Try Creative Writing

Anyone can write creatively, in fact, some would argue that all writing is creative. The imagination is a muscle, and the more you use it, the more supple it will become. Try some of these exercises to get started:

FICTION

Flash fiction

Using the first line:
“My mother told me I should never...”
Write 200 words. Don't think too hard about what you're writing, just let one word follow the next. You'll end up with a flash fiction, a story told in as few words as possible.

Create a character

Quickly think of the following things:

• A job
• A pet hate
• A favourite food
• An annoying habit
• A pet
• A proverb
• A favourite TV show

Now, just using what you have here, describe your character performing an action. Describe him or her pouring drinks, going to the beach, catching a bus... anything you think a person like this might do. See where it goes.

POETRY

Haiku

It's easy to write a haiku. This traditional Japanese form is a poem in three lines: five syllables, followed by seven syllables, followed by five. For example:

Fly is a simple

beast or verb, but in its eyes

are a thousand worlds.

Try something on the subject of an animal.

Rhyme

Try a sonnet of rhyming couplets with the first line:

" I knew the world was going mad,"

Your poem should have fourteen lines.

Villanelle

Try a villanelle, a poem in tercets (three-line verses). The first and third lines of the first verse repeat throughout the poem, alternating as the last line of every subsequent verse. The rhyme scheme throughout is ABA, ABA, ABA...

To demonstrate:

A - I would like a cup of tea.

B - There is no tea inside the pot.

A - Is there nothing here for me?

A - The kettle's under lock and key,

B - in the cupboard far away.

A - I would like a cup of tea.

A - I have packed and now will flee,

B - looking back with sorry eyes:

A - is there nothing here for me?

For a more inspirational (if chilling) example, check out this villanelle by Tom Disch.

The Rapist's Villanelle

She spent her money with such perfect style
The clerks would gasp at each new thing she'd choose.
I couldn't help myself: I had to smile

Or burst. Her slender purse was crocodile;
Her blouse was from Bendel's, as were her shoes.
She spent her money with such perfect style!

I loved her so! She shopped - and all the while
My soul that bustling image would peruse.
I couldn't help myself: I had to smile

At her hand-knitted sweater from the Isle
Of Skye, an apres-skis of bold chartreuse.
She spent her money with such perfect style.

Enchanted by her, mile on weary mile
I tracked my darling down the avenues.
I couldn't help myself. I had to smile

At how she never once surmised my guile.
My heart was hers - I'd nothing else to lose.
She spent her money with such perfect style
I couldn't help myself. I had to smile.