Kicking In the Wall: A Year of Writing Exercises, Prompts, and Quotes to Help You Break Through Your Blocks and Reach Your Writing Goals

by Barbara Abercrombie

“I would go as far as I could and hit a wall,” said musician and memoirist Patti Smith. In response, playwright Sam Shepard advised, “When you hit a wall, just kick it in.” Writing teacher Barbara Abercrombie’s powerful writing prompts give us just the push we need to do it. Like a workout with a top trainer, her exercises warm up, stretch, and build creative muscle.

Kicking In the Wall includes quotes from famous writers to accompany the exercises, as well as real-world examples of completed exercises by the author’s students in the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program. Though Abercrombie says readers need only commit to five minutes per exercise, she writes, “I’ve seen novels, memoirs, and many essays get started in those five minutes, and a lot ended up being published.” Her playful method is essential fuel for writers trying to get off the starting block, persevere through challenges, and cross their personal creativity finish lines.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2013

About the author

Barbara Abercrombie has published 15 books -two novels for adults, books for children, including the award winning picture book, CHARLIE ANDERSON, plus non-fiction books. Her novels have been optioned for films and published in six languages. Her essays, articles and poems have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, and her sixteenth book THE LANGUAGE OF LOSS will be published in November 2020 by New World Library.

She teaches in the Writers' Program at UCLA Extension where she won the Outstanding Teacher award in 1994 and the Distinguished Instructor award in 2010.

Barbara lives in Pasadena and Lake Arrowhead California.

Reviews

[Freddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The insightful quotes and engaging writing prompts are useful in the context of creative writing or a composition class.

[Melly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the prompts, but the whole last third of the book is just other peoples' work on those prompts, which I wasn't expecting and didn't appreciate. (And didn't read. I was incensed.)

[Wendy Kennar · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a valuable resource! I used these prompts for my five-minute daily writing practice. Some of them were nothing more than that, five-minute exercises. Some of them, though, led to personal essays! And, because I worked off only one prompt per page, I can always pick up this book and work my way through it again, writing from the prompts I didn't use the first time.

[Sarah Obsesses over Books & Cookies · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the vein of Natalie Goldberg, Barbara gives us many quotes of accomplished writers and so many writing prompts and ideas. I am praying for her to be writing another instructional book like this or A Year of Writing Dangerously- also fabulous.

[Justine]

Started 19th July 2025

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot to like about this book. It's a year's worth of interesting journal prompts. Each page starts with an interesting quote from an author, followed by one or several prompts related to the quote. I suggest writing in the book on the pages that have room. It will make it more interesting to go back and see what you thought. The full review is on my blog: http://wp.me/p2H1i-2Rt

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading some writing books looking for ideas for a high school writing class I'm teaching. This book of prompts is quite helpful for a beginning writer. It's also versatile - I appreciate that many of the prompts could work for writers of various types. That said, there is a sameness to the topics after a while. 365 was a bit ambitious, perhaps.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource. Totally recommend.