Games Writers Play

gwpMost writers play games.  They might use other words for them — challenges, mental tricks, techniques — but the purpose is always the same.  The point is to find ways to put the butt in the chair and get the words flowing; to trick the mind so that the critical voice, the one that tells you that you’re no good, that you can’t possibly write even a decent sentence much less a whole story or novel, gets out of the way.

I’m a game player myself.  Like a lot of writers, I’ve got more than a few personal demons that would like nothing better than for my keyboard to fall silent.  Over the years, I’ve collected a number of these games, some from other writers, some from books, and many simply from my own experience, and I finally decided that other writers might benefit from them too . . . [Read the rest of the introduction.]

The Games:

  1. The 30/500 Rule
  2. 25 Words a Day
  3. Track Your Word Counts
  4. Just Finish It
  5. Title Mash-Up
  6. Pages Before Play
  7. Write As Much As You Can In An Hour
  8. Literate an Illustration
  9. The Race
  10. Clear the Decks and Write for a Day – Or a Week
  11. Read Great Writing
  12. Read Bad (Published) Writing
  13. Grid and Dice
  14. Five Minute Free Write
  15. Heinlein’s Rules
  16. Dictionary Diving
  17. One Page a Day = One Book a Year
  18. Write for a Published Anthology
  19. Type Other Writers’ Words
  20. Give Up TV
  21. Ripped From the Headlines
  22. Crazy  Hollywood Pitches
  23. Forking From the First Line
  24. Write a Novel in a Month
  25. Stop When You’re On a Roll

-+-

One of the ways I can justify writing these “Games Writers Play” posts for free is by putting a donate button at the bottom of these posts.  If you find them useful, even a small donation of a couple dollars helps justify my time.  If you can’t donate, please help spread the word by linking to these posts.  Thanks!