class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/shutterstock_57219535.jpg" border="0" alt="creative writing projects" height="216" />When you think about writing, thoughts and experiences of long, boring research papers, difficult formulaic poetry exercises, and countless grammar correction marks from your teachers may come to mind. Many people may feel they have very little in the way of writing skills, but thanks to the Internet, there are a handful of really creative and short form writing projects that you can participate in right after you read this article.
These creative writing projects only require you to write based on your own experiences or the wondering and fantasies of your constantly working brain. Let’s check them out.
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href="http://www.smithmag.net/">Six Word Memoirs
By far the easiest and most interesting short form writing site is Six Word Memoirs. That’s right, in less than a minute you can start writing about your life without the dread of finishing an entire book.
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As the title suggests, you write about very detailed moments and experiences in your life in a mere six words. Here are a few of my own:
Auntie hung me from a tree.
Two poems published. Then stopped writing.
1976. Junior College. Majored in journalism.
Assigned seat behind high school sweetheart.
Pork chops, green beans, and rice.
We sang under the street light.
Founded in January 2006, Six Word Memoirs is a community of story tellers who share pithy and often clever stories about a wide range of topics and categories. There are categories on the site devoted to Memoirs of Love and Heartbreak, Happiness, Memoirs for Teens, Pain and Hope, The Food Life, The Digital Life, and Veterans.
At least three books have been published based on the six word memories of both novice and published writers, including Wally Lamb (“Shiny head. Hippie hair. Shiny head.”), Frank McCourt (“The miserable childhood leads to royalties.”), Malcolm Gladwell (“Father: ‘Anything but journalism.’ I rebelled.”), and Eddie Matz (“Met wife at her bachelorette party”).
href="http://www.onesentence.org/">OneSentence.Org
If six words is a little too limiting for you, you might prefer a similar but still short form genre site called One Sentence. You’d be amazed at how one complete sentence can convey so much. It’s what the site calls, “an experiment in brevity.”
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Here are two samples.
My friends can’t decide whether to be creeped out or amused by the fact that I have it bad for the girl who was my roommate for a week in a mental hospital.
In the kitchen cutlery aisle, we smiled politely at the little old lady who leaned in close to tell us ‘you can never have too many knives’.
href="http://www.fwfr.com/">Four World Film Reviews
For all you film buffs out there, the Four Word Film review features a growing collection of over 328,000 extremely brief film reviews and summaries about old and new movies.
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You really don’t need the skills of an experienced film critic to share four words about your favorite or most disliked movie. I bet by the time you finish reading this sentence you could come up with four words to describe what you think about say, Gnomeo & Juliet.
href="http://thisibelieve.org/">This I Believe
This I Believe is a longer form essay writing project that is a mix of memoir, personal opinion, and wisdom. This site contains over 9,000 essays, “written by people from all walks of life,” that center around the authors’ core values about a wide range of themes, including family, fears, race, setbacks, war, music, birth, addiction, religion, atheism, equality, and nature.
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Though there are no word count limits to these essays, the project encourages you to write your essay or statement in between 350 and 500 words. After you listen to and read many of the essays on the site, you will see how eloquent and insightful this short form of essay writing can be.
href="http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/">Six Sentences
If you need to write something between 6 and 500 words, then you might want to check out Six Sentences. It’s another short form writing project in which you can write about anything in six long, medium or short sentences.
Your contributions may consist of the first six sentences of a novel or short story you plan to write, a quick review, a troubling or funny experience, etc. Here’s one
href="http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/2010/12/crimson-wave.html">example from movie and film critic, Suzanne Baran:
The Crimson Wave
B. the Irishman actor had me over for dinner. He cooks really great fajitas. I write on his typewriter while listening to Lou Rawls on vinyl. I told him I am expecting my period. He asked if women get it around the time of a full moon. “Interesting theory,” I said, “but no.”
Any one of these sites can get your creative juices flowing in a matter of minutes. Due to their short form, you will find that they can be quite addictive.
If you’re looking for even more creative writing projects and ideas of self-expression, check out Tina’s
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-document-life-pictures-online/">5 Ways to Document Your Life in Pictures Online, and Nancy’s
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-3-creative-writing-social-networks-feedback-work/">Top 3 Online Writing Communities to Get Feedback on Your Work. Also, let us know of other similar creative writing sites you like.
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