Writing games are tricks, exercises, things to try to get your writing brain in the mood. I find them useful when a story's giving me trouble - I can't think of a way out of the corner, or I can't think of a corner to get into, or I'm just not feeling in the right mood to write that story - as well as generating new ideas, and just keeping my writing-mind in shape. And on the plus side, they're usually fun to try, and you can end up with the germs of some great little stories.

Interviews

Similar to the Talk to Yourself game, except instead of asking yourself questions, you're asking them of your characters. It's often most useful to ask them things that have nothing to do with the story. So if, say, they've a pirate in a space opera, start with daily life questions - favourite meal, who'd they'd choose out of Elvis Presley or the Beatles, what they find most annoying about standing in a queue or getting a coffee.

Once you've warmed up with little questions like that, you can start asking the bigger ones - what do they want, how far will they go to get it, what won't they give up, do or put up with to win - but try to be subtle to yourself. Lead the interview into the hard questions gradually, let it flow naturally as a conversation, otherwise you'll find yourself freezing up and writing plot-answers rather than character answers. You might find some interesting facts - why something isn't working, that something else would work better, the most difficult choice you could give your character.