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setting writing exercises

The Joy of Responding to and Setting Writing Exercises

August 28, 2026 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. AI images avoided.

Writing exercises are a major part of my writing life. There are several reasons for this.

What I produce as a result of the writing exercise is more work I can polish up and eventually submit somewhere. I’ve had work published thanks to doing this.

Exercises got me used to the idea of being a “proper writer” as I was responding to a prompt set by someone else. They’re excellent workouts for the brain. They’re also good practice for writing to competitions with a set theme.

Most exercises I’ve been set are at events, day trips, online ones, or The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. These are a natural part of the writing life and the whole idea is to get you writing more than you would have done alone and to tackle themes you might not have thought of trying.

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Tags: am writing, mixing up writing exercises, setting writing exercises, The Association of Christian Writers, writing advice, writing development, writing exercises, writing tips

Setting Writing Exercises

March 20, 2026 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos

The writing journey can throw up plenty of surprises. I remember going to my first writing event, many moons ago, and feeling terrified at being set my first writing prompt by someone else. I was sure I wouldn’t be able to do it. I did by the way. You do just get on with it. But there was no way on this earth I was sharing that first effort with anyone! I also had no idea what a variety of writing exercises there are. I have found out since!

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Tags: am writing, creative writing, fiction, hooks, non-fiction, setting writing exercises, writing challenge, writing exercises, writing tips

Having a Superpower

June 14, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

I run a monthly Zoom workshop on flash fiction writing for the Association of Christian Writers. It is great fun to do and the online aspect helps so much as the members live several hundreds of miles apart so we could never get together in person.

I usually set a monthly theme and then set exercises based on that. Sometimes I will prepare an answer to an exercise to show as an example but most of the time I will write on the night of the meeting with the other members.

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Tags: am reading, am writing, Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group, creative writing, limiting character powers and why, live writing, problems with fictional superpowers, setting writing exercises, superpowers, writing exercises

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