Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series!
Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft.
Today’s Exercise is
Sentence Stretch
- Objective: To practice adding complexity, detail, and rhythm to prose.
- How to Play: The facilitator provides a simple, declarative sentence (e.g., “The man opened the door.”). The first writer rewrites it to be more descriptive. They pass their new, longer sentence to the next person, who must add even more detail, clauses, or imagery. Continue for several rounds, seeing how rich a simple sentence can become.
- Best for: Prose styling, descriptive writing, and understanding sentence structure.
Start from a simple sentence like the ones in the list below. Build it into a masterpiece:
The man walked down the street. | The woman opened the box. |
The child drew a picture. | The old man sat on the bench. |
The dog barked. | The cat sat on the mat. |
The house stood on the hill. | The sun set. |
The rain fell. | The guard locked the gate. |
The baker kneaded the dough. | The bird built a nest. |
She read the letter. | The clock ticked. |
The musician played the song. | The car was in the garage. |
The ship sailed on the sea. | The teacher closed the book. |
The spider spun a web. | He looked at the photo. |
A light was on in the window. | The tree lost its leaves. |
The doctor checked the chart. | The writer typed a word. |
The fish swam in the bowl. |
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