Group writing exercises can help get us writers out of our own heads and bring our creative energy into a social situation, which I think we all need sometimes (even introverts like me). So, here are some writing exercises I learned from the Thin Air writers’ festival to help get your creative mind flowing in a group setting.

The Two Lies and a Truth Exercise

In a group, everyone takes a moment to write down two lies and a truth about themselves. Once everyone’s done, each member takes a turn to read their three statements aloud. My three statements were:

I have a pet dog named Dobby.

I grew up overseas in Qatar.

I broke my finger riding a swing when I was a kid.

After reading the statements aloud, everyone votes on which statement they think is the truth. After the person reveals the truth, the group takes some time to discuss why they thought a statement sounded truer than the others. This is a great exercise for exploring what characteristics make for a convincing detail.

The Bad Writing Exercise

This is a fun one. In this exercise, everyone takes a moment to write an intentionally bad description. It’s based on the idea that good writers know when their writing is bad. Without that critical self-awareness, it’s really hard to self-edit and improve your writing. (The psych major in me wants to let you know that this is a legitimate, studied concept: amateurs in a field tend to be unaware of their weaknesses and believe that they are more skilled than they are, whereas experts have the self-awareness to know where the gaps in their skills and knowledge are.)

The exercise is also based on the idea that the line between good and bad writing is very thin. You need to be unafraid of approaching that line so you can be free to experiment and simply write. If you know you can catch bad sentences, you don’t need to wake up each morning afraid that you’ll write one.

You can do this exercise on your own, but I find it much more useful (and entertaining) when you get to hear other people’s sentences too. Once you read the sentences aloud, the group then discusses why the descriptions are bad and how to avoid such cringe-worthy prose. The purpose is to develop your ear for bad writing, even in your own work. (It’s also an inadvertent lesson on the nature of being comically bad.)

Here are some types of bad sentences you could practice writing in a group:

The Terrible Metaphor: My love for you is an eagle flying silently into a purple blot in the sky.

Implausible Emotions: After his divorce, he decided not to be sad, and so he was happy.

Oddly Vague Statements: He was nice and I liked him, but it would be better if he didn’t do that thing.

See what other types you can come up with and discuss what makes them bad descriptions.

The Character Interview Exercise

I’ve saved the best for last. This is my favorite writing exercise from the festival. Fair warning though: this one requires some role-playing. I enjoy acting and guided improvisation, but not everyone does. If you want to try the exercise, make sure everyone in your group is okay doing a bit of acting before you start.

Good dialogue sounds realistic and character-specific, it reveals the character’s personality, and it serves to develop the plot. Doing all those things at once, and doing them well, is really challenging! This is an exercise that uses role-playing to explore what realistic, character-specific dialogue sounds like.

The exercise starts with everyone thinking about a scene from their writing where the protagonist needs to convey something important to another character. Everyone writes down the following:

• the protagonist’s name,
• in first person, what the character’s goal and message is (“I am going to convince my grandma to move out of her house because . . . ”),
• the main statement the protagonist wants to say to the other character (“It’s not safe here anymore. Please come stay with us in town.”),
• and the other character’s name.

Once everyone is done writing, all the group members get comfortable in their chairs, close their eyes, and imagine their character looking at them across a field. They imagine the general details of what the character looks like and as the character walks closer, more specific details become apparent (what necklace she’s wearing, the shape of his nose, the smell of her perfume). Then the group imagines that they are actually looking at themselves in a mirror. Everyone opens their eyes.

Note that this previous step can be done as a mindfulness exercise. If anyone in the group is uncomfortable with that or no one wants to lead the exercise, then keep this step simple. Just tell everyone to imagine what their character looks like and imagine that they are their character.

Once everyone is in the mindset of their character, the actual dialogue can start. One at a time, someone sits at the front of the group facing everyone else in a semi-circle. The group starts interviewing the person who responds as if he is his character. The group usually starts with the basics:

What’s your name?

How old are you?

What’s your occupation?

Where are you from?

The interviewers can then dive into more personal questions:

What is your biggest fear?

Are you happy with your marriage?

What do you need to feel fulfillment?

And be sure to ask about the character’s current situation:

Who are you going to meet?

What do you want to tell them?

Why is this person important to you?

What do you stand to lose if this goes wrong?

Then once the group has a sense of the scene and who the other character is, another group member volunteers to role-play as the other character. The two then go through the scene and improvise what happens.

This is such a great way to study how your character talks and really visualize what it’s like from their mind as they talk with the other character. I recommend making an audio recording of the interview and transcribing the good parts of it later. That way, you can see what your character’s spoken words could look like on the page. Maybe your improvisation skills weren’t that great, but even then, it’s still useful to examine how regular speech transitions to the page.

That’s it!

What do you think of these group writing exercises? Any you’d want to try? Or do you have another good one you’d like to share? We can keep the conversation going in the comments below!