Writing is hard, but it is a necessary skill that can be learned and improved. Good writing skills translate to better communication skills. When good communication skills exist, projects move, problems get solved, people build relationships and many more. One way to improve your writing skills is to engage in fun writing workshop activities. 

Aside from the many productive benefits of writing, people can express themselves best when they develop good writing skills. Writing can serve as an outlet to process and express their emotions. Additionally, it promotes critical thinking skills because it encourages people to organize and structure their thoughts coherently and logically. 

This article contains fun writing activities that can serve as a reference for those who want to develop a writing workshop for their community. 

What are writing activities?

Writing activities are tasks and exercises that give opportunities for participants to gather, form, and translate their thoughts into written form.

Some examples of writing activities are essay writing, journaling, creative writing, script writing, email correspondence, content creation, and more. 

No one becomes a good writer overnight. However, anyone can train to be an efficient writer with proper writing practice and training. Fun writing activities are one helpful way to quickly develop one’s writing skills or practice writing because they make writing fun.

Oftentimes, people talk about their desire to write but end up stuck because they don’t know what to write about. Creative writing prompts like the items listed below can help kickstart writers with fresh ideas and inspiration. 

In the context of this article, we have gathered helpful ideas that can get participants to start thinking and writing. The activities listed here push writers to expand their skills by trying different writing approaches.  

Furthermore, these creative writing activities help attendees to reflect, develop their creativity, and give a variety of topics if they are still unsure of what to write about.

Benefits of Writing Activities

Writing can be an overwhelming experience, especially for new writers. By participating in writing activities in a workshop, attendees can enhance their creativity and practice organizing their thoughts.  Furthermore, people learn best from learning from the feedback of fellow writers. 

Creative writing activities can make writing fun for reluctant writers. Students learn about the writing process, expand vocabularies, learn grammar, practice sentence structure, and expand their minds while having fun.

Research and critical thinking are also important skills that people develop when they enhance their writing skills. Writing exercises usually touch on different topics that require participants to do research. 

Aside from skills development, writing activities can also be a form of self-care and relaxation. There is something about the act of filtering through your thoughts and turning them into words. Writing helps a person stop with the wave of thoughts and focus on the organization of their thoughts. 

Therefore, whether you’re a reluctant writer, an aspiring writer, or an expert, you can benefit from these fun writing prompts and activities.

Creative Writing Activities for Kids

Story Chains

Kids will finish this fun writing activity giggling. The activity “Story Chains” is about starting a story with a sentence and letting participants continue the next sentences of the story. What makes this writing game exciting is how the flow of the story is dependent on the group. 

Here are some fun writing prompts to start:

• You found an old book from a library that was a best seller in the 1940s and opened the book. 
• The main character touches a painting in a museum and is magically transported to the scene. 
• A girl you meet is sitting alone at a park and sad. You approach her and ask her a question.

Picture Prompts

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This writing game encourages participants to let the words flow. The moderator can present a series of pictures as prompts. Choose photo cards that are vague and open to interpretation. These pictures serve as writing prompts as students write a few paragraphs or a short story based on their interpretation of the pictures.  

Diary Entry

Writing a diary is one of the creative writing exercises that keeps a student writing. Encourage reflection and self-awareness when you ask participants to write about a specific event in their lives.

Make this a fun writing activity by giving some writing prompts like gratitude, goals and aspirations, favorite memories, letters to your future self, and more. Furthermore, you can add variety to this activity by asking participants to write a diary entry from the context of different characters in a story or movie. A diary entry workshop activity not only develops one’s writing skills but also helps build bonds among participants. 

Rewriting activity

Choose a specific story or book that the group is interested in. Ask them to rewrite a part of the story – it can be the climax, the setting, or the ending. This creative writing activity forces participants to get into the story and think of the story from a new angle while maintaining the overall theme of the book. 

The art of interviewing

A good writer is a good listener. Ask the kids to do a feature article of their choice. It can be a person they know or a person they admire. Task them to gather questions to achieve an angle for their article.

Additionally, the facilitator can provide a transcript of an interview, and workshop participants will use the information from the interview to create an article. Interviewing article sources helps build reading comprehension and empathy which are important traits of a good writer. 

One Problem, Multiple Solutions

Present a problem or scenario to the workshop participants. Ask them to write different solutions to the problem – the more creative the better. After writing, participants can read aloud their writing. Finding multiple solutions to one problem opens up different perspectives and ways of thinking among peers.

To give an example, here are some problems that can be used as writing prompts:

• Share a personal or professional challenge you’ve encountered and ask attendees to share their different take on it
• Cite a PR or celebrity issue and ask participants to write how they can solve it
• Play a famous movie clip with the main problem and ask participants to write a script on how the next scenes will unfold. 

Story Mashups

Pick out two different stories that your participants are interested in. Ask them to collide both worlds in their versions. To create a seamless mashup, participants have to carefully understand and observe each of the book characters’ characteristics and backgrounds. 

House of Metaphors

Present a scenario where attendees can showcase their expertise in using metaphors. In this scenario, a moderator can ask kids to describe specific rooms or portions of their house using only metaphors. After presenting their writing, participants can explain their choice of metaphors for their houses. 

Make your own Comic Strip

Creating comic strips is one way to make writing fun for kids. Encourage students to think of a short story and convert it into their comic strip.

Another way to do this fun writing activity is by providing pictures of a comic strip and letting students practice their creative thinking and fill up the speech bubbles of the comic strip.

Creative Writing Exercises and Activities for Adults

Hero Creation Activity

Every story needs a hero. Having a good character in your book is directly related to how you please your readers. Teach every attendee the value of having a hero in every storytelling technique because it equips them to be better storytellers. 

A hero is a big factor in the overall flow of a story because it is who your audience can resonate with the most. Make the hero relatable and interesting so your readers will have a hard time putting your book down. 

Choose your ending

Compile famous classic stories like Cinderella or even modern ones like a popular movie. Ask participants to write their endings using the same circumstances from the original story. Challenge them to adapt their choice of ending depending on the intent of the original author. 

Word Swap

Provide a piece of text to participants and let them read the text. Choose a specific and important element in the story that will be swapped with something else. Let their creativity flow and let them have fun writing their version of their story after the word swap.

Swapping words is a writing activity that exercises participants’ vocabulary and imagination skills as they try to transform and enhance a story. 

Build your Biography

Writing is the most common way to preserve history and legacy. Introduce students to the important elements of a biography and practice writing one for themselves or their loved ones. 

List down specific aspects of one’s life to get started. Prepare students to gather information on one’s early life, education and career, life milestones, passion and hobbies, challenges and triumphs, and more. 

Story Reversal

A Story Reversal writing activity is the act of reframing your story by reversing character roles, settings, and story endings. An idea for this workshop activity is that students choose characters from the story that they will reverse. The hero becomes the villain, the villain becomes the hero. The brave become weak, and the weak become brave. 

Different Scenario Reactions

Present different scenarios to workshop participants and have them write the different possible reactions of the characters. Quickly present creative writing prompts like the following: 

• You stumble upon a lost diary in a park, and it contains a secret that could change someone’s life.
• You met a person who is color blind and he is asking you to explain the experience of seeing colors to him. 
• A lawyer and a doctor describe what they do in their day-to-day jobs. Make it interesting. 

Different Voices

Let participants explore different voices like professional, fun, quirky, mysterious, firm, gentle, etc. Have attendees read out their writing and take constructive feedback from each other. 

Aside from this, attendees can explore writing in the first person, second person, third person, and journalistic narrative. 

Mysterious Character Formation

Train attendees to develop their writing that captures the reader’s attention. One helpful exercise is to develop a mysterious character in your existing story or narrative. 

Establish the character’s background while still maintaining mystery. Define the character’s backstory, establish motivation and goals, develop secrets, plot hidden agendas, and more. This fun writing activity enhances participants’ descriptive writing skills as they attempt to convey the vibe of the character to the reader.

Writing for Marketing

A writing workshop can be incorporated into corporate workshops for employees. Writing is a major skill for marketing and sales professionals to be able to do their jobs well. Hire a marketing professional or expert to conduct training sessions on the different writing principles that can be used for marketing. 

Topic examples for writing for marketing include: writing for social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) writing, writing for headlines and hooks, direct response writing, crafting effective emails, and more. 

News Writing

Writing objectively like news is something people are interested in. You can invite a journalist to teach the attendees techniques and principles of news writing. The workshop may include exercises where participants are given plain information about an event and they must organize and write it in a news article format.

More Fun Writing Activities for Adults

• Write about your own love story from the perspective of your best friend
• Write about the most vivid dream you have and change the ending
• Describe your dream destination. It can be real or imaginary.
• Write a paragraph about the following words: “Fair”, “Eccentric”, “Turbulence”, and “Myth”.
• Think of one of the most memorable events of your life and turn it into a news script
• Create a narrative about different materials or items (Examples: a red plastic hairbrush, a broken oven, a scrapbook from the 70s)
• Develop a specific distinct character with one detail (Example: Someone who loves to gossip, someone who escaped prison, etc.)
• Craft a dialogue between two characters arguing about a silly story
• Narrate a story of a main character on a fairy tale quest
• Write a letter to your future self
• Write two-sentence horror stories
• Develop a story that is derived from one word only. 
• Draw out a story map for a short story

Host your Writing Workshop with Event Espresso

A writing workshop business can bring a lot of profit when done right. The overhead costs for writing workshops are very low. All you need is a credible and skilled workshop facilitator and creativity is the limit. 

Start by identifying the target audience you aim to serve. Then the next step is to develop a writing curriculum for your workshop. Set up your workshop event with reliable platforms like Event Espresso and Event Smart. 

Event Espresso is a ticket-selling and registration platform for WordPress users while Event Smart is the choice for non-WordPress users. Both offer secure payment collection and unlimited ticket selling at $0 commission fees for higher margins for planners. 

Host a successful writing workshop now. Check out our live demo or our 14-day free trial now.