creative writing exercise dialogue

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✍️ Dialogue Writing Exercises

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We found 11 dialogue exercises that match your search 🔦 reset

What Did You Say?

Part of writing great dialogue is ensuring each character has a unique voice. Pretend three of your characters have won the lottery. How does each character reveal the big news to their closest friend? Write out their dialogue with unique word choice, tone, and body language in mind.

The Impersonator

This is Part I of an exercise that practices voice. Pick up a book written by an author that you admire. Absorb the voice in which they write. Now try writing a page of your own story, but in their voice.

Use Your Words

_Voice separates MEH stories from the ones that grab attention. _Voice is the unique way _a writer combines words and strings together sentences. It is _a story's personality, its manner of expression. _A compelling voice is the difference between "Oh, shucks!" and "Oh, slippery slush!" ( Little Red Gliding Hood )_. Between "Charmaine's showing off" and "Charmaine's strutting hard enough to shame a rooster" ( The Quickest Kid in Clarksville ). And between "Pancake _escaped_" and "Pancake rappelled down a rope of linguini" ( Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast )_. _Examine your story for common language - for example, circle blah verbs and insert something more unique.

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Famous Lines

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."
"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
"Oh, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."

An Outsider

The next time you're about to write a long passage of dialogue, show it from the perspective of a stranger watching your characters from afar. The stranger cannot hear what is being said; he can only observe their behaviors, appearances, and actions. You'd be surprised how much you can deduce about two people from just their body language.

The Impersonator II

This is Part II of an exercise that practices voice. Pick up a book written by an author that you admire. Now try writing a page of their story, but in your own voice.

Hearing Voices

Think about how your writing voice has changed since you began writing - then, try writing in the voice of Past You. Growing older, trying new experiences, and learning more about writing can all be factors that influence your voice. For example, you could write a chapter in the style of an elementary school diary entry, or look up an old writing assignment and use it to draft your project.

Related Resources:

How to Write Fabulous Dialogue [9 Tips + Examples] (blog post)
Dialogue Rules: Punctuating and Formatting Dialogue Like a Pro (blog post)
Dialogue Tags: Definition, Tips, and Examples (blog post)
270+ Other Words For "Said" To Supercharge Your Writing (blog post)

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5 Essential Exercises For Writing Dialogue

We are posting a series of Essential Writing Exercises to help you tell your stories. This post includes five essential exercises for writing dialogue .

We’re living in interesting times and many of us have more time on our hands. To help us get through it, I am posting a series of Essential Writing Exercises to help you tell your stories.

We’ve included exercises about creating characters , dialogue , viewpoint , plotting , setting , beginnings , and pacing . (If you want a downloadable, advert-free workbook that includes all these exercises, please buy The Novel Writing Exercises Workbook .)

On our course, Writers Write ONLINE , we spend time creating characters, plotting, learning to write dialogue, learning how to pace, and learning how to show and not tell. We teach you about viewpoint, setting, description, and scenes, and much, much more. In my series, I am going to concentrate on a few of these areas.

My first post will be for writers who are trying to write better dialogue. I have included five essential exercises for writing dialogue.

TOP TIP: Learn to write better dialogue with The Dialogue Workbook

When we teach Writers Write ONLINE , we find that dialogue intimidates beginner writers.

Remember that great dialogue in fiction does the following four things:

Dialogue allows us to show conflict .
Dialogue creates tension.
Dialogue advances the story.
Dialogue reveals character. ( indirect characterisation )

Try to make every piece of dialogue achieve one or more of these requirements.

Exercise 1: Just For Fun

Write a dialogue-only scene between two inanimate objects that are normally used or found together. Examples : pen and paper; laptop and desktop; TV show and Reality TV show; bacteria and antibiotic.

This exercise will reveal tension and conflict between the two. It will also show you how to create a dialogue-only sequence in your story. It will show you that you need to choose characters that have something to talk about.

Laptop vs Desktop Example:

Laptop : You don’t know how lucky you are to just sit there all day, updating and scanning. Desktop : Easy for you to say. I never get to go anywhere and I have to do the bulk of the work in this household. He keeps on adding memory as if I don’t have enough to think about. Laptop : You won’t believe the disgusting places he put me down today. On a coffee shop floor. It was gross. And on his colleague’s lap – you know Dave? The one I always tell you about. OMG. It was so uncomfortable. Desktop : Stop complaining, LT. At least you get to see things. I wonder if Dave will ever come visit? Laptop : Believe me, you don’t want Dave here with his sticky hands and his icky breath. And he always leans in too close to the screen. It’s obscene. Desktop : I hope he disinfected you before he put you down next to me.

Exercise 2: A Tense Situation

Write a scene between a protagonist and their love interest. Show how the love interest complicates the protagonist’s story goal in some way. Examples : a detective who needs to get to a murder scene and his wife who wants to talk to him; a princess who needs to save her kingdom and her love interest who wants to go on a quest; a journalist wants to get to an important interview and their love interest goes into labour.

Name the people.
Use dialogue, body language , and the internal thoughts of the viewpoint character.
Show the setting through their interaction with it.

This exercise will reveal your characters’ personalities and show them as three-dimensional people. It will also allow for conflict and tension. Love interests are perfect for sub-plots in stories.

Must-read: 10 Ways To Introduce Conflict In Dialogue

Exercise 3: Three Of Us

Write a one-page scene with three characters in it. Show how the three people all speak differently – the words they use and their speech patterns should not be the same. Examples : The banker, the politician, and the mistress; The robot, the robot’s creator, and the creator’s mother; The personal trainer, the actor, and the actor’s agent.

This exercise will show the characters: how old they are, how they see the world, and how they treat other people. It will also show the relationship dynamics.

Exercise 4: Eavesdrop

‘I was kind of excited about going to jail the first time and I learnt some great dialogue.’ ~ Quentin Tarantino

You don’t have to go to jail, but you need to listen in on a conversation for this exercise. Tape it if you can. Then write down exactly what the people said.

This exercise will show you that dialogue in fiction cannot be like dialogue in real life. Real life conversations are often vague and of no consequence. People often don’t even listen to one another.

Rewrite the dialogue as if it were a novel. Introduce a conflict and show the characters.

Must-read: 10 Dialogue Errors Writers Should Avoid At All Costs

Exercise 5: An important Conversation

Write a pivotal scene in a story, one where an important decision is made. This scene will propel your protagonist to their story goal. Examples : a woman tells her husband that she is leaving him; a detective interviews a suspect and discovers something odd; a knight captures an enemy and discovers that all is not what it might seem.

This exercise will show you how to use dialogue to move a story forward. It will show you how the things you conceal and reveal in conversations change stories.

The Last Word

Use these five essential exercises for writing dialogue.to practise incorporating dialogue into all of your scenes. The more you write conversations, the better your dialogue will become.

Look out for our next post: 5 Essential Exercises For Creating Characters

(If you want a downloadable, advert-free workbook that includes all the ‘essential exercises series’, please buy The Novel Writing Exercises Workbook .)

If you enjoyed this blogger’s writing, read:

How To Finish Writing Your Book
Thriller Book Title Generator
The Almost Moment Is The Secret To Successful Romance Writing
What Is Direct And Indirect Characterisation? And Which One Should I Use?
5 Steps To Creativity In Writing
How To Write Your Novel From The Middle Like James Scott Bell
5 Ways To Choose A Pseudonym

Dialogue , Exercises , Featured Post , Writing Tips from Amanda Patterson

1 thought on “5 Essential Exercises For Writing Dialogue”

Thank-you so much for the clear, concise, explanation!

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Dialogue Exercises : 40 Writing Prompts To Get You Going

Dialogue exercises are a great way to strengthen your ability to listen to your characters. When you’re working on dialogue exercises, you’re not worrying about plot or where the scene’s headed. You’re not distracted by furniture or waiters or sunsets. In essence, you’re closing your eyes and giving your complete attention to the subtext of the conversation.

ebro, nature, landscape, dialogue exercises

Sometimes, looking at a photo or an art object can help you get started with a story. In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” a man and girl are waiting in Ebro for the train. Here are the hills above the Ebro River. What do you think? Do they look like white elephants? Image from Pixabay via ProyectoINDI

In my post on “Dialogue and Tension: Bringing Scenes to Life,” I introduced a man and a girl waiting for a train. In this post I’m bringing them onstage again, but stripping out the “he saids” and “she saids.”

“They look like white elephants.” “I’ve never seen one.” “No, you wouldn’t have.” “I might have. Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything.”

As you read this excerpt from Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” does the dialogue pull you along? Are you reading to find out what’s up? Of course, you are!

Now, here’s your chance to try your hand.

Forty Dialogue Exercises

Below are forty dialogue exercises. Pick one and start writing. You don’t have to know who the characters are, where they are, or why they’re at odds. Dialogue is one of the best ways to learn more about your characters. Maybe one of these exercises will even lead to a new story.

“I thought you were supposed to call me.”
“I never, ever want to hear you say that again.”
“Don’t just stand there looking at me.”
“Do you like my country?”
“My back’s killing me.”
“How much longer till we’re there?”
“You have to tell her. It wouldn’t be right not to.”
“It doesn’t do any good to get worked up.”
“How much does he want?”
“I know it’s a little expensive.”
“Home is where they have to take you in. Am I right?”
“Your mother wants us to come down for Christmas.”
“I caught your cold.”
“Finish what you’re doing. We have to talk.”
“Could you not walk ten steps in front of me for a change?”
“How much longer is lobster season going to last?”
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the thought.”
“Give me the remote.”
“Could you please not use that tone of voice?”
“Little pitchers have big ears.”
“Hey, there. Are you in the witness protection program, or what?”
“Set me up.”
“When was the last time we had a real conversation.”
“You’re big and strong.”
“I’m so sick of all this gloom and doom. Why can’t people just be happy?”
“Look. There’s a place to park.”
“In my next life, I want to come back as a butterfly.”
“Do you know what today is?”
“I been thinking we should move to Alaska.”
“Ten bucks for this piece of crap!”
“You first.”
“I’m not cold in the least.”
“What’s your problem?”
“You’d be late for your own funeral.”
“You’re not my mother.”
“You know you’re wrong.”
“He’s a moocher, all right.”
“Why do you have that look on your face?”
“You should have seen it coming.”
“You’re going in there right now and apologize.

I picked one of these dialogue exercises, and I discovered a new story that’s waiting to be fleshed out. Good luck with the exercise you choose.

Please share this!

One response to “dialogue exercises : 40 writing prompts to get you going”.

Thanks dear it’s a perfect idea, am going to try it.

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Writing Dialogue: A Storytelling Exercise

by Melissa Donovan | Apr 18, 2023 | Fiction Writing Exercises | 4 comments

A storytelling exercise in writing dialogue.

Today’s fiction writing exercise is excerpted from Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises , which includes lessons and exercises that help beginning to intermediate storytellers study and practice the craft of storytelling. This exercise, which is from a chapter on narrative, focuses on dialogue. Enjoy!

Dialogue is one of the most compelling elements of any narrative. It can be used to advance the plot, establish relationships between the characters, reveal key information about the characters, describe the setting, and set the theme.

“Hey, Joe.” “Hi, Sue.” “How are you?” “Not bad. How are you?” “Pretty good. Just waiting for summer so I can take my kids camping.” “I hear you. As soon as the sun comes out, I’m heading to the beach.” “Sounds awesome. Say, I wanted to talk to you about a murder case we worked on a few years ago.”

The characters speak over six lines of dialogue before they get to the good stuff. It feels like a long slog. But this is what a real conversation would look like, transcribed to the page. We writers use our storytelling magic to tighten it up into a more riveting conversation:

“Joe, I need to talk to you about the Watershed case.” Joe almost lurched out of his chair. He hadn’t heard Sue approaching his desk from behind.

Record a real conversation, and then transcribe one to three pages of it. Approach this exercise ethically—you are not advised to tape people without their knowledge or consent. As an alternative, simply listen carefully during a conversation—notice the ums and ahs , the small talk, the filler that we stuff into our real-life dialogue. You can also search online for conversations that have been recorded or transcribed.

Write a scene that is composed mostly (if not entirely) of dialogue between two or three characters. The conversation should reveal the following: what a character wants (goals), an inner struggle, a character’s strengths, a character’s weaknesses, and at least one clue about each character’s personality.

Why does real human conversation translate poorly to the page? How can dialogue be used to help readers gain deeper understanding of the characters? Why is dialogue one of the most important elements of storytelling?

This article has helped expanciate further since the intermediate writing class I attended sometime ago,and will go a long in the drive towards creative writing basics understanding for prospective writers, thanks melissa!

You’re welcome!

Hello Melissa,

Great article, thank you!

I have some thoughts on why human conversations translate so poorly into dialogue. When we speak to each other face to face there are certain pleasantries or other cultural “requirements”, if you will, that we engage in. Most of these are filtered out or at least passed over in our consciousness. Yes, we hear them and respond, but almost automatically. It is the meat – the heart – of what we came to talk about that gets and holds our attention. Those things are the real subject of our conversation. Thus, when we read dialogue in a story we also filter out most of the pleasantries and the cultural expectations. Only if these things go to further character development or help set the scene are we really interested in them. Perhaps that is why written dialogue needs to “cut to the chase” so to speak.

Dialogue helps us gain a deeper understanding of characters by letting us hear their voices. Idioms, expressions, pronunciations, emotional responses to situations, all of these can be heard in their voices which can tell us many things about the person speaking. We might hear them use idioms that help us figure out their background: Jake pushed the weathered straw hat back on his head, squinting into the sun, “We’ve had to ride herd on ’em pretty hard.” Jake’s got to be some sort of cowpoke, right? Seems that way from how he talks.

Dialogue is one of the most important elements in storytelling because it’s the characters directly telling us what we really want to know. Yes, the author can fill us in with information. But we want to know what Jake thinks, what he feels, what he has to say about those people he’s had to watch so closely. We can learn this information by just having the author relate it to us. But isn’t it better to get it directly from Jake?

Hi Michael. I agree with everything you’ve said about dialogue. Very astute observations!

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101 Of The Most Clever Dialogue Writing Prompts

Sometimes the best way to get a story started is with a stirring piece of dialogue. I’m talking about the kind of conversation that draw us right in and make us wonder what’s going on .

Welcome to Authority Pub’s own collection of interesting dialogue ideas.

Think of them as the first line in a conversation you can take in whatever direction you like.

Think of the possibilities as you read through the 101 dialogue prompts below. Imagine what your readers might expect. Then surprise them.

Funny Dialogue Prompts

Angst dialogue prompts, dialogue prompts for romance, sad dialogue prompts, use these dialogue prompts to create fascinating book characters., 101 dialogue writing prompts.

These dialogue starters will grab your readers’ attention and make them want to read the next line. From there, it’s up to you to get their jaws dropping and keep their eyes glued to the page.

“Put the gun down, dearest. I have news!”

“I have a lot going for me, but humility is not one of them.”

“Oh, dang! What have you done to yourself?”

“Don’t eat that! I made it ‘specially for our guest.”

“Is that seriously your password?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t been arrested yet. Wait, no, I’m not.”

“You promised to call me if you didn’t know what to wear.”

“So, you broke my favorite mug… and you’re breaking up with me?”

“Mommy, I’m not s’posed to tell you this, but Aunt Brenda says the vaccine’ll prob’ly turn me into a vegetable.”

“I’m afraid the king is indisposed. And the castle is out of sorts right now, what with the chef being executed last minute.”

“Sir, the pony rides are for children only.”

woman writing on notebook clever writing prompts

“Who on earth put this in my pocket? It doesn’t even work!”

“Oh, good, you’re here! Hold this.”

“You don’t know what this means to me. You’re my first willing human subject, and we… are going to make history!”

“On a scale of one to ten, how do you feel about nachos right now?”

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate your coming here. I just… didn’t think you’d come wearing… that. ”

“Oh, wow, you weren’t kidding.”

“Dude. We talked about this. Boundaries!”

“Hieeee! I’m calling about your ad for a peppy office clerk?”

“Now, don’t be mad, but…”

“Well, thanks to you, that’s another Taco Bell that’s banned us for life.”

“I didn’t change my name to sound more badass. I changed it because my parents named me Lulubellerina.”

“So you know, I haven’t had my coffee yet. And your voice is putting me to sleep.”

“Please tell me you didn’t eat that.”

“So, wait… I died… and came back. And I still don’t have superpowers?”

“How could you do this to me? You knew!”

“You told me he was my dad.”

“Trust me, you want to be in the friend zone.”

“I know you don’t have any reason to trust me, but… you need to know something.”

“For someone who doesn’t like to feel things, you sure feel a lot of it out loud.”

“You’re allowed to need help sometimes. And I know I haven’t been what you needed. But I’m here, and I wanna help.”

“I know you’re new here, but we do things a little differently at this school.”

“Why do you want to help me? I just broke your brother’s nose.”

“What have you done with my diary?”

“You’re the worst. And you’re all I’ve got.”

“I’m not moody, I’m thinking. Don’t interrupt.”

“If I wanted to get better, I wouldn’t be dating you. ”

.ugb-746569f .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#785d91 !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-746569f .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#785d91 !important}.ugb-746569f .ugb-blockquote__quote{fill:#0693e3 !important;width:70px !important;height:70px !important}.ugb-746569f .ugb-blockquote__text{color:#ffffff}.ugb-746569f .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} How can you stand this place? It’s biggest claim to fame is that a touring singer’s dog died in the motel pool.”

“You think I don’t know you’re only here because he sent you?”

“If you’re here to tell me what happened last night, someone beat you to it.”

“No, I don’t hate you . We’re not there, yet.”

“It’s not that I don’t like my life. It’s that I don’t have the energy to enjoy it.”

“Hey. Look what came in the mail. Wanna tell me what’s going on with your grades?”

“Did you find him?”

“Talk to me, okay? I need to know what’s going on.”

“Where did you get that book? Who gave it to you?”

“I know it’s not perfect, but I did follow the recipe this time. And I added hot dogs for extra protein.”

How to Write Dialogue Like a Pro

You're invited to join our 8-week online course on how to write dialogue. Let's say you ask four different people how to make a cheese sandwich...

Person One responds: "You just take a piece of cheese and put it between two slices of bread."

Person Two: "Seriously? You don't know how to make a cheese sandwich?"

Person Three: "Personally, I would recommend goat cheese or perhaps a ripe Camembert, on a fresh baguette or perhaps brioche, lightly toasted, with caramelized onions or perhaps candied figs."

Person Four: "Sorry, I don't do dairy."

Different people speak differently. The differences are not only in what they say, but in the way they say it.

That's one reason why dialogue—presenting your characters' speech in their exact words—is such a powerful tool for your fiction.

Dialogue helps you show what your characters are like instead of just describing them to your reader.

It also draws readers into a scene and makes your writing a lot more fun to read!

How to Write Dialogue - Skip to Topic - Getting great at dialogue - Conversation versus written dialogue - Dialogue and summary - Dialogue format - Tags - Descriptive beats - Adding layers - Tips on how to write dialogue

Getting Great at Dialogue

To get great at writing dialogue, listen to how different kinds of people talk. Pay attention to...

What they say (of course).
What they DON'T say. Are they beating around the bush? Are they intentionally avoiding something?
The kinds of words they use. Do they use simple or sophisticated vocabulary? Do they use slang? Jargon? Profanity? Do they have a favorite word or expression?
Their tone. Polite? Rude? Bossy? Self-effacing? Flirtatious? Blunt? Chatty?
The rhythms of their speech. Do they use short choppy sentences, or long ones that wind on and on?
What does the way these people speak express about who they are?

You can borrow their voices for your characters.

If you're struggling with dialogue, here's a shortcut. Just think of someone who speaks the way your character might. Then, whenever your character is speaking, try to hear that person's voice in your head.

When you're writing or revising dialogue, you might also find it helpful to say the lines out loud or even act them out.

During your first draft, you'll listen to your characters speaking in your imagination and write down what they say.

Later, during the revision, you'll probably end up trimming some of those conversations down...

man and woman talking, illustrating dialogue

Conversation Versus Written Dialogue

Dialogue on the page is not the same as the way people really talk.

You want to give the flavor of reality, but you're not imitating it exactly.

In real-life conversations, there's a lot of fluff and filler and repetition. If you included all that in a story, it would get boring fast.

You want to include just enough of that to make the conversation feel real. And cut the rest.

Let's say two people, Joan and Edgar, meet in a restaurant. The real conversation might begin like this...

ORIGINAL VERSION: "Hi," Joan said. "Hi." "Sorry I'm late." "Don't worry, I just got here too," Edgar said. "I couldn't find parking." "I couldn't either. I finally wound up parking behind that church." "Which church?" "The one on—what's that street called?" "Barry Street?" "No, further down." "I don't know..." "The one with that store—what's that store called?" "I don't know." "Like, the store that sells everything. You know?" "I'm not sure..." The waitress came over to their table. "Hi, I'm Kelsey! I'm going to be your server! How are we doing today?" "Fine, thanks," Joan said. "Not bad," Edgar said. "Can I get you folks something to drink?" the waitress asked. "I could really use a glass of wine," Joan said. "But I probably shouldn't." The waitress waited. "I'll have a diet Coke," Edgar said. "Great!" said the waitress. "And what can I get for you?" she asked, turning back to Joan. "I'd kill for a glass of wine." "We have a nice house red," the waitress offered. "But I shouldn't drink. I have to go back to work," Joan explained. The waitress waited. "Can I see a wine list?" Joan asked. "It's right here," Edgar said, handing it to her. "Okay, I'll be right back," the waitress said. "In the meantime, I'll bring some ice water for you." "And a diet Coke," Edgar reminded her. "Absolutely," the waitress said, walking off. "So," Joan said when she was gone, "I heard the police are looking at Duffy now." "Where'd you hear that?" Edgar asked. "McConnell. He says Duffy's their top suspect." "That's good," Edgar said. "Yeah." "Tell me everything." "Wait, I'm just going to look at the wine list real quick. I know I shouldn't be drinking wine, but..."

If you wanted to use this conversation in a story, you might write it like this...

REVISED VERSION: "Sorry I'm late," Joan said. "That's all right," Edgar said. The waitress came over, and Joan ordered a glass of wine. "So," she said when the waitress left again, "I heard the police suspect Duffy now." "Where'd you hear that?" Edgar asked. "McConnell. He says Duffy's their number one suspect." "That's good," Edgar said. "Yeah." "Tell me everything."

If you want to show more about what Joan is like, you might keep some of her dithering over the wine, but cut the small talk at the very beginning. But you won't transcribe every word that Joan and Edgar utter during their lunch together.

Every piece of dialogue should be serving a purpose in your story. Often, it will be accomplishing more than one task at a time (e.g., showing something about the character at the same time that it's moving the plot forward).

Keep in mind the purpose of the dialogue when you decide which parts to cut and which parts to leave in.

Dialogue and Summary

Here's an example of summary dialogue:

Myrna complained about the hotel her son had chosen.

Here's an example of direct dialogue:

"The hotel's a real dump," Myrna said. "The room's tiny, and there's hardly any closet space. And the soap dish in the shower? It has a hole in it, so the soap falls right through! Who designed that soap dish, and what in the world were they thinking? And there's no place to put your towels..."

In summary dialogue, the author TELLS the reader what Myrna said. In direct dialogue, the author SHOWS Myrna saying it by quoting her exact words.

Some advantages of direct dialogue:

It's more specific (we find out exactly what Myrna didn't like about the hotel—and can form our own opinion about how serious her complaints are).
It conveys character (we learn something about Myrna from the way she describes the hotel).
It's more vivid (the reader feels like they're hearing the conversation firsthand).

A big advantage of summary...

It's brief.

Imagine that Myrna continues complaining for several hours. The reader isn't going to want to hear all that.

So you can summarize:

Myrna spent the whole morning complaining about the hotel.

Or, you can mix dialogue with summary:

"I hardly slept last night," Myrna said. "That hotel room was so noisy. And the pillows were too fat." She continued complaining about the hotel all through breakfast and the long drive to David's house.

Mixing dialogue with summary allows you to give the flavor of the dialogue without taking up more space than you want to.

You decide how much direct dialogue to include, depending on your goals for the scene.

How to Write Dialogue: Format

Standard dialogue format varies a bit from country to country .

You can look at some published novels from your own country to see how the dialogue's formatted.

In the U.S., dialogue generally looks like this...

"I love you so much," Yolanda said. "Then why did you try to poison me?" Julian asked her.

Note that the punctuation of the speakers' words is inside the punctuation marks. And in Yolanda's sentence, the period (full stop) is changed into a comma.

RIGHT: "I love you so much," Yolanda said. WRONG: "I love you so much." Yolanda said.

When writing dialogue, it's common practice to start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. This makes it easier for the reader to keep track of who says what.

How to Write Dialogue: Tags

You use dialogue tags to let the reader know who's speaking. Here are some examples of dialogue tags:

Edgar asked
the waitress told them

You don't necessarily have to use a dialogue tag in every line of dialogue. Sometimes it's perfectly clear without them who the speaker is. For example, take the following conversation between two characters.

"Will you marry me?" Yolanda asked. "Absolutely not," said Julian. "Why not? Why won't you marry me?" "Because you tried to poison me, Yolanda." "That was an accident!" Yolanda said. "How do you accidentally slip arsenic into somebody's drink?"

In this example, it's clear that Yolanda's the one who asks "Why won't you marry me?" so it's not necessary to use a dialogue tag there.

You're likely to need dialogue tags...

at the beginning of a conversation, to establish who the participants are.
if there are more than two speakers.
when you haven't used dialogue tags in a while (to remind readers who's saying what)

There are several uses for dialogue tags. The obvious one, the main use, is to prevent confusion about the speaker's identity. A second use is to create a little break or pause in the conversation. Compare two versions of another exchange between Yolanda and Julian.

VERSION 1: "Why did you try to poison me?" Julian asked. "Because I was jealous," Yolanda said.

VERSION 2: "Why did you try to poison me?" Julian asked. "Because," Yolanda said, "I was jealous."

Do you hear the difference? In the second version, the dialogue tag creates a little pause after the word "Because." Yolanda might be thinking about her answer, or she might be pausing for emphasis. But the placement of the dialogue tag subtly changes the rhythm of Yolanda's line.

The standard dialogue tags "said," "told," and "asked" are almost invisible to readers. In general, readers won't even notice they're there. They'll focus instead on the characters' words.

On the other hand, flashier dialogue tags like "wheedled", "sneered", "commanded," "whined," etc., can get distracting if they're overused...

"Please, please marry me," Yolanda wheedled. "You've got to be kidding," Julian sneered. "No one ever wants to marry me," Yolanda whined.

Generally, readers should be able to tell from the character's words if the character is wheedling or sneering.

It's okay to throw in a colorful dialogue tag here once in a while if it adds to the reader's experience. But don't go overboard with them.

And don't worry that you're "repeating yourself" because you're using the words "said" and "told" a lot in your dialogue tags. If the dialogue's interesting enough, the reader won't even notice those words.

man and woman talking as they cross a street

How to Write Dialogue: Descriptive Beats

A descriptive beat is a small piece of action or description inserted into the dialogue. Here's an example of dialogue containing descriptive beats...

"I don't want it," Eva said, pushing the file back across the table. James raised his eyebrows. "Do you know what I went through to get that for you?" he said.

In this example, the descriptive beats are:

pushing the file across the table
He raised his eyebrows.

Here are some ways to use descriptive beats in your dialogue.

1) To create a pause.

We talked about using a dialogue tag to change the rhythm of a line of dialogue.

A descriptive beat is another way to insert a pause—and the longer the line of description, the longer the pause.

VERSION 1 "I don't want it," Eva said, pushing the file back across the table. James raised his eyebrows. "Do you know what I went through to get that for you?" he said.

VERSION 2 "I don't want it," Eva said. "Do you know what I went through to get that for you?" James said.

Do you feel the difference in the rhythm? In the version with descriptive beats, there's a pause between Eva's statement and James's answer. In the version without them, James seems to respond immediately.

If there's a long pause in the middle of a conversation, you can tell the reader that; e.g., "Neither of them spoke for several minutes." But if you want to make the reader *feel* the pause, the silence stretching on, you can spend a bit of time describing what else is going on with your main character and their surroundings: Eva's pounding headache, a fly buzzing around the table and briefly landing on Eva's sleeve, a car horn honking outside...

2) You can use descriptive beats instead of dialogue tags. Instead of 'Eva said' or 'James said', you can show who's talking with the descriptive beats. For example, here's Eva and James's conversation with only the descriptive beats to identify the speakers:

"I don't want it." Eva pushed the file back across the table. James raised his eyebrows. "Do you know what I went through to get that for you?"

3) You can use descriptive beats to help readers visualize the scene.

Particularly in long passages of dialogue, you want to avoid "Talking Head Syndrome", where the voices seem to be floating in space. Descriptive beats allow you to provide some visual details to keep readers grounded.

4) You can use descriptive beats to add emotional layers to the dialogue.

Your characters' body language hint at what the characters are feeling—which might not always match up with their words!

"I love you too," she said, her face radiant.
"I love you too," she said, but avoided his eyes.
"I love you too," she said between clenched teeth.

How to Write Dialogue with Layers

In some cases, it makes sense to keep the dialogue very straightforward and to-the-point. But in other cases, this can feel a bit flat.

If your detective asks the suspect where she was during the time of the murder, the suspect might simply answer the question. "Eight o'clock this morning? I was at home." A simple exchange of information.

But dialogue is often more interesting if there's something else going on at the same time.

Going back to the example of the detective interviewing the suspect, here are some ways you might liven up their exchange:

The suspect might be distracted by something else. Maybe her toddler is throwing a tantrum during the conversation.
The suspect might attempt to flirt with the detective, or to intimidate him. Maybe she has a grudge against policemen and becomes very hostile.
The suspect might be hiding something (relevant or irrelevant to the conversation).
The suspect might have her own agenda. Maybe she's just interested in showing off how rich and important she is.
The suspect might be trying to steer the conversation in another direction. Maybe she's a political activist, and she's trying to convince the detective to vote for her candidate.
The suspect might be doing something else at the same time. Maybe she's making an ice sculpture for a wedding while they talk.

By adding another layer to the conversation, you can develop character or setting at the same time, and you can add dimension to the scene.

Tips on How to Write Dialogue

To recap some of what we've discussed, here are seven tips on how to write dialogue like a pro.

1) Give each of your characters a different voice. Try to hear their voices in your head as you're writing what they say. Your characters' unique ways of talking will depend on personality, age, cultural and educational background, as well as their relationships with the people they're talking to.

2) Know when to summarize . If a character talks for an hour about his golf technique, you can't include the whole speech in your story. Instead, you can summarize: "John went on for an hour about his golf technique."

3) Mix dialogue and summary. You can mix a few lines of dialogue into a dialogue summary to give readers the flavor of your character's voice. "'Been working on my swing,' John said, launching into an hour-long discourse on his golf technique."

4) Use indirection. Often, people don't express what's on their mind directly. Instead, they hint at it in other ways. If John is attracted to Marsha, he might not come out and say to her, "I'm attracted to you." Instead, he might become boastful around her, or steer the conversation around to whether she's married. The best dialogue often has two levels, what characters are saying on the surface, and what they really mean.

5) Use silences. Pauses in a conversation can be as expressive as what is said out loud. During a pause, you can describe the characters' body language, what they're doing (e.g., taking a sip of coffee), or what's happening around them.

6) Trim the fat. Real-life conversation contains a lot of filler, false starts, repetition, polite blah-blah-blah. If you include all of this in your written dialogue, it can get boring. Instead, you can include just enough to give the flavor of real life, then cut the rest.

7) Don't pile on distracting dialogue tags. Fancy dialogue tags such as "he whined," "she commanded," or "he queried" draw attention to themselves. The old standbys, "said," "told," and "asked" are less noticeable, letting readers focus on your characters' words.

How to Write Dialogue - Next Steps

Be sure to join our free email group for more writing advice and ideas.
You're also invited to join our online course on how to write dialogue.
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How to Write Dialogue

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Check Out Our Creative Screenwriting Exercises, Character, and Dialogue Prompts

Writing exercises for screenwriters can kickstart your creativity..

Sometimes sitting in front of your computer is not enough to make writing happen. We've talked about writer's block in the past, and my summation of how to beat it was just to write on or write something different.

But how do you do that?

The short answer is: try some creative writing practice exercises. These are tools that you can use to really jumpstart your brain's battery. They can be worksheets or prompts or just exercises that get you thinking outside of the box.

The "science" behind them is simple. When you shake your mind out of the mundane and the ordinary, you can find solutions to your problems. The best writing exercises are not procrastination but ways to get you back to doing your best work.

These aren't just writing exercises for aspiring writers, but things season professionals use to unlock their best ideas.

So today, I want to go over some of these strategies and how they can apply to you.

Let's get started.

Screenplay writing worksheets.

Treatments

Creative writing prompts

Character prompts, character archetypes.

Character development
Character arcs

Screenplay ideas and screenwriting prompts

Scene prompts, dialogue writing prompts, drama writing exercises.

Comedy writing exercises

Creative Screenwriting Exercises, Character, and Dialogue Prompts

There's going to be a lot of information dumped into this post—feel free to scroll to what is relevant to you. We hope this helps you get your story back on track and leads to your most productive days working ever.

One of the things I've tried to do here at No Film School is democratize screenwriting for the masses. That meant building a ton of worksheets to help guide people through the process of writing a script. We have the book, which you should download ( free screenwriting eBook ), but we have a lot of screenplay writing worksheets, too.

Check out some of the ones below.

Treatments

A treatment is a multi-page document written in prose that tells the story that happens in your screenplay. It is a synopsis, with action and sparse dialogue, and works as a roadmap for the reader, producer, and writer.

A screenplay outline helps you organize your thoughts and the beats of the story. It's a way to also entice yourself and the reader of the outline.

A beat sheet is a list of emotional moments in a feature film screenplay that helps a writer outline their story.

In general, screenwriting and creative writing share a lot of the same theories behind them. All writing is about communicating to an audience.

Most of the ones I find to be most effective come from a place of emotional vulnerability. If you begin writing from a place where you are vulnerable, you might share things with an audience that make them connect to your story and characters.

Some examples of creative writing prompts are:

What does it feel like not to be loved back?
Have you ever been alone in the wilderness?
What's it like to make eye contact with someone special for the first time?
Describe a near-death experience.
Have you ever been lost on backroads?
What form would your personal demons take?
Write a passionate letter to your nemesis.
Have you ever lost a fight?

Check out 700+ creative writing prompts here .

Crafting interesting and unique characters takes a lot of effort. You need to think about people you know, people you'd like to meet, and get inside actors' minds to make sure someone wants to play these creations.

None of this is easy to do, but hopefully, our character prompts help guide the way.

What are character archetypes ? T hey're broad-stroke headings that refer to the kinds of characters in stories or screenplays.

I love using these molds to help me learn about expected outcomes or tropes. But also, I like to lean into certain qualities presented to format parts of the story I'm working on telling. I think they are useful tools to help inspire and breathe life into the people on your pages.

Character development

Character development comes in two parts: internal and external.

You can think of internal character development as your character's fundamental goals and motivations for their actions. And external development as the struggles and scarring or transformative experiences that make them who they are on the outside.

Character arcs

A character arc is an emotional and physical transformation that a character undergoes throughout a film, TV episode, TV season, or TV series. The character arc depends on the person's physical and emotional response to events in the story.

Now that you have the basic worksheets on how to write a screenplay, let's look at some prompts to get you out of the tough binds you'll get into on the page.

One of the hardest things to do when you're writing is just to get through a hard scene. One of the things I like to do is to insert a new genre into the movie or TV show. Like, when I am writing horror, I try to write a romcom scene into it. Does it fit, will it advance a storyline?

Another tip I would push is to make it rain.

Changing the weather in a scene can add drama or comedy. It can also spark more nuance and add tension.

So what are some generic scene prompts to get you started beyond that?

A stalk and kill murder
A hunting trip
Losing your pill case
Someone is poisoned
A character with allergies visits a buffet
A chase on bikes
You're out at dinner, and your ex arrives
Your best friend is the villain
A text break up
A 911 call
Your grandparent makes a confession
A door-to-door salesman offers something unusual
Astronauts locked out of their shuttle
A domestic dispute between a cat and a dog
Coal miners find a nugget of gold

We have 75 more writing prompts that will supercharge your scenes, and if that's not enough, you can check out 100 Scene-Writing Prompts here.

When your scene is going well, bad dialogue can derail it.

We have some tips for writing dialogue, but you should think about the prompts. What do your characters believe in, where have they been in their lives? Is this a conversation where they are giving or getting advice? Are they talking about one thing but mean another? Maybe they see something in the street or hear a song come on the radio.

When it comes to writing dialogue, try to make it feel like a natural conversation.

As we know from our drama genre article , t hese film and TV series portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. They usually focus on character and how these people arc over time.

When it comes to the exercises at the center of this genre, you have to think about the root of every scene... conflict!

Some drama writing exercises can be:

Siblings fighting over their mother's vase
A couple trying to convince each other to rent a different movie
Two people trying to get in the same cab
Someone is not being allowed into a party because they aren't on the list
There's one bullet left, and each hitman needs it for their job
Someone refuses to put their hands up during a robbery
You stop for directions, and the person at the gas station doesn't want you to get where you are going

As you can see, any of these situations involve squaring two or more people off against each other. The center of the drama is conflict. Let this stuff get weird and wild, and see where these stories can take you.

Check out 100+ more here .

Comedy writing exercises

The comedy genre covers any work in film or television whose general purpose is to create humor and intentional laughs for the audience. It has its origins in ancient Greek plays and oral tradition. People love engaging in comedy. It puts them in a good mood and can be incredibly good at keeping their mind off bad things.

To make your comedy writing pop, you need to workshop different punchlines, setups, and situations.

Some comedy writing exercises can be:

A traveler comes to the future and is confused
What goes on inside your pet's mind
A billionaire becomes poor overnight
An alternate universe where no one can lie
Ghosts who like to tease people
Escalating pranks lead to a school assembly
A beekeeper loses its but needs honey right away
A marble factory explodes and sends the balls all over town
A queen from a foreign country comes to find romance in America

Most comedy prompts are just experiences that would be a drama in any other light. They should be difficult for people, and we should see them go through hell. This will make sure the jokes all land, because we like to laugh at other people's misery.

Summing up creative screenwriting exercises, character, and dialogue prompts

Now that you've mastered all these scenes and prompts, you can get back into your own work and put them to good use. So much of writing is just about jarring you from the place of stasis and challenging you to be vulnerable with the audience.

The goal of all the exercises here is to make you better at understanding yourself, your characters, and the progression of your story.

Got more tips for us? Put them in the comments.

I can't wait to read what you write next.

Now get back to work.

Action Movie Prompt ›
Comedy Writing ›
Dual Protagonist ›
Drama Writing Prompts ›
The Gauntlet Script Coverage ›

Check Out Sigma’s Slimmed Down 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Zoom Lens

This new sigma lens gets an upgrade with a slimmer, more economical, follow-up to the brand’s popular standard zoom for your full-frame mirrorless cameras..

The new version of the SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN | Art also gets some helpful upgrades for enhanced optical performance, AF speed, and operability, as well as the aforementioned slimmed down-ness, which should make the new SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | Art lens a popular, and very baggable, zoom for any of your full-frame mirrorless camera needs.

Let’s take a look at this updated new lens from Sigma and explore how it could be right for your video projects—as well as of course for any photo gigs that might require a solid hybrid lens.

Introducing the SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | Art

Featuring an advancement in optical design, this new II version of the SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN features a shortening of the total optical length, as well as a lens barrel that has been made slimmer by downsizing the zoom mechanisms in the lens.

The lens barrel in particular has been downsized by placing buttons and switches now directly on the lens barrel itself. This means that the weight of the lens has been reduced by approximately 10% compared to the previous version. This lightweight focus group with the high-thrust HLA should make autofocus significantly swifter than the original as well.

Sigma notes that aberrations have been highly corrected through advanced optical design which has been made possible by some further technologies in both design and manufacturing. More specifically, sagittal coma flare is heavily corrected to achieve MTF characteristics surpassing those of the highly acclaimed 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN | Art.

A Full-Frame Mirrorless Zoom

This new SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | Art should be a great option for any videographers shooting full-frame with their mirrorless cameras and looking to have a solid and reliable fixed zoom that should fill in for any on-the-run or documentary-style projects.

Zoom lenses are getting better and better these days (as well as more affordable), so it’s no surprise to see this update from Sigma making this zoom even more functional and lightweight. The SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | Art is also set to include a close-focusing distance of 6.7 inches (17cm) at the wide end at 1:2.7 magnification which should add to the overall versatility of the lens.

The II also includes a click/de-click and lockable aperture ring along with an additional AF-L button for vertical orientation still or video capture. Plus a zoom lock switch which will disengage when zooming is a nice touch as well.

Price and Availability

The SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | Art is online and available to pre-order with an expected availability set for the end of May 2024. You can check out all of the specs and purchase options below.

Full-Frame | f/2.8 to f/22
Fast & Lightweight Wide-to-Tele Zoom
HLA Autofocus
6.7" Minimum Focusing Distance
Aperture Ring with Click & Lock Switches
FLD, SLD & Aspherical Elements
Nano Porous & Super Multilayer Coatings
Dust & Splash Resistant

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II Art Lens (Leica L)

Featuring improved rendering performance in a shorter and lighter body, Sigma 's flagship Leica L-mount 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II Art Lens deploys an advanced optical design for gains in sharpness, resolution, and portability.

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What Are The Best Crime Movies of All Time?

The ending of 'challengers' explained, what are the best adventure movies of all time, what are the best fantasy movies of all time, translating 10 notes from executives that screenwriters hear all the time, check this vfx breakdown of the tv series 'fallout', what is the longest movie in the world, the 'joker' ending explained, what's the average structure of a superhero movie, an ode to marlin, the greatest dad in the seven seas.

Get Free high-resolution PDF of How to Write a Screenplay

Creative Writing Prompts - Featured - StudioBinder

Brainstorming
Scriptwriting

82 Creative Writing Prompts and Writing Exercises for Screenwriters

C reative writing prompts are powerful tools that aid you to become a consistent writer. It’s easy to get inspired once, maybe twice about a project or story that means something to you. But if and when that light dims, or you finally finish that project, what’s next? Writer’s block isn’t much of an avenue. Excuses are for amateurs because professional writers write. Writing prompts and writing exercises, give you the momentum to keep going when the mind slows down, or if you’re anything like me, when doubt sets in.

Creative Writing Prompts

Character prompts work for every genre.

I’m going to start with some creative writing prompts that are universal across all writing mediums and all genres. These will be character driven exercises.

Why start with character?

Genre isn’t the seed of a good story, nor are high concepts.

High concept stories can be insightful, mind-bending, and just straight up entertaining, but they are not what makes a compelling narrative.

If you’re not sure who your characters are, or what it is they want, your story may fall apart some time in Act 2, halfway through the novel, or during the first 5 pages of your short. The point is, you may lose the point if your characters are unclear, because in any great story, character suggests plot.

Have you ever tried to write a screenplay, only to find your having a hard time “fitting in” certain details you wanted to have or saying to yourself that you just haven’t “figured it out” yet. When character intention is clear, the story unfolds.

And these upcoming character prompts can be applied to any genre you feel most comfortable writing, which is the best part about them.

But don’t worry, in later sections, I’ll make sure to separate fantasy writing prompts from horror or romance writing prompts for those that just need an extra boost for the genre specific piece they’re writing.

Character Driven Exercises and Prompts

Character writing exercises.

For all of these, try not to think too much. You can edit later. These responses should be purely intuitive. Give perfectionism a rest, and allow yourself to enter the world of your story, even if you’re not sure exactly what is looks like.

So let’s start with some direct questions to ask your character. Try these with every character, antagonists too. But let’s start answering as your protagonist:

What food would you take to a deserted island, and why?
Your house is burning. What three things do you save? Why?
If you could have had a different job, what would you have picked? Why?
What are you scared of losing?
First vivid memory of childhood?
When was the first time you were embarrassed? What happened?
Is there something you’re hiding from the world? What is it?
What do you like about yourself? What do you hate about yourself?
What do you want out of life?

Creating something from nothing isn’t easy. But there’s help!

Embrace your new world, and finish the next set of sentences as your protagonist:

My last thought before I fall asleep is…
I believe the reason I was put on this planet is to…
What breaks my heart is…
What makes me happy is…
Worst thing anyone has ever said to me was…
Nicest thing someone has ever said to me was…
Most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me, or I, them was…
My attitude toward god is…
The person who understands me no matter what is…
My greatest achievement has been...

Knowing the flavor jam your character prefers, what kinds of flowers they like, or who their favorite band is, may or may not yield any helpful information. But fine, I get it.

Here are some prompts to get the useless information people love to write about. Maybe they actually are relevant and will help your story:

Zip up or pull over hoodies
Flannels or silk pajamas...birthday suit?
Chocolate cake, ice cream, or salty chips
Hair color, eye color, your other physical attributes?
What book are you reading?

Now for you as the writer. Answer as yourself:

Why this story? What is it about this story that makes you want to write it?
Are you scared to write about something? Why?
What do you want to express through your story?
Why should this be a screenplay and not a novel, short story, or take some other form?
Did you pick the right protagonist to properly express what it is what you want to show?
Mess around with loglines to distill what your character really wants. Learn to write loglines if you’re unfamiliar.
What do you think your characters might need?

**Take your characters to a party**

This is one of my favorite exercises because it can lead anywhere. Now that you have some more info about who these people are, throw them in the same room. See what happens.

Who gets along? Who doesn’t?

There can be dialogue, but there doesn’t have to be.

What kind of party is it? Why are they there?

Try these out with no intentions that it will lead to a finished product. Just have fun with it to see what else you can discover.

The Essentials to Writing a Great Screenplay →
12 Secrets to Great Exposition in Screenwriting →
Free Form: StudioBinder's Free Word Processor →

Dialogue Writing Prompts

Try just dialogue prompts .

Dialogue exercises are great because they help you understand your characters more. But they also provide a kind of creative spark for story ideas. Now while you’re actually writing them, it’s not good to let your story idea control the conversation. In fact, I wouldn’t think about story at all while you’re writing them. But later, when you go back to take a look at them, you might find some hidden gems that spark more ideas.

Here are a list of dialogue prompts. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who the characters are yet, or which character a certain line would be good for. Try not to think about how this could fit into your already existing story, or what scene this should belong in, just write:

“Why didn’t you answer before? I called you three times. Now you’re pretending like nothing happened.”
“I just have a lot of friends so…”
“You hate coffee?”
“It just doesn’t seem normal.”
“I’ve developed a kind of aversion to it. I don’t know, it made sense at the time.”
“Have you ever seen it in person?”
“It’s not that I love her…”
“How much do you need?”
“I don’t know! Don’t yell at me. I just found it on the street.”
“How do I know if you’re lying?”
“It would be easier if you’d just apologize.”
“It’s not much of a cause, really. Just a bunch of grown children who weren’t accepted anywhere else.”
“Why won’t this thing work?”
“I’m trying, I’m really actually trying.”
“It’s been weird without him.”
“It’s not that I’m against it…”
“I hear something, can you come over?”
“I guess it’s...art?
“Where did you go for 3 hours?”
“What’s wrong with your face?”

You can use these at the party, brainstorming a fantasy novel, rom-com script, or even just to work out that writing muscle.

Though actions sometimes speak a little louder than words...

**Now try writing a scene with NO dialogue. Only action.**

This is helpful if you already know a bit about your characters.

What do they want, what’s stopping them from getting it?

Writing Exercises

Fantasy writing prompts.

Fantasy prompts are weird. Not because they’re other worldly and actually strange, but because these prompts are usually plot ideas, which shifts us away from character a bit. But of course these can be equally as interesting.

So feel free to write your heart out and go off into some weird dimension with space warlocks, or flying dogs, but just remember to come back to character eventually. In fact, everything above, could of course be used in a fantasy script, novel, or short story. But again, plot ideas and premises, can really get the mind moving.

Let’s jump in:

In this town, if enough people start to believe something, it quickly becomes true. Except to you.
An animal has turned into a person.
An archaeologist is led to a dig in a major city. And what she finds changes the course of her life.
An archaeologist finds a fossil of something that couldn’t have ever existed.
A land has been praised with only sunlight. Nighttime no longer exists.
It’s the 1980s. You’re driving from St. Louis to California. You pull off the road to purchase a map. But the map you bought is a bit misleading. You end up in a city that doesn’t exist.
You sit down at a coffee shop at the window. Across the street you see a claymation couple walking down the street. No one else seems to notice, except for one man waiting for the bus. You both make eye contact.
You wake up in a world where you can purchase emotions.
You’re a child with no fear. You meet a dragon in the woods.
Every single leader, politician, or otherwise “high-up” government official dies.

More Creative Writing Exercises

Romance writing prompts.

Of course, the character writing prompts and dialogue prompts can work especially well for romance stories. But I want to give a few more options for what to consider when writing a love story.

And these prompts in of themselves, have been used forever. But the way to avoid cliches is in your specificity of character and uniqueness in story. The more specific you get, the more unique, and yet, universal your story will be.

A couple is vying for the same job opening.
Two people in an arranged marriage eventually fall in love.
A student graduates and he and his former teacher run into each other at a bar. It goes a little too well.
A doctor is falling in love with her recent fling. They decide to get serious and shortly after he is accused of murder.
A tourist travels to another country and falls in love with a local.
A toxic relationship kills a romance and pushes the protagonist away. The main character leaves and gets involved with someone new. But now she can’t stop treating them as her ex treated her.
Two friends who know everything about each other start dating. Was this a bad idea?
Two people in love can never make it work.
Opposing politicians hide their romance.
A psychic and a scientist meet on a blind date.

Prompts to Die For

Horror writing prompts.

Okay, now for the creepy stuff.

You wake up in a world where you’re a serial killer
Freelancers accept job offers online. They begin to disappear. One woman survives, but ends up somewhere she can’t seem to come back from.
A grown man discovers he wasn’t adopted, he was kidnapped. He goes abroad to find his real family but his trip turns into a horror show.
Mass shooters take over a city.
A doll equipped with artificial intelligence takes over one family’s home.
A group of senior citizens at a nursing home get bored and try to connect to their loved ones through a Ouiji board. Unfortunately, they connect to something else.
A group of friends go to an Escape Room party but only a few make it out.
A restaurateur slowly poisons his customers over several years, maintaining a seemingly normal life.
A medium begins to get attacked by those she’s connecting to. Can she escape?
A couple begins to have the same nightmares that escalate quickly.

Can you blend any of these with the fantasy prompts?

Be as creative with the prompts as you are in your writing.

Give yourself all the freedom you want, because once you start writing, you’ll have to make decisions.

“The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease and intimacy with the process of writing… Constant reading will pull you into a place where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness. It also offers you a constantly growing knowledge of what has been done and what hasn’t, what is trite and what is fresh, what works and what just lies there dying (or dead) on the page. The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.” — Stephen King

Daily Writing Practice

Wrapping up.

A good prompt can be anything. A line of dialogue, a character’s strongest desire, an object, a new kind of world, a seemingly stupid question. It doesn’t matter. Something will bode well with your imagination and it’ll just click. And depending on your story, characters, or even time in your life, different exercises may feel more natural.

Allow yourself the time and space for this brainstorm work.

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and it often comes fast. So even if you aren’t stuck on the treacherous writer’s block, train yourself to catch it when it comes, so stagnancy and complacency don’t become habitual. You may reap some pretty incredible short-term rewards, but you’ll also be laying a foundation for a potentially, fruitful and consistent career.

Brainstorm Short Film Ideas

So after you’ve worked with some of the above prompts, you may have that hunger. It’s time to start writing! What will you write? Maybe you already know. But considering writing a short film might be a good next step. Short films are great mediums because the turnaround time is much shorter than a feature. And finishing projects, especially early on, creates momentum. So let’s brainstorm some short film ideas!

Up Next: Get Short Film Ideas! →

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It’s very interested I’m new to this but by reading this it giving me an idea of how I can write a story one day thanks for sharing

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50 Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises

Good question.

Creative writing exercises are designed to teach a technique. They are highly specific, more specific than creative writing prompts, and much more specific than story generators.

Creative writing exercises for adults are not designed to lead the writer into crafting a full story, but are only designed to help them improve as a writer in a narrow, specific category of writing skills.

I’ve broken the exercises below into categories so you can choose what category of skill you’d like to practice. Can you guess which category in this list has the most prompts?

If you guessed characters, then you’re right. I think characters are the heart blood of every story, and that a majority of any writing prompts or writing exercises should focus on them.

But I also think any of these will help you create a narrative, and a plot, and help you generate all kinds of dialogue, whether for short stories or for novels. These writing exercises are pretty much guaranteed to improve your writing and eliminate writer’s block.

Also, if you’re a fledgling writer who needs help writing their novel, check out my comprehensive guide to novel writing.

Enjoy the five categories of writing exercises below, and happy writing!

1. Think of the most deafening sound you can imagine. Describe it in great detail, and have your character hear it for the first time at the start of a story.

2. Have a man cooking for a woman on a third date, and have her describe the aromas in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she’s in love with him.

3. Pick a line from one of your favorite songs, and identify the main emotion. Now write a character who is feeling that emotion and hears the song. Try to describe the type of music in such a beautiful way that you will make the reader yearn to hear the song as well.

4. Have a character dine at a blind restaurant, a restaurant in pitch blackness where all the servers are blind, and describe for a full paragraph how the tablecloth, their clothing, and the hand of their dining partner feels different in the darkness.

5. Select a dish representative of a national cuisine, and have a character describe it in such detail that the reader salivates and the personality of the character is revealed.

7. Describe two characters having a wordless conversation, communicating only through gestures. Try to see how long you can keep the conversation going without any words spoken, but end it with one of them saying a single word, and the other one repeating the same word.

8. In a public place from the last vacation you took, have two characters arguing, but make it clear by the end of the argument that they’re not arguing about what they’re really upset about.

9. Write a scene composed mostly of dialogue with a child talking to a stranger. Your mission is to show the child as heartbreakingly cute. At the same time, avoid sentimentality.

10. Have two character have a conversation with only a single word, creating emphasis and context so that the word communicates different things each time it is spoken. The prime example of this is in the television show “The Wire,” where Jimmy and Bunk investigate a crime scene repeating only a single expletive.

11. Pick an object that is ugly, and create a character who finds it very beautiful. Have the character describe the object in a way that convinces the reader of its beauty. Now write a second version where you convince the reader (through describing the object alone) that the character is mentally unstable.

12. Write down five emotions on slips of paper and slip them into a hat. Now go outside and find a tree. Draw one emotion from the hat, and try to describe that tree from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion. (Don’t mention the emotion in your writing — try to describe the tree so the reader could guess the emotion).

13. Describe a character’s bedroom in such a way that it tells us about a person’s greatest fears and hopes.

14. Root through your desk drawer until you find a strange object, an object that would probably not be in other people’s drawers. Have a character who is devastated to find this object, and tell the story of why this object devastates them.

15. Go to an art-based Pinterest page and find your favorite piece of art. Now imagine a living room inspired by that flavor of artwork, and show the room after a husband and wife have had the worst fight of their marriage.

16. Pick a simple object like a vase, a broom, or a light bulb, and write a scene that makes the reader cry when they see the object.

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17. Make a list of the top five fears in your life. Write a character who is forced to confront one of those fears.

18. Write an entire page describing the exact emotions when you learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life. Now try to condense that page into a single searing sentence.

19. Think about a time in your life when you felt shame. Now write a character in a similar situation, trying to make it even more shameful.

20. Write a paragraph with a character struggle with two conflicting emotions simultaneously. For example, a character who learns of his father’s death and feels both satisfaction and pain.

21. Write a paragraph where a character starts in one emotional register, and through a process of thought, completely evolves into a different emotion.

Characters:

22. Create a minor character based upon someone you dislike. Now have your main character encounter them and feel sympathy and empathy for them despite their faults.

23. Have a kooky character tell a story inside a pre-established form: an instruction manual, traffic update, email exchange, weather report, text message.

24. Write about a character who does something they swore they would never do.

25. Have a character who has memorized something (the names of positions in the Kama Sutra, the entire book of Revelations) recite it while doing something completely at odds with what they’re reciting. For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty.

26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is.

27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game. Have the fight be about something related to the board game: fighting about money, have them play monopoly. Fighting about politics, let them play chess.

28. Write about two characters angry at each other, but have both of them pretend the problems don’t exist. Instead, have them fight passive-aggressively, through small, snide comments.

29. Describe a character walking across an expanse field or lot and describe how he walks. The reader should perfectly understand his personality simply by the way you describe his walk.

30. Write a first-person POV of a character under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and try to make the prose as woozy and tipsy as the character.

31. Describe the first time that a character realizes he is not as smart as he thought.

32. Describe an hour in the life of a character who has recently lost their ability to do what they love most (a pianist who has severe arthritis; a runner who became a quadriplegic).

33. Write an argument where a husband or wife complains of a physical ailment, but their spouse refuses to believe it’s real.

34. Write a scene where a stranger stops your main character, saying that they know them, and insisting your main character is someone they are not. Describe exactly how this case of mistaken identity makes your character feel.

35. Describe a small personality trait about a person you love, and make the reader love them, too.

36. Write a personality-revealing scene with a character inside a public restroom. Do they press a thumb against the mirror to leave a subtle mark? Do they write a plea for help on the inside of the stall door? Do they brag about the size of what they’ve just dumped off?

37. Give your character an extremely unusual response to a national tragedy like a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Maybe have them be aware their response is unusual, and try to cloak it from others, or have them be completely unaware and display it without any self-consciousness.

38. Have one of your main characters come up with an idea for a comic book, and tell a close friend about the idea. What about this idea would surprise the friend, upsetting what he thought he knew about your main character? Also, what would the main character learn about himself from the comic book idea?

39. Think of an illness someone you love has suffered from. How does your character respond when someone close to them has this illness?

40. Have your main character invent an extremely offensive idea for a book, and show their personality faults through discussing it with others.

41. Have your character write down a list considering how to respond to their stalker.

42. Write a scene where a man hits on a woman, and although the woman acts repulsed and begs her friends to get him away from her, it becomes apparent that she likes the attention.

43. Write about a 20-something confronting his parents over their disapproval of his lifestyle.

44. Have your character write a funny to-do list about the steps to get a boyfriend or girlfriend.

45. Have a risk-adverse character stuck in a hostage situation with a risk-happy character.

46. For the next week, watch strangers carefully and take notes in your phone about any peculiar gestures or body language. Combine the three most interesting ones to describe a character as she goes grocery shopping.

47. Buy a package of the pills that expand into foam animals, and put a random one in a glass of warm water. Whatever it turns out to be, have that animal surprise your main character in a scene.

48. Have your character faced with a decision witness a rare, awe-inspiring event, and describe how it helps them make their decision.

49. Imagine if your character met for the first time his or her long-lost identical twin. What personality traits would they share and which ones would have changed because of their unique experiences?

50. If a character got burned by a hot pan, what type of strange reaction would they have that would reveal what they value most?

Once you’ve taken a stab at some of these exercises, I’d recommend you use them in your actual writing.

And for instruction on that, you need a guide to writing your novel .

That link will change your life and your novel. Click it now.

32 comments

John Fox, you have some excellent resources, and I thank you. I read your comments, then scrolled down to glance at the list of 50 exercises. The FIRST one, “loud noise’ is already in my head. My Hero is going to be side swiped in my Cozy. I was side swiped on a state highway here in Virginia a couple of weeks ago and, although the damage was minor, the sound of that big SUV “glancing” off my little car was SCARY!!! I once heard a fast-moving car REAR-END is stand-still car; that sound was something I’ll never forget. So, your exercise is very timely. THANK YOU!!!

This is a great list! Thanks!

You know what would be motivating? If we could turn these in to someone and get like a grade lol

I’ve been thinking a lot about “how to master writing,” and this is the first time that I found an article that makes it clear the difference between prompts and exercises. I fully agree with you. These are bound to make you a better writer if you focus on doing a variation of them daily.

An excellent list – thank you very much. I run a small writing group and we’ll be trying some.

Yes, thank you. I too run a small writing group and you got me out of a slump for tomorrow’s group!

yes,thank you . It’s good for improve your writing skills.

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What a lovely list! I am working on the final draft of my very first novel, and am constantly working at improving the final product. Your exercises are just what I need to kickstart my writing day. Thank you so very much.

Thank you very much When I turned50 I received my diploma from Children’s Institute in West Redding Ct I got my inspiration from being near water however now that I am in Oregon I have had a writing block thanks to your list my creative juices are flowing

I suppose I better have good punctuation, seeing this is about Writing. Thank you for this great list. I am the Chair of our small Writing group in Otorohanga and we start again last week of Feb. I have sent out a homework email, to write a A4 page of something exciting that has happened over the holiday break and they must read it out to the group with passion and excitement in their voices. That will get them out of their comfort zone!

A formidable yet inspiring list. Thank you very much for this. This is really very helpful. I am from India, and very new to writing and have started my first project, which I want to make it into a Novel. This has been very helpful and is very challenging too. Prompts look sissy when compared to this, frankly speaking. Thank you very much again.

Where can I get the answers for these?

There aren’t “answers.” You create responses to these exercises.

Thank you so much for the detailed suggestions focusing on HOW to put the WHAT into practice; really helpful & inspiring.

Just started rough drafting a story I’ve always wanted to write. Do you have any advice for someone writing their first real story? I’m having trouble starting it; I just want it to be perfect.

I consider this very helpful. Just started my journey as a creative writer, and will be coming back to this page to aid my daily writing goal.

I have always loved writing exercises and these are perfect practice for my competition. I have tried lots of different things that other websites have told me to try, but this by far is the most descriptive and helpful site that i have seen so far.

This is really a creative blog. An expert writer is an amateur who didn’t stop. I trust myself that a decent writer doesn’t actually should be advised anything but to keep at it. Keep it up!

I’ve always enjoyed writing from a little girl. Since I’ve been taking it a bit more seriously as does everybody else it seems; I’ve lost the fun and sponteneity. Until now…..this is a marvelous blog to get back the basic joy and freedom in writing. Or should that be of?:) These exercises are perfect to get the creative juices flowing again…..thank you:)

These are interesting exercises for writing.

These are fantastic! I started reading a really awesome book on creative writing but it just didn’t get any good or easy to follow exercises. So I found your site and having been having a lot of fun with these. Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

creative and inspiring, thank you

I always wanted to have an exercise where a friend and I each wrote a random sentence and sent it to each other to write a short story from that beginning sentence, then exchange the stories for reading and/or critique. Maybe both writers start with the same sentence and see how different the stories turn out.

Thanks for these exercises. Some are really challenging. To truly tackle them I’m having to spend as long beforehand thinking “how the HECK am I going to do this?” as I do with ink on paper. Would be a great resource if other authors submitted their replies and thoughts about how they went about each exercise.

Start the conversation: submit one of yours.

I think I can use these to inspire my students.

Hi there. Thank you for posting this list- it’s great! Can I ask you to consider removing number 42 or perhaps changing it somewhat? I teach sex ed and every year am shocked by how many young people don’t understand issues around consent. Stories about woman who ‘say no but really mean yes’ are deeply unhelpful. Really appreciate your post but felt I had to ask. Thanks.

What’s wrong with the number 42?

It promulgates the belief that when a woman says no, she doesn’t mean it, potentially resulting in sexual assault.

I just make this list a part of my teaching in Creative Writing Classes. Very good list of ideas!

Thank you so much for posting this! I have used it to create a creative playwriting activity for my high school creative writing class–so much good stuff here for me to pick through and select for my kiddos that will allow them to shine and improve their knowledge of writing as a craft!

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

Samantha in Secondary

6 Dialogue Writing Activities for the Secondary ELA Classroom

April 18, 2022 by Samantha H.

Dialogue writing activities are always a mainstay in any of my narrative writing units. I love seeing the creative writing my students turn in, but I often see it lacks dialogue or uses it incorrectly. It’s a skill that needs to be refined, but is sometimes overlooked in the grand scheme of things. I like to set aside time for activities that help review the mechanics of proper dialogue writing, as well as unique dialogue writing activities that let students practice the skill themselves. Read on for creative dialogue writing activities for your secondary students.

1. Create a Scene

There are a lot of fun ways you can have students create scenes to practice writing dialogue. You can start with some premade options that you assign or students randomly select. You can also create Roll-a-Scene scenarios for your students (here’s my bundle of Roll a Story activities for inspo). In these activities, students use a dice and roll to receive story elements. In their story creation, have them create dialogue. This will allow your students to review the basic rules of dialogue and also let students practice creatively.

2. Write the Photo

Print a variety of photos for students to create the dialogue. You can go about this in a variety of ways. Print several options and use them as station activities or have everyone can write from the same photo as a bellringer. Find photos that have great facial expressions to help lead students who may struggle with writing, and use more ambiguous photos for more creative options where students must make inferences.

3. Use Mentor Texts

Pick from a lineup of strong mentor texts to use as examples. You can use from your current class readings, or select from top YA novels that your students already love. You can also have students select from their personal readings. Keep a variety of genres on hand so there’s always an example ready for students to use as a reference. You can use these for writing activities like having students continue a section, rewrite with different characters, update the language to something more contemporary or to fit in a new genre. If you need some ideas to add to your own classroom library, sign up for my email list to get a free list of 100 YA Novels to get you started.

[SPACE FOR OPT-IN]

4. Correct the Sample

Take either some mentor text examples or write your own for students to correct. This makes a great bellringer activity for quick reviews to keep it fresh in your students’ minds. Seeing how common mistakes can be corrected can help students visualize what needs done when they attempt their own writing. Consider working on some correction samples before students begin their own creative assignments. NoRedInk is another great option to allow students to practice correcting dialogue. Create a class, assign their pre-made dialogue writing activities, and you’re ready to go.

5. Turn Narrative into Dialogue

You can pull from mentor tasks again for this activity. Pull from your class reading, personal reading, popular novels, or just well-known scenes and have students write dialogue for sections of narrative. It can be an interesting take to see students write the same scene and compare their dialogue interpretations.

6. Learn from the Masters

If you’re looking for some more ideas there are a few more activity ideas here from Edutopia. The suggestions in the article are spot on and have great suggestions for dialogue activities to use with students.

If you’re looking for a great resource that combines many of the above activities already done for you, click here to grab the mini-lesson I use with my own students. The resource includes both print-and-go and digital versions, so you can use it however you may be teaching. My students love the creative dialogue writing activities included.

If you’re looking at your students’ writing and thinking it could use some more dialogue, or you know working with dialogue is a bit rusty – consider working in some daily practice or mini-lessons and activities to help solidify the skill.

Do you include dialogue writing activities in your own classroom? I’d love to hear about your favorites! Sound off in the comments below or follow me on IG or Facebook to join the discussion.

Happy teaching!

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Florida State University

FSU | Writing Resources

Writing Resources

The English Department

College Composition
“Are we still talking about the dishes?”

“I think I’ve heard this one before”

Don’t mind me, let me rephrase that, from screen to page, why don’t you tell me how you really feel, "are we still talking about the dishes”.

Purpose of Exercise: Students will practice writing dialogue that builds tension through subtext and disagreement while avoiding dialogue as exposition.

Description: Beginning writers often have difficulty writing dialogue that is tense but not overt about that tension or the factors contributing to it.

Suggested Time: 30 minutes

Procedure: Have students write a scene in which two characters almost have an argument but don’t quite. The ostensible argument should be about something unimportant—cleaning, television, dishes—while the larger, unstated tension is much more significant.

Additional Information: This activity may be used in class or as a homework assignment but should be introduced with a discussion of strategies for indicating subtext. It is easy to find examples of dialogue in television shows in which people speak what should be revealed indirectly—either because they are announcing their feelings and intentions or because they are explaining context. Practicing for this exercise might start with watching one of these scenes and rewriting it so that the tension/emotions are unstated. Any episode of Grey’s Anatomy provides countless examples of characters elaborately explaining their feelings and motivations.

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Purpose of Exercise: Students will practice managing large sections of dialogue in a single setting.

Description: Raymond Carver wrote several stories in which the action of the story is contained within a single setting and conversation. Though this model tends to prove difficult for beginning writers, practicing ways to create a story arc simply through what is said is often useful.

Procedure: Have students write a story in which one person tells another person a story. The listener should be reluctant to hear the story.

Additional Information: This activity may be used in class or as a homework assignment but should be introduced with a discussion of how conversation stories work. A good—and relatively short—example is Peter Orner’s “The Raft,” which was originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. Longer examples include Carver’s “Where I’m Calling From” and Charles Baxter’s “Poor Devil,” which is available online.

Purpose of Exercise: The purpose of this exercise is for students to develop their skills in writing dialogue that both reveals character and moves plot forward. Emphasis will be placed on diction and syntax.

Description: Have students eavesdrop on a conversation they are not part of. By listening in, encourage them to pay particularly attention not just to the conversation overall, but how the participants interact.

Procedure: For homework, have students listen in on a conversation on a bus, in a restaurant, before class. They don’t need to listen for long, just enough time to gain an idea of the speech patterns. Have them transcribe what they heard to the best of their abilities. What was the reason for the conversation, from what you can tell? Was their a conflict? How would you characterize each of the speakers? Consider word choice, word order, tone, and rate of speaking. How does dialogue contribute to our impressions of people? Students may wish to read aloud, and then open the floor to discussion.

Description: Students will write a conversation with a friend, and then revise it, retelling the same story to their grandmother. Attention will be placed on how we change our language based on our audience.

Suggested Time: class period

Procedure: Tell students to create a dialogue between themselves and their best friend at another university detailing a crazy night out. Encourage the students to appeal to all five senses in the dialogue with the friend. When students have completed the exercise, ask them to rewrite the “crazy night” as if they were talking to their grandmother. How was the evening revised? How did the tone, diction and syntax change? What does this suggest about dialogue? How does character change in the two dialogues?

Purpose of Exercise: The purpose of this exercise is for students to develop their skills of mixing dialogue with action.

Description: Communication is verbal and non-verbal. In this exercise, students will learn not only the value of dialogue, but of actions to characterize.

Procedure: In this exercise, have students watch a 30 second to 1 minute viral video, perhaps something funny and amusing. You may want to provide them with the dialogue. Have them watch the clip several times to get a sense of the nuances, particularly actions, props, and facial expressions. Have them add to the dialogue in way that indicates to the reader the tone and the subtler meaning the said words.

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Description: Communication is verbal and non-verbal. In this exercise, students will learn not only the value of dialogue, but of actions to characterize. They will take the passage below, and revise it, adding dialogue and sensory details.

Procedure: Give students the following passage.

I was happy. My girlfriend was sad. I was curious. She became annoyed. I was confused. She became angry. I became angry. She became terrifying. I was scared. I am content now.

Tell them to replace each of the emotions with actions and dialogue to show what is told. None of the adjectives—happy, sad, curious, annoyed, confused, angry, terrifying, scared, content—can be used in the final version. However, each of those emotions should be detectable through actions, body language, facial expressions, and dialogue. Have the students share, explaining how they adapted the paragraph to a more visually appeally, resonant narrative.

Writing Activities

105 Creative Writing Exercises To Get You Writing Again

You know that feeling when you just don’t feel like writing? Sometimes you can’t even get a word down on paper. It’s the most frustrating thing ever to a writer, especially when you’re working towards a deadline. The good news is that we have a list of 105 creative writing exercises to help you get motivated and start writing again!

What are creative writing exercises?

Creative writing exercises are short writing activities (normally around 10 minutes) designed to get you writing. The goal of these exercises is to give you the motivation to put words onto a blank paper. These words don’t need to be logical or meaningful, neither do they need to be grammatically correct or spelt correctly. The whole idea is to just get you writing something, anything. The end result of these quick creative writing exercises is normally a series of notes, bullet points or ramblings that you can, later on, use as inspiration for a bigger piece of writing such as a story or a poem.

Good creative writing exercises are short, quick and easy to complete. You shouldn’t need to think too much about your style of writing or how imaginative your notes are. Just write anything that comes to mind, and you’ll be on the road to improving your creative writing skills and beating writer’s block .

Use the generator below to get a random creative writing exercise idea:

List of 105+ Creative Writing Exercises

Here are over 105 creative writing exercises to give your brain a workout and help those creative juices flow again:

Set a timer for 60 seconds. Now write down as many words or phrases that come to mind at that moment.
Pick any colour you like. Now start your sentence with this colour. For example, Orange, the colour of my favourite top.
Open a book or dictionary on a random page. Pick a random word. You can close your eyes and slowly move your finger across the page. Now, write a paragraph with this random word in it. You can even use an online dictionary to get random words:

Create your own alphabet picture book or list. It can be A to Z of animals, food, monsters or anything else you like!
Using only the sense of smell, describe where you are right now.
Take a snack break. While eating your snack write down the exact taste of that food. The goal of this creative writing exercise is to make your readers savour this food as well.
Pick a random object in your room and write a short paragraph from its point of view. For example, how does your pencil feel? What if your lamp had feelings?
Describe your dream house. Where would you live one day? Is it huge or tiny?
Pick two different TV shows, movies or books that you like. Now swap the main character. What if Supergirl was in Twilight? What if SpongeBob SquarePants was in The Flash? Write a short scene using this character swap as inspiration.
What’s your favourite video game? Write at least 10 tips for playing this game.
Pick your favourite hobby or sport. Now pretend an alien has just landed on Earth and you need to teach it this hobby or sport. Write at least ten tips on how you would teach this alien.
Use a random image generator and write a paragraph about the first picture you see.

Write a letter to your favourite celebrity or character. What inspires you most about them? Can you think of a memorable moment where this person’s life affected yours? We have this helpful guide on writing a letter to your best friend for extra inspiration.
Write down at least 10 benefits of writing. This can help motivate you and beat writer’s block.
Complete this sentence in 10 different ways: Patrick waited for the school bus and…
Pick up a random book from your bookshelf and go to page 9. Find the ninth sentence on that page. Use this sentence as a story starter.
Create a character profile based on all the traits that you hate. It might help to list down all the traits first and then work on describing the character.
What is the scariest or most dangerous situation you have ever been in? Why was this situation scary? How did you cope at that moment?
Pretend that you’re a chat show host and you’re interviewing your favourite celebrity. Write down the script for this conversation.
Using extreme detail, write down what you have been doing for the past one hour today. Think about your thoughts, feelings and actions during this time.
Make a list of potential character names for your next story. You can use a fantasy name generator to help you.
Describe a futuristic setting. What do you think the world would look like in 100 years time?
Think about a recent argument you had with someone. Would you change anything about it? How would you resolve an argument in the future?
Describe a fantasy world. What kind of creatures live in this world? What is the climate like? What everyday challenges would a typical citizen of this world face? You can use this fantasy world name generator for inspiration.
At the flip of a switch, you turn into a dragon. What kind of dragon would you be? Describe your appearance, special abilities, likes and dislikes. You can use a dragon name generator to give yourself a cool dragon name.
Pick your favourite book or a famous story. Now change the point of view. For example, you could rewrite the fairytale , Cinderella. This time around, Prince Charming could be the main character. What do you think Prince Charming was doing, while Cinderella was cleaning the floors and getting ready for the ball?
Pick a random writing prompt and use it to write a short story. Check out this collection of over 300 writing prompts for kids to inspire you.
Write a shopping list for a famous character in history. Imagine if you were Albert Einstein’s assistant, what kind of things would he shop for on a weekly basis?
Create a fake advertisement poster for a random object that is near you right now. Your goal is to convince the reader to buy this object from you.
What is the worst (or most annoying) sound that you can imagine? Describe this sound in great detail, so your reader can understand the pain you feel when hearing this sound.
What is your favourite song at the moment? Pick one line from this song and describe a moment in your life that relates to this line.
You’re hosting an imaginary dinner party at your house. Create a list of people you would invite, and some party invites. Think about the theme of the dinner party, the food you will serve and entertainment for the evening.
You are waiting to see your dentist in the waiting room. Write down every thought you are having at this moment in time.
Make a list of your greatest fears. Try to think of at least three fears. Now write a short story about a character who is forced to confront one of these fears.
Create a ‘Wanted’ poster for a famous villain of your choice. Think about the crimes they have committed, and the reward you will give for having them caught.
Imagine you are a journalist for the ‘Imagine Forest Times’ newspaper. Your task is to get an exclusive interview with the most famous villain of all time. Pick a villain of your choice and interview them for your newspaper article. What questions would you ask them, and what would their responses be?
In a school playground, you see the school bully hurting a new kid. Write three short stories, one from each perspective in this scenario (The bully, the witness and the kid getting bullied).
You just won $10 million dollars. What would you spend this money on?
Pick a random animal, and research at least five interesting facts about this animal. Write a short story centred around one of these interesting facts.
Pick a global issue that you are passionate about. This could be climate change, black lives matters, women’s rights etc. Now create a campaign poster for this global issue.
Write an acrostic poem about an object near you right now (or even your own name). You could use a poetry idea generator to inspire you.
Imagine you are the head chef of a 5-star restaurant. Recently the business has slowed down. Your task is to come up with a brand-new menu to excite customers. Watch this video prompt on YouTube to inspire you.
What is your favourite food of all time? Imagine if this piece of food was alive, what would it say to you?
If life was one big musical, what would you be singing about right now? Write the lyrics of your song.
Create and describe the most ultimate villain of all time. What would their traits be? What would their past look like? Will they have any positive traits?
Complete this sentence in at least 10 different ways: Every time I look out of the window, I…
You have just made it into the local newspaper, but what for? Write down at least five potential newspaper headlines . Here’s an example, Local Boy Survives a Deadly Illness.
If you were a witch or a wizard, what would your specialist area be and why? You might want to use a Harry Potter name generator or a witch name generator for inspiration.
What is your favourite thing to do on a Saturday night? Write a short story centred around this activity.
Your main character has just received the following items: A highlighter, a red cap, a teddy bear and a fork. What would your character do with these items? Can you write a story using these items?
Create a timeline of your own life, from birth to this current moment. Think about the key events in your life, such as birthdays, graduations, weddings and so on. After you have done this, you can pick one key event from your life to write a story about.
Think of a famous book or movie you like. Rewrite a scene from this book or movie, where the main character is an outsider. They watch the key events play out, but have no role in the story. What would their actions be? How would they react?
Three very different characters have just won the lottery. Write a script for each character, as they reveal the big news to their best friend.
Write a day in the life story of three different characters. How does each character start their day? What do they do throughout the day? And how does their day end?
Write about the worst experience in your life so far. Think about a time when you were most upset or angry and describe it.
Imagine you’ve found a time machine in your house. What year would you travel to and why?
Describe your own superhero. Think about their appearance, special abilities and their superhero name. Will they have a secret identity? Who is their number one enemy?
What is your favourite country in the world? Research five fun facts about this country and use one to write a short story.
Set yourself at least three writing goals. This could be a good way to motivate yourself to write every day. For example, one goal might be to write at least 150 words a day.
Create a character description based on the one fact, three fiction rule. Think about one fact or truth about yourself. And then add in three fictional or fantasy elements. For example, your character could be the same age as you in real life, this is your one fact. And the three fictional elements could be they have the ability to fly, talk in over 100 different languages and have green skin.
Describe the perfect person. What traits would they have? Think about their appearance, their interests and their dislikes.
Keep a daily journal or diary. This is a great way to keep writing every day. There are lots of things you can write about in your journal, such as you can write about the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ of your day. Think about anything that inspired you or anything that upset you, or just write anything that comes to mind at the moment.
Write a book review or a movie review. If you’re lost for inspiration, just watch a random movie or read any book that you can find. Then write a critical review on it. Think about the best parts of the book/movie and the worst parts. How would you improve the book or movie?
Write down a conversation between yourself. You can imagine talking to your younger self or future self (i.e. in 10 years’ time). What would you tell them? Are there any lessons you learned or warnings you need to give? Maybe you could talk about what your life is like now and compare it to their life?
Try writing some quick flash fiction stories . Flash fiction is normally around 500 words long, so try to stay within this limit.
Write a six-word story about something that happened to you today or yesterday. A six-word story is basically an entire story told in just six words. Take for example: “Another football game ruined by me.” or “A dog’s painting sold for millions.” – Six-word stories are similar to writing newspaper headlines. The goal is to summarise your story in just six words.
The most common monsters or creatures used in stories include vampires, werewolves , dragons, the bigfoot, sirens and the loch-ness monster. In a battle of intelligence, who do you think will win and why?
Think about an important event in your life that has happened so far, such as a birthday or the birth of a new sibling. Now using the 5 W’s and 1 H technique describe this event in great detail. The 5 W’s include: What, Who, Where, Why, When and the 1 H is: How. Ask yourself questions about the event, such as what exactly happened on that day? Who was there? Why was this event important? When and where did it happen? And finally, how did it make you feel?
Pretend to be someone else. Think about someone important in your life. Now put yourself into their shoes, and write a day in the life story about being them. What do you think they do on a daily basis? What situations would they encounter? How would they feel?
Complete this sentence in at least 10 different ways: I remember…
Write about your dream holiday. Where would you go? Who would you go with? And what kind of activities would you do?
Which one item in your house do you use the most? Is it the television, computer, mobile phone, the sofa or the microwave? Now write a story of how this item was invented. You might want to do some research online and use these ideas to build up your story.
In exactly 100 words, describe your bedroom. Try not to go over or under this word limit.
Make a top ten list of your favourite animals. Based on this list create your own animal fact file, where you provide fun facts about each animal in your list.
What is your favourite scene from a book or a movie? Write down this scene. Now rewrite the scene in a different genre, such as horror, comedy, drama etc.
Change the main character of a story you recently read into a villain. For example, you could take a popular fairytale such as Jack and the Beanstalk, but this time re-write the story to make Jack the villain of the tale.
Complete the following sentence in at least 10 different ways: Do you ever wonder…
What does your name mean? Research the meaning of your own name, or a name that interests you. Then use this as inspiration for your next story. For example, the name ‘Marty’ means “Servant Of Mars, God Of War”. This could make a good concept for a sci-fi story.
Make a list of three different types of heroes (or main characters) for potential future stories.
If someone gave you $10 dollars, what would you spend it on and why?
Describe the world’s most boring character in at least 100 words.
What is the biggest problem in the world today, and how can you help fix this issue?
Create your own travel brochure for your hometown. Think about why tourists might want to visit your hometown. What is your town’s history? What kind of activities can you do? You could even research some interesting facts.
Make a list of all your favourite moments or memories in your life. Now pick one to write a short story about.
Describe the scariest and ugliest monster you can imagine. You could even draw a picture of this monster with your description.
Write seven haikus, one for each colour of the rainbow. That’s red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
Imagine you are at the supermarket. Write down at least three funny scenarios that could happen to you at the supermarket. Use one for your next short story.
Imagine your main character is at home staring at a photograph. Write the saddest scene possible. Your goal is to make your reader cry when reading this scene.
What is happiness? In at least 150 words describe the feeling of happiness. You could use examples from your own life of when you felt happy.
Think of a recent nightmare you had and write down everything you can remember. Use this nightmare as inspiration for your next story.
Keep a dream journal. Every time you wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning you can quickly jot down things that you remember from your dreams. These notes can then be used as inspiration for a short story.
Your main character is having a really bad day. Describe this bad day and the series of events they experience. What’s the worst thing that could happen to your character?
You find a box on your doorstep. You open this box and see the most amazing thing ever. Describe this amazing thing to your readers.
Make a list of at least five possible settings or locations for future stories. Remember to describe each setting in detail.
Think of something new you recently learned. Write this down. Now write a short story where your main character also learns the same thing.
Describe the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your whole life. Your goal is to amaze your readers with its beauty.
Make a list of things that make you happy or cheer you up. Try to think of at least five ideas. Now imagine living in a world where all these things were banned or against the law. Use this as inspiration for your next story.
Would you rather be rich and alone or poor and very popular? Write a story based on the lives of these two characters.
Imagine your main character is a Librarian. Write down at least three dark secrets they might have. Remember, the best secrets are always unexpected.
There’s a history behind everything. Describe the history of your house. How and when was your house built? Think about the land it was built on and the people that may have lived here long before you.
Imagine that you are the king or queen of a beautiful kingdom. Describe your kingdom in great detail. What kind of rules would you have? Would you be a kind ruler or an evil ruler of the kingdom?
Make a wish list of at least three objects you wish you owned right now. Now use these three items in your next story. At least one of them must be the main prop in the story.
Using nothing but the sense of taste, describe a nice Sunday afternoon at your house. Remember you can’t use your other senses (i.e see, hear, smell or touch) in this description.
What’s the worst pain you felt in your life? Describe this pain in great detail, so your readers can also feel it.
If you were lost on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, what three must-have things would you pack and why?
Particpate in online writing challenges or contests. Here at Imagine Forest, we offer daily writing challenges with a new prompt added every day to inspire you. Check out our challenges section in the menu.

Do you have any more fun creative writing exercises to share? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Welcome to Writing Exercises and Prompts.

This site provides (completely free) creative writing prompts and exercises to help you get started with creative writing and break through writing blocks - as well as some fun anagram vocabulary games.

Generate random story ideas, plots, subjects, scenarios, characters, first lines for stories and more. Did I mention it's all free? Have fun :-)

- Update March 2024: Random First Line - lots of new prompts and you can now choose a genre Creative Writing - First Steps - dive right in with some practical tasks to get you started.

- Update November 2023: New 'Guess The Word' game

- Update August 2023: Bite-size Writing Tips and Tricks. 3-minute reads

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Random first line prompts.

Generate a random first line for a story.

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Prompts to encourage freewriting.

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Generate two characters, a setting, a situation and a theme. Change the elements until you are happy with your plot.

Generate elements for a murder plot. Change the elements until you get an interesting mystery to solve.

'Take Three Nouns'

Another freewriting exercise. Make connections between random nouns.

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Writing prompts to help with dialogue writing.

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Create a 'What If?' scenario to write about.

Random Writing Exercises

Browse my random list of writing exercises.

For poets and songwriters. Enter a word to find rhyming and similar-sounding words.

Generate a selection of words and use the suggestions to kick-start your writing.

Story Title Ideas

Create your own story title.

Create a character outline.

Create some interesting aspects to your character.

There's now a section dedicated to writing prompts for children of primary/elementary school age.

Generate a fictitious,'English-sounding' town name.

Get plot ideas for your own story-writing by looking at the plots of over 100 popular films.

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Use images to help you write.

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Generate random traits for your characters.

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Choose first and last names for characters.

Develop your character into a well-rounded person, quirky habits and all.

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Exercise your brain and keep your vocabulary in good shape with this free anagram game.

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Enter a list of letters and discover all the words you can make with them.

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COMMENTS

Dialogue Writing Exercises
Hundreds of Dialogue creative writing exercises you'll actually want to try! Filter through them by writer's block, plot development, character development, setting, outlining, worldbuilding, and dialogue. ... Part of writing great dialogue is ensuring each character has a unique voice. Pretend three of your characters have won the lottery.
100 Dialogue Exercises (With Examples)
Let's do some deliberate practice — take the challenge of these 100 Dialogue Writing Exercises. These exercises are based on and organized according to the 7 DOs of Dialogue, ... That said, as creative writers we get to break the rules, as in the example from Alice Walker's "The Color Purple". There has to be a reason to break the rules, ...
30 Dialogue Exercises to Light Up Your Fiction
If you want practice writing some dialogue, these exercises will stretch your creative writing muscles. More importantly, you'll learn techniques that you can apply to all your future dialogue writing. If you want to see examples of dialogue, please visit my post on 50 Examples of Dialogue Writing. Otherwise, please read on and make sure […]
5 Essential Exercises For Writing Dialogue
Exercise 1: Just For Fun. Write a dialogue-only scene between two inanimate objects that are normally used or found together. Examples: pen and paper; laptop and desktop; TV show and Reality TV show; bacteria and antibiotic. This exercise will reveal tension and conflict between the two.
Dialogue Exercises : 40 Writing Prompts To Get You Going
Forty Dialogue Exercises. Below are forty dialogue exercises. Pick one and start writing. You don't have to know who the characters are, where they are, or why they're at odds. Dialogue is one of the best ways to learn more about your characters. Maybe one of these exercises will even lead to a new story. "I thought you were supposed to ...
Writing Dialogue: A Storytelling Exercise
A storytelling exercise in writing dialogue. Today's fiction writing exercise is excerpted from Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises, which includes lessons and exercises that help beginning to intermediate storytellers study and practice the craft of storytelling. This exercise, which is from a chapter on narrative, focuses on dialogue.
8 Strategies for Improving Dialogue in Your Writing
8 Strategies for Improving Dialogue in Your Writing. One of the best ways to help a reader connect with your writing is by crafting excellent dialogue. Use these tips to learn how to write dialogue that showcases character development, defines your characters' voices, and hooks readers.
101 Clever Dialogue Writing Prompts
You knew!". "You told me he was my dad.". "Trust me, you want to be in the friend zone.". "I know you don't have any reason to trust me, but… you need to know something.". "For someone who doesn't like to feel things, you sure feel a lot of it out loud.". "You're allowed to need help sometimes.
How to Write Dialogue Like a Pro
6) Trim the fat. Real-life conversation contains a lot of filler, false starts, repetition, polite blah-blah-blah. If you include all of this in your written dialogue, it can get boring. Instead, you can include just enough to give the flavor of real life, then cut the rest. 7) Don't pile on distracting dialogue tags.
Check Out Our Creative Screenwriting Exercises, Character, and Dialogue
The short answer is: try some creative writing practice exercises. These are tools that you can use to really jumpstart your brain's battery. They can be worksheets or prompts or just exercises that get you thinking outside of the box. The "science" behind them is simple. When you shake your mind out of the mundane and the ordinary, you can ...
29 Easy, Fun, and Effective Writing Exercises
The purpose of creative writing exercises is to expand your imagination and to spark new ideas or thoughts, encouraging you to practice writing these before you start on your next project. Themed writing prompts can be helpful here, breaking down your prompts into different buckets like: Food. Animals. Landscapes.
7 Writing Exercises to Improve Your Dialogue
If you're trying to improve your dialogue skills--whether because it's something you struggle with, or because you just want to expand your abilities--writin...
82 Creative Writing Prompts and Writing Exercises for Screenwriters
More Creative Writing Exercises Romance writing prompts. Of course, the character writing prompts and dialogue prompts can work especially well for romance stories. But I want to give a few more options for what to consider when writing a love story. And these prompts in of themselves, have been used forever.
50 Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises
For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty. 26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is. 27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game.
6 Dialogue Writing Activities for the Secondary ELA Classroom
Read on for creative dialogue writing activities for your secondary students. 1. Create a Scene. There are a lot of fun ways you can have students create scenes to practice writing dialogue. You can start with some premade options that you assign or students randomly select. You can also create Roll-a-Scene scenarios for your students (here's ...
Dialogue
Purpose of Exercise: Students will practice writing dialogue that builds tension through subtext and disagreement while avoiding dialogue as exposition. Description: Beginning writers often have difficulty writing dialogue that is tense but not overt about that tension or the factors contributing to it. Suggested Time: 30 minutes.
105 Creative Writing Exercises: 10 Min Writing Exercises
Here are over 105 creative writing exercises to give your brain a workout and help those creative juices flow again: Set a timer for 60 seconds. Now write down as many words or phrases that come to mind at that moment. Pick any colour you like. Now start your sentence with this colour.
Creative Writing Exercises and Prompts
Welcome to Writing Exercises and Prompts. This site provides (completely free) creative writing prompts and exercises to help you get started with creative writing and break through writing blocks - as well as some fun anagram vocabulary games. Generate random story ideas, plots, subjects, scenarios, characters, first lines for stories and more.