Writing Tips Wednesdays: 10 Simple Writing Exercises to Improve Your Writing Skills

It's time for another Writing Tips Wednesday!

As a professional writer, I often get bogged down with writing about boring topics. Sometimes, it is difficult to switch between corporate writing and the freer style of the online world or fiction writing.

One of my favorite ways to improve writing or take on a different voice is to try a variety of writing exercises. I find that conducting a writing exercise is an excellent way to refresh your writing brain to come up with something when you have a mental block.

If you want to refresh your writing, try the following 10 writing exercises to improve your writing skills:

Free Writing

This simplewriting tip is one of the easiest in the world. There are no rules in this writing exercise. This exercise is perfect for trying to get over writer’s block.

Character Interviews

I like to use thiswriting exercise to develop a character beyond the basics. While I don’t write a lot of fiction, it is helpful for trying to define what a character is or isn’t based on how they would answer interview questions.

Writing Blind

What would it be like to writewithout the use of sight? Use descriptions pulled from touch, smell, and sound rather than based on appearance or color.

Write Without Me

This is a fun narrative for learning to talk about yourself withoutusing “I” pronouns all the time. This is also helpful for business writing, like for cover letters and resumes!

Character Portraits

This simplewriting exercise enables you to write about a stranger based on what you imagine their personality to be rather than the physical description. This helps create fully fleshed-out characters in stories.

Describe the Abstract

Can you describe adjectives? This exercise has you describewords that already descriptive words to help expand your writing ability.

Get Quiet

Sometimes thebest writing tip is simple to move to another location. This tip explains the virtues of writing in a quite environment.

15 Minute Writing

Have you tried blockwriting? Block writing is one simple way to improve your writing in just a short amount of time.

The Cover of Darkness

This exercise illustrates the importance of usingan unusual prospective while writing. This particular exercise focuses on a lack of light and color, but you could also try on a different planet, under the water, behind a mirror, or any other number of unusual situations.

Group Writing

Writing with a support group is an excellent way to improve your writing skills. Try writing the same story with multiple people for even more fun!

What are your favorite writing exercises? 

Brenda is a fellow book-lover and coffee-addict. She is a freelance writer, punctuation nerd, and grammar enthusiast. Her favorite book genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy with a Twist, and Dystopian. Brenda blogs about books, writing and more at Daily Mayo. Find her here on CaW for Writing Tips Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month.

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