Creative writing exercises for English language learners

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Engaging in creative writing is one effective way to improve your English language skills. It allows for artistic expression and personal flair, making it a unique way to put your imagination into words. Additionally, creative writing can draw from the author’s life and experiences, providing a personal touch to the narrative. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, creative writing can help you enhance your vocabulary, grammar and overall language proficiency.

Creative writing exercises can also benefit other forms of writing, such as business writing and technical writing, even though these are not typically considered creative writing. In this post, we’ll explore various creative writing exercises that are designed to make learning English fun and engaging, as well as improve writing skills.

Creative writing exercises to help your English skills
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Exercise 1: Picture prompts

Using images as prompts for writing can spark your imagination, aid in character development, and help you come up with interesting stories.

  1. Choose an image that interests you.
  2. Look at the picture carefully and note down what you see.
  3. Write a story based on the image.

Example

A picture of a peaceful beach.

Prompt: What happens when a message in a bottle washes ashore?

Exercise 2: Short stories and story starters

Story starters are sentences or phrases that help kick-start your fiction writing and develop your storytelling skills.

  1. Choose a story starter from the list below.
  2. Continue the story from where the starter leaves off. Free writing can be a great method to let your imagination run wild and get the creative juices flowing.
  3. Be creative and develop the plot, characters and setting.

Example

  • “It was a dark and stormy night when…”
  • “She couldn’t believe what she saw when she opened the door…”
  • “The old man had a mysterious look in his eyes as he handed over the ancient book…”

Exercise 3: Dialogue creation

Creating dialogues between characters is a common practice among creative writers, which can improve your conversational skills and help you understand the nuances of spoken English.

  1. Think of two characters and a situation where they might interact.
  2. Write a dialogue between the characters, focusing on making it as natural as possible.
  3. These exercises can teach students to write better dialogues.
  4. Practice reading the dialogue out loud to improve your speaking skills.

Example

Prompt: Two friends discussing their plans for the weekend.

  • Friend 1: “What are you up to this weekend?”
  • Friend 2: “I’m thinking of going hiking. Want to join?”

Exercise 4: Collaborative storytelling

Collaborative storytelling involves writing a story with others, which can be a fun and interactive way to practice English.

It can also be used to create personal essays that reflect shared experiences.

  1. Gather a group of friends or classmates.
  2. Start a story with one sentence, then pass it along to the next person to continue.
  3. Keep passing the story around until everyone has contributed, then read the final story together.

Example

First sentence: "Once upon a time, in a small village surrounded by mountains, there lived a curious cat named Whiskers."

Exercise 5: Rewrite the ending

Rewriting the ending of a familiar story, including those in creative nonfiction, can help you think creatively and explore different possibilities.

  1. Choose a story you know well.
  2. Read the original ending and think about how you could change it.
  3. Write a new ending for the story, making it as imaginative as you like.

Example

Original story: "Cinderella".

New ending prompt: What if Cinderella decided not to marry the prince and instead pursued her dream of becoming a world-renowned chef?

Keep working on and improving your writing skills

These creative writing exercises offer a fun and effective way to improve your English language skills. By regularly practicing these exercises, you’ll enhance your vocabulary, grammar and overall proficiency while boosting your confidence in using English. Utilizing various writing tools, such as resources, guides and courses, can significantly improve your writing techniques.

So, don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild and use these exercises as a tool for self-expression and language development. Remember, the more you practice, the better you will become at creative writing in English. Keep exploring new ideas and techniques to improve your writing skills, because there is always room for growth and improvement.

Read our blog post 'How novel writing can help your English skills'.

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    3. Maximize student speaking time

    Learners need to develop their English-speaking skills for work. The classroom is a safe, low-stakes environment for them to gain fluency and confidence.

    Use the audio and video scripts of short dialogues or an extract from a longer script. Students read the dialogue aloud in pairs or groups. Give feedback by drilling the stress and rhythm of any words or phrases which were difficult with the whole class. Back-chaining phrases – starting with the last sound and building up going backwards – is an excellent way to drill. Get students to swap roles and repeat the task.

    You can also use another technique called disappearing dialogue. Put a short dialogue on the board for students to practice in pairs. Then delete parts of the dialogue and ask them to repeat the task, swapping roles each time. Gradually delete more parts to increase the challenge. Students can reconstruct the dialogue as a final task.

    Moreover, surveys, questionnaires, true/false games, and information-gap exercises are ways to practice speaking in English, target structures, and vocabulary.