Fun Ways to Improve your Writing

Every so often I like to share the tips I find in Writer's Digest Magazine. In my last issue there was an article on 10 easy and fun ways to improve your writing, and let's face it, who doesn't want to improve their writing? Here were a few I found intriguing...

1. First line/last line - in which you take the first line of one brilliant novel, pair it with the last line from another brilliant novel, and fill in the words between. Give yourself 1,500 words to write what happens between. This can also be fun to play with your writing group if you have one, using the same first and last lines and then seeing what everyone comes up with.

2. Remember when - in which you start with that statement and follow it up with something fantastical, like, I remember when I discovered the lost city of Atlantis...Try writing a 1,500 word monologue on what that experience was like.

3. Opposites in peril - in which you pick five character traits for character A, give the opposite character traits to character B, and then make them work together to get out of a nasty situation. Try to use their quirks to help them and see if you can write 1,500 words.

The last one I'll mention is similar to the first, in which you pick a random line from a poem, and then free write. I did this one once using this line from T.S. Elliot's The Wasteland: "In this decayed hole among the mountains..." which turned into my short story, Dry Bones. I also played this game with my sister, mom, and aunt last Thanksgiving and they are all anxious to play again this year!


Oh, and did anyone else see Venus this week? Wow!

Have a great weekend :)