Anyhoo, so I had this group of writers and we met once a month and had critique sessions (scary) and writing exercises (fun) and readings (scary-fun). It was my job to organize the meetings, plan the itinerary, communicate with the members, and facilitate the meetings. I loved finding fun writing exercises to do and this one was my favorite.
BookMamma's Junk Drawer. Er... one of many.
Look into your junk drawer and list 10 things that are in it:
1. birthday candles from Finn's 2 year birthday
2. an ice scraper for the car's windshield
3. a bronze colored key to God knows what
4. friend's wedding invitation from last Fall
5. a baby chick Pez dispenser from Easter
6. a used-up iTunes gift card
7. a pack of multi-colored Sharpies
8. a pumpkin spice scented tea candle
9. bottle of Purell hand sanitizer, 1/4 full
10. two mini-cans of Play-Dough
Now - we were usually in a round-table type setting, so then everyone would pass their list two places over and each writer would then create a character sketch about who the drawer belongs to.
I loved stuff like this because I am a nerd (Sindarin Elvish, anyone?) and I have pages and pages of "would-be-book-maybe-some-day-when-I'm-not-so-busy" writing material.
Maybe in another life I could be a writer, but not this one. My writer's discipline stinks
