible to reach.
  

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• Evoke a place, event, or person by using sensory description: sounds, smells, touch, taste, sights.

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• Write a scene that takes place at night. Make us feel the night.

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• Write a description of an environment from the perspective of a toddler.

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• Write a conversation between two strangers, one of whom is uncomfortable talking to the other but too polite to end the conversation or ignore him/her.

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• Write a series of opening lines. When you’re finished, pick one and start to develop it.

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• Write a piece that makes a traditionally unsympathetic character sympathetic. Select either a type (drug pusher, vampire, bully, etc.) or a specific character (Uriah Heep, Iago, Professor Moriarty, etc.)

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• Write a letter to your favorite historical figure.

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• Write a treatment for an action movie.

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• Write alternative lyrics for your favorite songs.

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• Write some ad copy for a product you like.

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• Pretend you’re a specific person you don’t like. Write a letter to your mother. (In other words, you’re playing a role and writing a letter to the character’s mother.)

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• Argue in favor of a point of view you don’t agree with.

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• Write a scene between two people in a restaurant.

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• Write a poem in blank verse.

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• Write a restaurant review.

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• Write as many closing lines for chapters or entire stories that you can think of. Do they make the reader want to continue? Do they wrap up a story in a satisfying or mysterious way? Hint: You don’t have to know what happens in the story to do this. The point is to practice writing endings. If you get stuck, look at how other writers do it.

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• Here’s a suggestion from Writing Show listener Keikomushi: TECHNIQUE
  1. The Pan-out Method: - If you write a sequence with the view of a movie camera you can expand on certain elements. Imagine that you are watching a movie and you’ll notice close-ups and movement back and forth between the numerous elements.
  2. Perceptual Method: - Close off all but one sense and imagine yourself experiencing a literary scene using this same sense. Expand on this with as much detail as possible, then write it down.

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• Also from Keikomushi: Still Life: - Pick out an object within your household and try to describe it with as much detail as possible. Aspects such as light, shape, color, aging, patterns, etcetera, should expanded along with the emotions that the object evokes.

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• And another from Keikomushi: Picture worth a 1000 words: - Take a random picture and write out the scene. Give names to faces, personalities, history, and finally what is happening in the scene.

Got more ideas? Comment here, or write to us at paula@writingshow.com.