This Is Not A Drill

I was reading a collection of Flannery O'Connor's letters last night (Collected Works, Library of America, 1988 p1013), and came across a reference to Writing Exercises.

Writing to a friend in December of 1956, she commented, "Experiment but for heaven's sake don't go writing excercises. You will never be interested in anything that is just an exercise and there is no reason you should."

She went on to suggest that anything you write should have the "promise of being whole."

Myself, I'm in Flannery's camp. Never had much luck creating isolated paragraphs or scenes, without the context of a story to give it meaning. But I can see both sides.

Some people may see it as a freeing experience: No pressure, no expectations of creating something worth saving. And that freedom from pressure may allow the necessary breathing space in which to improve a particular element (e.g., "write a scene in which two characters disagree, but neither wants to openly admit the conflict").


What do you think? Are writing exercises a necessary part of your craft, like a musician practicing scales? Or do they strike you as artificial?