33 Best Writer's Block Writing Exercises

Getting started is one of the most difficult tasks that faces every writer. Julie Parsons is an international bestselling author. For this exercise, she's giving you the opening lines from some of her books. Take the following lines and use them to write the beginning of your own chapter:

1. You could say it began with a phone call."
2. Michael had watched them both for weeks."
3. She remembered the way it was the first time she saw the prison."
4. Midsummer, no time to be in New Orleans."
5. With the dawn came the light."

Write a passage without the letter "E" or "A." This is known as a lipogram and has been used by authors in many languages to write their novels. You will use unusual sentence constructions, and it may slow you down for a while, but it will certainly force your brain to work in different ways.

A stranger walks into the general store and buys a hammer, a hatchet, some rope, and an apple. What does he do with them?

This is a challenge that will exercise your prowess at one of the oft-used components of English: punctuation. To start off, write a paragraph of no more than 500 words about the benefits of skin care. Within this paragraph, use ; : - _ ! ? " ' , . at minimum twice.

Write a list of random, free-association words. For creative writing, list ten words across ten columns. Then go to each column and add nine more words so that the result is ten columns and ten rows, a total of one hundred words. Just reading the list and noticing the creative leaps your mind has made may surprise you. If you like, continue the exercise by using all one hundred words in a short fiction piece. For poetry, select the words that suggest a common theme.

Have you ever read or watched something with an ending that left you unfulfilled, unsatisfied, or frustrated? Now write a proper ending that fixes the story for yourself. Keep in mind the components of a narrative arc's resolution while you're doing so.

Describe your house - or the dream house you hope to get some day.

Write a short story of whatever topic you'd like, but make sure that somewhere in there, you include this line: "I can't believe that you stabbed me with a knitting needle."

As a visual reference, select a box that has dimensions under 12X12 inches. Tape the box closed. Set the box in front of you. Write a story or poem based on what is inside the box.

Write a review of a restaurant at which you recently ate. Describe the food as much as you can. Feel free to be eviscerating as well.