Writer’s block is the single worst thing that can happen to a writer. Recently, while in a cafe, I had to confront my own writer’s block- what was I going to write about? Why was I three-tenths as creative as I usually was? What could I do to get the creative brain juices flowing a little more smoothly?

To combat the situation, I decided to brainstorm some of my own writer’s exercises. I am not claiming that they are 100% effective or guaranteeing that your imagination will return in full tilt, but in my humble opinion, these original writing exercises are definitely worth a try. Thinking of the exercises is a great way to alleviate Writer's Block in and of itself and I recommend trying to brainstorm a few of your own exercises.

1.  Open up David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster” to any page you see, read the shortest footnote you see and condense it to a single sentence. For anyone who has ever read an essay or anything else for that matter by David Foster Wallace, this will be a writing challenge that will at least keep you focused for a few minutes on something other than your writer’s block. The other idea behind it is that reading any good writer will hopefully inspire you at least a little bit.

2.  Make your own six degrees of separation cluster. Remembering who you know and how you know them is likely to spark your memory enough to remember interesting stories and interesting people and will wake you up to different possibilities of things to write about.

3.  Go to a public place and write down the words you see in different signs around you- anything from a beer sign to more interesting signs about the history of a place is ok. I always have fun looking for irony or humor in signs. For the more visually stimulated, you can reflect on the designs of the signs and for the more ponderous among you, thinking about the value of a particular sign can also become a short writing exercise. You can also brainstorm some of your own ideas for signs and see if anything you get any more story ideas. 


4.  Write a short blurb or book review for the worst book you have ever read. What made it so bad? Was it so bad that it actually made it worth reading just so you could complain about it? Feel free to imagine what the author’s inspiration for the book was and write about that.

5.  Listen to the noises around you. If you are feeling silly, make your own signature noise, but don’t share it with anyone unless you truly trust them. The last bit is a joke, but the next part of the exercise is writing dialog in a way that sounds like what people say or writing about the atmosphere of a place from the perspective of how it sounds- this is often harder than it sounds.

pic from flckr user petesimons thru creative commons license