writing exercises?

Free writing for ten minutes, but without the starting point that the Cult's exercise provides. In other words, you just write down whatever words and descriptions and whatever come to your head to freshen your word palette... without thinking about what you're typing, just typing. Then, when and if you get stuck, you write stuck over and over again until you find new words to say. Writing the same word many times automatically makes your brain think of new things to say just to get out of that repetition.

[QUOTE=nathaniel parker;993505]Hunter S Thompson used to do this [i]all the time![/i][/QUOTE]

didn't know that

also try oneword.com - it's a similar thing to the 60-second egg-timer, but they give you one word that you have to use

also, try a genre you've never done before - horror, scifi, romance, teen, detective, etc.

Pick up [URL=http://www.amazon.com/M-Epiphany-Uncommon-Exercises-Transform/dp/1582973512/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5843409-2688012?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183073288&sr=8-1]The 3 A.M. Epiphany[/URL] by Brian Kiteley. it's full of them, and is a pretty amazing idea starter as well. A lot of writing exercises don't leave you with anything usable when you're done. There's also [URL=http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Block-Ideas-Jump-Start-Imagination/dp/0762409487/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5843409-2688012?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183073496&sr=1-1]The Writer's Block[/URL], a cube-shaped book with a jump-start or exercise on each page.

[QUOTE=wickerkat;993510]didn't know that

also try oneword.com - it's a similar thing to the 60-second egg-timer, but they give you one word that you have to use

also, try a genre you've never done before - horror, scifi, romance, teen, detective, etc.[/QUOTE]

OneWord looks interesting... I can't get past GO however (I get some sort of error page.)

. .

something i find productive..

think of a scenario, craft a scene that has more than two characters. dialogue, description, all of that.. maybe a drug deal, in a house or at a park or something. write it out in a first person. create a character and write it out. then rewrite it in first person a few more times, using the other characters' words. that way you have a full understanding of the scene. then try and put it in a third person limited, controlled down to the best voice for your protagonist. then try crafting the same scene yet again using omniscient. a fun and useful exercise.
-kabol

..

i usually take two unisom and stop writing when i fall asleep.

In all seriousness, though, I often like to take an experience from my life and remove it from it's original context. Then apply the same situation to my narrator or another character and flesh out how this fictional person would react in the same situation I experienced. I don't like my writing to get too far away from the realm of my real experience, and this way I can include specific detail about the experience and still use it as a plot device in a fictional work.

Kill your TV. That's the best writing exercise of all time. Seriously.

Great ideas Kabol and Woe.

Here's another:
Write a quick, coherent story of 1000 words. Once done, cut 200 words out and see if said story is still coherent. It helps hone precision.

write, no exercises needed.  might not be good but it is the only way.

Write what you want to read.

'Tis my motto.