To write well, you actually need to, well, write! Writing is a skill that needs to be honed. What are you currently doing to sharpen that skill? If you want to take your writing to the next level, it’s time to take writing exercises seriously. It’s time to assign yourself some homework.
Yuck, I know.
But we’ll get through it, one letter at a time. Or, in this case, one category at a time as we explore some good exercises to do if you want to improve as a writer.
So what kind of writing homework should authors do?
Whether you’re a veteran like Stephen King or trying to write your first short story, you need to be practising your craft outside of your main WIP (work-in-progress). There are no wrong answers to how to practise your writing, but you may want to consider tackling the things that you’re weakest in first. Once you’ve made sure you’ve got the grammatical and syntactical framework of the language you’re working in, that’s when the fun begins!
Okay, fine. That’s just when you change up the exercises you’re doing to keep them pertinent. Sometimes doing writing homework can help you overcome writer’s block, too, so don’t think of this as wasted time. Some of your best material for current and future projects might be hiding in a writing exercise!
Here are five writing exercises writers should do to improve their writing and keep the juices flowing.
1. Learn your grammar
I’m serious! Pick up a grammar primer and get to work. You’ll be shocked at what you don’t know about the parts of language. Do you know the eight parts of speech? The seven components of language? Are you aware that it is perfectly grammatical to say ain’t in many parts of the world?
Without a strong grasp on what’s grammatical (and why you don’t need to say correct or incorrect grammar), you may struggle with dangling participles, subject-verb agreement, run-on sentences, and more nuanced things like writing dialogue or different points of view.
While you can count on your editor to help you out here, improving your understanding of the rules of language will also improve your writing. It’s win-win—as a beloved icon once said, “the more you know!”
2. Change scene!
You don’t have to go to the full extent a movie studio or live production would to change the scene, but you will have to put in some effort to reimagine darling scenes from other perspectives. Are you struggling to make characters feel real? Do you paint the same pictures over and over unintentionally? Have you found it hard to imagine the world you’re creating?
Take a different approach. Challenge yourself to rewrite a scene from a book you love or something you’ve written in a way that conveys the opposite perspective, ending, circumstances, etc. You can get as complicated as you want, but it’s also fine to start with something simple like a coffee scene from the barista’s perspective instead of the customer’s. Fan fiction does this really, really well, but for our purposes, this is a simple way to expand how you see the scene as a writer and also how experienced you are at alternate viewpoints.
3. Write lines
When all else fails, write lines—just not the kind Bart Simpson does. I’m talking lines of dialogue, swanky one-liners, soulful descriptions. Take 20 minutes and write some lines. Feeling fancy? Categorize your notebook or computer document so you can quickly bounce from one to the other if you wanted to look something up later.
Then take your best line and turn it into a small story. Add some scenery and a bit of peripheral information. What can you create out of this borderline story starter? You don’t have to keep anything you do, but getting your brain flexing its creative muscles off of something you made up just now (no writer’s block, thank you) is a satisfying feeling. Plus, again, you are adding to your creative trove and future-proofing your process. Good work!
4. Play word games
Nothing like some crosswords, word-association games, or even word scrambles to get your brain chugging. You can find such brain teaser games everywhere, including dollar stores and gas stations, so pick up a couple that appeal to you. These games are excellent for wordplay and recall and will help you stay flexible in your writing. They may even expand your vocabulary!
Unpopularly, I am including poetry in word games. Poets, please think in terms of the playfulness of language and the ways in which we can bend it to our will. Meaning no disrespect, I want you to play with your language and call it poetry. Try for alliteration, onomatopoeia, word count restrictions, rhyming scheme changes, etc. Why? Because these all speak to pacing and flow and intention in language. Look what I did there, instead of using commas? It’s okay to play with your writing, I promise. This can help you avoid repetitive phrasing, help you improve the emotion of a scene through tension in the literal language you’re using, and more.
5. Expand your status quo
This is a fun one. You are steeped in your culture and there’s no use denying that. Your job here is to read from other cultures and languages (untranslated if you speak more than one language) and pay close attention to pacing, structure, word choice, and dialogue. See what is focused on in other regions of the world. Get a feel for a different style of description. Then try to describe something in your home in that way. Do you see its use first or its aesthetics? Do you describe shape or colour or material first?
A culture’s history is in its stories. These include fairy and folk tales, current popular books, and media. You will learn all sorts of new historical facts and achieve new understandings of major world events that will lend a new light to your writing. While the goal is never to appropriate, I do want you to practice writing a different perspective than you normally would to expand your natural repertoire of writing go-tos. The research you do for this will serve you well in painting new settings for your work going forward as well.
Where to find writing homework?
Now that you have an idea of what to work on, where do you find it? This depends a bit on what your goals are, but invariably you know I’m going to say start with the library. Not only will you be able to peruse the shelves at your own speed and foster your inquisitiveness, but you can also speak to the librarians about your needs and have them assist you with finding the right materials. Remember that they’ll have access to more than just what you see on the shelves and they are professional search engines. Honestly, what a librarian can find is borderline magical.
The internet has tons of places to find fun and interesting writing exercises. Of course, not all of them are made equally. When you want to find more grammatical and mechanical exercises, consider going to the source. Most fiction writers are working with CMOS, so it can be helpful to read their Q&A and even sign up to the site. You’ll be able to read all sorts of fun rules and assign yourself some practice. I would still suggest getting a workbook that lets you practice all the elements of language. If you want something more advanced, consider a book on editing. Amy J Schneider recently completed an excellent resource called The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction that can also teach writers a lot about revising their work in accordance to these standards.
There are crosswords by major newspapers and copy editing tests as well that you can keep an eye out for during the year. From home, you can simply assign yourself scene writing tasks and other bigger-picture exercises that challenge you without requiring outside resources. Developmental issues and storyboarding can be worked on here, and even improving how you organize your files to help your workflow later.
If you have writing time booked and you can’t get past your writer’s block, get into your homework. If you haven’t written on your project in a while, sit down for some homework. And if you haven’t gone out of your writing comfort zone in a while, you know what to do—your writing homework.
Share what you’re most excited to try or what works best for you below!
Right Your Writing 