Almost every writer has resource books nearby dictionaries, thesauruses, volumes of history. Here's some writing exercises that you can try with the books at hand.
You can jog your creativity and spark your imagination when you're stuck with writer's block by using resource materials as close as your book shelf. Here's some writing exercises suited to different types of books. They're intended for fiction writers, but people trying to brainstorm essays or other nonfiction writing may find them useful.
Dictionary or Thesaurus:
Flip to three random pages and take the word in the uppermost right side. Write a piece of flash fiction (500 words or less) featuring all three words.
Take the first part of a definition and imagine it as the caption of a cartoon. Write a hundred word description of the action taking place in the cartoon. Add additional panels to your cartoon and make it a comic strip if necessary.
Pick a word and write about its opposite.
Pick two random words and imagine they are one of the following items: the name of a café, a bookstore name, a record label, the name of a spaceship, the name of a story about a spaceship, an advertising slogan, an advertising slogan for a particular kind of pet, an advertising slogan for a particular service, a fashion brand name, the name of a comic, a fortune cookie fortune, the name of a new drug. Write a story in which the item is the central focus of the plot.
Take either of the above two pieces and expand on it, making it a full length (at least 3000 words) story. Now go back and take out your seed words.
Map or Atlas:
Pick an intrigingly named location and write the history of how it got that name.
Pick two intriguingly named locations and write the story of a trip between the two places. Pick a season, a type of vehicle and a reason for travel.
Write about the search for a particular location - what is it that makes it worth questing for? Why makes it important to the narrator? Will the narrator even find it? Who does find it?
Fairy Tales or Other Books of Legend and Mythology
Tell one of the stories from the point of view of a character who doesn't usually narrate it, like one of the wicked stepsisters or the king's pastry chef.
Take the end of a fairy tale and imagine a new beginning for it.
Tell the story of how the fairy tale came to be told - who is telling it to who, and why? What will happen when they are done telling the story?
Write one of the stories in another form, such as a news story, a romance novel, a piece of hard-boiled detective fiction.
