lit-lorn-strait
Dear Geist,
Can you point my writing pal and me to some interesting writing exercises that we haven’t done a gazillion times? We know all writing work is worthwhile, but how about some new ideas?
—Sandy and Fayette, Drummondville QC
Dear Sandy and Fayette,
Here are a few exercises, photocopied years ago from a book whose title and author we no longer have or remember.
- Start a new story and let the first sentence run for at least one page. Where does this lead you? Did you find a new narration style?
- Start a new story, and don’t let any sentence run for more than six words. Where does this lead you? How did you compensate?
- Imagine a character who thinks in long sentences. Who would this be? Why would such a character think this way?
- Choose a paragraph where all of the sentences are of drastically varying length. Adjust the sentences (by shortening or lengthening) to make them all of uniform length. How does it read now? What do you gain by this? What do you lose?
- With all the principles you’ve just learned, apply them to any page in your manuscript. Read it aloud, focussing on how the sentences read individually and whether any of them seem too long or too short. Rewrite the sentences accordingly.
These exercises are designed to get you thinking about your own writing habits in new ways, which is great for reconsidering everything else about your writing. If you do four or five of them in a day or two, your writing brains will be ticking along happily for a good while.
—The Editors
