The Column Exercise

In Lesson 5 we discuss The Column Exercise.
It is a great way to take a different approach to your writing, add some flesh to the bones, it will help you to create something from scratch, and to create some one liners for future use.

So you will need:

A pen and Paper
Your Idea Bible

1: The first step would be to draw three columns on a piece of paper.

2: Then, write three words at the top of each column. Word one should be a colour, the second word should be a verb and the 3rd word should be an emotion.

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3: Now, in each column, write 5 words related to the word at the top. It can be any word you make a connection with or a word that explains the top word better.

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4: The next step would be to create sentences with the words you wrote down. You will end up with 5 sentences. What you need to do is to write a single sentence using all three words listed first, then write a sentence containing all the words listed as 2nd and then a sentence with all the words listed 3rd and so forth.

5: The idea behind this is to create sentences from scratch and what you’ll notice when reading the sentences again, is that you kind-of created an entire scene using three words. Some sentences might be bad - don’t worry about this. It’s bound to happen.

Upload a photo or screenshot of your Column Exercise to the project gallery, and let us know if this exercise helped you to create interesting story ideas.

Good luck and have fun!

Sarah L

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