by Barbara A. Black

Created on: August 04, 2010   Last Updated: September 15, 2010

Regardless of how old you are, or how long you have been writing, there will be times that you "have nothing to say". That is when you will need to turn to some old and useful exercises to get past what we all know as "writer's block". Here are a few of those exercises.

One good exercise is to close your eyes and concentrate on a favorite memory. When was that memory made? Where were you, and what were you doing? Who else was there with you, or were you totally alone? What sounds did you hear? What did you see? Did you smell anything, and if so, what was the smell? How did you feel at that time?

Notice that the questions ask you to use your five senses. That is all you need to bring that memory back to life for yourself-and for others. Once you have answered the questions, write about that memory. Make the writing as powerful as you possibly can, so the reader can see, hear, feel, smell, and "taste" what you saw, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted when you had the experience. That is the essence of good writing.

Another good exercise is to look around you and pick out one particular object to describe. You may want to pick is for you to write down, lay it down and go get something to drink before coming back and reading what you wrote. You may be surprised to find that you have several good ideas among all the words that you threw on the page!

Remember that it is not the exercise that you are concentrating on, but the ideas that will come out of the exercise. You may come up with several ideas; if so, write them all down, and choose which one you want to pursue first. Later on, you might find that you want to write about one or more of the other ideas, and that is good.  That way, you won't have to go through the exercises to get the idea, because you already have several that you can use. NEVER, EVER, throw an exercise away! It may lead you to another idea some other time, and if you have disposed of it, you will probably never be able to come up with the entire idea again.

Have fun with the exercises. Enjoy them, and they will be good to you. And you will always be able to come up with something to write about, even if it is only an exercise on writing exercises!

Learn more about this author, Barbara A. Black.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.