Category: Writing Exercise

Writing Exercise: Emotional Power

Erin Penn

Photo 31383318 / Emotional Faces © Dmytro Konstantynov | Dreamstime.com
Liana Brooks, in her 11/29/2017 blog post “Writing Romance… is it really that hard?” gives some interesting tips on why romance & “happy” books are harder to write than thriller & “action” books.
Anger. Hate. Rage. Fear. <– negative emotions are the easiest to write because they rely on primal instinct programmed into the human brain by thousands of years of evolution.
To write a thriller, urban fantasy, or horror, all you need to do is tap into the universal fears – such as death – to pull a reader into the story.
Romance is much harder, because the “happy” emotions are not universal. Yes, people love things, but not the same things. 
Read the article above – again the URL is: https://www.lianabrooks.com/writing-romance-is-it-really-that-hard/
WRITING EXERCISE: Write a negative-emotion scene and a positive-emotion scene. Does not have to be the same characters or situation. Which came more naturally to you? Which do you think have the stronger reader impact emotionally? Comment below.
My Attempt: Moon Reflections (4/25/2021) has a very angry and scared man. Pizza and Movie Night Part 2 (3/7/2021) is an attempt at showing non-sexual physical affection.
The Pizza and Movie Night series, which has a lot of action, but at its core, it’s about a platonic loving relationship between the two main characters. Relationships come more naturally to me than anger and I think that comes through in a stronger reader emotional impact. I write “fluff” because I think the world needs more happy.

Writing Exercise: Not Today

Erin Penn

Photo by Josefa nDiaz on Unsplash

Not Today. What happens when you really, really don’t feel like writing?

Well, what happens on your dayjob when you really, really don’t feel like dayjobbing? You go to work, don’t you.

If writing is your dayjob, then you don’t get to wait for the muse to strike. You pick him or her up and sit her down at the computer and get to work.

But what happens if writing is your second or even fifth job? What then? 

Two questions – how much do you want it to be your dayjob, and do you have ANYTHING left in the creative stores?

I recently have been on a blogging run, 18 days in a row catching up on missing blogs. Then dayjob pulled a 13-hour day and I had NOTHING. I tried, I really did – but no-braining was happening. I looked at the 18 day streak and, as much as I hated it to end, I forgave myself the need to sleep.

John Hartness facebooked a “no interest in writing day” and many authors – some dayjobbers and some writing-primary-income – responded after his initial response to himself – mortgage doesn’t give a single fuck about what I feel like today: doing the book bible because don’t have the creative in me today; I figure some days I hate drafting divorce papers for my lawyers and some days I hate drafting books for my publisher – if I want to be taken seriously as a writer, I got to do it whether I feel like it or not; I find writing in chunks works – just get 500 done … and suddenly at 4,000 (or at 500, but, hey, 500!); playlists help.

I know I posted a lot of “don’t beat yourself up,” especially during the pandemic. That is taking a lot of energy and creatively away; basically we are all in mourning for what we used to be. 

At the same time, you want a job as a writer, you write.

To balance all the self-care and forgive yourself, today is the just write day.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write 500 words. For a blog, a scene for your WIP, a character background for your D&D group. Doesn’t matter, get the words down today.

My attempt: 399 words here plus 101 words for a different blog.

Writing Exercise: Motivations

Erin Penn

Can’t find the original poster – but this gem has been shared far and wide on the interwebs. Search on “seerya we can’t make this character.” Looks like it was first published in early 2020. 

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a flash where the character is ace and/or aromantic showing a motivation with another character in the same scene with the same motivation.

My attempt

I responded to the Facebook post made by a friend in the comments with a short story. I posted it as Pizza and movie night (2/21/21) earlier this week.

Writing Exercise: Just Write

Erin Penn

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Welcome to the heart of tax season, when all my energy is sucked up by non-stop clients at the Walmart Jackson-Hewitt tax booth. Between juggling them, juggling COVID law changes, juggling getting enough to eat so I don’t fall over, juggling writing … well, balls are being dropped.

I could say I have “writer’s block”. But David B. Coe had it right when he wrote in a Facebook post way back on July 19, 2017: 

Once more, because sometimes we all need the reminder: There is no such thing as “writer’s block.” The phrase “writer’s block” presupposes that writing should be easy, that our prose should always flow like warm caramel. That’s not the case.
Writing is hard. Writing is fits and starts. Yes, sometimes writing is 4,000 words of sheer brilliance in a single sitting. But sometimes it is also 4 words, none of them good, in six hours. It is sitting and staring at the keyboard in dismay. It is self-doubt, it is disappointment. And it is the best job I can imagine having. Ever.
But it is not — it is never — easy. You do not say, “I have writer’s block.” You say, “I am a writer.”
So today’s writing exercise is about writing, to be able to say “I am a writer”.
WRITING EXERCISE: Break out a timer – an hour glass, an egg timer, your phone. Put in a time … 15 minutes, half an hour, and hour. Start the timer. And write. Just write. Go for it. 

Writing Exercise: 50-Word Prompts 2020

Erin Penn

WRITING EXERCISE

Package season is kicking my tuchus, so we are going to do the 50-word prompts again.

Write two 50-word flashes. Aim for 50 words, give or take five extra words. Don’t read my attempts until after you do your own. Writing them directly in the comment section below will help you focus on the flash aspect – just getting words out.

How does this exercise help you as a writer: (1) just write things out quickly; (2) learn to work from prompts (important for the anthology world); (3) practice writing to a word count.

WORD PROMPT FOR 50-WORD FLASH: Light

VISUAL PROMPT FOR 50-WORD FLASH

Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash

My Attempts

TEXT PROMPT: Light

The packages were stacked tall in the pumpkin, all sorts of sizes and weights. Light thin Amazon packages, large packages from toy stores, squishy clothing packages, weird ones with a hard bit that must be bed-slippers. And dog food. I HATE dog food. Forty pounds moving like a dead body. (first published 3/21/2022; 50 words)

VISUAL PROMPT

Seaweed clung to the tip of the knife. Something expected when gutting fish in the muck passing for water these days. Leonyd went to close the shelter door as the first rays of dawn skittered across landscape, burning everything they touched like molten sparks from a forge. Damn climate change. (first published 3/21/2022; 50 words)

Series: 50-word Prompts

  1. Prompts 1& 5 (2/19/2017)
  2. Prompts 6 & 12 (2/26/2017)
  3. Prompts 7, 8, 10, 11 (3/19/2017)
  4. Prompts (The Mouse Roars) (3/26/2017)
  5. 50-word prompts 2018 (12/25/2018)
  6. 50-word prompts 2019 (8/27/2019)
  7. 50-word prompts 2020 (12/22/2020)
  8. 50-word prompts 2021 (12/28/2021)
  9. 50-word prompts 2022 (12/17/2022)
  10. 50-word prompts 2023 (12/26/2023)
  11. 50-word prompts 2024 (12/24/2024)
  12. 50-word prompts 2025 (12/25/2025)