How to Improve Your Writing Skills: Exercises You Should Know About
Writing is definitely not for the faint hearted and although it seems pretty easy to do, it is not. There are moments when writers have no idea what to do next, or start questioning their own ability to write well. Just like with any other skill, writing requires practice to perfect. When I say perfect, I simply mean to write well, because there is no such thing as flawless writing. If you are able to communicate your message effectively, you are already halfway there.
A good writer is someone who can engage an audience without much difficulty. It is also important for writers to appear as natural as possible. Let’s not even talk about how grammar can positively or negatively affect your script. In order for you to get all of these factors right, you need to improve your writing skills on a daily basis. There are a few exercises you can do to help you through the process without searching for a paraphrasing service online.
Random sentence building
This is one of the most effective exercises when it comes to improving your writing. Open a book at look at a sentence. Use that sentence as the beginning of a story of your own. With this exercise, you use the sentence and build upon it. Your story can go anywhere when you already have a start. It does not have to be the same or close to the story you took the sentence from. In this way, you are not only practicing your actual writing, but you are also required to become creative.
Guides
Start with a topic that you know enough about to start writing a guide. This one really challenges the brain and allows you to come up with steps you did not even know existed. You can also use this as a research opportunity to increase your knowledge on the subject. There is always more to learn about any topic and the deeper you dig, the more you learn. You can always use this guide as an actual piece of work if it turns out to be good. Find a good phrasing tool online to help you when you are stuck.
Read
Even though this is not a direct writing exercise per se, it is one of the best habits you can have to be a good writer. When you read, your mind is relaxed and you merely enjoy the process, while learning. There is so much good that can come from reading and the benefits to writers are endless. When you are busy reading a novel for example, take note of the writing style as well as the way the author expresses themselves. You can use some of the techniques to help you improve your own writing.
Movies
Choose 2 of your favorite movies and select your favorite scenes in each one. Then you want to use these scenes and figure out a storyline if you were to combine the two. You already love the movies, so you should be pretty hyped up about it at the start. Now, you want to include all the characters in your scenes into this one script. Make it as exciting as you want to make it, or simply write a boring story. The idea here is not to win an Academy Award, but rather just a fund exercise to help improve your skills. You really have nothing to lose in this instance, but a lot of knowledge and skills to gain.
Summarize
A challenging task for many writers is to summarize a large amount of content. As writers, we love to write often and a lot, so it is almost going against the grain when having to summarize anything. A phrasing tool comes in handy, but try and do it on your own. You do not have to start with a big task at first. Perhaps take a 2000 word article and try and summarize it into 100 words. As you improve, you can always use this exercise on a novel or something a bit bigger. You will challenge your brain and your writing skills will be greatly improved.
Conclusion
Becoming a great writer takes time and there really is no hurry to get there. You simply want to practice your art every day. Many writers have a minimum amount of words they would ideally like to write a day. This helps with consistency and this is very important to writers. Creating a new habit will take some time, but after a while, you will find your perfect routine. If you can only commit to writing 200 words a day, then that is what you do. The idea is not to see who can write the most, but rather, who does so consistently.
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