lesbiyaga:

i was doing shitty pencil sketches for practise today and it occurred to me that the writing equivalent of art studies is just little word exercises. nothing that requires a plot or characters or a motif (although if that’s what works for you, go for it), just quick 5 minute exercises like we used to do in middle school, e.g.:

• describe 15 things that are purple (or 5, or 25) without actually using the word “purple”
• time yourself! how many words rhyming with “gate” can you name in 3 minutes? hard mode: they have to be more than 2 syllables
• describe something (a flower, a forest walk, a sword) without using one or more key senses
• list as many different uses for a bobby pin as you can. think outside the box: what if the bobby pin was made of rubber? the size of a steamboat? ultra reflective?
• think of the most cringey self-indulgent juvenile story idea, the one you thought was so good when you were 11, and write it! even better, write it badly!! add communism, man-eating mermaids, a magical girl who’s secretly the alien heiress to the universe – whatever makes you happy
• word jumbles! crosswords! word finders! find them and do them, as easy or difficult as you want
• write something (a description, a poem, a saying) in nothing but emojis
• find a book, or a tv show, or a comic that you love and write fanfiction. take characters from a crime drama and stick them in a high fantasy. take the cast of an action adventure and dump them in a coffeeshop. gritty sci-fi? now it’s a sitcom. tearjerk romance? sports anime! go nuts!!!
• most important thing: DO SOMETHING FUN FOR YOU. if you don’t let yourself have fun writing, it’s going to become a chore.