The Frolics And Fun Of Creative Writing Exercises, Workshops And Prompts!

My very first ever creative writing workshop almost proved to be my last as half way through the course the building had to be evacuated when the fire alarm went off! It was a fiction writing workshop held, along with other courses, in a former old people's home.

One of the writing exercises involved drawing a character name from a hat and then giving a verbal portrait while holding a lighted match! You can imagine how this concentrates the mind and there were one or two nipped fingers! To her credit, our tutor was quite safety conscious and made us hold the matches over a small bowl, which alas, did not contain any water. If it had the partly spent matches would not have ignited during our lunch break and triggered the smoke alarm!

Oblivious to the drama, our little group sat happily in the sunshine munching our sandwiches and wondering which classroom was burning down! A slight exaggeration as the only damage was a heavily scorched table and the loss of our morning's writing prompts. I often wondered if that little episode robbed me of a best seller!

You can read more about my anecdotes from my creative writing workshops experiences or you can check out this video on creative writing exercises and prompts