Creative Calisthenics: The Ultimate Workout for the Writer's Imagination

by Terri Lynn Main

Pump up your creative muscles and learn how to become more creative about getting story ideas, developing plot, organizing articles, creating memorable characters, writing better description and even marketing what you write. Creative Calisthenics is a collection of 175] writing prompts and creativity exercises designed to help writers of all levels of experience to generate more ideas and be more creative in expressing those ideas. The exercises include basic creativity exercises as well as those targeting specific types of writing such as fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

106 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

I am a retired college professor. I live in California's Central Valley where it gets hot in summer. I hate summer. Currently, I'm writing full time. I don't think of myself as retired as much as the college is paying me to write my novels and Bible studies. I've been published in just about every venue. Fiction, nonfiction, radio drama, live drama, video documentaries, novels and book length nonfiction. I've been traditionally published in magazine and book format, and I'm currently engaged in Indie writing publishing my own stuff and loving it.

I live a fairly quiet life. I'm a life long single and live with my five cats. So, I'm keeping alive the cultural archetype of the Retired Old Maid School Teacher with Cats.

I write science fiction and cozy mysteries and have combined the two in my Dark Side of the Moon mystery series. I also teach writing and self-publishing in my online classes. Once a teacher....

Reviews

[Michael Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I collect writing exercises like some people collect dust-bunnies or matted, surly stray cats. There are all sorts of them out there, most of which provide a provocative word, line or idea and turn you loose to write.

I like writing exercises that have a little more substance to them. That dig in a little deeper to get your feet muddy. And that is exactly what I found in Terri Lynn Main's book Creative Calisthenics: The Ultimate Workout for the Writer's Imagination. Writing exercises that pull you in and force you to think with your pen. This book also spans wide riverbank of topic categories such as Tell Me a Story, Getting Ideas, Characters and Settings, Organization and Plotting, Writing Rx (Revision) and some exercises surrounding poetry and word games.

Although this book is not long (84 pages according to the paperback edition) it is not some thrown together, instant Kindle-get-rich-telling-others-how-to-write-using-simple-writing-exercises book. It has depth and substance. It doesn't just provide the prompt, but gives you suggestions on where and how to start.

One of my favorite exercises in the whole book comes from the Getting Ideas section: Formula Titles. Here Ms. Main lists several common magazine formula headlines which she conveniently blanks out the important words for you to fill in, Mad Lib style. Titles such as _______ Made Easy or How to Improve Your _________ or _______ Ways to _______ Better.

Now admittedly I had to resist my childish urges to insert my favorite Mad Lib standards such as poop, farting and vomit which always guaranteed pop spit takes at the picnic table while they were being read during camping trips, but you can see the appeal here. These are good ideas on how to frame your subject into publisher-friendly titles. Very clever.

Or this one for getting a fictional character in gear:

Take one of your main characters and write a scene in which a bad choice they made came back to haunt them. It doesn’t mean you need to use it in the story, but it may help you get to know your character a bit better.

Here's another one:

Every product you see advertised is designed to solve a problem. Do this during an entire evening of TV watching. Look at your list of problems and magazines. Choose the problems addressed by the magazines you have targeted for publication. Write down two article ideas for each of these problems.

As you can see, the exercises are not only good excuses to get you writing, but also teach you something important about the craft. Inspirational & Educational all-in-one. So if you are looking for a book of solid, thought-provoking writing prompts, for yourself, a writers group or writing class, this book is a bargain at the $.99 Kindle edition price. I'm not so sure about $11.26 for an 84 page paperback edition, but to each his own.

Rating: This is a ***** star book at the $.99 price and a **** star for the paperback edition. But let's round it up to a 5 star review because me being a cheapskate should not penalize the author in any way. Available $.99 for the Kindle eBook and $11.26 for the 84 page Paperback edition.