Writing is not easy- there’s no doubt about it. No wonder many writers face frequent writer’s block.
Writing is really an art, although some people try finding the science behind it. This means that studying it precisely will be even harder since you don’t know what you need to do to improve.
The answer to all these problems is the introduction of writing exercises that are beginner-friendly into your everyday life. Keep it fun, because writing is fun!
Improve your ability to write on demand
According to the Morning pages, a good beginner writing exercise is being able to write 750 words every morning. The idea, a bit like journaling, requires that you write without stopping. Basically, the idea behind this is for your writing to be like a river of consciousness of whatever you have in mind.
To stick to your goal, you can ever use web apps. However, for most of us, writing 750 words takes a lot more than just 20 minutes. The idea of free writing can still be beneficial as it will teach you to write on cue.
Bonus tip: to make this activity more useful use the same tools every day and write in the same place. This will avoid the blank page syndrome that a lot of writers get. Set yourself up for success.
Editing someone else’s work
Rather than free writing style exercises, start practicing editing. This will especially be beneficial if you think the final product needs more tightening up.
Editing other people’s work is one way to get better at editing your own. Stepping back from one’s own writing can sometimes be especially hard. But this is necessary so that you can track your improvements.
Of course, it’s always useful to get feedback. However, seeing examples of not-so-emotional connections of your work can do wonders in helping to improve writing.
Improving storytelling
Basically, in this exercise, a prompt is presented, and one person either through mime or verbally tells a story.
One partner asks for particular points and details to be more extended on or asks you to advance when they want you to move onto new aspects of the story.
For the storyteller, both actions can be tricky. This exercise even though is a little easier when carried out with another person, it can also be set up as a solo performance.
Improving creativity
Rewriting is a big part of improving and editing your work. Often, rewriting is beneficial in CV writing. For that, you can take the help of CV professional writers UK.
How many times do you rewrite and delete the same few sentences?
In between editing and drafting a piece, try to leave a day in between. Leaving enough time to get a full night’s sleep and time for other things to get done will help in generating new ideas about the same topic.
Write a shorter book
It can often be paralyzing to write a 500-page novel. Write a short book of stories or poems instead. Oftentimes, long projects pertaining to writing are daunting. In this case, it’s best to start small.
Making new connections
Having a new idea is a particularly big part of creativity. Everything is a remix- as the saying goes.
Hence, improving abilities to make new connections within existing ideas helps pay more in the long run. To give your connecting brain a workout, here’s an exercise you should give a try:
On paper, create a list of suggestions you can use for these categories:
- Themes(e.g. laughter, grief, the meaning of life, inequality)
- Things (e.g. measles, puppy, ice cream, bicycle)
- Places (e.g. measles, puppy, bicycle, ice cream)
- People (e.g. pilot teacher, grandmother, and baby)
Next, on a separate piece of paper tear up all the suggestions and add them into a hat. Grab two pieces of paper from the hat each time you do this exercise. Try to incorporate both the different ideas through some information or memory.
Or you can simply talk about how these two ideas can be connected through your own musings. After all, the process of idea creation is forced through this exercise so it’s great practice for bigger projects.
Keeping a journal
Some days it can be incredibly hard to write while other days it’s much easier. The truth is: you need to stop waiting for inspiration. Make it a habit to keep a journal.
Writing about what’s happening in your day-to-day life can generate new ideas you probably didn’t believe you had in you.
With practice, your journal entries can be much more than just ‘journal entries.’ You will soon be able to scan or photocopy your work into some of your bigger projects.
Maybe you can keep a journal to later jot down the series of milestones you’ve achieved in your CV. Like any CV writing service Nottingham will tell you, keeping a journal or diary helps new skills in being highlighted.
The What If challenge
This exercise helps in students being encouraged to make links between interesting hypothetical questions through an entertaining piece of writing.
Have yourself come up with a single What If question to begin the exercise. You can then jot it down on a book. Remember the more bizarre the better!
Some examples to get you started: What if my pet cat could talk?Or What if everyone could hear everyone else’s thoughts?
You can get more ideas through a simple Google search. Set a certain amount of time before you start answering the question.
When faced with creating writing tasks that are so open-ended, students often are worried about the feared Writers Block seeping in.
You’ll be encouraged to answer questions that they’re no set answer for. This will help you the next time a stalled writing engine is being suffered from.
Comic Strip Scripts
Dialogue writing skills and character development can be improved through a simple case of comic strip script. You can do this activity in two ways. Creating or sourcing a comic strip without the dialogues is the first way and the alternative is to use pictures.
Overall, you can significantly improve your visual literacy skills through understanding different contexts and tones.
Weekly deadlines
A weekly goal is a must need! To keep things objective, give your weekly deadlines a word count. While still being honest, celebrate your progress.
In order to measure yourself, you need to set aims since that’s the only way most people can get work done through a deadline.
For each exercise, you can help kick off your writing by using some useful sites which generate words or prompt writing.
Final Verdict
There are two main ways that can help you become a better writer as agreed upon by most great writers: read a lot and write a lot.
Today we’ve focused on writing even though we can talk about both of these all day. Naturally, you train your writing muscle the more you write.
Writing exercises are not always related to fiction or creative writing. With these exercises, you can improve your research-based blogging and non-fiction skills just as much.