10 Ways to Improve Your Creative Writing

Creative writing is like any other skill; you'll need to exercise that brain muscle to keep your skills fit and functional! Try some of these exercises to help improve your creative writing:

Below, dive into each of these tips to learn how to implement these creative writing exercises into your creative writing process. You'll be improving your creative writing skills in no time!

Instead of writing, read

If you're not in the mood to work on your writing projects, try reading instead! Even if you're not writing, you can still hone and improve your skills by reading works that inspire you. Pay attention to the writer's structure, writing style, language, and descriptions. How do they introduce characters? One of the best ways to learn about writing is to pay close attention to how other creative writers use their unique voices to tell stories!

Timed Writing

Timed writing can be a great way to break through the anxiety and the worry about what to write. Trying to write for 5 or 10 minutes straight might sound easy to do but can be surprisingly challenging. Practice letting yourself write whatever comes to mind; you might be surprised by the results generated by your stream of consciousness!

Use a prompt

Creative writing prompts can help break through any writer's block that you may have going on. Writing prompts can also help you think outside of the box or write about topics you might not pursue otherwise, exercising your writing muscles. A quick Google search can give you tons of different writing prompts to help get you started!

Edit someone else's work

Editing someone else's work can help make you aware of things you might do in your own writing and want to change somehow. Maybe the work you're editing demonstrates excellent use of descriptive language that inspires you in your writing. Or maybe the piece has some grammar issues that you are also guilty of.

Dig deep into the past

Dig into the past, and by that, I mean your past! Find one of your oldest pieces of creative writing and rewrite it! What choices would you make now vs. what you did back then? Would you tell the story similarly or completely turn it on its head? Reworking an old piece of your writing can be a fun exercise that shows how much you've changed and grown as a writer.

Change the perspective of a famous story

Pick one of your favorite stories; it can be anything. Tell the story from another character's perspective! For example, if you pick "The Wizard of Oz," what would the story be if told from the Cowardly Lion's perspective? This will improve your character development skills and help you see additional story possibilities that you may not have considered otherwise. 

Write about what you don't know

Everyone says write what you know, but what happens when you write about what you don't know? Practice writing about a subject that you don't know much about. You speculate, guess, or even fabricate the facts or ideas you're writing about rather than basing them on real life. The goal should be to find something true in the unknown topic that you're writing about. What's one thing that you know about the topic for sure? Let that guide your writing and see what the result is!

Write about a hobby

Do you have a hobby that has nothing to do with writing? Write about it! So often, writers' lives can feel encompassed by their work. Expand your writing topics by writing about another interest of yours!

Write about a high concept world

Practice a little world-building by brainstorming a high concept world. A high concept can be defined as an idea with an easily communicated premise. Think "Jurassic World" and its dinosaur theme park or "Ghostbusters" and their ghost removing service. What kind of world with an easy-to-explain concept can you develop?

Set small goals and rewards

Try setting achievable goals for yourself with your writing, and when you achieve those goals, reward yourself! The reward can be anything from watching a favorite TV show or movie to meeting up with friends. Just make sure the goals that you're setting are doable! This system of feasible goals and small rewards can help to motivate your writing.

Hopefully, this blog will help you improve your writing skills and may even open your eyes to a new type of writing. Consistent practice of various writing techniques will keep your mind and skills sharp. Happy writing!