Brain Games for Blocked Writers: 81 Tips to Get You Unstuck

Stuck on your story? It can happen to the best of us: our characters refuse to character, our book refuses to book. Here are 81 creative exercises to get your brain moving again, including:

* Write a synopsis of your book as a video game vision statement.

* Orchestrate your story: Is your heroine a delicate flute or a sassy alto sax?

* Describe your character as though they were a bitey shelter cat you are desperate to adopt out.

Yoon Ha Lee is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Dragon Pearl, which won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature and the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book. He is also known for his Machineries of Empire space opera; the first book, Ninefox Gambit, won the Locus Award for Best First Novel and was shortlisted for the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke awards, and the sequels were also Hugo finalists. Yoon Ha’s hobbies include art, composing neoclassical music, and destroying readers. He lives in Louisiana with his family and an extremely lazy catten. You can reach him at deuceofgearsart@gmail.com.