Brain Oil 35 Creative Writing Exercises by Aggie Burke, Katherine Hage, and Brian Tanaka Introduction In the winter of 1991 the writers' group I belonged to collected 35 of the best writing exercises we had created and compiled them in a small pamphlet called Brain Oil. Perhaps calling them exercises is misleading. Think of them instead as diving boards. Walk out to the end of one and jump! You can use them any way you like, but if you're interested, here's how we would use ...

Please select a page. OWL Home Page Writing Lab and OWL Info Handouts and Materials Workshops and Presentations Internet Resources owl home || writing lab and owl || handouts || workshops and presentations || internet resources Get a printer-friendly version of this page. Get an Adobe PDF version of this page. Coping with Writing Anxiety Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab For more advice on getting started writing, see the Purdue OWL handout, ...

Conventional Advice that Wouldn't Work for Me 1) Write every day. This piece of advice is repeated in almost every book on "how to write." Maybe some people need this sort of discipline, but I would find it counterproductive. Sometimes I write feverishly every day. Sometimes real life intervenes. I have a demanding job and a family. If I believed I had to write every day, even when I absolutely had no time, I'd quickly grow to hate writing and I'd stop doing it. Mostly, I have ...