Category: Writing daresPage 1 of 7
Something out of the box for you to attempt to include in your work in progress. They might help keep your word count above 1667 words a day.
Are you game for a dare?
If you use writing dares to help you get writing, The Muse of Last Resort (that’s this blog) has you covered. There’s an entire site section dedicated to…
Try this writing dare: Have your characters kidnapped in a shocking case of mistaken identity. Extra conceptual points if these events help bring them closer to the resolution…
For a few years now, The Muse has shared a growing collection of wild writing dares during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) these are wild and weird things…
Without any warning switch genre. Bonus points if you do it again in the same chapter or the next one the whole story is cast in a whole…
The chapter that you are working on is suddenly filled with puppies. Lots of puppies. And with the puppies comes puppy-related chaos. Extra points… if this was a…
Introduce poo as a theme and/or plot point in your chapter. Perhaps someone trod in it. Maybe someone failed to flush the loo. Or, perhaps, a baby needs…
We dare you to sit somewhere public and include conversations you overhear into your story.
Have a character suggest a shady action that would (if it works) help the characters overcome the antagonist. Have them debate the relative morality of doing evil for…
Take a dip into our writing dares archive. Try and get five of them on the same page.
Your character, by chance, is temporarily granted magical power. For a short while, they can bend the very nature of reality itself to their will. What do they…
It is cold outside. You characters decide to take a break and go inside to warm up. They enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee as they talk…
Write an entire chapter describing complex events that turn out to be from fifty years ago. Bonus points if vampires are involved you make this chapter relevant by…
Events in your story have to stop while two or more characters get into an argument over who gets to eat the last biscuit (cookie).
We dare you to write while listening to this white noise track loudly. (Maybe use headphones).
Due to advanced magic or poorly understood technology, time rewinds and your characters must live through the events of the last chapter a second time. Maybe they change…
We dare you to dress in your smartest or most outrageous clothes as if you were about to receive the Book of the Year award for your novel….
Perhaps they were not thinking. Maybe they did not realise it was a secret. Maybe their mouth started before their brain. It could be that they say the…
We dare you to write at least 500 words at night in the garden while wearing pyjamas. Bonus points if you only use a pencil, paper, and a…
With no fanfare or warning, right where you are up to now, add in a character called Dan. Dan is a bad influence on everyone. Bonus points if…
Get yourself a bowl of ice cream. Put it next to where you write. Start writing. You cannot eat the ice cream until you reach your daily word…
This is a bold and challenging dare – throw out everything that has happened as a hallucination and then re-tell what actually happened (with many details different). How…
We dare you to take a five-minute loo break and use that time to write (using the loo optional).
Write at least a page while soaking in a hot bath. Write only using a stick of charcoal. You can get charcoal from Amazon or a local art…