Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 10:58:46 -0500 From: Indigo Subject: FILLER: Looking for some Exercises... Good Morning, Everyone! I was sitting around on Arcadia last night, and it occured to me that we have very few actual exercises running around here, so I started to think of where I could get a few exercises so that I could have some stuff that /made/ me write. I mean, I want some deadlines in my life... like, here's an exercise, return it to me next Friday... I mean, in other words, I want a Fiction Workshop without paying for it! ;) Well, it dawned on me just this morning that a fun thing that I might be able to do was to gather a bunch of ideas for exercises, and put them into a notebook. Or, create my own Idea Catcher from a nice journal and a few good ideas. So, where do I go to look for it? Here, of course!! If you have any exercises that you know of from past teachers, friends, writing groups, etc... and would be willing to share 'em, please send them to me! I'll start out the thread with a few that I know of: 1. A previous exercise that I put up was fom my High School Creative writing teacher about a Science Fiction experiment that he had us do. The wonderful thing about that teacher was that he always had ideas for us, and he always had things for us to do. One of the first things he had us do in class (and always rather controversial), as to have us write our own obituaries. List what we did in our lives, what type of people we were, who our families were, etc... just to get to know us. It wasn't a 'you die today' thing, it was more of a 'when you die, what will you have done?' thing. 2. Write down all of your favorite words. The words that you like the sound of the most. Like 'garbanzo bean' and 'chocolate'. There are words here and there that just have a 'ring' to them that make you think. When you're done, write a short poem, and get all of those words into it some way or another. 3. Find a group of pictures. Good places to start are magazines, Magic: The Gathering Cards, Gaming Books, etc... cut them out (of course, only cut out magazine pictures), set them to the side, and then write a story about what is happening in that picture. Then, rewrite the story without the picture to guide you. 4. For Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers (I got this idea from Orson Scott Card's book on writing them), draw up a city, and write a story about that very city. The ideas should start pouring in as you draw the city. I'll post some more as I think of them, just to share them around and to keep people writing. I know that I, for one, have to force myself to sit down and write, and it's easier when I have an idea of /what/ I want to write. Another thought that I had last night, was to start up a small, private e-mail writing group. The people in it would take turns each week coming up with an exercise, and then the people within it would follow through with that exercise and e-mail it out to the group of people. Just a small thing so as not to spam this Mailing list, but I think that you all get the drift. ;) If anyone would be interested in participated in a small group like that, please please let me know. ;) I hope everyone has a good day! Stacy Griebel (o) (o) -----------------------oooo--()--oooo------------------------------------- "Too low they build who build beneath the stars." - Edward Young "Hitch your wagon to a star." - Emerson ---- Stacy Griebel Writer, Thinker, MU* Administrator, Dreamer ---------------------------------------------------------------------------