Creative writing can be your favorite hobby if you know well how to put together thoughts and turn them into words. There are many ways to improve your writing skills, and these are seven of them.
1. Description.
Show, don’t tell. Learn to use very descriptive words: instead of “red,” use “scarlet.” Don’t say, “The mouse was black. It ran from the fat cat into the kitchen.” You don’t want to bore your readers. Instead, try something like: “The furry little mouse scurried under the kitchen cabinet, in deathly fear of the monstrous cat close behind.” Don’t say the little girl fell off her bike. Say the little girl plummeted to the ground and skinned her knee on her first ride without training wheels. When you need to use description, use all five senses.
2. Write every day.
Some time every day, you should sit down and free-write for about twenty minutes (but the more the better). You’ll be amazed at the ideas you’ll get when you reread these free-writes. Just open your mind and let everything spill onto the paper. Don’t think, just write. Don’t let your pen stop moving. Don’t scratch anything out; it may come of use later. Try to pick a time when you won’t be interrupted. Don’t worry about your grammar or spelling. You can fix it later if you decide to use the ideas you scribbled down. It’s not a bad thing if you’re writing faster than you can think.
3. Get inspired.
Do you have a memory that pops into your mind often? Try writing a story about it. Are you stuck listening to the same song over and over? Pick your favorite line from that song and write from it. Did something big happen in the world? Write your own twist on it. Best of all, read other peoples’ writing. Use anything you can to get your ink flowing.
4. Unleash your imagination.
• Try writing from a bizarre perspective. For example, a woman goes to shop at a mall. Write from the perspective of the fountain where sits down to file her change.
• Ask yourself, What if? What if an immature little boy never grows up? What if the sky were to start falling in little pieces?
• Introduce the extraordinary. An ordinary day: A man opens a book in the library and it begins to rain inside.
5. Decide what you’re best at.
Whether it’s poetry, short stories, novels, prose, or anything else, you need to decide what field of creative writing is your best. Try writing any of the above, if you don’t know already what your strong suit is. Play around with all different sorts of things, and pretty soon, you’ll come up with a masterpiece.
6. There is no final copy.
Even if you published something a year ago, you’ll probably still be editing it. Never try to completely finalize your creative work, because it’s nearly impossible. In writing classes, when an assignment is due, they sometimes call it a “Meaty Draft”, because there is never a final copy. It’s not a bad thing at all to go back and edit things you thought you were done with long ago. There is only room for improvement. If you change the original quite a bit, it could turn into an entirely different piece, and could be used again. Revising is never a bad idea.
7. Make it fun.
Writing should never be work. If writing loses its thrill, take a break for a while. You should always enjoy writing, and never let it become a chore. Give yourself assignments of something to write- something you know will be fun. If you can’t think of anything yourself, ask a friend for advice.
Along with being fun, writing can be one of the best therapeutic activities out there. If you enjoy writing, never stop. It’s a wonderful thing to do, and you’re lucky if you have the flair to do it.
