Coffee break exercise: Shops

With everyone frantically rushing round doing Christmas shopping, shops are the inspiration for this week's creative writing exercise

Set the timer for five minutes and free-write about shops or create a mind-map. Think about big department stores and old-fashioned sweet shops.

Take a few minutes to choose a shop as a setting for your story. Write down some sensory detail about it – colours, sounds, smells and textures. For the remaining time, create the draft of a poem or the beginning of a story.

Inspired by this? Here are some more quick creative writing exercises for when you want to make the most of a brief moment of quiet time.