10 Writing Warm-Ups to Spark Your Creativity

Writing warm-ups were a foreign concept to me not too long ago. 

I don’t quite recall who it was that introduced me to them, though I’m almost certain it was an undergraduate professor of mine. Regardless, writing warm-ups have become integral to my writing process.

In the same way that athletes stretch or run drills before a sporting event, writing warm-ups help writers shake off the cobwebs and stretch their creative muscles before tackling the big stuff. I’ve found that warming up before I write centers me and helps me switch to “Writer Mode” and get down to business. I don’t do them every single that I write, of course. Sometimes I’m squeezing in a paragraph before class or I’m racing to get a thought on paper before I lose it forever, and it’s just not practical to warm up. But for those intensive writing sessions, the ones I’ve blocked out time for with the sole intent to write, warming up really helps get me in the zone.

Warming up for writing session is simple: set a timer for 10-15 minutes, put a big ol’ metaphorical stop sign on the backspace bar, and write.

Want to give it a try? Here are some of my go-to, tried and true warm-up prompts to get you started:

1. Put your playlist on shuffle. Listen to three songs in full and, as they play, write down how the songs make you feel. What do they make you think of? What feelings do they stir up?

2. Write a letter to your younger self. You choose the age. Talk to your 5 year old self, give 12 year old you some advice, or have a conversation with your 16 year old self.

3. Pick a random object in the room and write about it: a book, a lamp, a pen, a glass of water. Describe it in great detail. Personify it if you want! Write everything you can about it.

4. Pull up Poetry Foundation (or your favorite online poetry source) and read the first poem you see. Write a response to it.

5. Play in someone else’s sandbox. Or, more colloquially, write some fan fiction. It’s a ready-made playground! Predict Stranger Things 4, redo the ending of Dexter, explore the psyche of an 80s scream queen, or put yourself in the action. Play! Explore! Have fun!

6. Write a letter to your favorite author (or filmmaker, or actor, or musician) about their most recent work or about your favorite work of theirs. Spill your guts. Tell them everything you want them to know.

7. Go to Google Images, type “aesthetic” into the search bar, and click on the first photo that catches your eye. Write about it. This can also be done on Pinterest or Instagram, and you can choose to specify the type of aesthetic you want to see (e.g.: “dark aesthetic”, “beach aesthetic”, etc.)

8. Write about your day as if it were a chapter of a book. Describe the people in your life as if they are characters in a story, write about a significant event that happened, etc. If you write first thing in the morning, describe your morning routine or fictionalize whatever happened yesterday.

9. Look outside your window and write down everything you see. Describe it in detail. Is it sunny out? Do you see any people outside? What about the animals?

10. Go full stream-of-consciousness. Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes and write. If a thought pops into your head, write it down. Follow it and see where it leads. Don’t stop. Don’t erase any words. Just write.

This post was first published on lexvranick.com on January 20, 2020.