Practice Makes Perfect

A lot of beginning writers are very conscious about their writing, and uncertain whether they’re any good or not. Perhaps you showed it to your friends, family or a random stranger on the internet. Don’t worry if they say it isn’t any good. Like every form of art (painting, music, dancing) it takes lots and lots of practice. Write!
Make sure you write a little bit every day. Try writing small sentences or stories while you’re waiting for your friends to show up, or riding the bus home, or when you’re bored during that history lesson (Don’t tell your teachers I told you that! ). Write whenever you have free time. It doesn’t have to make sense.
I once got the great tip of buying a note book and taking it with me wherever I went. In that book you’re supposed to write in at least 15 minutes a day. Write anything. Start with random sentences like “I had never seen a blue bunny before. But there it was.” Or “If I had known this, I would have never bought that pen.” And go from there. Write whatever you want, don’t worry if the grammar is alright, or if the plot and characters are perfect. Write for the sake of writing. You can even write “This exercise is so stupid. I want to be outside and play soccer.” And go from there. You see if you write a lot, you’ll learn. It will begin to come natural to you. You’ll get used to the feeling of writing and the idea’s will come more easily.

There are also some really great sites filled with all kinds of writing exercises on them. If you’re just starting off, try an easy one. For instance if you know a lot about cars, do the exercise that says “Write a story about a car dealer who makes the deal of his life.” You know, write what excites you. Find an exercise that you think you’ll be able to pull off.
But after you’ve done a few, try to be brave enough to pick the one exercise that is hard or seems impossible. These little assignments can learn you a lot. They can teach you how to describe objects and rooms to your reader. They can teach you how to write about certain kinds of characters. They can learn you how to write about things you know nothing about. They teach you to be creative.

Here are some great sites I found, but search around a bit and find the site that works best for you.

http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/writingexercises.html

This is the site of Meredith Sue Willis, an author and a veteran teacher of writing. She has nearly 150 exercises on her site and some great links and advice.

http://www.wakeupwriting.com/

This site has some great exercises, one for each day for you to make. It also has a huge archive where you can find the previous exercises.

http://www.poewar.com/fifteen-craft-exercises-for-writers/

Here are some fun exercises and links to other websites.

I found tons more great sites, but I couldn’t post them all here. If you want more sites, go to Google and search for “writing exercises” or “fiction writing exercises.”

If you found some other great sites, please share them by leaving a comment!

Keep writing.

Xx LordKiwii