Writing Fiction: 4 Exercises to Discover and Write Your Story skillshare originals badge

Gayle Forman, Author

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8 Lessons (52m)
    • 1. Introduction

    • 2. What Makes a Story

    • 3. Exercise 1: Write a Letter

    • 4. Exercise 2: Create a Scenario List

    • 5. Exercise 3: Choose Your Character

    • 6. Exercise 4: Write Your First Line

    • 7. Final Thoughts

    • 8. Explore More Classes on Skillshare

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Project Description

Choose one of Gayle's exercises to complete and share it as your class project!

Whether you've written your list of 100 “What If?” scenarios, fleshed out your character, or drafted your first line, be sure to share what you’re working on in the project gallery!

As a reminder, here are the exercises Gayle walks through in the class. 

  • Exercise I: Write a letter to someone
    • Choose a significant experience that happened to you, and write a letter to someone about it
    • If you're feeling stuck, try writing a letter to yourself from the perspective of someone else
  • Exercise II: Make a list of 100 “What If?” scenarios
    • What are the things you wish would happen? What are the things you're scared of happening?
    • Write out as many scenarios as you can, than try tweaking a few of them to create even more
  • Exercise III: Pick a character
    • Is there an alternate version of yourself that could be the start of a character?
    • Drop 2-3 different characters into your scenario, and see how a story begins to develop
  • Exercise IV: Write your first line
    • Is there a line that gets you excited to start unraveling your story?
    • Try writing a hook, a mysterious line, an action scene, a thesis statement, an example of a character's voice, or a change in timeline

No matter what exercise you’re working on or where you find yourself in the process, we can’t wait to see what you come up with!


Gayle's Resources


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