Using your favourite character from a novel or story, write a brand new scene where they might appear.  Perhaps the scene could be from this character’s life before the novel began, or after i is long finished… or perhaps you’d rather put your favourite character somewhere entirely new and unexpected.

How do they react to the change in circumstances?

What is it about this character that makes you want to write about them?

Saskatchewan poet, Gary Hyland, who died on Tuesday, said on his website: ‘Poetry is dangerous stuff.  It’s designed to shake up your mind.  Read enough of it, and you will become that dangerous entity – the thinking individual.’

What poems have you recently read?  Chose one and use the first line to inspire a poem of your own.

I taught a workshop last week and together we wrote three writing goals to help us focus our writing.

Try it for yourself.

Goal One: What is a weekly writing goal that you’d like to achieve?  Be realistic and specific as you write your goal.  Perhaps writing every day for an hour is impossible, but could you write for an hour every Saturday?  Maybe a word count would be more helpful to you – could you write 1000 words a week?  More?  Less?

Goal Two: What is a writing goal you’d like to achieve over the next six months?  Would you like to send a story to a magazine?  Or perhaps finish a draft of your novel?  Again, be realistic and specific.

Goal Three: What is a writing goal you’d like to achieve over the next year?  If you’re telling yourself you want to be a bestselling novelist in a year, then remind yourself it takes most writers a lot longer than that – it doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but perhaps you should think of goals that help you reach your dreams rather than goals which might make you feel like you’ve failed if you don’t get there.

And remember, you can always change and reassess your goals at any time.  I hope they help you get out of a writing rut.