10 Writing Exercises to Tighten Your Writing

10 Writing Exercises to Tighten Your Writing 10 Writing Exercises to Tighten Your Writing 10 Writing Exercises to Tighten Your Writing By Brittiany Cahoon Writing projects can be like children. You love them dearly, but sometimes they irritate you to the point that you just need a break. Working on something fresh and new can invigorate your mind and give you a new approach to your work. These exercises can work for any genre of writing, fiction and non-fiction alike. 1. Free Association This is probably the most popular writing exercise to get the juices flowing. Pull up a new Word document, take a deep breath and just write whatever comes to mind. Dig as deep as you can into your subconscious and don’t worry about what comes out. Sometimes there’s a mental blockage with something that’s been bothering you, so it helps to write it down and get it out of your system. 2. Think Outside the Box Think of something you’re passionate about, like a hobby or a love interest, and write everything you know about it. Sometimes writing slumps happen and it helps to write about something you love. Even if you just write a paragraph, it’s better to write something that’s not your current project. This will rejuvenate you to re-start on your current project. 3. Sharpen the Saw Something I love to do when I’m stuck is read another author’s work, especially an author who writes in the same style or format as my current project. If you’re writing fantasy, read some Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If you’re writing a biography, try taking a look at some biographies of your favorite actors or writers. Escaping into someone else’s world for a bit can relax you enough to delve into your own imaginary world again. 4. Use the Musical Muse Writers feel their work, and when you can quite describe what you’re feeling on paper, it can be frustrating. Get out your ipod or computer, put on your earphones and find some songs that appeal to you and the scene or piece you’re working on. Grooveshark.com and Pandora.com are two websites that offer free, instant music streaming to get those juices flowing. 5. Mad Libs Choose one noun, adjective and verb. Make them as random as possible. Write a story using these words in context. You can also do this exercise with a fellow writer and give each other your noun, adjective and verb to see what you both come up with. 6. Eavesdropper This is a wonderful exercise if you struggle to write natural dialogue between your characters. Sit in a public place like a park or at your local college campus and listen to the things people say as they walk by. Take copious notes and share them with other writers. This exercise is also great if you need a laugh. 7. Use Writing Prompts A writing prompt is simply a topic around which you start jotting down ideas. The prompt could be a single word, a short phrase, a complete paragraph or even a picture, with the idea being to give you something to focus upon as you write. You can find examples and resources about on our Writing Prompts 101 article. 8. Person, Place, Event If you’re in the middle of coming up with some new ideas, this exercise can help. Get a piece of paper and a pen and draw two lines down the middle to form three columns. In the first column, list every type of person you can think of, such as the police, firemen, grandparents, your spouse, a princess or whatever comes to mind. Next, think of a variety of places. It can range from the grocery store to Ireland. In the last column, list a time period or famous historical event like the Battle of Gettysburg or the year 1492. Combine a person, place and event and experiment with writing about that particular situation. You can try as many as you like! 9. Research Rendezvous Select a random topic, like the African Bush or squids and look it up on as many reference sites as you can find. Dictionary.com, thesaurus.com, Wikipedia.org and about.com are some research sites you can begin with. Learn as much as you can about this new topic. Keep a file for research notes. 10. A New Point of View Pick a genre or point of view you have never tried before and write a short story with it. If you normally use third-person point of view, switch to first-person. If you normally focus on non-fiction, branch out and write some fiction. If you normally write sappy romances, give action/adventure a try. It’s scary to leave your comfort zone, but you’d be surprised the kind of inspiration you get when you switch perspective. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Royal Order of Adjectives 50 Nautical Terms in General UseHow to Treat Names of Groups and Organizations

The Crimes of Brandy Holmes

The Crimes of Brandy Holmes During the early evening hours of January 1, 2003, the Brandy Holmes and her boyfriend, Robert Coleman, forced their way into the rural home of Julian Brandon, a retired minister who was 70 years of age, and his wife Alice, who was 68 years of age. Reverend Brandon was shot at near contact range in the underside of his jaw with a .380 caliber handgun. The bullet separated into two pieces: one fragment entered his brain and the other exited the top of his head. Julian Brandon immediately collapsed. Holmes and Coleman then took Mrs. Brandon to the rear bedroom and demanded her valuables, cash, and credit cards as she begged for her life. Ignoring her pleas, they placed a pillow over the womans face and shot her in the head, and left her for dead.    Over-Kill After shooting Mrs. Brandon, Holmes and Coleman heard Reverend Brandon struggling with his wounds and returned and stabbed and slashed him to death. Concerned Friends Discover the Bodies On January 5, 2003, four days after the attack, Calvin Barrett Hudson, a family friend of the Brandons, became concerned when the couple did not attend church on Sunday and decided to check on them. When he and his wife went to their friends residence, they found Reverend Brandon lying in a pool of his blood on the carpet. Hudson immediately went to a neighbors house and called the sheriffs office. When the police responded to the call, they found Reverend Brandons body. It was not until the authorities checked the house that they discovered Mrs. Brandon was barely alive. Even though Mrs. Brandon received a gunshot wound to the head, she survived the attack, although she was permanently disabled and requires around-the-clock care. Tips Lead Investigators to the Killers Door After the television news reported the crime, the Caddo Parish Sheriffs Office received a tip from persons at an apartment complex near the crime scene. The callers indicated the Holmes had been bragging about killing an elderly couple down the road near a church and that she was trying to sell their jewelry. Detectives then went to the trailer of Brenda Bruce, Holmes mother, which was located near the homicide scene. There they located Holmes, Coleman, her mother, and her 15-year-old brother, Sean George. All four agreed to accompany the officers to the sheriffs office for interviews. Over the next two days Holmes made six recorded and unrecorded statements, implicating herself and others to varying degrees in the homicide and robbery. She also said that two days after murders, she and two of her young nephews bicycled to the Brandons home. The youngest nephew, nine years of age, entered the home with her and she walked to the back of house and heard Mrs. Brandons heavy breathing and turned around and left.   The nine-year-old nephew entered the home with his aunt, where he saw Reverend Brandon lying in a pool of blood and heard Mrs. Brandon screaming from another room in the home. A neighbor witnessed both nephews fleeing from the residence, leaving the Holmes inside the home. Evidence Police recovered considerable circumstantial evidence that proved Holmes involvement in the crime. Although the gun used in the shootings was not recovered, ballistics evidence demonstrated that the weapon used in the Brandon homicide was the same weapon that had belonged to Holmess father and had been stolen from his residence in Tylertown, Mississippi. Holmes admitted she had stolen her fathers gun in one of her statements to the police. In addition, a surveillance video from Hibernia Bank depicted the Holmes and Coleman attempting to use the Brandons credit card at an ATM. A search of the Bruce trailer where the Holmes and Coleman were staying led to the discovery of several items that belonged to Mrs. Brandon. Three fired .380 cartridge casings were found in the rain gutter of the trailer where she lived.   Laboratory analysis revealed that Reverend Brandons DNA was found on one of these casings.   Ã‚   Additionally, forensic analysis matched the .380 projectile recovered from Reverend Brandons brain and the dining room ceiling to a projectile recovered from a tree at the home of Holmes father in Mississippi. Brandy Holmes was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death.