The Writers Challenge Game

The Writer’s Challenge Exercise

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Not sure where you are going next? Mind in a haze over our current times or just craziness in your own life? This challenge exercise can help get the mind moving!

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While I admit that this exercise is more fun when we can be together, it’s also something you can utilize at any time you feel the need.

Now, when we’re in person, you’re on a time limit and you have a chance to read your story/book/novella beginning to others. But you’ll be surprised what you may come up with! Something to submit, something to self-publish, something that spurs you on to something else.

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So, if you’re playing by all the rules . . .

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Print the list of sentences, nouns, verbs, and adjectives, cut all into pieces. Pick one sentence, two nouns, and two adjectives, two verbs out of separate baskets or piles.

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And there’s your challenge. Pick a genre, and then . . . go!

 

The rules are that you must use your sentence and your nouns with your adjectives, and verbs however you choose. Now this can be fun and interesting. You might have a bow-legged stripper and a one-eyed detective! Make it work!

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The first sentence, often used, is “The blood dripped slowly down the wall.”

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Now you can take this into any genre.  One of my favorite stories using this sentence was written by a friend. She chose comedic horror for her genre. Blood dripped slowly down the wall—her protagonist was “vegetarian zombie” because she’d fallen in love with a mortal, a “tall cop.” But the zombies next door liked to torment her by tossing their leftovers into her yard. She resisted returning to her normal state out of love—until she discovers that her husband has been cheating on her with the zombie next door. So much for giving up everything for love. She goes in to see him and . . . we all know what happens from there. Moral of the story, don’t marry a zombie if you want to mess around.

Another author took the sentence and turned it into a young adult story. The blood is dripping down the wall because the “muscle-bound teen” was cast in the school play along with the “nerdy girl.” She’s the make-up artist who helps him when he does everything wrong, and the football playing hotshot discovers that there’s so much more to a young woman he’d never looked at twice before.

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Mystery genre—detectives must investigate the blood dripping down the wall.

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Sci-fi romance—in the midst of an alien invasion, a soldier comes upon an injured man/woman and must save her so that they can escape together; the injured one is a scientist, working on a way to kill the alien force before it can obliterate humanity.

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The point here . . . there’s a million places you can go. And it’s fun and challenging!

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Also—our language is filled with wonderful words. Add your own in. Up the game! Get yourself a list of verbs and have your characters jump/dive/fly/run . . . and onward!

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Then, of course, you can add adverbs!

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Sentences

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Pick one of the seven—and then your genre!

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1.  The blood dripped slowly down the wall.

2.  The darkness caused him to trip and that was how he discovered the body on the floor.

3.  The man was despicable!

4.  The task ahead seemed impossible.

5.  She was searching for a hose to break up the fighting dogs when he walked onto the scene.

6.  What was going on with the sky?

7.  He could see it; the water was about to come crashing down on them all.

 

Nouns/characters – Pick Two

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Add more if you can think of any

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Adjectives - Pick Two