How to Write a Great Novel: Junot Diaz, Anne Rice, Margaret Atwood and Other Authors Tell

Ten-Minute Creative Writing Exercise -- Creative Writing Exercise on the Fly If you think you don't have time to write, think again. See what you can produce with a simple set of writing prompts and ten minutes of your time with this creative writing exercise inspired by Rita Dove's exercise "Ten-Minute Spill." Write for ten minutes, incorporating a common proverb, adage, or familiar phrase ("between the devil and the deep blue sea," "one foot in the grave," "a stitch in time saves nine," "the whole nine yards," "a needle in a haystack," etc.) that you have changed in some way, as well as five of the following words: cliff blackberry needle cloud voice mother whir lick Don’t worry about creating a story right now: just focus on following the parameters and writing for your ten minutes.

Using Pictures as Writing Prompts -- Photos Make Great Writing Prompts Choose one of these images to use as a writing prompt for a freewriting session. Ideally, you'll develop one of the ideas generated by your freewriting session into a short story. A reader named Adam C. described how this played out for him in a creative writing class in which each student was given a different photo to write about. Adam writes, "The picture I was given portrayed an elderly couple, holding hands, looking off to the left of the camera lens. There was a large boat in the background. This prompted me to write about the couple as though they had just come from their home in Europe to join their son in America. (More instructions for this creative writing exercise are also outlined in a how-to.)