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The Cube, Writing, Writing Craft, Writing Exercise

The Cube – A Writing Exercise


Česky: Rubikova kostka English: Rubik's Cube F...

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While I still was in school as a youth, my teacher asked me to do a writing exercise named The Cube. The exercise is very similar to meditation. You pick any item and write about it from six different perspectives. For example, let´s pick a leaf. Ask yourself the questions beneath and write the six pieces of creative text;

  1. What is the leaf making you to think about?
  2. How does the leaf look?
  3. What item is similar to the leaf?
  4. How can the leaf be used?
  5. What kind of feelings does the leaf awakens within you?
  6. What could the leafs absolute opposite be?

This is a great writing exercise that can be used in eternity. Using this, there is always something to write about. Most people try to find something new to write about all the time, but the greatest writer always find to write from a new perspective. I have been thinking about my next  Project 365 in 2013. Maybe I´ll just write about the same leaf over and over again? That would really put my writing skills at trial! How many blog readers would I attract? How many people would come back – excited – wanting to read about that leaf over and over again? Would you?

Discussion: When you are writing, are you then really focusing at writing about as many things/people/places/happenings as possible, or are you more focused at trying to look at one single story from different points of view (different characters)? What kind of views does your characters usually have at life, at their – your – stories? Are they just looking at the problems, are they enemies of life, do they brake every social rule, or are they nice and smiling towards everything and everyone? What does your characters never do, think or say? Why not? Is that something you could improve by learning how to look at the same thing, place, happening or story from different points of view? What would that do to your writing and ability to tell a good story?


About Magdalena Wiklund

Leg. biomedicinsk analytiker och maker. Arbetar med transfusionsmedicin till vardags, forskar på antibiotikaresistens på fritiden. Jag skapade Sveriges största site för biomedicinska analytiker därför att detta verkligen är ett fantastiskt yrke som jag hoppas att fler ska intressera sig för.

Discussion

23 thoughts on “The Cube – A Writing Exercise

  1. I love this idea! Thanks for sharing it.

    Posted by Writing Sisters | January 9, 2012, 7:12 pm
    • I´m the happy one 🙂 I´m happy you liked it, and I wish you some really good and creative writing. I also suggest that you hang on, because I will go deeper into this exercise this week. I´m very interested in reading your blog, writing sisters, and will have a look at it later on this evening. (For the moment I´m working with me novel). I´m sure we will exchange some good ideas and exercises when it comes to writing. Have a great day, and thanks for passing by!
      Maggie

      Posted by Magdalena Wiklund | January 9, 2012, 7:17 pm
  2. Hi Maggie!
    I found your blog after you commented on mine, and I’m glad that I visited today 😀
    I adore this exercise! If you have the time, could you create a guest post some week for my blog with this exercise?
    ~Lyn

    Posted by theatrestalker | January 9, 2012, 8:03 pm
    • Hi Lyn,
      Im happy you like this exercise, it´s a really good one 🙂 I hope it will give you a lot of happy creative writing.
      If I understand you right (I might not, because English isn´t my native language) you want me to let you write a post that will be presented in my blog?
      Sorry, the blog is just for me. No guest will write in my blog.
      But I´m sure you are attracting a lot of readers to your blog, and that they will give you a lot of great feedback.
      I wish you happy writing and a great day!
      Maggie

      Posted by Magdalena Wiklund | January 9, 2012, 8:11 pm
  3. Hi again Maggie,
    I actually meant it to be the other way around. I would love to share this exercise on my blog, so I was hoping that you could write post to be shown on my blog.
    But if you’d rather, I can just link back to this particular post?
    ~Lyn

    Posted by Lyn | January 9, 2012, 8:30 pm
    • Sorry for the misunderstanding. I´ll have a deeper look into your blog later on this evening and then I´ll get back to you about it. Without any promises. But please, feel free to link back at any time.

      Maggie

      Posted by Magdalena Wiklund | January 9, 2012, 8:38 pm
    • Lyn,
      I decided to say no thank you to your suggestion. The reason is mainly because it would make me feel very uncomfortable. We don´t know each other, and I really care for my work. As you can see, I copyright everything automatically, using myfreecopyright.com to give all my posts a digital fingerprint. I prefer to have my posts in my blog. Maybe that will change some time in the future, who knows? But for the moment putting my own post in someone else’s blog gives me the shivers 🙂
      But you are free to link to my posts at any time, ping back, without asking.
      I wish you some really happy writing and hope to see you again.

      Maggie

      Posted by Magdalena Wiklund | January 10, 2012, 12:15 am
  4. What a great exercise! I shared this with a friend of mine who teaches High School English and she can’t wait to use it in her classroom.

    Posted by viajg | January 9, 2012, 11:40 pm
    • Viajg,
      Im very happy to hear that both you and your friend liked it. Hang on, for every day during this week I will deepen this exercise even more by doing it, part by part, question by question. Does your friend have her own blog I can visit? I relly liked your, and would be pleased to pay her a visit.
      Happy reading!
      Maggie

      Posted by Magdalena Wiklund | January 9, 2012, 11:51 pm
  5. This is an interesting exercise, Maggie. I’m not sure I could do it with any leaf, maybe a specific leaf… My art blog is not the place for this sort of thing, so maybe I’ll try it in private sometime. I’ve just subscribed to your blog but if at any time I unsubscribe please don’t think it’s because I’m not reading – I like to bookmark more blogs than I subscribe to these days, that way I can keep them in folders! 🙂

    Something you might like to do: when you’ve written each post from this excercise, put a link to each in this post, so that when people come to see this post they’ll know which ones to go to.

    By the way, a guest post is best done for a blog that already has a lot of readers – and when you have a lot yourself – that way you both benefit from each other’s visitors. The idea is that one person writes an original post specially for another person’s blog, on something that goes well with the theme of the blog or its contents. The post is not put on both blogs, just the one on which the writer is a guest. I hope that info helps!

    Posted by Val | January 10, 2012, 2:22 pm
    • Val,
      Thanks for letting me know. I promise not to have any resentments if you stop following me. The idea of putting links into the post is great, I´ll do that later on, when they get published one by one. Thanks!
      And about being a guest writer – maybe some time in the future. Im not ready for that year.
      But thats for the information.
      Maggie

      Posted by Magdalena Wiklund | January 10, 2012, 2:37 pm
  6. How fun…I will give this a try!

    Posted by B. Cooke | January 18, 2012, 12:18 am

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Pingback: The Cube – Part 1 « Kaleidoscope - January 10, 2012

  2. Pingback: The Cube – Part 2 « Kaleidoscope - January 11, 2012

  3. Pingback: The Cube – Part 3 « Kaleidoscope - January 12, 2012

  4. Pingback: The Cube – Part 4 « Kaleidoscope - January 13, 2012

  5. Pingback: The Cube – Part 5 « Kaleidoscope - January 14, 2012

  6. Pingback: The Cube – Part 6 « Kaleidoscope - January 15, 2012

  7. Pingback: Writing Exercise #11 « I Breathe Words - January 20, 2012

  8. Pingback: Guilt Without Context « Kaleidoscope - February 26, 2012

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