There are many ways to improve writing skills but the most effective method is to engage in some writing exercises. Whether you write fiction, non-fiction or poetry, every writer can benefit from doing a few writing exercises every now and then. These exercises come in a variety of forms – some are quite brief and others are lengthy, designed for fiction writers preparing to write a novel. Whatever type of exercise you choose, writing exercises are a great way to improve writing skills.
Character Building Writing Exercises
This particular set of fiction writing exercises is geared toward fiction writers who wish to improve their skills in character development.
People Watching
Find a bench in a public place – perhaps a park or a shopping mall – and spend a few minutes watching the people around you. Select one person out of the group and write down a detailed physical description of that person. Then, use your imagination to create a back-story for this person – where do they work? What are their motivations? What important events have happened in their lives to make them who they are today? If you want to you can perform this exercise with a partner. Choose different people and share your descriptions when you are finished.
Write About Someone You Love
Think about the people you love most and write 500 words about this person. Try to avoid using sentences that begin with "I love so-and-so because___." Rather, write a description of this person designed to not only help a reader understand him or her but to make the reader love this person too. This exercise will help you to develop relationships between your characters and to lead your readers to an understanding of those relationships without having to actually come out and explain it to them.
Create an Absent Character
Create a new character (or use one from one of your novels or short stories) and write a scene centered around that character but in which he is not present. You may choose to have other characters talking about this person or you may examine this person's home or the things he owns. Try to come up with creative ways to build an understanding of this character within your reader without the character actually being introduced.
Writing Exercises for Dialogue Development
These writing exercises should help you to develop your fiction writing skills for dialogue. Many writers fall into a routine with the way they write dialogue – break out of your routine with these dialogue-building writing exercises.
Tape Record a Conversation
Ask a pair or group of your friends if they would be willing to allow you to tape record one of their conversations. You may participate in the conversation as well, but do not attempt to direct the conversation – simply allow it to flow in a natural way. Let the tape recorder go for a while so the participants become more comfortable and conversation begins to flow naturally. After a few days, listen to the recording a few times and choose a section to transcribe. Transcribe this section of the recording as accurately as possible then go back and fill in information about the people who are talking. To make this writing exercise more interesting, ask your friends to tell a small lie at some point during the conversation. Then, listen for this lie when you review the recording – you may be surprised that the lies are not always the most interesting part of the conversation.
Create an Argument
Choose a topic or an event over which a man and woman might be likely to argue and write out that argument from a narrative point of view. You do not have to use a man and a woman but it is helpful to explore the ways in which the two sexes argue differently. Imagine that both of your characters are convinced that they are right and that, as the author, you do not necessarily know which is right and which is wrong. Your task is to play out the argument in such a way that the concerns and motives of each character are revealed. To expand upon this writing exercise, try rewriting the argument again from the point of view of first one character than the other.
General Writing Exercises to Improve Writing Skills
This set of writing exercises is designed to challenge your writing skills and to help you get out of the box of your usual writing style.
Write a Story Backwards
Come up with the idea for a simple story and then write it – backwards. The challenge of this exercise is to create a cohesive story that makes sense being told from the end to the beginning. If you are having trouble coming up with a new idea, try taking one of your own short stories and rework it.
Omit the Adjectives
Try writing a short story without using any adjectives to see how you are forced to change the way you describe things. You may find that you are compelled to create more vivid descriptions of settings and characters because you cannot simply tell the reader that Billy was "tall." You will, instead, have to say that Billy towered over his classmates by at least four inches.
For more fiction writing exercises, try Free Writing Exercises.
References:
Brian Kiteley, "A Selection of Fiction Exercises," published by Writer's Digest Books
Sergei Tsimberov, "Fiction Writing Exercises," University of Iowa Writing Center
Katherine Barrington - Katherine has loved reading and writing for as long as she can remember. When it comes to reading one of her favorite authors is Tamora ...
