Daily writing practice

Daily writing practice and writing prompts.

Any writer needs to set up the habit of setting aside ten minutes each day for a burst of creativity.

Imagine you are a pianist who never practices. What do you think will happen when you sit down to play when it counts? A lot of mistakes and false starts most likely. The same could be said of writing.

The more you practice the easier the flow. Writing practice is the grease on the tap spindle.

Give yourself ten minutes, a topic and permission to write whatever you want without judgement. This is not meant to be great prose, this is just increasing flexibility so that when you want to write it comes with ease. I like to keep mine. I write in a lined book – quite a lot of them stacked on my shelves now – each piece headed and dated. Looking back on them is like dipping into an old diary and I often find a gem of an idea or some interesting description and metaphors.

Writing prompts help spark your imagination. Thinking of fresh ideas to write about can be hard. These are some of the favourites that I use – The Amazing Story Generator – It contains three flip pages a bit like those children’s books that create different characters from – head – body – legs. Only this is – setting – character – conflict. I’ve had some real fun writing from these prompts.

There are also many apps available to download on your phone so you can do a little creative practice anywhere anytime. I’m currently using 1000 Writing Prompts. There is also a collection of flash fiction prompts with this app if you want to knuckle down to something concrete.

Another method for a prompt which is also useful for using when stuck with a story or novel chapter, this is word association bubbles a bit like a spider chart. Let’s assume for this example it is for a creative writing exercise. Start with a word and draw a bubble round it.

Then put associated words linked to the first word. Draw bubbles round them.

Now extend on some or all of the associated words as the mood takes you.

Quite quickly you’ll have a string of words that should spark an idea to start writing about. Go on – get wring 