Hone your Writing Skills with these 7 Exercises!

Struggling with writers block? Feeling a little rusty after a long break? We’ve all been there, and we may never be able to permanently escape it.

But, here I’ll show you how you can hone your skills in literature to become a master!

1. Write Poetry Once a Day

Difficulty: Easy
Skill Boosts: +1 Creativity, +1 Discipline

Since I first joined this Substack journey, by far the most important exercise I’ve been doing has been writing poetry. I never thought poetry would be such a pivotal aspect of my publication. For me, it is super easy and fast to write a poem. I could even write 3 or 4 poems in a day and have them scheduled for a later time. Especially as someone who’s attention span has been completely decimated by modern media, this is supremely effective for those who struggle sitting down and focusing on a single task for
If you have been struggling finding time to write, start with a simple poem. Make it about something you’re passionate about, or something that has been bothering you in your life. Do this at least once a day, and post it on your Substack. Not only are you forging a writing habit, but you are also providing content for your viewers. (Thanks Ian!)

2. Mix n Match

Difficulty: Easy
Skill Boosts: + 2 Creativity

Mix n Match is when you take at least 2 random elements (ideas, objects, places, etc.), combine them together, and create a story from it.

Example: 
Element 1: Bread + Element 2: Wheel 

Idea: Chefs competing against one another by spinning a wheel of random ingredients they have to use.

The elements you pick randomly don’t have to be specifically used in the idea you come up with. In the above example, bread was not specifically named in the idea. The goal of this exercise is to simply give you new ideas for subjects to write about.

3. Speed Reading

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Skill Boosts: + 1 Speed, +1 Attention

While this is not necessarily about writing directly, this handy exercise can in fact increase the speed and optimize the way we review our own works, especially at first glances.
Look up a speed reading app. I use the Brave browser, which uses Chrome web extensions. The extension I have is simply called “Speed Reading.” When you open up an article, you can use this extension to parse the words in front of you as you fix your eyes on a specific spot. Without looking away or moving your eyes, the words will flow at a set pace in front of you.
Through this technique, you can increase your reading pace from 100 words per minute to even 500 words per minute, or more!
It’s better to explain in a demonstration how this could help as opposed to writing about it.

4. Blank Sheet Canvasing

Difficulty: Hard-Very Hard
Skill Boosts: +2 Creativity, +3 Discipline, +2 Speed

This one will push you out of your comfort zone. Grab a blank sheet of paper, or open a blank word document. For at least 3 minutes, you will brute force your hands and fingers to write the first things that come to your mind. You will ignore all conventions of grammar, spell checking, logic, and reason in this drill.
After the time is up, you may review what you’ve written.
The only rule is that you cannot use the backspace button, or your eraser, and you cannot strike any letters, words, or markings.
This will be a challenging exercise, as many of us want to think things through. We want logic, order, and some level of reason when it comes to our writing. This exercise instead forces us to think forward.

There is also an innate fear we experience as we write with our rawest passion. That fear is learning something new about ourselves we did not want to learn. This exercise may confront us with the truth, and its a necessity for us to grow.

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5. Jerk Editor

Difficulty: Hard
Skill Boosts: +1 Analysis, +1 Editing, +2 Confidence

Take a piece of literature from your favorite author, preferably their earlier works. You are going to be a critical ‘jerk’ over their piece. Take a few lines or paragraphs of a piece of their work and rewrite it to make it better.

Comparison is the killer of creativity. We often intimidate ourselves out of our our work because others are so much more successful. Instead, in this exercise, we see where they fall short and make improvements.
The goal is to give us a boost of confidence, as well as to humble ourselves about our own beginnings.

6. Globe Trotter

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Skill Boosts: +2 Creativity, +1 Research

Take a piece of literature that you love. Now select a region of the world that fascinates you. Could be Japan, Paris, Australia, or wherever! Then, choose a time period, whether it would be medieval ages or industrial revolution, etc. Then, pick a season of the year. None of these may match the existing setting of the literature you’ve chosen.

Now you will rewrite the entire piece in that brand new setting. You will keep as much of the original elements as possible, while emphasizing the new setting pieces as a result of your choices.

This will exercise your creativity and research skills in coming up with new set pieces, story elements, and improve your ability to describe the world in your story.

7. Audience Inversion

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Skill Boosts: +1 Creativity, +1 Marketing

This is an exercise I learned in a media class in college.

Take a franchise, a product, or a piece of media. Observe the intended audience for that object. Now, you will write a script for an advertisement that markets that object to the exact opposite of the original intended audience.

This will help you gain a better understanding of who the target audience is for your literary works, and challenge your creativity in a way to answer a fictional challenge.