INDIVIDUAL WRITING CHALLENGE
This challenge is developed from ideas in David Morley's Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing.
Some teachers have found that writing groups are not sufficient support for them, and they want to be given ideas and support in writing on their own. And they want an exercise to help them practise. But where to start?
The following challenge takes away procrastination. Just choose a new title each time and see where the writing takes you. Concentration on one subject for 20 minutes can remove blocks and provoke happy accidents.
This challenge helps overcome writing rustiness, or writing fear by 'silencing the critic in your head' and letting thoughts come to you as you write. Let writing become a habit - just as reading may be.
This challenge also supports your stamina as a writer by forcing you to write regularly, and more or less continuously, for however short a period. Try to reach 500 words as quickly as you can (this usually took me about half an hour). You'll be pleasantly surprised how 10 minutes can sometimes become 30 when just writing for a set time every day - or week. And the idea is that you work your way through all 31 titles, one every day for a month. (It took me 8 months, on and off, from October 2012 until June 2013.)
Choose a time of day when you are free from commitments for 30 minutes. Improvise in prose, not poetry, on one of the following headings (Oddly enough, I often found that the least promising titles led to better writing):
Simon Wrigley
Outreach Director
Feb 2014
Some teachers have found that writing groups are not sufficient support for them, and they want to be given ideas and support in writing on their own. And they want an exercise to help them practise. But where to start?
The following challenge takes away procrastination. Just choose a new title each time and see where the writing takes you. Concentration on one subject for 20 minutes can remove blocks and provoke happy accidents.
This challenge helps overcome writing rustiness, or writing fear by 'silencing the critic in your head' and letting thoughts come to you as you write. Let writing become a habit - just as reading may be.
This challenge also supports your stamina as a writer by forcing you to write regularly, and more or less continuously, for however short a period. Try to reach 500 words as quickly as you can (this usually took me about half an hour). You'll be pleasantly surprised how 10 minutes can sometimes become 30 when just writing for a set time every day - or week. And the idea is that you work your way through all 31 titles, one every day for a month. (It took me 8 months, on and off, from October 2012 until June 2013.)
Choose a time of day when you are free from commitments for 30 minutes. Improvise in prose, not poetry, on one of the following headings (Oddly enough, I often found that the least promising titles led to better writing):
- Conversations on our street
- My mother's friends
- Next time, I'll keep it zipped
- 10 ways to annoy your children
- Prayers for the planet
- First impressions
- Returning to an empty house
- What I cannot quite remember
- This time with attachment
- Secrets in the family
- Crossing boundaries
- Outside my comfort zone
- What really drives me crazy
- A window of opportunity
- Scene by candlelight
- Getting things in perspective
- 3 snapshots from my childhood
- Grandmother's kitchen
- The road not taken
- How to deal with unwanted phone calls
- What it is like to suffer injustice
- If I'd known then what I know now
- King of the mountains
- Calmness under pressure
- Thoughts on the significance of dreams
- Seeing my parents in me
- Beneath the surface
- Recovering from Christmas
- Sleeping away from home
- The unsent letter
- In sickness and in health
Simon Wrigley
Outreach Director
Feb 2014