Some exercises for writing about what you know

1. Surroundings Freewrite

   • Following the freewrite idea suggestions of professional essayist and poet Sheila Bender, place yourself in a comfortable setting and describe your surroundings. Describe what you see, how you are sitting, the things you feel and the things you think about as you are sitting there. Let your thoughts flow as quickly as possible and don't worry about using correct grammar or sentence structure. Write until you completely run out of thoughts and have nothing else to write about in regards to your surroundings. What ends up on the paper in front of you may or may not be useful to you, but taking your mind off your essay for a bit to write about something else completely different can help you break outside the box, and you may discover some fresh ideas for things to include in your essay.

   Dream Log

   • Mariana Ashley, author of Pick the Brain writing website, suggests keeping a daily journal of your dreams from the night before.The earlier in the day you do this, the easier it will be to recall event sequence and detail. Write down what happened, as many details as you can remember and how you felt while the dream was happening. Pick The Brain suggests not trying to make sense of your dreams while you're writing them down. If you have time, look back over the dream and see if you can find any resemblance of the dream with your daily life and whether or not you can come up with some kind of interpretation for it. If you're able to come up with an interpretation for the entire dream or pieces of it, it may be able to help you dissect your thoughts and feelings regarding things that are important to you. It will serve as something for you to refer back to any time you need fresh ideas from your past.
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   Random Word Lists

   • Create a list of ten or more random words. Use these words to create a composition about a recent happening in your life. Before you start writing, set rules for the composition. For example, you could set a rule that you have to use all the words in order or that you have to use them all and keep the composition under 300 words total. This will get your creative vocabulary juices flowing and will help you break out of writer's block and think of new, fresh ways to phrase boring sentences in your personal essay.

   Fly On The Wall

   • Imagine you are a fly on the wall in your own bedroom and describe in third person what that fly would think your life is like. Remember the fly doesn't follow you out of your bedroom and only knows you from the things that go on there. Since your bedroom is a private place hidden away from the rest of the world, this exercise will help you discover the things that are nearest to your heart and what is most important to you when you aren't distracted by the outside world. This will also reveal information about your character and your values as a person, things that are essential to include in any personal essay.