Writing Play
While writing practice is important to improving craft, writing play is also important to work into your routine. To me, the idea of writing play is that not every word that you commit to paper (virtual or otherwise) has to be publishable or even usable. Sometimes, it’s just important to write things that are fun–to play with words.
Writing play can be used to get “unstuck” from a problem with your plot, when you take a few minutes to write the LEAST likely way for the problem to resolve itself. By giving yourself the freedom to be utterly ridiculous for a brief period of time, you may find your way out of the corner you thought you had written yourself into.
Writing play can also be a warm-up exercise for more serious writing, or just something to do if you don’t have any other writing projects in mind at a given time. You can use writing prompts posted on this blog and elsewhere, or you can find a number of commercially available writing or art inspiration decks, dice, and other games.
While many authors hope to make a career out of their words, that doesn’t mean that every word they write has to be directly related to that career. Any words you write, even in a spirit of play, will help you to improve and expand your writing abilities!
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