Today, pick one of the other writing exercises in this blog, or one from a favorite book or journal, and do the following, very simple thing: Write Someplace New. If you usually write in a brightly-lit study, try the dimly-lit basement. If you always write inside, try outdoors or a back porch or sunroom. If you always sit on the couch, lie on the floor or sit at a table. If you always write at home, grab a notebook and go write in a park, on the bus, at a bookstore. Get a change of scenery, the more radical the better.

In a few days, go back and look at what you wrote. Write up a journal entry discussing whether or not this brought out anything new and different in your writing, and how.

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Take a look at the quotation below from “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” and copy it at the top of a sheet of paper. Set a timer for 10 minutes (or limit yourself to two sides of a sheet of paper) and do one of the following:

• Start a short story (or brainstorm ideas for a short story) inspired by the quotation.

• Explore what the quotation personally means for you.
• Simply free-write, free-associating from the quotation, and see where it takes you.

Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
Today of past Regrets and future Fears;
Tomorrow!–Why, Tomorrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n Thousand Years.
      –Edward Fitzgerald, “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”

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Check out Realm of the Muse’s prompt choices for the week of 4/16/2006 for a couple of interesting prompts. Also check out the Realm of the Muse journal in general for plenty of nifty prompt ideas!

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Many people enjoy choosing T-shirts that reflect some aspect of their personality. Many people also enjoy finding ways to use quotes that do the same thing. Sometimes these get combined when folks put their favorite quotes onto T-shirts.

Fiction writers: Imagine that one of your characters had to choose a single quotation to put on a T-shirt to best represent herself to the world. What would that quotation be? It could be a real-world quotation, or a quotation from that character’s fictional world that you make up for the purpose.

Non-fiction writers: If you had to choose a single quotation to put on a T-shirt to best represent yourself to the world, what would that quotation be? Choose a real-world quotation.

Some online quotation resources (feel free to post links to more in the comments):

• Quotes for spiritual growth

• Famous Quotes and Quotations
• The Quotations Page
• QuotationReference.com
• Creative Quotations
• The Quotations Archive

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What if you were a tree living in the front yard of a house?

Describe your surroundings, trying to see them through your unique perspective.

Imagine what you might see over your long lifetime, and how it might appear from your long-lived and stationary viewpoint.

If you write fiction, you might choose a viewpoint-tree from someplace important in your story, or from the childhood home of an important character.

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Imagine that you (or a fictional character you’re working with) gains access to a time machine, or could go back in time through some sort of magical effect. However, once there you’re effectively a ghost–you can watch things, but you can’t interact with them or affect their outcome. Also, you can only go back to a moment from your own life, at which you were present.

If you could choose which moment to view, what would it be? Write it through the eyes of your ghostly self.

Write an alternate version where you don’t get to choose which moment to view, but are simply thrust into the middle of a moment from your past. You could free-write a list of possible moments, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, to choose from before you begin.

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Take a look at this “liquid sculpture” image for a few moments. Immerse yourself in it (so to speak).

Now, write a poem using it as inspiration. You can choose a particular poetic form, or write free-form (after all, this is just for you, so you don’t have to worry about anyone telling you what is or isn’t poetry). However, I encourage you to take a look at one of the following pages and pick a form you’ve never tried–maybe one you’ve never even heard of before–just to see what it can spark in your writing.

• Poetic Forms

• Exotic Forms
• Verse Forms
• Let’s Learn About Poetry
• Poetic Forms Lists

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Take a piece of writing that you’re currently working on and set it next to you (bring up the file on your computer, whatever). Preferably use a short story for this, or a single chapter of a novel or novella. First, write a “summary” of the story in the form of no more than ten short, declarative statements, one to a line. For instance,

Jack finds his father murdered in his childhood home.
Jack searches for the killer.
Jack figures out who the killer is.
Jack catches up with the killer.
Jack takes revenge.

Next, using each declarative sentence in turn as a “prompt” in its own right, free-write for five to ten minutes about each prompt. Don’t worry about what to write or what you’ve already written or planned out for the piece; just see what pops out as you go.
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Pick a character from a story you’re working on, planning, or have finished. (If you aren’t working on one, pick one from a TV show, movie, or book that you like.) Working quickly, make a list of all the best things you can imagine happening in that person’s life. Now, go back and list all the things that have happened, are happening, or could happen to get in the way of those best case scenarios.

This is a good exercise for learning to spot potential sources of conflict and opposition for a plot. In order for there to be tension in a plot, something has to stand between the main character and what he or she most wants.

If you want a journaling exercise instead, or you write non-fiction or memoir, do this using yourself as the “character”. What are the best things that could happen in your life? What is getting in the way of those happening? (Or has gotten in the way, or could get in the way?) What are the sources of conflict in your life? What’s getting in the way of your happiness?

Sci-Fi Writer T-Shirt from Cafepress

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Check out this journal post from drabbleaday for a few random prompts. I particularly like:

• A broken flashlight

• Fuzzy dice

Have a few random items or phrases of your own to suggest? Feel free to leave a comment! Here are a few of my own:

• Impossible things (also the title of a Connie Willis book)

• Maybe we’ll have a blizzard
• On watch

Blank Journals

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