Random Pen

Here is a series of writing exercises for getting what’s in your head out.
What world is this?
You have woken up not in your usual bed. Is it another country? Another time? (Either earlier in your own lifetime or another period of history, or the future)
You go to the window. (Is there a window?) Or door, and look out. What do you see? What clues are there to where you are? Is anything familiar?
Write for 10 minutes on what you can see
A different take
You wake with a sense of alarm. How did I get here? What will happen? Perhaps you had too much to drink last night and went off with a dubious person. Or something that seemed such a laugh then, now seems foolish, even dangerous.
Write about your predicament.
Who am I?
If you weren’t you, in your existing life, who could you be? What would it be like to be the opposite sex? Or a very different class, or age.
Write about this other you for 10 minutes
The Road Not Taken
My friend was recently contacted through the internet by someone whom she hadn’t seen in 25 years. Could either of them had any inkling then how they might turn out?
Think about someone you were close to half a lifetime ago, whom you haven’t seen since – ex-lover, school best friend, next-door neighbour.
Write in the first person from their point of view. What have they done with their life? What do they think of what they can see of yours? What are their regrets, the big turning points that your forking paths have taken?
Write for 10 minutes
My friend thought her ex had remarried and had a child. She found out this was not the case.