30 June Writing Assignments
Recently, I’ve been sharing writing assignments on the Writer’s Digest twitter account (@WritersDigest) using the hashtag #writerassignments. Since it’s been fairly popular so far, I thought it might be good…
Recently, I've been sharing writing assignments on the Writer's Digest twitter account (@WritersDigest) using the hashtag #writerassignments. Since it's been fairly popular so far, I thought it might be good form to collect this month's 30 writer assignments at the beginning of the month.
Now you can do one assignment each day, burn through them all in one week, or pick and choose throughout the month. These are intended to be fun, so relax, uncap that pen, and get wordy with it.
Assignment 1: Let your protagonists get what they want. Then have something take it away.
Assignment 2: Revise your revisions. Then, repeat.
Assignment 3: Be more specific.
Assignment 4: Get your characters into tight spots. Then, let them figure a not-so-obvious way out.
Assignment 5: Make the solution to one problem open a new can of worms.
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Assignment 6: Prompt: He's cheating. But at what? And who's he afraid will catch him?
Assignment 7: Have action early and often.
Assignment 8: Repeat after me: Readers love me for my writing, not my marketing.
Assignment 9: Take that bad situation and make it worse.
Assignment 10: Fight the urge to revise in the first draft.
Assignment 11: Remember dialogue helps advance stories.
Assignment 12: Don't worry about everything all at once. Just do one task. Then, the next.
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Assignment 13: Prompt: Two people go on a trip. Only one returns. What happened?
Assignment 14: How can the setting mirror the action of your story?
Assignment 15: There's something standing in your character's way. What is it?
Assignment 16: Have a normal day suddenly go bizarre.
Assignment 17: Put the thesaurus down and just write.
Assignment 18: For every line of description, ask yourself, "Why is this relevant to the story?"
Assignment 19: Avoid letting your characters get too comfortable.
Assignment 20: Make a character super bad. Then have his (or her) mom show up.
Assignment 21: Worry about leaving clues in the second draft.
Assignment 22: When in doubt, be more concise.
Assignment 23: Tell the same story in a different genre.
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Assignment 24: Let bad things happen to your characters, but good things too.
Assignment 25: Develop an important character who never physically appears in the story.
Assignment 26: Remove the adjectives. Then, add them back with great care.
Assignment 27: Prompt: She knows it's bad, but she can't help herself. What is it? Who does it hurt?
Assignment 28: Send your protagonists into the world.
Assignment 29: Remember conflict keeps readers interested.
Assignment 30: Get wordy in your first draft. You can always cut later.
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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer
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Check out other great There Are No Rules content here:
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
