Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

four great ways to help provide real depth to your characters: creating family backgrounds, childhood memories, education and work histories, and timelines of the major events in their lives.

Remember that every family has black sheep, and so consider picking one of the characters and writing what that person did wrong.

to trigger them, such as a smell (like freshly mown grass), a sound (like a piece of music), an action that seems familiar (like the way someone runs her hand through her hair), a taste (like the petite madeleine dipped in lime-flower tea in Proust’s famous Remembrance of Things Past, published in volumes between 1913 and 1927), or a visual prompt (like a photograph). Objects are incredibly useful for triggering flashbacks. A childhood toy, a piece of family jewellery

Make a list of six key childhood memories for your character.
Now come up with a series of prompts to trigger the memories.
Make one a sight, one a smell, one a sound, one a taste,

Showing these events through a flashback is far more effective than simply telling readers what happened.

Add all the jobs she’s ever done, including holiday and temporary employment, and state the skills gained from these jobs.
Write a profile selling the character’s personal qualities.
Provide details of any hobbies or interests.

Usually, a short story focuses on a critical moment of a character’s life, while a longer piece builds up to this moment.