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Sunday, September 6, 2009

Writing in 5 minutes

Several years ago I read a blog about writing. I don't remember who's blog or much that I read that day. (I know. It must have really been amazing!) But I do remember doing some writing exercisers. Now, I've never taken a creative writing class and any bit of writing I've mostly learned through trial and error. I also don't feel like I have a lot of time to do writing exercisers. So I was skeptical about this exercise. However, this one only takes 5 minutes! And after trying it, I was utterly amazed with myself!

So let me tell you a little about this exercise. I will show you two words, which you may look at for 30 seconds, and you sit and write anything that comes to mind at the first glance. You have five minutes to complete the assignment. It doesn't have to be a full story. Just start writing. Don't let your pencil (or fingers) come off the paper (or keyboard.) Try to write for a solid 5 minutes. Push yourself and see how much you can do in 5 minutes. You'll be amazed.
There are a couple of things, though. You need to use the first word shown you as the first word of your writing. The second word needs to appear in the first sentence.
So, are you read?
Get set...
(Remember you only have 30 seconds.)
Look...

Fire

&

Chair

Now write and let me know how it goes! Good luck and have fun!
If you want to do this again, go here and there's another set of words.

6 comments:

Cindy Beck, author said...

Nice warm-up exercise, and I think I'll suggest it for my writer's group. Thanks for posting it!

Rachel Harlin said...

I'm glad you liked it, Cindy! I think it's kind of fun! It's amazing how much you can actually write in 5 minutes without stopping!

Monique said...

That was a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing!

JoAnn Arnold said...

Okay, I think I enjoyed that. I just might try it more often. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Rachel, I did the first one 'Fires and Chair' and had a blast. There was so much I wanted to say but time was up. Reading what I scribbled, I realized there were three or four topics for short stories or put them together for one longer short.

I will be back to do some more and I love your site!

Rachel Harlin said...

I'm glad you have all enjoyed this! I thought it was a fun exercise! I hope you've checked out my writing blog for another set of words too. I might have to add more from time to time. What do you think?
Glad everyone had fun!