Getting ‘stuck in a rut’ with your writing is not an easy experience; not least because you feel that you’ve lost any sense of creativity you once had. Here are a few ways to ease yourself out of it: to prove you have still got an imagination, you’ve just temporarily forgotten how to use it!

1. The dictionary trick

   Shut your eyes and hold a dictionary out in front of you. Let it fall open and without opening your eyes point at a place on the page. Write down the word on which your finger has fallen. Repeat this practice four times. Make a story out of these five words.

2. Use your Memory

   OK, so not all of us have exciting or miserable pasts to which we can refer in our writing. However, a simple memory from your youth can spark an imagined story. Remember your first trip to the dentist? How did you react/ Did your mum have to bribe you to go? What happened afterwards? Can this story be linked with anything else from your past? Can you develop it to make it more interesting?

3. Use the News

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   Read the newspaper or a magazine. Pick out an article that has interested / excited you. What has made it so interesting / exciting? Why not invent a new news story to report in the same style as the article. Can this be developed into a full-length story?

4. What is your favourite novel/poem?

   Find the last line and use that to begin your story.

5. Use Search Engines

   Google your ancestors or if you’re unlike and are called Smith (like me!) google someone else’s ancestors. Any interesting stories come up?

6. Rewrite the ending of your favourite book

   Once you’ve finished, rewrite the beginning using the ending as a base.

7. What was the worst gift you ever received?

   Write about why. How did it make you feel? Do you regret your actions? Develop this.

8. Write about 5 imagined people sitting at a bus stop with you. What do they look like? Which bus are they waiting for? Why? Are they similar or different? What would bring them together?

9. Think about nursery rhymes

   Rewrite Little Miss Muffet from the point of view of the spider (for example.)

10. What do you believe in strongly?

    (eg. Anti-abortion, pro-capital punishment, ant-Iraq war) Now write from the point of view of someone who feels exactly the opposite as you.