Writers in Isolation

There are sometimes quiz questions about first lines of novels. You may be able to quote some, such as "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...", "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day" or "Call me Ishmael." The play Hamlet begins with a guard asking "Who's there?" Poems also have striking first lines; T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' starts with the words "April is the cruellest month". This exercise is about reading some first lines and then writing some. Stage 1. Pick up four books - ideally recent novels or volumes of short stories. These may be books you haven't read yet - in fact, not having read them could help. Copy out the first sentence of each novel or of any four the short stories. Stage 2. Think about who might be saying those words. Even if it's just the narrator telling someone else's story, what kind of person might the narrator be? What does their voice sound ...

Many children have imaginary friends. Even if you didn't have an imaginary friend in childhood, it's possible you would like one now. It can help to create an imaginary friend as a possible reader of your creative writing. Stage 1. A friend is often someone with whom we share interests or points of view. Write down between three and five interests or points of view you would like your imaginary friend to share. Decide on three other points about your imaginary friend. One should be their age. One should be their gender. One you can decide for yourself but it should be something fundamental to that person. Write this all down. Stage 2. It's important that a friend shouldn't be identical to you. The friend has to bring something new to this imagined friendship. Write down between three and five interests or points of view the friend has that you do not share. Stage 3. Write down up to five things that your friend likes a lot and up to three things that your frien...

Just at the moment, many people are thinking more about how to make meals. This writing exercise takes cooking as its starting point - but you don't have to be able to cook to try this writing exercise. Stage 1. Think of a simple meal you have made recently. It should be something you enjoy making or eating. It could be as simple as a sandwich or a little more complicated like a samosa or a bowl of hummus. Write down all the ingredients. Stage 2. Take each of the ingredients in turn and write a description of each using the following senses in this order: touch, hearing (if you can), sight, smell, taste. Stage 3. Think about the points in making the meal where a significant change occurs. This could be when ingredients are combined or when they are heated. This could be as simple as spreading butter or margarine on bread or more complicated when ingredients change consistency in cooking. Write a sentence about the way in which each change occurs.   Stage 4. Now ima...

This exercise is an approach to imagining a world which starts from one individual and works outward. It can be used in a setting that is historical or present day but is more  usually associated with sci-fi, fantasy or speculative fiction. There’s no reason why poets or script-writers shouldn’t use it too. Stage 1. Think of a character in another time and place. This will work well if it’s a time and place you are inventing. If it’s a distant place or a historical time (or the present day) this may require quite a lot of research. Quickly, without stopping to think too much, write down answers to the following questions: - what is the character wearing?  - what is the character holding? - where does the character live? - does the character live alone or with others? - what is the character’s favourite food? - how does the character travel? Stage 2. Look back at your answers. Every answer leads to further questions. For example, when you consider what the characte...

In a  speech in 2014 , the writer Ursula K Le Guin praised writers who could imagine a way in which the world could be different. Last week, at the end of  an article in the Financial Times , Arundhati Roy wrote of the need to “imagine another world.” So let’s begin. Stage 1. Think of something in the world today that troubles you and that you wish could be changed. You don’t have to know how the change could be achieved. It could be something little like getting rid of self-service tills or something bigger like abolishing homelessness. Write down the change you want to see. Stage 2. Now start to imagine a society or world in which that change has been achieved and a return to the current state of affairs is appalling or unimaginable. Start with someone in the new society and describe their reaction to whatever you have abolished (self-service tills, homelessness) as though its existence or introduction had been suggested as a new idea. Write it down. Stage 3. B...

One of the things that is most demanding when writing is creating a sympathetic character whose view is different from your own. This exercise isn’t about someone who differs from you on a major subject but it is about exploring difference sympathetically. Stage 1. Think of a firm view you hold on an unimportant subject related to an everyday action. For example, do you add milk to tea or put the milk in first? Do you have firm views on how cutlery should be arranged in a drawer? How do you think a bed should be made (if at all)? Write down three reasons why you think your view is right. Then consider how you came to hold this view. Did you develop it for yourself? Was it something you learned or were taught? Does it recall anything in your past? Write this down. Stage 2. Now think of a character who has an opposing view on this subject. Write down three reasons why they think they are right. How did this character come to hold this view? Attach it to a significant memory or se...

I suspect that I’m not the only writer who sometimes talks to myself. This kind of conversation may have become even more common when everyone is socially distancing, socially isolating or in lockdown. It seems a good idea to draw on that experience to try writing in someone else’s voice, while that person is talking to themself. Stage 1. You are going to write a monologue. This means you will need a character and situation. I suggest taking a very simple starting point. Think of someone who you might encounter through their work in an everyday situation. For example, you might choose someone who works at a supermarket checkout or someone delivering the post. Think about a problem or difficulty that person might encounter in their work - and how that person might feel when they return home. Make some notes. Stage 2. Now think of where that person lives. Does anyone else live there? Is it a happy household? Write down a little about it. Think of somewhere that person might be alo...

This exercise is a bit different. I’m providing a pattern for an 8-line rhyming poem in which some words at the ends of lines are provided and the rhymes are also set out. See if you can write a poem that fits this pattern. Keep the lines fairly short and even - aim at 7-10 syllables a line (4 to 5 beats). Line 1 ____________ (must rhyme with “day”) Line 2 ____________ flower Line 3 ____________ (must rhyme with “deep”) Line 4 ____________ try Line 5 ____________ deep Line 6 ____________ (must rhyme with “try”) Line 7 ____________ (must rhyme with “flower”) Line 8 ____________ day When you have a first draft, read it aloud. See if you can add to the effects by varied punctuation (not just or always at the end of the lines). If you can, ask someone else to provide four words and see if you can write another poem to the same pattern but with different rhymes.

Dreams can be a good starting point for creative writing but they rarely produce something complete. This is because dreams often involve strange jumps in location, the sudden and inexplicable arrival of familiar people, shifts from one kind of story into another and - worst of all - interruption at a crucial point when the dreamer wakes. However dreams can still provide useful raw material. Stage 1. Can you remember a dream or part of a dream you have had? If you can’t, invent a fragment of a dream - the stranger the better. Now start writing down your dream and when the dream runs out, keep writing. If you can’t think of anything else just write random words as they come into your head without worrying about sense. The important thing is that you don’t stop writing for at least ten minutes. Stage 2. Pause for breath - or a cup of tea. Then look over what you have written. You aren’t looking for complete elements of a story or train of thought - just words and phrases that sugge...

This is an exercise in writing dialogue, and also in thinking about the way someone may say one thing while meaning or thinking about something else. Stage 1. Invent a character. Start by thinking about something they really want. Then place your character in an everyday setting (e.g. a kitchen) and consider which five things there are likely to interest them most. Why would these be of interest? Write this down. Now think of something that the character tries to keep secret. It need not be anything particularly important. This secret affects the way the character performs an everyday activity. Describe the character performing that activity. Stage 2. Imagine the character leaving a message on a friend’s ansaphone. The character is just leaving an ordinary message but, at the back of their mind, can’t help thinking about the thing they want and the secret they are keeping. Without revealing either, what do they say? Write it down in the character’s voice. Stage 3. Your charac...

This is an exercise is which you can take one of your own memories, alter it, and give it to  a character you have invented. Stage 1. Choose an event or occasion you remember. Don’t choose anything that’s very personal or emotional. It could be a pleasant walk or a surprising incident or conversation. Write down all you can remember.  Write down how the memory affected all five senses (touch, smell, taste, hearing, sight). If you can’t remember how it affected a particular sense, imagine how it might have been. Stage 2. Choose a character who lives in a home similar to the place where you are. Make this character different from you in three key aspects. These might be chosen from (for example) gender, age, life experience, relationships. Apart from this you can draw on aspects of your own experience, Imagine this character standing in a room similar into the one where you are now and looking out of a window. What does this character notice? How does the character react...

I’ve been reminded that, in times of crisis, a popular British response is to have a good moan. It’s also been suggested by experts that grumbling is healthy. This writing exercise provides an opportunity to practise skills in moaning and grumbling. Stage 1. Think of something slightly irritating or mildly annoying. This shouldn’t be about a person but about a thing. Perhaps you don’t like the colour of postboxes or you are annoyed by the absence of herons from your neighbourhood. Make it something you wouldn’t usually consider complaining about. Stage 2. Now you have the subject of your complaint, think of someone you might complain to. This could be a real person (someone you don’t know personally) or it could be an invented person (e.g. King of the Birds). Decide how you can blame this person. Stage 3. Write a letter of complaint about the cause of annoyance to the person you have decided to hold responsible. Go into elaborate detail. Explain exactly how this minor ...

This exercise involves using flashback - a helpful technique whether you are writing a poem, a story, a script, a memoir or something else. Stage 1. Think of an anniversary you or a character might choose to celebrate. It should be the anniversary of an event that happened and that you were aware of when you (or the imagined character) were five years old or older. The event could be something personal, like the anniversary of a friendship or relationship, or the anniversary of a public event, like the first moon landing or a team winning the football league. Choose a joyous event. Stage 2. Imagine how that anniversary might be celebrated today in a home or work setting. Describe how you or your character would prepare for the celebration. Would special food be necessary or particular clothes? Stage 3. Now move into your memory or that of your character. Can you remember or imagine any previous celebrations of that event. If you can, choose one previous celebration and write d...

This exercise could actually be carried out while on hold to one of the help lines and essential services struggling to cope with a hugely increased number of calls. Stage 1. If you have had to make an important call lately, some of these lines may be familiar to you. All are recorded messages: “Your call is important to us”, “All of our operators are busy”, “Please continue to hold”, “We apologise for the delay” and “You are in a queue.” You may also have experienced a repeating musical track. Note down your reactions or imagined reactions to each of these statements and the music when you first hear them, when you hear them half an hour later, and then when you hear them two hours later. What might you do while waiting for a human response? Stage 2. Turn some of your responses into a monologue (a speech for one person) responding to the recorded messages and music. Read it aloud and edit it. You will probably want to include the recorded messages in your monologue....

This exercise may interest fashion addicts (although I’m not one). Stage 1. Answer the following questions: What is your favourite outfit?  Where and when do you wear it? How do you behave when wearing it? What impression do you think it makes on other people? Suppose you could keep only one item from that outfit, which would it be and why? If you could buy any item of clothing at once - but no more for the next year - what would you choose and why? Stage 2. Think of a real or imagined character. What are they wearing when you think about them? Write it down. If you were buying a single clothes item for this character, what would it be and why? Describe their reaction on receiving this item. Stage 3. Now imagine you have to wear the outfit your character is wearing (altered so that it fits you). How do you feel in this new outfit? Think about the physical sensations of wearing the outfit before considering any emotional reaction. Imagine walking around in this ou...

There are lots of stories in which one thing changes into something or someone else. This writing exercise is a way to have a go at writing a transformation scene. Stage 1. Think of a character - someone who lives only in your imagination. Think of that character only as they are seen by the people they encounter in a public role. You might choose a teacher, a politician, a sports person, a scientist, a performer — it doesn’t matter and they don’t have to be famous. Now imagine that character is being interviewed for the kind of magazine that publishes only complimentary articles about people. Write one or two introductory paragraphs and snippets from the interview. Stage 2. Now imagine that character alone, after giving the interview. What does your character think about their public self? What doubts and uncertainties does your character conceal? Write them down. Stage 3. What does your character want? This might be well known or secret - or a combination of both. Write a...

This writing exercise is invented so that you can have fun with the sounds of words. Stage 1. Make a list of at least ten words whose sounds you like. Just think about the sounds. Don’t think about the meaning at all. If you have a dictionary to hand, open it at random on any page and read aloud all the words on that page. Write down any whose sound you like. If you don’t have a dictionary choose the fourth letter of your name and spend a few minutes thinking of words beginning with that letter. Write down the ones whose sounds you like. Stage 2. Write down five colours. What would each of them sound like if they had a sound attached. Describe each as if it were a sound. Think of something you like wearing. If it got up and walked across the room, what would it sound like? Give one sound to each of the months of the year. What might darkness sound like? What might light sound like?  What sounds do you associate with the arrival of Spring? Stage 3. Gather all the notes...

This exercise is about thinking about how to show character and emotion through action, without saying what the character’s emotions are. Stage 1. Think of a regular household chore. It should be one that involves a certain amount of physical activity (for example, washing clothes by hand rather than switching on a washing machine). Write down the activity, breaking it into a series of steps. Stage 2. Think of a character who is experiencing stress or uncomfortable emotions. Think about how they show those emotions physically. How does it affect the way they sit, stand, walk, etc? Describe the character getting up and walking across a room in a way that shows how they feel - but don’t mention the stress or emotion. Stage 3. Now take the character through the household chore you have imagined, stage by stage. Continue to show the emotions through action and movement without mentioning the character’s state of mind. As the character goes through the stages of the task, let the c...

This writing exercise is about thinking of other people’s lives without stereotyping them. It’s only a first step and isn’t a quick solution to the world’s or writers’ difficulties. Stage 1. Listen to the talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that you can find here . It lasts just under 20 minutes. Stage 2. Think about an important event in your life and make notes on key elements.  Stage 3. Now think of someone whose role in work you tend to take for granted. Write down the skills that role requires. Imagine someone with feelings as deep as yours doing that job. Imagine three or four skills or interests they might have - and these should be skills and interests that you value too. Imagine the family that they love and the friends they care about. Stage 4. Write a story, script or poem in which the person you have just imagined experience an important event similar to the one you chose in stage 2. When you have finished, you may find you want to do more research to fin...

This exercise is about letter-writing. It’s also a way of thinking about writing as a means of communication. You may find you want to send or email what you write. Stage 1. Think about someone you know and like who you would like to write to. This could take the form of a letter, an email or even a recording.  What is it you like about this person? What interests do you have in common? What different interests does that person have? Do you have some shared memories or experiences? Focus on things that worked out well. Stage 2. Look around the place where you are. Find two or three objects that might interest or delight the other person. Even a simple object would do. Start by describing one of the objects. As you do, let your thoughts expand to ideas, memories and possibilities that the object suggests. Write freely without editing. Let your thoughts lead you in any direction. Do the same for the other object or objects. Stage 3. Look back over what you have writte...