500 5-Minute Writing Excercises

By Nadi Abdi

There is a mixture of exercises ranging from opening to closing sentences, word association, and completion projects. I find that most people have the most trouble starting a project. We just don’t know where to begin a novel or paper or whatever. That being the case, there are a lot of projects to help with openings. However, just because something says it’s an opening exercise doesn’t mean it can’t be a closing one. The tricky thing about closing exercises is getting to that last sentence before your time runs out. However, they can be very interesting. Wherever you are in your exercise when time runs out, write in the sentence that’s supposed to be at the end, no matter if it makes sense or not. Some pretty funny things can happen.

If you come to a point where you’re at a comfortable end in the project and still have time left on the clock, start the project over using a different subject. Challenge yourself. Mostly, just have fun. Who knows? A five-minute exercise could turn into a NaNoWriMo project or your next bestseller. You have five-minutes to make something great and have a great time. Take advantage of it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nadi Abdi
• Release date: Nov 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301147083

Nadi Abdi

Hello there! Welcome. Have a seat. Thank you for joining me. I’m guessing you’re here to have a conversation. What would you like to talk about? We can talk about where I’m from (Kansas City, Missouri [home of the Chiefs!]) when I’m from (1981), but that’s only interesting to people from that place or from that time. Let’s talk about something that matters. You, me, and this trip we’re taking, this relationship we’re building, this trust we’re sharing. You’re trusting me to take you on a journey full of magic, suspense, and fiery characters. I’m trusting you to tell me if it’s shit. Or if it’s great! Does it move you? Did you laugh? Did you cry? Did you throw the book (or device) in anger and frustration? I expect this to be a long road trip. Let’s talk about everything.

Book preview

Introduction and Guidelines

I wrote this book after I went to a bookstore looking for one like it and couldn’t find one. All I wanted was a small book of exercises I could do to get the creative juices flowing. So, I ended up putting together 500 exercises, a few of which I worked in the process

I have worked to make sure there are no exercises that are the same or similar to another exercise. For example, if I say, Write about food, then say, Write about cake, they’re the same exercise.

There are no rules to use this book. Just relax, commit to an exercise, and set that clock to five minutes. Grammar is not the most important part of an exercise. The point is that you get used to just writing whatever comes to mind and seeing where the story takes you.

Do take chances and experiment with exercises, reverse them, manipulate them.

Do not hold yourself back by thinking an idea you have for a project is stupid before you even begin. What you think is stupid in the beginning, could turn out to be awesome by the end. This is not an English class. No one is going to penalize you for anything.

There is a mixture of exercises ranging from opening to closing sentences, word association, and completion projects. I find that most people have the most trouble starting a project. We just don’t know where to begin a novel or paper or whatever. That being the case, there are a lot of projects to help with openings. However, just because something says it’s an opening exercise doesn’t mean it can’t be a closing one. The tricky thing about closing exercises is getting to that last sentence before your time runs out. However, they can be very interesting. Wherever you are in your exercise when time runs out, write in the sentence that’s supposed to be at the end, no matter if it makes sense or not. Some pretty funny things can happen.

If you come to a point where you’re at a comfortable end in the project and still have time left on the clock, start the project over using a different subject. Challenge yourself. Mostly, just have fun. Who knows? A five-minute exercise could turn into a NaNoWriMo project or your next bestseller. You have five-minutes to make something great and have a great time. Take advantage of it.

5-Minute Writing