Prewriting excersises

One that helped me was in a writing book I bought. It gave you a paragraph or two written by a famous author. Then you were supposed to write a paragraph or two in the same style of that famous author. It helped you to see how an expert did it. Another was that you were to go to a place where there were lots of people, and see two people and without knowing about them, you were to write them having a dialogue. Still another, you were to write part of a video game, only in my case, it went too far, and I am still working on the novel.

Thanks for the tips, esp the prewriting exercises. I use something similar to that, only that I write down a word, or topic about what I want to write about, say a character or setting, and try to list down as many words similar to it or describing it.

Since I am a member of a writing group, I write from writing prompts every week. Whoever is leading makes up the prompts, but there are some good websites that have prompts. My favourite is http://www.creativewritingprompts.com. Also there are some good books with prompts like "Writer's Book of Matches" and "Writer's Book of Days". Daily prompts can keep you writing every day. I actually used prompts from my writing group to create almost a complete novel.

Seems like a good exercise. Thanks for sharing it. I have never really tried writing exercises. I will definitely try what you have mentioned.

when i cant get ideas about one topic, i go on to the next, and write about that topic...if i get stuck there as well, i go to a new topic, or else the original one. it's like a cycle for me--i have so many unfinished stories here,totally different styles or genres...whatever my mood is at the moment,i continue the story that fits that mood. sounds weird, i know...but that's what im used to. it's effective for me, because i also got to finish a lot of stories that way. however, concerning schoolwork, where you have a deadline to meet and the topic cant be changed...grrr...there are times when the ideas flow like water, but there are times too when my mind is just so blank...i hate those moments...i dont have a prewriting exercise for that,except maybe kill time doing something else. your exercise sounds nice. :)

I've actually never used writing excercises,but the one you are talking about sounds really good and I may try it to see how it works out for me. Thanks for the tip!