10 Creative Writing Exercises to Unleash Your Creative Self

Feeling stuck in your writing? Well, all you need are a few creative writing exercises to boost your talents into drive.

Being a freelance writer, I’ve experienced moments with little to no inspiration. While I wouldn’t exactly call it writer’s block, it can be extremely hard to get the creative juices flowing. Writing exercises which are both creative and effective aren’t always common, but they are valuable to the writer and the audience.

Whether they are used to sell a product, tell a story or provide help, these creative words and phrases are irreplaceable. Even to those who do not write, these exercises prove therapeutic for depression and anxiety as well.

Ways to unleash the talent of creative writing

Inspiration comes and inspiration goes. Unfortunately, it’s’ the going that causes the problem. Writing good material isn’t just about grammar and technicalities, it’s also about creative writing. There are several exercises which can spark creative writing and improve readability.

Check these out:

1. Set the mood with imagery

Find a travel magazine and flip through the pages. When you find an image of vacation scenery, this will be your inspiration. Of course, vacation scenery is different from one person to the next, but you get the idea.

If the picture is of a beach, then let yourself be transported to that place. Feel the breeze on your face and enjoy the sand under your feet. Now, describe the scenery in detail. After this is done, you will have a detailed mood carefully crafted in your head and on paper. You can keep an online blog of these images and details to help you stay inspired.

2. A letter to yourself when younger

Here’s an interesting exercise for creative writing. Sit down and draft a letter to the person you were 10 or 20 years ago. You know you were different, and you know there are things you wished you’d known back then, but there’s nothing you can do about that now….well…you can write a letter.

In the letter, tell yourself about the world today and how things are much different than before. Pour out your soul about the things that cannot be undone. This helps you get in touch with your deepest emotions.

3. People who say and people who do

Another exercise can help you develop deep standards and morals for your characters. They can also serve as self-help guides for those who are acting in a selfish manner.

Here’s what you can do with this. Write from the point of view of people who “talk the talk”. This means those who say things but rarely act on their promises. Then write from the point of view of those who “walk the walk”.  You will be amazed by how effective this exercise can be for sparking creativity.

4. The firsts

One way to open up the flood gates of ideas is to write about “your firsts”. This can be your first kiss, your first car, or your first home. Whatever it is, your first will inspire all sorts of additional ideas.

Thinking about firsts in life helps translate emotions into creative writing, and nothing grabs an audience’s attention like being able to relate to certain events in life.

5. Be someone else

Pretending to be someone else can kick start pages of information. Before you know it, you’ve written an entire tale about this individual residing in your mind.

The reason this works is that it makes you create a whole other being, with details about appearance, personality, and home town. Then it coaxes you to write about the friends and family of this person. Your creative spark will turn into a full-blown fire after working through the details of this new person. As far as writing exercises go, this one is extremely creative.

6. Pick a number for inspiration

This creative writing exercise is both fun and inspiring. First, pick a random number, let’s say 8. Now, start at the top of the bookshelf and count down to the eighth shelf. If you don’t have that many shelves, and many of us do not, count down, then up, and so forth until you land on the 8th place.

Now, count over from the right until you land on the eighth book. Pick this book and go to the 8^th page. Count down 8 sentences. Now read that sentence and devise a story based entirely on what you read. Go ahead, get started! Oh, and by the way, you can use any number you want.

7. Musical inspiration

Here’s one that I have used many times in the past. I used to write poetry and prose all the time, and when I did this, I listened to music without lyrics, mostly classical. As the music turned and reached a crescendo, I would model my turns and heights of the lines to match the music. After some time, this became natural.

Practice pairing your poetry or other creative writings with music. You may be surprised how this helps form good readability.

8. The best day ever

One way to motivate yourself in creative writing is to imagine and remember the best day of your life. As you remember which day that was, start jotting down the reasons for this choice. Then, use these reasons to create a story.

As you write the story, you will notice how carried away you’ve become recounting what happened. You can do this same exercise by recounting the worst day, the most challenging day, and the most endearing day. There are several other days you can become creative with as well.

9. The forbidden act

Here’s a really exciting creative exercise. Write a story where the main character is doing something forbidden. You get to pick one thing that society considers illegal, immoral or otherwise.

Also, as a spin to your story, write about a close friend discovering the forbidden act or acts. What would the friend say or do? This is the challenge. Remember to add emotions and details to make the situation feel genuine.

10. Describe to the blind

Imagine you’re talking to a blind person and he asks you to explain what the color blue is like. Of course, this person has been blind from birth and has never seen any colors, so it will be difficult. He wants to be able to imagine the color blue in sight and feelings.

Write down all the ways you would successfully show him how blue appears in things like cool temperatures or subtle emotions.

Unleash your potential with many more ideas

You don’t have to be a professional writer to create well-thought-out and creative content. You also do not have to be a published author either.

These creative writing exercises can help you open up the great writer within. They can inspire and push you to be more than ordinary in your fictional and non-fictional work. There are also many writing prompts available online which give you days of ideas to push you even further.

Try these exercises and let us know how well they worked for you!

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