Writerly Play
Let’s chat about living creatively and playing our way toward challenging, meaningful goals.
Writerly Play Activity Collection: Questions Can Give You More Creative Answers
Why ask better questions?
Better questions can give you more creative answers.
It’s easy to rush straight past a question and snatch the first answer we can find. Questions create tension. What will we discover? Will we have to make a choice? If so, will we make the right one? Answers provide relief. However, when we ask the wrong questions, we end up with the wrong answers. Asking better questions is an art, and one of the primary tools artists can use to improve their craft.
The art of asking questions is one of the cornerstone skills developed in the Writerly Play Attic.
The Writerly Play Attic, like the other Writerly Play rooms, is designed to help creatives separate their thinking into distinct steps. By knowing the purpose of a thinking task, we can utilize activities toward stronger results.
Here is a collection of Writerly Play activities, designed to help you craft strong questions.
Remember: better questions can give you more creative answers. Choose the activity that best fits your creativity style. Not sure what your style is? Take the quick quiz and find out.
ACTIVITIES
Question Starters
What If ... ? Game
How To Start A Book Club This Fall
Have you been thinking about how to start a book club? Book clubs are an excellent way to have meaningful conversations with friends. No matter your age, you can start a club with fellow readers, and the fall is a perfect time to start! Whether you will be the club's...
Asking Better Questions – A Book Flight
In my creative development, I've circled back to the practice of asking questions a number of times: as an actor, a director, a writer, a teacher. No matter the hat I'm wearing, the quality of my questions fundamentally improves the quality of my work. I’ve chosen...
Why I’m Not Allowed to Say “I Don’t Know” Anymore
For a while now, my husband and I have responded, "You do know," whenever one of us sighs with confusion and says, "I don't know." It's a pact we made after catching ourselves using this excuse far too often. I've become better about this habit, but I still have a...
What Might The Young Reader You Once Were Teach You?
I remember the smell of my first elementary school's library: dust, aging pages, and a hint of peanut butter and honey. Actually, the PB & honey was probably left over from the lunch I raced through. All I wanted was more time in the stacks. I'd race to the V shelf,...
The Gap Between Here and My Expectations
What goes through your mind at the end of the day? If you're a creative, I'm guessing you run through a mental account of what you made today. At least, I do. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but my counting usually goes something like this. 1. I did write that...
Naomi’s Playlist: Milanote
My playlist is an eclectic collection of tools that help me approach my work as play. I love them so much, I want to share them with you! Object: Seeing my work, staying on track, and setting...
The Opportunity of the Blank Page
How do you feel about a blank page? We often talk about the terror of a blank, white page, but what about the possibility? I love this poem from Jacqueline Woodson because it reminds me that a blank page can be seen in more than one way. It...
Streamline Your Workflow with Milanote
I've been looking for a tool like Milanote for a very long time. And now that I've found it, I want to make sure that it sticks around. That's why, even though I'm not a paid advertiser or an affiliate, I still have to tell you what's so amazing about this tool,...
Cut Years Off Your Writing Learning Curve with this Mindset Shift
For writers, 10,000 hours is probably an understatement. The writing learning curve is no small thing. Writers twenty years into their careers will tell you they still have miles to go--so much landscape to cover, and so many discoveries to make. However, as any hiker...
