My Favourite Creative Writing Exercise of All Time

This is a great exercise to get you started on a story (or even a novel).

It's quick to do, but will get your narrative going on multiple levels at once.

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I teach at Birkbeck College in London.

Hanging out

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[cherry_top]

You are the most stereotypical looking writer/artist I’ve ever seen. It’s awesome! Thank you for your tips. Very useful.

[markrodriguez]

Great tips. A conversation between (A) and (B) about (C) and (D).

[iridescentdemon]

Thinking of this for one minute already has helped me flesh out one of my more flat characters, thanks for the tip

[grimgriffinstudios]

Wow, that's actually very helpful. I've been looking for some writing exercises, but I think this one is my favorite!

[tiago]

I opened this video for the purpose of language learning and ended up finding something beyond that. I will save this video for the future. Thank you for sharing a premium tip.

[krysc]

I like this HEAPS!! Thanks so much! This is one of those super easy tricks where the logic behind it is simple enough for school children to grasp, but its actually such a big brain 200iq technique when used with intent and done frequently

[loldebiteloldebite]

Hey that really looks great. Really forces you to kickstart something, thanks

[yesyes-gqpw]

Even just listening to this gets me excited to start writing! Thank you

[MrUndersolo]

Less is More: thank you for this one, sir. I plan on writing something longer this summer and this has me kickstarting my brain over a few ideas...

[shannonsmith]

Thank you for the tips! I'm excited to see what A tells B about C and D.

[KimberleyReid-sv]

That was great! such a great way to start putting something down

[Ineddiblehulk]

You also learn a lot about A and B based on their biases toward C andD. In fact you learn more about A and B’s characters than you do C and D.

[bealight]

thank you for taking the time to share your experience

[BlazeLibra]

I already had a party of 4 schmucks in mind so hearing this prompt made me laugh

[jacobkennedy]

Hey thank you for this, I took the idea and ran with it. Now I have a scene where my goal is to explore the dynamic between a few characters I have in mind.

The trope I've chosen for this prompt is "crossed wires". I've made it so B thinks A fancies D, because of the way they are asking about C's behaviour towards D. The scene escalates until A realises B is confused and clears up the confusion and releases the tension. Very funny how this will pan out! xD

Couldn't have come up with the idea without this prompt, thank you! I have it drafted just need to fill out the story beats now :)

[midnightelixirs]

This is a very good exercise! Thank you.

[maddiebooks]

This actually helped alot. Wow. Thank you. This might be my new favourite writing excercise.

[peterliekens]

This looks very interesting indeed!
I am writing a piece with 5 characters but got a little stuck and the characters, and so their interactions, lack depth. I am definitely going to try this and was thinking that this could even yield more results if I do the exercice several times while rotating the views. ( A and B about C and D, B and C about D and A, and so on..). Any comments on that idea?

[R.B.D]

short n sweet, very helpful, thank you.

[maryzanwarren]

couldn't hear this, my volume is all the way up on tablet so soft it's barely audible