Respect Writing Exercises

Many books on writing will give some writing exercises. These are usually a prompt of some sort. They can be vague like, "Write a story that takes place on a train" or they can be specific like, "Write a short story about a jewel thief who publishes a book about his techniques." In a sense, any writing assignment you get in college is a writing exercise.

For a long time, I never respected writing exercises. They felt like cheating to me. Writing exercises were something you did when you couldn't come up with anything on your own. If you are feeling rusty and just need to practice the act of writing, then a writing exercise is great because when you were done, you could just throw it out. It kept your skills sharp, but it didn't count.

I do not believe those things anymore. The main reason was that I realized one important fact: prompts do not write themselves. If you gave a hundred writers the same prompt, you may get some similar results, but you will end up with a hundred different pieces of writing. Since every person has their own style, made from their own thoughts and beliefs, you will always be creating a piece of writing that is yours.

Another realization is that ideas do not come from nowhere. When you see two people arguing out in public and you start wondering what their home life might be like, and you write a little story about it, you are still being led and influenced. It may not be as direct as a writing prompt, but the fact remains that we are regularly poked and prodded by outside influences to write. Just because you didn't grab your idea from thin air doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile.

There are a number of pieces I've written for my college classes. Some of them had particular requirements. And some of those pieces I am very proud of. Some of those pieces have won awards. I do not think less of them because they started as assignments.

So, do your writing exercises. But take them seriously. Put effort into them and make something good. Whatever you make will be yours (which should be reason enough to take pride in it), so make it something that deserves to have your name on it.