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8.5 The Writing Process: End-of-Chapter Exercises

Learning objectives.

  • Use the skills you have learned in the chapter.
  • Work collaboratively with other students.
  • Work with a variety of academic and on-the-job, real-world examples.
  • In this chapter, you have thought and read about the topic of mass media. Starting with the title “The Future of Information: How It Will Be Created, Transmitted, and Consumed,” narrow the focus of the topic until it is suitable for a two- to three-page paper. Then narrow your topic with the help of brainstorming, idea mapping, and searching the Internet until you select a final topic to explore. Keep a journal or diary in which you record and comment on everything you did to choose a final topic. Then record what you will do next to explore the idea and create a thesis statement.

Write a thesis statement and a formal sentence outline for an essay about the writing process. Include separate paragraphs for prewriting, drafting, and revising and editing. Your audience will be a general audience of educated adults who are unfamiliar with how writing is taught at the college level. Your purpose is to explain the stages of the writing process so that readers will understand its benefits.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

  • Pieces of writing in a variety of real-life and work-related situations would benefit from revising and editing. Consider the following list of real-life and work-related pieces of writing: e-mails, greeting card messages, junk mail, late-night television commercials, social networking pages, local newspapers, bulletin-board postings, and public notices. Find and submit at least two examples of writing that needs revision. Explain what changes you would make. Replace any recognizable names with pseudonyms.
  • Group activity. At work, an employer might someday ask you to contribute to the research base for an essay such as the one Mariah wrote or the one you wrote while working through this chapter. Choosing either her topic or your own, compile a list of at least five sources. Then, working in a group of four students, bring in printouts or PDF files of Internet sources or paper copies of non-Internet sources for the other group members to examine. In a group report, rate the reliability of each other’s sources.
  • Group activity. Working in a peer-review group of four, go to Section 8.3 “Drafting” and reread the draft of the first two body paragraphs of Mariah’s essay, “Digital Technology: The Newest and the Best at What Price?” Review those two paragraphs using the same level of inspection given to the essay’s third paragraph in Section 8.4 “Revising and Editing” . Suggest and agree on changes to improve unity and coherence, eliminate unneeded words, and refine word choice. Your purpose is to help Mariah produce two effective paragraphs for a formal college-level essay about her topic.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

The Write Practice

100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises

by Joe Bunting | 50 comments

Want to become a better writer? Perhaps you want to write novels, or maybe you just want to get better grades in your essay writing assignments , or maybe you'd like to start a popular blog .

If you want to write better, you need practice. But what does a writing practice actually look like? In this post, I'm going to give you everything you need to kick off your writing practice and become a better writer faster.

100 Top Writing Practice Lessons and Exercises

What Is Writing Practice?

Writing practice is a method of becoming a better writer that usually involves reading lessons about the writing process, using writing prompts, doing creative writing exercises , or finishing writing pieces, like essays, short stories , novels , or books . The best writing practice is deliberate, timed, and involves feedback.

How Do You Practice Writing?

This was the question I had when I first started The Write Practice in 2011. I knew how to practice a sport and how to practice playing an instrument. But for some reason, even after studying it in college, I wasn't sure how to practice writing.

I set out to create the best writing practice I could. The Write Practice is the result.

I found that the best writing practice has three aspects:

Deliberate . Writing whatever you feel like may be cathartic, but it's not an effective way to become a better writer or build your writing skills. You'll get better faster by practicing a specific technique or aspect of the writing process each time you sit down to write.

This is why we have a new lesson about the writing process each day on The Write Practice, followed by a practice prompt at the end so you can put what you learned to use immediately.

Timed . It's no secret writers struggle with focus. There are just too many interesting distractions—Facebook, email, Kim Kardashian's Instagram feed (just kidding about that last one, sort of)—and writing is just too hard sometimes.

Setting a timer, even for just fifteen minutes, is an easy and effective way to stay focused on what's important.

This is why in our writing practice prompt at the end of each post we have a time limit, usually with a link to an online tool egg timer , so you can focus on deliberate practice without getting distracted.

Feedback . Getting feedback is one of the requirements to deliberately practice writing or any other craft. Feedback can look like listening to the reactions of your readers or asking for constructive criticism from editors and other writers.

This is why we ask you to post your writing practice after each lesson, so that you can get feedback from other writers in The Write Practice community. It's also why we set up The Write Practice Pro community , to provide critique groups for writers to get feedback on each finished piece of writing.

How to practice writing

Our 100+ Best Creative Writing Practice Exercises and Lessons

Now that you know how we practice writing at The Write Practice, here are our best writing practice lessons to jumpstart your writing skills with some daily writing exercises, for beginner writers to even the most expert writers:

All-Time, Top 10 Writing Lessons and Exercises

These ten posts are our most viewed articles to boost your writing practice:

1. What is Plot? The 6 Elements of Plot and How to Use Them . Great stories use similar elements in wildly different ways to build page-turning stories. Click here to read what they are and learn how to start using them !

2. Top 100 Short Story Ideas . Here are over a hundred writing prompts in a variety of genres. If you need ideas for your next story, check this out!

3. How To Use Neither, Nor, Or, and Nor Correctly . Even good writers struggle figuring out when to use neither/nor and either/or. In this post, our copy-queen Liz Bureman settles the confusion once and for all. Click to continue to the writing exercise

4. Ten Secrets To Write Better Stories . How does Pixar manage to create such great stories, year after year? And how do you write a good story? In this post, I distill everything I've learned about how to write a good story into ten tips. Click to continue to the writing exercise

5. 35 Questions To Ask Your Characters From Marcel Proust . To get to know my characters better, I use a list of questions known as the Proust Questionnaire, made famous by French author, Marcel Proust. Click to continue to the writing exercise

6. How a Scene List Can Change Your Novel-Writing Life . Creating a scene list changed my novel-writing life, and doing the same will change yours too. Includes examples of the scene lists from famous authors. Click to continue to the writing exercise

7. Why You Need to be Using the Oxford Comma . Most people I've met have no idea what the Oxford comma is, but it's probably something that you have used frequently in your writing. Click to continue to the writing exercise

8. Six Surprising Ways to Write Better Interview Questions.  The interview is the most-used tool in a journalist's bag. But that doesn't mean novelists, bloggers, and even students can't and don't interview people. Here's how to conduct a great interview. Click to continue to the writing exercise

9. Why You Should Try Writing in Second Person . You've probably used first person and third person point-of-view already. But what about second person? This post explains three reasons why you should try writing from this point-of-view. Click to continue to the writing exercise

10. The Secret to Show, Don't Tell . You've heard the classic writing rule, “Show. Don't Tell.” Every writing blog ever has talked about it, and for good reason. Showing, for some reason, is really difficult. Click to continue to the writing exercise.

Book Idea Worksheet

12 Exercises and Lessons To Become a Better Writer

How do you become a better writer? These posts share our best advice:

  • Want to Be a Better Writer? Cut These 7 Words
  • What I Mean When I Say I Am A Writer
  • How to Become a Writer: 3 Simple Steps
  • 72% of Writers Struggle With THIS
  • 7 Lies About Becoming a Writer That You Probably Believe
  • 10 Questions to Find Your Unique Writing Voice
  • The Best Writing Book I’ve Ever Read
  • The Best Way to Become a Better Writer
  • The Creative Writer’s Toolkit: 6 Tools You Can’t Write Without
  • Should You Write More or Write Better: Quantity vs Quality
  • How to Become a Better Writer in One, Simple Step
  • 11 Writing Tips That Will Change Your Life

6 Lessons and Exercises from Great Writers

If you want to be a writer, learn from the great writers who have gone before you:

  • 23 Essential Quotes from Ernest Hemingway About Writing
  • 29 Quotes that Explain How to Become a Better Writer
  • 10 Lessons Dr. Seuss Can Teach Writers
  • 10 Writing Tips from Ursula Le Guin
  • Once Upon a Time: Pixar Prompt
  • All the Pretty Words: Writing In the Style of Cormac McCarthy

12 Genre and Format Specific Writing Lessons and Exercises

Here are our best writing lessons for specific types of writing, including essays, screenplays, memoir, short stories, children's books, and humor writing:

  • Writing an Essay? Here Are 10 Effective Tips
  • How To Write a Screenplay: The 5 Step Process
  • How to Write a Great Memoir: a Complete Guide
  • How to Write a Short Story from Start to Finish
  • How to Write a Thriller Novel
  • How to Write a Children's Book
  • How to Write a Love Story
  • How to Write a Coming of Age Story or Book
  • How to Write an Adventure Book
  • 5 Key Elements for Successful Short Stories
  • 4 Tips to Write a Novel That Will Be Adapted Into a Movie
  • Humor Writing for People Who Aren’t Funny

14 Characterization Lessons and Exercises

Good characters are the foundation of good fiction. Here are our best lessons to create better characters:

  • Character Development: How to Create Characters Audiences Will Love
  • Writing Villains: 9 Evil Examples of the Villain Archetype
  • How NOT to Introduce a New Character
  • The Strongest Form of Characterization
  • The Most Important Character Archetype
  • How Do You Build A Strong Character In Your Writing?
  • 75+ Antihero Examples and How to Use Them
  • How to Explore Your Characters’ Motivations
  • 8 Tips for Naming Characters
  • The Protagonist: How to Center Your Story
  • Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes: Which Is Right For Your Story?
  • The Weakest Form of Characterization
  • How to Write With an Accent
  • How To Create a Character Sketch Using Scrivener

15 Grammar Lessons and Exercises

I talk to so many writers, some of whom are published authors, who struggle with grammar. Here are our best writing lessons on grammar:

  • Is It Okay To End A Sentence With A Preposition?
  • Contractions List: When To Use and When To Avoid
  • Good vs. Well
  • Connotation vs. Denotation
  • Per Se vs. Per Say
  • When You SHOULD Use Passive Voice
  • When Do You Use “Quotation Marks”
  • Polysyndeton and Asyndeton: Definition and Examples
  • The Case Against Twilight
  • Affect Versus Effect
  • Stop Saying “Literally”
  • What Is a Comma Splice? And Why Do Editors Hate Them?
  • Intra vs. Inter: Why No One Plays Intermural Sports
  • Alright and Alot: Words That Are Not Words
  • The Poor, Misunderstood Semicolon

4 Journalism Lessons and Exercises

Want to be a journalist? Or even use techniques from journalism to improve your novel, essay, or screenplay? Here are our best writing lessons on journalism:

  • Six Ways to Ask Better Questions In Interviews
  • How Should You Interview Someone? Over Email? In Person?
  • What If They Don’t Want to Talk to You?
  • Eleven Habits of a Highly Effective Interviewers

16 Plot and Structure Lessons and Exercises

Want to write a good story? Our top plot and structure lessons will help:

  • The Ten Types of Story and How to Master Them
  • Points of a Story: 6 Plot Points Every Story Needs
  • How to Shape a Story: The 6 Arcs
  • 7 Keys To Write the Perfect First Line of a Novel
  • The Secret to Creating Conflict
  • 4 Tips to Avoid Having Your Short Story Rejected by a Literary Magazine
  • 7 Steps to Creating Suspense
  • 5 Elements of Storytelling
  • 3 Important Rules for Writing Endings
  • A Writer’s Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure
  • Overcoming the Monster
  • How to Satisfy Your Reader With a Great Ending
  • Pow! Boom! Ka-Pow! 5 Tips to Write Fight Scenes
  • The Dramatic Question and Suspense in Fiction
  • How to Write a Memorable Beginning and Ending
  • How to Write the Perfect First Page

6 Lessons and Exercises to Beat Writer's Block

Writer's block is real, and it can completely derail your writing. Here are six lessons to get writing again:

  • How To Write Whether You Feel Like it Or Not
  • This Fun Creative Writing Exercise Will Change Your Life
  • When You Should Be Writing But Can't…
  • What to do When Your Word Count is Too Low
  • 7 Tricks to Write More with Less Willpower
  • When You Don’t Know What to Write, Write About Your Insecurities

7 Literary Technique Lessons and Exercises

These writing and storytelling techniques will teach you a few tricks of the trade you may not have discovered before:

  • 3 Tips to “Show, Don’t Tell” Emotions and Moods
  • 3 Reasons to Write Stream of Consciousness Narrative
  • 16 Observations About Real Dialogue
  • Intertextuality As A Literary Device
  • Why You Should Use Symbolism In Your Writing
  • 6 Ways to Evoke Emotion in Poetry and Prose
  • 3 Tips To Write Modern Allegorical Novels
  • Symbol vs. Motif: What’s the Difference

3 Inspirational Writing Lessons and Exercises

Need some inspiration? Here are three of our most inspiring posts:

  • Why We Write: Four Reasons
  • You Must Remember Every Scar
  • 17 Reasons to Write Something NOW

3 Publishing Blogging Lessons and Exercises

If you want to get published, these three lessons will help:

  • The Secret to Writing On Your Blog Every Day
  • How to Publish Your Book and Sell Your First 1,000 Copies
  • How to Get Published in Literary Magazines

11 Writing Prompts

Need inspiration or just a kick in the pants to write. Try one of our top writing prompts :

  • Grandfathers [writing prompt]
  • Out of Place [writing prompt]
  • Sleepless [writing prompt]
  • Longing [writing prompt]
  • Write About Yourself [writing prompt]
  • 3 Reasons You Should Write Ghost Stories
  • Road Trip [writing prompt]
  • Morning [writing prompt]
  • The Beach [writing prompt]
  • Fall [writing prompt]
  • How to Use Six-Word Stories As Writing Prompts

Is It Time To Begin Your Writing Practice?

It's clear that if you want to become a writer, you need to practice writing. We've created a proven process to practice your writing at The Write Practice, but even if you don't join our community, I hope you'll start practicing in some way today.

Personally, I waited  far  too long to start practicing and it set my writing back years.

How about you? Do you think practicing writing is important?  Let me know in the comments section .

Choose one of the writing practice posts above. Then, read the lesson and participate in the writing exercise, posting your work in the Pro Practice Workshop . And if you post, please give feedback to your fellow writers who also posted their practices.

Have fun and happy practicing!

How to Write Like Louise Penny

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

Top 150 Short Story Ideas

50 Comments

Kristen

You have THE BEST content for writing on this blog!!

Joe Bunting

Thank you, Kristen. This made my morning. 🙂

Mitch Hamilton

Thanks Mitch. 🙂

George McNeese

I can’t remember when I started following this website. I have to look in my notebooks because that’s where I did these practices. I didn’t have access to a computer when I did them, so I wrote them out, setting the time limit. But even when I do get to a computer, I have my reservations about putting my practices on the page. even though it’s practice, I want them to be the best, almost perfect. But I know it won’t be. I’ve gotten feedback before that says so. It still gets to me that I didn’t put something together that not everyone liked. I need to get over it. After all, that is what these practices are about: to learn and improve on our craft.

I don’t know either, George, but it’s been several years. Perfectionism is something so many of us face, and it’s made worse when you don’t have a critique community as warm and encouraging as ours is. I hope you and everyone here are always willing to try something new, even if it comes out a little messed up, because you know we’ll support you and try to make you better.

Elizabeth Varadan

What a great share! Thanks so much!

You’re so welcome, Elizabeth. Thank you for commenting.

Patience

when I ran writing classes I wrote. when I am “a member of writing classes” the teacher/leader/facilitator is NOT MY AUDIENCE and so I don’t write as well/as much. I don’t get the feedback I need from fellow students because most of them have never run their own writing projects/workshops. So many people expect you to write their story for them. I’ve actually got quite a few stories of me own. I have finally decided I like owning them. 😉

It sounds like you need a new critique group, Patience! Hope you can find a place where you get the feedback you need.

Stephanie Ward

Wow! Terrific round-up of resources. 🙂

Thanks Stephanie. 🙂

Carrie Lynn Lewis

Practice is necessary, period. It doesn’t matter what you want to learn. If you want to improve, practice is vital.

It’s odd. I’ve known and applied that principle for years on a variety of things. Painting. Drawing. Blogging. Gardening. Laundry.

But never writing.

Like you, I had the notion that just writing every day was all it took to improve. Why not the same level of dedication to writing?

Perhaps it’s time to change that!

I can relate, Carrie. It’s easy to confuse the craft of writing with journaling, thinking that you can just write whatever you feel like and you’ll get better, write something worth reading. The truth is that writing interesting things to read is a skill, but the good news is that you can get better at it with practice. Thanks for practicing with us! 🙂

Debra johnson

I love these suggestions , and have set Writing Practice as my homepage so the first 15 minutes of my day is spent writing, whether its a practice or exercise here or another that is sprinkled through out this site, Thank you for all you do everyone here at The Write Practice

marlita

This is great Debra. I want to write the first 15 minutes of my day too!

I agree with Joe, Do it. Could be your to do list… ( that could lead to something else story wse later)

I love that, Debra. Such a good way to start your day.

Thanks Joe!

Hyacinth Fidelis Joaquin

The best! Thank you so much for this.

You’re very welcome!

nobody geek

I simply LOVE all the tips and suggestions given on this blog. They are super helpful!

THANK you. We love sharing them with you. 🙂

Thiago d'Evecque

Hi! You forgot the link to How to Write a Story a Week: A Day-by-Day Guide.

Thanks a lot for your work! This post is amazing.

It’s a great post Thiago. Definitely one of our most shared. Thanks for mentioning it! BTW here’s the link:

https://thewritepractice.com/a-story-a-week/

Harsh Rathour

Wow!! There are so many exercises…. I just love it..! I am gonna really enjoy it..!

Awesome! Thank you for reading and practicing with us. 🙂

Macau Mum

I only read halfway , My tootie is jumping all over me, and typing this is a struggle when a 3yr old wants his Toy Story movie on Youtube in this computer. Thank you for this article, will come back later to finish reading.

I know the feeling! Good luck!

Beth

Can’t wait to get stuck in with this! 🙂

LaCresha Lawson

Very helpful! Thank you!

strictlynoelephant

I’ve just bookmarked this page. Thanks for this wonderful list.

fireandparchment

This is awesome! So many helpful tips. I will be coming back to this often. Thanks for posting this!

Jessica M

Wow, so many goodies! Thank you for always providing such amazing content!!

Jacqueline Nicole

I have enjoyed all these articles. Thank you for the help an inspiration to get my writing on its way. My creativity is boosting with confidence. Tootle loo.

Emmanuel Ajayi Adigun

Amazing contents for beginners like me Joe. I am highly inspired by your commitment. Thank you.

Hey, thanks!

Sondra

Although I have only read half of thisc article, the practice exercises are excellent. Some of them are exactly what a beginning writer like myself needs. I am committing to at least try ALL of them. Thanks Joe!!

Kbee E. Betancourt

very helpful! thank you..

Celia Costa

Amazing articles! Thanks so much for sharing!

The Black Hearth

My god this article made me love this site . You know it’s kinda hard for a beginner writer, who don’t know where to start and fixing goals, even samll ones give us a direction . A place to go , an aim for our creativity so thanks you , this community and this site. Love you all . At your pens ! 😉

carmelle

Wow. This is great. I find all your posts informative, but this one is the best for me to use as a guide to get my self starting to write….Thank you.

aurora1920

I’m an old lady who wants to publish one more book before I die — have published several, all non-fiction, and done two under contract to a major publisher (reference books). So help me, the BIGGEST problem I have all along, is keeping track of the damned paper work and research that goes into a book!!! Yet I never ever see articles on something as simple as “How to file” — Oh I know, there’s wonderful software these days so probably I will never find a way to get paper organized — everybody will use software and do it on the computer. I’m too old for that — just one look at the learning curve for software, even putting the damned stuff into computer files is even MORE frustrating than paper!! Oh well, somehow I managed in the past to get books published, I may be able to do it one more time.

Hamzah Ramadan

you enjoy writing more than anything else and you do indeed care to help others write. I love writing but translation from Arabic into English and English into Arabic is taking all of my time from the early hours of the morning till the evening. I will soon get all of your books in order to read them as soon as possible. One thing I am sure of. You know what you are doing very well. Hamzah

Dusan

Excellent! Many useful tips. Many thanks!

Mark Bono

Liz and Joe, I have only looked at a few exercises. Already, I am convinced that your site is one of the best sites out there. Thank your for sharing your wisdom.

aparna WWeerakoon

Wow, these are the best lessons and exercises for writing. Actually i’m participating in a compitition this wendsday. so, i’m quite nervous and exited. this helped me a lot

Mehedi

Magnificent post ever I have read. This article will help me a lot to write a right way. Thank you.

Alexiss Anthonyy Murillo

i need your help to improve to become a better writer please. i think i usually commit moist of these errors and i don;t pay attention to many advices too.

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Writing practice worksheets terms of use, finish the story writing worksheets.

  • Beginning Finish the Story - The Snow Day
  • Beginning Finish the Story - The Fair
  • Beginning Finish the Story - Summer Camp
  • Beginning Finish the Story - The Birthday Party
  • Beginning Finish the Story - The Halloween Costume
  • Beginning Finish the Story - The 4th of July
  • Intermediate Finish the Story - The Beach Trip
  • Intermediate Finish the Story - The Great Find
  • Intermediate Finish the Story - Which Way?
  • Intermediate Finish the Story - Finding Muffin
  • Intermediate Finish the Story - The Zoo
  • Advanced Finish the Story - The Troublemaker

Question Response Writing Worksheets

  • Beginning Question Response - Your Favorite Color
  • Beginning Question Response - Your Favorite Day
  • Beginning Question Response - Your Favorite Number
  • Beginning Question Response - In Your Family
  • Beginning Question Response - Your Favorite Sport
  • Beginning Question Response - Your Favorite Clothes
  • Beginning Question Response - Your Favorite Music
  • Beginning Question Response - How You Relax
  • Beginning Question Response - Lunch Time
  • Beginning Question Response - With Your Friends
  • Beginning Question Response - Collecting Stamps
  • Beginning Question Response - Your Birthplace
  • Beginning Question Response - Starting Your Day
  • Intermediate Question Response - Your Favorite Food
  • Intermediate Question Response - Your Favorite Movie
  • Intermediate Question Response - Your Favorite Song
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The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips

Published on April 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 8, 2023.

The writing process steps

Good academic writing requires effective planning, drafting, and revision.

The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic steps that will help you structure your time when writing any kind of text.

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Table of contents

Step 1: prewriting, step 2: planning and outlining, step 3: writing a first draft, step 4: redrafting and revising, step 5: editing and proofreading, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the writing process.

Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you’ll write about and do the necessary research.

Coming up with a topic

If you have to come up with your own topic for an assignment, think of what you’ve covered in class— is there a particular area that intrigued, interested, or even confused you? Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect, as these are questions you can explore in your writing.

The scope depends on what type of text you’re writing—for example, an essay or a research paper will be less in-depth than a dissertation topic . Don’t pick anything too ambitious to cover within the word count, or too limited for you to find much to say.

Narrow down your idea to a specific argument or question. For example, an appropriate topic for an essay might be narrowed down like this:

Doing the research

Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and gather the information you need. This process varies according to your field of study and the scope of the assignment. It might involve:

  • Searching for primary and secondary sources .
  • Reading the relevant texts closely (e.g. for literary analysis ).
  • Collecting data using relevant research methods (e.g. experiments , interviews or surveys )

From a writing perspective, the important thing is to take plenty of notes while you do the research. Keep track of the titles, authors, publication dates, and relevant quotations from your sources; the data you gathered; and your initial analysis or interpretation of the questions you’re addressing.

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Especially in academic writing , it’s important to use a logical structure to convey information effectively. It’s far better to plan this out in advance than to try to work out your structure once you’ve already begun writing.

Creating an essay outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before you start writing. This should help you work out the main ideas you want to focus on and how you’ll organize them. The outline doesn’t have to be final—it’s okay if your structure changes throughout the writing process.

Use bullet points or numbering to make your structure clear at a glance. Even for a short text that won’t use headings, it’s useful to summarize what you’ll discuss in each paragraph.

An outline for a literary analysis essay might look something like this:

  • Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
  • Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
  • Introduce the research question: How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
  • Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
  • Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
  • Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
  • Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
  • Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
  • Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
  • Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
  • Answer the research question
  • Indicate areas for further study

Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full first draft.

This process can be quite non-linear. For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.

To give structure to your writing, use your outline as a framework. Make sure that each paragraph has a clear central focus that relates to your overall argument.

Hover over the parts of the example, from a literary analysis essay on Mansfield Park , to see how a paragraph is constructed.

The character of Mrs. Norris provides another example of the performance of morals in Mansfield Park . Early in the novel, she is described in scathing terms as one who knows “how to dictate liberality to others: but her love of money was equal to her love of directing” (p. 7). This hypocrisy does not interfere with her self-conceit as “the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world” (p. 7). Mrs. Norris is strongly concerned with appearing charitable, but unwilling to make any personal sacrifices to accomplish this. Instead, she stage-manages the charitable actions of others, never acknowledging that her schemes do not put her own time or money on the line. In this way, Austen again shows us a character whose morally upright behavior is fundamentally a performance—for whom the goal of doing good is less important than the goal of seeming good.

When you move onto a different topic, start a new paragraph. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas.

The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, not to make everything perfect as you go along. Once you have a full draft in front of you, you’ll have a clearer idea of where improvement is needed.

Give yourself a first draft deadline that leaves you a reasonable length of time to revise, edit, and proofread before the final deadline. For a longer text like a dissertation, you and your supervisor might agree on deadlines for individual chapters.

Now it’s time to look critically at your first draft and find potential areas for improvement. Redrafting means substantially adding or removing content, while revising involves making changes to structure and reformulating arguments.

Evaluating the first draft

It can be difficult to look objectively at your own writing. Your perspective might be positively or negatively biased—especially if you try to assess your work shortly after finishing it.

It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after completing the first draft. Come back after a break to evaluate it with fresh eyes; you’ll spot things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

When evaluating your writing at this stage, you’re mainly looking for larger issues such as changes to your arguments or structure. Starting with bigger concerns saves you time—there’s no point perfecting the grammar of something you end up cutting out anyway.

Right now, you’re looking for:

  • Arguments that are unclear or illogical.
  • Areas where information would be better presented in a different order.
  • Passages where additional information or explanation is needed.
  • Passages that are irrelevant to your overall argument.

For example, in our paper on Mansfield Park , we might realize the argument would be stronger with more direct consideration of the protagonist Fanny Price, and decide to try to find space for this in paragraph IV.

For some assignments, you’ll receive feedback on your first draft from a supervisor or peer. Be sure to pay close attention to what they tell you, as their advice will usually give you a clearer sense of which aspects of your text need improvement.

Redrafting and revising

Once you’ve decided where changes are needed, make the big changes first, as these are likely to have knock-on effects on the rest. Depending on what your text needs, this step might involve:

  • Making changes to your overall argument.
  • Reordering the text.
  • Cutting parts of the text.
  • Adding new text.

You can go back and forth between writing, redrafting and revising several times until you have a final draft that you’re happy with.

Think about what changes you can realistically accomplish in the time you have. If you are running low on time, you don’t want to leave your text in a messy state halfway through redrafting, so make sure to prioritize the most important changes.

Editing focuses on local concerns like clarity and sentence structure. Proofreading involves reading the text closely to remove typos and ensure stylistic consistency. You can check all your drafts and texts in minutes with an AI proofreader .

Editing for grammar and clarity

When editing, you want to ensure your text is clear, concise, and grammatically correct. You’re looking out for:

  • Grammatical errors.
  • Ambiguous phrasings.
  • Redundancy and repetition .

In your initial draft, it’s common to end up with a lot of sentences that are poorly formulated. Look critically at where your meaning could be conveyed in a more effective way or in fewer words, and watch out for common sentence structure mistakes like run-on sentences and sentence fragments:

  • Austen’s style is frequently humorous, her characters are often described as “witty.” Although this is less true of Mansfield Park .
  • Austen’s style is frequently humorous. Her characters are often described as “witty,” although this is less true of Mansfield Park .

To make your sentences run smoothly, you can always use a paraphrasing tool to rewrite them in a clearer way.

Proofreading for small mistakes and typos

When proofreading, first look out for typos in your text:

  • Spelling errors.
  • Missing words.
  • Confused word choices .
  • Punctuation errors .
  • Missing or excess spaces.

Use a grammar checker , but be sure to do another manual check after. Read through your text line by line, watching out for problem areas highlighted by the software but also for any other issues it might have missed.

For example, in the following phrase we notice several errors:

  • Mary Crawfords character is a complicate one and her relationships with Fanny and Edmund undergoes several transformations through out the novel.
  • Mary Crawford’s character is a complicated one, and her relationships with both Fanny and Edmund undergo several transformations throughout the novel.

Proofreading for stylistic consistency

There are several issues in academic writing where you can choose between multiple different standards. For example:

  • Whether you use the serial comma .
  • Whether you use American or British spellings and punctuation (you can use a punctuation checker for this).
  • Where you use numerals vs. words for numbers.
  • How you capitalize your titles and headings.

Unless you’re given specific guidance on these issues, it’s your choice which standards you follow. The important thing is to consistently follow one standard for each issue. For example, don’t use a mixture of American and British spellings in your paper.

Additionally, you will probably be provided with specific guidelines for issues related to format (how your text is presented on the page) and citations (how you acknowledge your sources). Always follow these instructions carefully.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Revising, proofreading, and editing are different stages of the writing process .

  • Revising is making structural and logical changes to your text—reformulating arguments and reordering information.
  • Editing refers to making more local changes to things like sentence structure and phrasing to make sure your meaning is conveyed clearly and concisely.
  • Proofreading involves looking at the text closely, line by line, to spot any typos and issues with consistency and correct them.

Whether you’re publishing a blog, submitting a research paper , or even just writing an important email, there are a few techniques you can use to make sure it’s error-free:

  • Take a break : Set your work aside for at least a few hours so that you can look at it with fresh eyes.
  • Proofread a printout : Staring at a screen for too long can cause fatigue – sit down with a pen and paper to check the final version.
  • Use digital shortcuts : Take note of any recurring mistakes (for example, misspelling a particular word, switching between US and UK English , or inconsistently capitalizing a term), and use Find and Replace to fix it throughout the document.

If you want to be confident that an important text is error-free, it might be worth choosing a professional proofreading service instead.

If you’ve gone over the word limit set for your assignment, shorten your sentences and cut repetition and redundancy during the editing process. If you use a lot of long quotes , consider shortening them to just the essentials.

If you need to remove a lot of words, you may have to cut certain passages. Remember that everything in the text should be there to support your argument; look for any information that’s not essential to your point and remove it.

To make this process easier and faster, you can use a paraphrasing tool . With this tool, you can rewrite your text to make it simpler and shorter. If that’s not enough, you can copy-paste your paraphrased text into the summarizer . This tool will distill your text to its core message.

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Caulfield, J. (2023, December 08). The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved June 26, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/writing-process/

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Writing Process worksheets are an essential tool for teachers who aim to enhance their students' reading and writing skills. These worksheets provide a structured approach to the various stages of writing, such as brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. By incorporating these worksheets into their lesson plans, teachers can help students develop a strong foundation in reading and writing, which is crucial for success in all subjects. Furthermore, these worksheets cater to different learning styles and can be easily adapted to suit the needs of each student. With a wide range of topics and genres covered, Writing Process worksheets are an invaluable resource for teachers looking to improve their students' overall literacy skills.

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3.5 The Writing Process: End-of-Chapter Exercises

  • In this chapter, you have thought and read about the topic of mass media. Starting with the title “The Future of Information: How It Will Be Created, Transmitted, and Consumed,” narrow the focus of the topic until it is suitable for a two- to three-page paper. Then, narrow your topic with the help of brainstorming, idea mapping, and searching the Internet until you select a final topic to explore. Keep a journal or diary in which you record and comment on everything you did to choose a final topic. Then, record what you will do next to explore the idea and create a thesis statement.
  • Write a thesis statement and a formal sentence outline for an essay about the writing process. Include separate paragraphs for prewriting, drafting, and revising and editing. Your audience will be a general audience of educated adults who are unfamiliar with how writing is taught at the college level. Your purpose is to explain the stages of the writing process so that readers will understand its benefits.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

  • Pieces of writing in various real-life and work-related situations would benefit from revising and editing. Consider the following list of real-life and work-related writing pieces: e-mails, greeting card messages, junk mail, late-night television commercials, social networking pages, local newspapers, bulletin-board postings, and public notices. Find and submit at least two examples of writing that needs revision. Explain what changes you would make. Replace any recognizable names with pseudonyms.
  • Group activity. At work, an employer might someday ask you to contribute to the research base for an essay such as the one Mariah wrote or the one you wrote while working through this chapter. Choosing either her topic or your own, compile a list of at least five sources. Then, working in a group of four students, bring in printouts or PDF files of Internet sources or paper copies of non-Internet sources for the other group members to examine. In a group report, rate the reliability of each other’s sources.
  • Group activity. Working in a peer-review group of four, go to 3.3 Drafting and reread the draft of the first two body paragraphs of Mariah’s essay, “Digital Technology: The Newest and the Best at What Price?” Review those two paragraphs using the same level of inspection given to the essay’s third paragraph in 3.4 Revising and Editing . Suggest and agree on changes to improve unity and coherence, eliminate unneeded words, and refine word choice. Your purpose is to help Mariah produce two effective paragraphs for a formal college-level essay about her topic.

Putting the Pieces Together Copyright © 2020 by Andrew M. Stracuzzi and André Cormier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Writing Process

Making expository writing less stressful, more efficient, and more enlightening, search form, you are here.

  • Step 1: Generate Ideas

Freewriting

the writing process exercises

“Don’t think; just write!” —Ray Bradbury

Freewriting, a writing strategy developed by Peter Elbow in 1973, is similar to brainstorming but is written in sentence and paragraph form without stopping. Thus, it . . .

  • increases the flow of ideas and reduces the chance that you’ll accidentally censor a good idea.
  • helps to increase fluency second-language learners—i.e., the ability to produce written language easily (as opposed to accuracy, which is of course important but which is better addressed later in the process).

As in brainstorming,

the writing process exercises

  • DON'T worry about correct grammar or spelling;

Unlike in brainstorming,

  • DO write in sentence and paragraph form;
  • DO KEEP YOUR HANDS MOVING. If you can’t think of anything,  just keep repeating your subject (e.g., “busy trap, busy trap”) or something like “I’m waiting for ideas to come and they will, I’m waiting for ideas to come and they will,” over and over until they do come. (They will!);

the writing process exercises

  • DO keep going for 15 or 20 minutes or until you feel you have enough to start to build your paper or research on.
  • NOTE: In Peter Elbow's original formulation of freewriting, designed to generate not only ideas but even a topic, the writer writes for a few minutes, chooses one idea or word from that freewriting and then freewrites about that new topic for several minutes, and then repeats that process again, successively refining their topic. This process can be a useful one if you are truly starting from scratch and are not even sure what you want to write your paper about.

Read a sample freewrite .

- "Writer John" by Onomatomedia - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Writer_John.JPG#/media/File:Writ...

- "Don't Stop" ©2010, Hironori Nakagawa. All rights reserved.

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The Writing Process

the writing process exercises

The Writing Process: Writing Exercises for Beginners

As a new writer, it is easy to believe that seasoned writers merely sit down at the keyboard and the beautiful words flutter onto the page, creating the perfect combinations. However, writing is a skill that needs constant development, and even an experienced crafter of elegant words and sentences and stories needs practice.

So, it may be fairly obvious that writing exercises for beginners are so important. Every writer should practice their skills even when they are working as a writer. However, beginners are not likely to have consistent work or practice, so it is even more pertinent to hone your skills as a beginner, and writing exercises are key to your success.

The most important advice to new writers is to just write. Every day. Whenever you get a chance. Keep a pen and notepad close by or type it out on your phone, but just keep writing.

I know, you are screaming at this, saying you have absolutely no idea what to write about and you just sit there with your pen poised above the page, hovering like an eagle searching for its prey.

Yet, nothing comes to mind. You sit and wonder what could be important enough to write about. The simple truth is that everything is important enough to write about, because great writers will make the most boring situation exciting on paper.

Well, you aren’t there yet and it is not as simple as it sounds, but by going through the exercises I have rounded up for you, you will always have something to write about. No matter where you are, you can find inspiration.

This article will just tell you where and how to look for it. If you follow these techniques, you will be able to consistently practice your craft and become a better writer. So, get out your favorite note-taking app or your trusty pen and paper, and write down these tips.

What Is Writing: A Skill or Talent?

Often, writing can be confused as being a talent. When you read the works of the great authors throughout history, it is no surprise to be thinking their command of words, grammar, and sentences is just too great to be attained by just anyone.

However, writing is not necessarily a talent. Some people will argue that some writers are born talented and just have that writing gene instilled in them. However, we all have the ability to read and to write.

You could still argue that writing is easier for some more than others. However, those who have a way with words were likely scribbling away in the back of their workbook during lessons at school or writing daily in their journal.

It all comes down to practice. The more you write, the better you become. And it isn’t all about only writing practice; you can look to improve your skill by taking courses, watching videos, and following blogs to learn new tips and techniques—like the one you are reading now.

So yes, some people will always have the ability to be better writers because their brains are wired in such a way that allows the words to link up in ways no-one would ever dream of linking them.

But, this is the same with sports or music. There will always be someone with a little more stamina or a better rhythm. The key to being a great writer here is the same, and even writers who have a better handle on words will stumble if they lack passion.

Passion: the drive that gets you from good to great to inspirational. Having a passion for the way letters come together so wildly to create vivid scenes and events will help you reach the level of writer you dream of.

I’ve already given you the two p’s that will lead you to a successful career in writing. Passion and practice. If you are not committed to those two notions, then you should read on anyway; maybe you will find some passion hidden away in these words.

Being a writer also involves having skills that are not directly related to writing, as well as having writing type skills. Use this table to determine which skills you possess and which ones you may need to improve on:

Discipline Grammatical skills 
Adaptability Compositional skills 
Communication skills Sentence structure 
Research skills Editing and rewriting 
Thick skin Good reading comprehension 
Organizational skills Understanding punctuation 

Types of Writing

Before we get you started on the various methods you can use to practice your writing, you should know what type of writing you want to learn more about and practice. If you don’t have a specific type of writing you feel drawn to, try them all and see which one clicks.

Descriptive

Descriptive writing is just as the name implies. It is the style of writing that captivates the readers. It takes them on a journey through the ebbs and flows of words and sentences and the details of the insignificant points; well, you thought it was insignificant before you read it described in so much detail.

This type of writing will enthrall all your senses, taking you along the journey of the character in such a way that you believe you are there. Your senses are engaged by the rhythm of the words as it perfectly intertwines similes, metaphors, and the art of showing, not telling.

This type of writing has the important purpose of providing the reader with information. Necessary facts the readers want to know. Explaining the knowledge can be exciting despite the informative nature of this writing.

It should rather use other styles of writing to convey the information in creative or well-thought-out ways. If the reader has learned something new by the end of it, then it has done its job. Hopefully, that’s how you will feel at the end of this article.

Persuasive writing is aimed at getting the reader motivated to act in a way chosen by the writer. This type of writing is commonly found in copywriting where the text is positioned to motivate the reader to go out and buy a product or utilize a service.

This form of writing uses catchy phrases to get you hooked, provides factual information to gain the reader’s trust, and then uses various techniques of persuasion to finish the sale.

Narrative writing tells a story to the reader and hooks them in with the desire to find out what happens next. This writing is commonly found in fiction writing, and although there are different types of narration, it is often told through one or more of the characters.

The formula for this writing is to include a plot, a setting, a rise in action, the climax followed by a falling action, and lastly, the resolution. The way the writer crafts these elements scattered with twists and shocks is what makes a great narrative writer.

Technical Writing

This type of writing is used when you need to write about subjects in the technical fields such as computer software, engineering, chemistry, finance, medical, and biotechnology among others.

This style of writing requires the writer to understand the subject matter in order to convey and explain the necessary information in a way that audiences, without too much knowledge on the subject, will understand.

Poetic Writing

Poetic writing uses the elements of poetry within a longer piece, whether it is an essay or a novel. The purpose of this writing is to change the tempo of your writing and offer beautiful sentences that flow, taking the reader on a journey.

For this type of writing, you will need to dabble in expressions of poetry by including metaphors, similes, and hyperboles into your text. Your sentences should also remain short and simple, rather than overstuffed with big words and unnecessary phrases.

Tips When Becoming a Writer

Becoming a professional writer requires a lot of effort on your part and honing your various skills is necessary to becoming a writer who can earn a living. It is a rewarding industry, and once you jump over the hurdles at the beginning, writing will become a smooth glide over the keyboard.

No matter how good at writing you become or how much you are getting paid to write, you will always need to keep practicing and improving your writing skills. As a beginner, here are a few simple tips to get you going. And you will probably find that years down the line, you will have made many of these tips into habits that still benefit you along your writing journey.

Learn to read better to improve your editing skills and vocabulary. Reading continuously will help you learn how to better command written words to express your desired meaning, both consciously and subconsciously.

Overcoming your fear of failure and developing a thick skin is a must in the writing world. Not everyone will enjoy your stories or your style, and some critics will harshly lambast your writing. You will need to move past this, listen to constructive criticism, and revel in your fans’ praise rather.

Forget about perfectionism , because it will prevent you from finishing anything. A lot of writers, especially at the beginning, aim to make their writing perfect and get stuck on first sentences, paragraphs, and chapters when trying to curate the ultimate sentence.

If you wait for the perfect words or sentences, you will never get started (… or you will never finish that article or novel). Writing can never really be perfect, but the true skill in writing is going over your first draft and ruthlessly editing it until it sparkles and is ready to be shared with others.

A few other common tips include:

  • Act like a successful writer
  • Write every day
  • Watch, read, and think like a writer
  • Write for one—ideal—reader (they can be imaginary)
  • Keep a notebook for all your ideas, no matter how random they are
  • Be creative
  • Write where there are no distractions
  • Have confidence in yourself

If you don’t want to hear it from me, then let Stephen King give you some tips:

Top Exercises to Get Started

Well, this is what you came here for and here it is. All those people and seasoned writers telling you to just write and practice, practice, practice. All those times you’ve been stuck wondering what to actually write about or where to start.

Choose your favorites from these writing exercises and utilize them as often as you possibly can. While you are commuting, when you are waiting for an appointment, even as soon as you wake up in the morning. You can never overdo it.

General Writing Exercises

1. Freewriting is one of the most common exercises used by writers. In sports, athletes always need to warm up before competing or playing matches. Writers should do the same before writing, and you can stretch your writing muscles by freewriting.

To freewrite, you need to find your medium of choice, whether it is your laptop, phone, or pen and paper, and just write. Start writing whatever is in your mind and just follow your thoughts while scribbling them down. It doesn’t matter how disjointed these thoughts are or if they don’t make sense; just get them down.

When freewriting, you should time yourself. Anywhere between 15 minutes to 40 minutes is ideal, and during that time, make sure you’re not distracted by anything. Simply write. Don’t pause to think or worry about spelling, grammar, or anything else. Just write.

2. The ABCs method is a fun way to get your brain working and your creative muscles stretched out. This exercise may be tricky when you first start, but soon you will be flying through the alphabet.

To start this exercise, write your first sentence starting with the letter “A.” Your second sentence must start with the letter “B,” then “C,” then “D,” and so on until you reach “Z.” See where your story takes you using this method.

3. Start a blog and create your own brand through this. Starting a blog is quite simple and you can easily start a free account online using platforms such as Wix or WordPress. Find a genre or niche that interests you and base your blog around this.

Start posting blogs regularly and then start sharing them on social media or with friends and family to get some feedback on your writing. You can always redo your blog at a later stage if you decide to change direction with it. It could even lead to some income opportunities.

4. Writing prompts are a great way to practice your writing skills. This exercise starts with either a word or a sentence you must use to create a story. The prompt is created to start up your creative thinking by giving you a starting point.

This minimizes the problem of not knowing what to write about when practicing. You can draw up a list of prompts to use whenever you need one, or you can get some great writing prompt ideas online.

5. Revising someone else’s work will help you pick up on things you should do when writing, as well as things you shouldn’t do. Reading other writers’ work allows you to be more critical about what they may have done wrong as well as right.

First, read what they have written while taking notes. After a few days, go back to your notes and try to rewrite the article or passage (for yourself and for practice). Once you have done this, go back to the original and see where you could have done better, or what you could’ve added in.

Creative Writing Exercises

If fiction is your passion or you just want to get your creative ideas flowing, follow these writing exercises.

6. Senses exercises will help you incorporate all the senses in your writing. To do this, choose any writing prompt, and then write your page or story using each sense. Taste, smell, sight, hearing, and touch should all be included here.

Think of what your character feels when they are walking. Is the air chilly? Is there an ominous presence around this character? Be as descriptive as you can. However, when writing, you shouldn’t go overboard with this; remember to show, not tell.

7. Emotions exercise is similar to the senses one, but here you are including the characters’ emotions and thoughts more vividly. Express the emotions you would be feeling if you were in your story.

Move away from happy, sad, and excited. Be more creative and show the reader the feelings through facial expressions and body language. Also, use deeper emotions such as blissful elation over excitement.

8. Write someone else’s story to energize your creative thinking. Take a story you heard among your friends or during a comedy show and write it from your perspective. Add some more details and see where the story can take you.

Describe the characters from the original story in detail, even if you weren’t given much detail. Create their persona and emotions throughout the story.

9. Write a what-if story based on anything you wish. Often we sit and wonder what-if at least some time in our lives and this is a great starting base for a story. You can choose a personal what-if from your own life and journey along with the possible outcomes of it.

You could also create a new what-if, such as “what if aliens landed on the earth tomorrow” or “what if Steve Jobs never created Apple.” Be imaginative here and see what new world you create in your writing.

Nonfiction Writing Exercises

If you desire the cold-hard facts and prefer writing from a factual perspective, here are some tips to get your mind prepared for this style of writing. Include some research in these exercises to practice your research skills.

10. Write a how-to on something interesting. Choose a topic you are not familiar with and do your research to teach yourself something new. Once you understand it, create a simple how-to piece for someone who would like to learn this.

Look up some how-to blogs to get the structure and main points of informational pieces such as this. Remember to break down complex ideas into their simplest form for any reader to understand.

Now, use your expertise and write about something you do know. If you already have an understanding of a hobby, sports, or a musical instrument, imagine you are writing a piece for beginners in that field. Craft a well-thought-out and detailed guide.

Conduct extra research on some things you aren’t familiar with and explain these points, as well as what you already know. Read it afterward from a beginner’s perspective and consider whether someone can learn from this.

11. Write letters to anyone you wish you could write a letter to. It doesn’t have to be someone whom you can send it to but rather just write as if you were going to send it. Think of some famous writers or your role models, and write what you wish you could say to them.

If you are able, you could look for a real pen pal to whom you can write and send letters. Be careful about how you find your pen pal and don’t give out your personal information if you haven’t verified that they are trustworthy. Use a P.O. address if possible.

12. Write a research piece for a journal or a well-known magazine. You can even write something for an imaginary publication focusing on the topic you choose. It doesn’t have to be written as though it will be published, but practicing research-styled writing will always benefit you.

Even fiction writers will benefit from understanding research since a lot of research is needed to create great works of fiction. Use general guidelines for writing a research paper and see what you come up with.

Online Resources for Writers

Now that you are ready to get practicing with these exercises, there are plenty of resources online to help you along your journey to becoming a great and paid writer. Use these platforms and programs during your exercises, and some of them will definitely end up on your bookmarked favorites:

  • Grammarly will help you during your editing process by picking up any misspellings, as well as grammatical and punctuation errors. It will also alert you if you are being too wordy or misusing a word. And this is all available on the free account!

If you want a more in-depth editing addon, you can look at the paid subscriptions. Grammarly works as a Google addon, in emails, or it can be added to your Microsoft Word document.

  • NaNoWriMo is a platform aimed to help writers finish their novels. The name stands for National Novel Writing Month (and NaNoWriMo typically takes place during November each year) and it holds you accountable for working on your novel each day of the month by allowing you to track your progress, connect with other writers, and set your own goals.
  • Medium is a community of brilliant writers and it offers you a platform to have your writing published on. You can sign up as a contributor and start getting your work out there, or you can access all the articles it offers with a paid subscription.

It will unlock a world of knowledge as the topics range from and to just about anything, including some great writer tips. If your article performs well, you can join the partner’s program and earn some money for your work.

  • Wattpad is similar to Medium, but where Medium focuses largely on nonfiction articles, Wattpad is structured more for creative fiction writing.

The platform is also continuously on the hunt for unknown talent, and if your story is bold enough, the platform may connect you with some big names in the entertainment industry. Some of their partners are Hulu, Syfy, and Sony Pictures.

  • WordPress and Wix are both website platforms aimed at allowing beginners to start their own website without needing to understand coding.

WordPress offers a more complex platform allowing users to either choose a simple free template to base their design on,or if users want a more unique site, they can include their own coding if they have the basic knowledge for it. It offers a simple and free blogging platform to get any beginner started right away.

Wix is slightly more user-friendly as it offers the options to build your own website from scratch without requiring you to do any coding. However, this limits your ability to be more creative and unique. Wix also offers a user-friendly blogging platform for free.

Since you can never have too many apps to help you write more efficiently, here are a few more:

Writing Exercises for Beginners FAQs

1. How can I stimulate my writing?

Creating an ideal writing space can help you stimulate your writing by telling your mind it is time to get creative. Build a specific spot for writing in a distraction-free room, choose the right music, and keep looking for inspiration in your daily life.

2. How can I practice writing every day?

Making writing a daily habit is a good way to ensure you are continuously writing. Do this by consciously setting up writing times each day. It can be a journal entry as soon as you wake up or use writing prompts to help you be creative in the evening. Be sure to set a daily word count goal as well.

One Last Tip: Be Creative

Since you have read this far, you are already on your way to becoming a great writer. Continue to read as much as possible and be sure to read at least one piece of writing each day as well as writing something every day.

You can master this skill and improve your ability. All it takes is consistent work, and I can’t stress this enough, believing in yourself. You have to believe you are a great writer to be a great writer.

A lot of practice, a touch of talent, and a whole lot of hard work are what you need. Being a writer can easily be accomplished this way. Create those sentences that roll off the page. Delve into the minds and hearts of your characters. Everything should be sprinkled with your own emotions and passions.

Now it’s your turn, check out the paragraph above and see if you can do a better job. (Tip: I’ve used one of the writing methods I mentioned … do you know which?)

But before you do, here is a more challenging writing challenge: listen to The Wanted’s song I’m Glad You Came . Look out for how the chorus uses the last word of each sentence as the first word of the next sentence.

Can you create something similar?

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Self Improve Publishing Staff is a group of highly skilled writers whose purpose is to provide the best information and the best value on the article's content.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > 5 writing exercises you should try to improve your creativity

5 writing exercises you should try to improve your creativity

As we continue to develop our writing skills, occasionally we need to reacquaint ourselves with a creative boost. That’s where these five creative writing exercises can come in: they are designed to loosen up the blocks that might get in the way of our creative process. See what you can do to overcome the fear of the blank page with these fun ideas for getting the creative juices flowing.

Crumpled up piece of paper

What are creative writing exercises?

Sometimes, we can be stymied by our writing process: it is easy to fall into the all-or-nothing mentality that demands that we write a masterpiece right from the start. That’s why a creative writing exercise is a useful tool. They’re meant for writers to brainstorm and ideate potential new ideas for projects. Whether the ideas and words that we generate lead to something publishable is not the end goal: instead, they’re meant to provoke the improvisational skills that can lead to fun new ideas.

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Creative exercises to improve writing skills

Here are some ways to begin putting pen to paper:

Freewriting

Freewriting is the easiest creative writing exercise that can help with creative blocks. Simply write down anything that comes to your mind, without any attention paid to structure, form, or even grammar and spelling mistakes.

For example, if you’re working from a coffee shop, write based on what you notice around you: the potent smell of the barista’s latest batch of coffee… the furrowed eyebrows of the local students hard at work on their assignments.

Or, if you’re in your home office , perhaps you can observe the light that pours from your window in the morning hours as you start your 9 to 5. Or reminisce about the dusty, ill-used pens and paper clips sitting in the back of your desk drawer.

Do this for 10-15 minutes per session, uninterrupted: the Pomodoro technique can help with this.

Story starter prompts

Use an otherwise mundane phrase or sentence to kickstart a writing session and create a short story or character description. Try these sentences as story starters:

  • The old man had a look of frustration.
  • It felt like my husband had woken up angry.
  • “Open a window,” Lucinda said, “it’s mighty hot in here.”

Letter to your younger self

This exercise asks the question: what would you say to your teenage self? Or a version of you 5, 10, or 20 years younger? In this exercise, you can recast your life in a different light and offer advice, reassurance, or reexperience a special moment again. Maybe you can write from a perspective of optimism: now that you are successful, for example, you can be excited to share your accomplishments. This highly personal exercise can help you tap into all manners of emotions that can then go into character development.

Take two characters from your work, or a book that you love and rewrite their experiences and plot points while switching their points of view. Perhaps one character knows something more than the other, or another character’s perspective and thoughts have been unwritten. Switching these POVs can help you see how a storyline shifts, taking on different tones and emotional beats.

Flash fiction

Flash fiction is a type of short fiction that is 500 words or less. The objective of this exercise is to craft a narrative or a character portrait all within a highly limited constraint. Flash fiction differs from freewriting in that you write with focus, aiming towards a fully-formed story that can include plot, conflict, and a character portrait. Writing flash fiction seems deceptively easy, but it can be a challenge—which is why literary magazines and writing contests often have opportunities to publish and award great flash fiction.

If you’re looking for more ways to tap into your creativity, check out more writing tips here .

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  1. Practice

    Practice The Writing Process is a webpage that offers various resources and strategies to help you improve your writing skills. You can learn about the stages of the writing process, find exercises and examples, and access online tools and workshops. Whether you are writing a thesis, a paper, or a personal statement, this webpage can help you achieve your goals.

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  4. Writing Practice Worksheets

    In these writing practice worksheets, students practice both reading and writing in these exercises. First, they read the uncompleted story. Then, they try to finish it using their own words. Beginning Finish the Story - The Snow Day. Beginning Finish the Story - The Fair. Beginning Finish the Story - Summer Camp.

  5. The Writing Process EAP Worksheets

    EAP Writing Process Worksheet - Writing Exercises: Matching, Identifying, Writing an Essay Question and Essay, Peer Review and Feedback - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 90 minutes. In this productive analysing essay questions worksheet, students learn and practice topic words, instruction words and limiting words that can be used to decode essay ...

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    Table of contents. Step 1: Prewriting. Step 2: Planning and outlining. Step 3: Writing a first draft. Step 4: Redrafting and revising. Step 5: Editing and proofreading. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about the writing process.

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    Help children navigate the writing process with this array of printable worksheets. From young children learning to write their letters to advanced students crafting and revising essays, these worksheets will help writers of all levels develop skills related to the writing process, including organization, creative thinking, writing styles, revision techniques, and more.

  8. Quiz & Worksheet

    To learn more about steps involved in writing, review the accompanying lesson, The Writing Process: Definition & Steps. The lesson covers the following objectives: Define thesis

  9. 50+ Writing Process worksheets on Quizizz

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    Exercises. In this chapter, you have thought and read about the topic of mass media. Starting with the title "The Future of Information: How It Will Be Created, Transmitted, and Consumed," narrow the focus of the topic until it is suitable for a two- to three-page paper. Then, narrow your topic with the help of brainstorming, idea mapping ...

  13. 6 Writing Exercises to Practice and Improve Your Writing Skills

    6 Writing Exercises to Practice and Improve Your Writing Skills. A good writer doesn't become a great writer overnight. Improving your writing skills requires hard work and constant practice on a regular basis. Even the best writers perform various writing exercises to keep their abilities sharp and the creativity flowing. A good writer doesn ...

  14. Freewriting

    "The consequence [of writing] is that you must start by writing the wrong meanings in the wrong words; but keep writing until you get to the right meanings in the right words.Only in the end will you know what you are saying." —Peter Elbow "Don't think; just write!" —Ray Bradbury Freewriting, a writing strategy developed by Peter Elbow in 1973, is similar to brainstorming but is ...

  15. 7.5: The Writing Process- End-of-Chapter Exercises

    Write a thesis statement and a formal sentence outline for an essay about the writing process. Include separate paragraphs for prewriting, drafting, and revising and editing. Your audience will be a general audience of educated adults who are unfamiliar with how writing is taught at the college level. Your purpose is to explain the stages of ...

  16. The Writing Process online worksheet

    20/06/2021. Country code: TT. Country: Trinidad & Tobago. School subject: English Language Arts (ELA) (1061934) Main content: Creative Writing (1999284) From worksheet author: This worksheet helps students to review the five steps of the Writing Process.

  17. The writing process interactive worksheet

    Liveworksheets transforms your traditional printable worksheets into self-correcting interactive exercises that the students can do online and send to the teacher. ... The writing process. D'Andra Dean. Member for 4 years 2 months Age: 9-14. Level: 5-6. Language: English (en) ID: 405123. 07/10/2020.

  18. In-Class Writing Exercises

    At the Writing Center, we work one-on-one with thousands of student writers and find that giving them targeted writing tasks or exercises encourages them to problem-solve, generate, and communicate more fully on the page. ... We can introduce students to a process of generating and sorting ideas by teaching them how to use exercises to build ...

  19. PDF Prewriting Exercises

    Prewriting Exercises Created by: Brandon Everett Summer 2019 The process of writing an essay can be a daunting task. How you approach the work will definitely influence the end result. Getting started can be the most challenging part. Sometimes, in order to get the creative juices flowing, outlining your paper can be extremely helpful. Prewriting

  20. Steps of the writing process worksheet

    ID: 266158. 09/06/2020. Country code: CO. Country: Colombia. School subject: English as a Second Language (ESL) (1061958) Main content: Steps of the writing process (1119050) From worksheet author: STEPS OF THE WRITING PROCESS.

  21. PDF Writing Exercises

    read. Using writing exercises can also help you develop an effective writing process and practice writing in a relatively stress-free and productive way. Comparing your responses can help you get to know the other group members better and learn from one another in a constructive setting. Below are several writing exercises that your group might ...

  22. The Writing Process exercise for 1-2

    Language: English (en) ID: 1449738. 27/09/2021. Country code: BS. Country: Bahamas. School subject: Creative Writing (1061487) Main content: Steps in the Writing Process (1914118) From worksheet author: Match the steps to the pictures.

  23. The Writing Process: Writing Exercises for Beginners

    This exercise may be tricky when you first start, but soon you will be flying through the alphabet. To start this exercise, write your first sentence starting with the letter "A.". Your second sentence must start with the letter "B," then "C," then "D," and so on until you reach "Z.".

  24. 5 writing exercises you should try to improve your creativity

    Creative exercises to improve writing skills. Here are some ways to begin putting pen to paper: Freewriting. Freewriting is the easiest creative writing exercise that can help with creative blocks. Simply write down anything that comes to your mind, without any attention paid to structure, form, or even grammar and spelling mistakes.