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Free Creative Writing Exercises
& Assignments

Use these Creative Writing Exercises and Assignments to help share stories from your life. We've broken down these creative writing exercises and assignments into chapters that can be easily used to create your own personal memoir if you like.

Family Tree

  1. Draw out your Family Tree
    • Include four generations (you, your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents).
    • Start completing it with the names and birthdates of who you already know.
    • Do your research to complete the diagram. You may use this Blank Family Tree Chart to get you started.
  2. Pick a family member from your family tree and tell about the greatest impact this person has had on your life.
  3. Choose a family member you consider totally unlike yourself and explain why.
    • What does he/she look like?
    • What are your similarities and differences?
    • How old is he/she in relation to you?
  4. Describe an experience with the birth of your last child.
    • When and where was he/she born?
    • Describe the sequence of events from the time labor started to after the delivery.
    • What were you thinking when you first held your child?
  5. Describe your favorite holiday spent at another family member's house.
    • How often did you spend this holiday there?
    • Describe the sequence of events.
    • What did it smell like?
    • What kind of food was served?
    • Who else was there?
    • What did you do for fun?
  6. Tell about a family pet you have/had.
    • What was his/her name and what did he/she look like?
    • How did you acquire him/her?
    • How did you spend time with him/her?
    • What was he/she notorious for doing?

Places I've Been

Places of travel and residence are excellent subjects for writing exercises. Whether they be vacations, business trips, or homesteads writing about the places you've been will bring back memories from your past as well as unfold a portion of your personal history that may seem "normal" to you but intriguing to others.

  1. Make a list of all the places you've lived and vacations you've been on.
  2. Describe your favorite place whether it be a home or vacation spot and tell why it was meaningful. Use all your senses in your description.
    • What did it look like?
    • What were some significant scents?
    • What sounds do you recall hearing?
    • What did it feel like...what was the weather like?
    • What kind of foods did you eat when you were there?
  3. Describe the last place you visited out of state and why you went there.
    • Who went with you?
    • When did you go?
    • How were the weather conditions?
    • Would you go back again and why?
    • What stands out most in your mind about that trip?
  4. Tell about the first time you had or went to a sleepover, slumber party or campout.
    • Who was there?
    • What was the occasion?
    • How old were you?
    • How did you feel about it?
  5. Describe the furthest place you travelled.
    • How did you get there?
    • Why did you go?
    • Who went with you?
    • Would you go again?
    • What was most significant about the trip?

Time Line

  1. Draw out your personal historical time line.
  2. Choose one event that changed the course of your life.
    • Describe your situation just before the event, the event itself, and the after.
    • Explain how this event changed the course of history for you.
  3. Retell an event where you experienced a natural disaster firsthand. Some examples might be an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, blizzard, avalanche, tidal wave, etc.
    • Describe your situation just before the event, the event itself, and the after.


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How To Write ::  Suggested Chapters ::  Creative Writing Prompts ::  Journal Writing Prompts ::  Writing Exercises ::  Memoir Writing Tips ::  Ghostwriting ::  Get Published  :: Keep a Journal  :: Write a Letter  :: Make a Picture Scrapbook  :: Submit Your Story  :: Create an MBM Album  :: Publish a Book  :: First Visit to "The Old City"  :: Down Memory Lane  :: America  :: A Star is Born  :: Unconscious Truth  :: I was Touched by an Angel  :: The Middle Child  :: Dad  :: The Music Man  :: Two Dreams  :: 911  :: Once a Man, Twice a Child  :: Mission Space  :: The Night Before Christmas  :: Snow Hill Sniper  :: I Laid My Head in My Mother's Lap  :: Electroboy  :: The Glass Castle

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