Do I Really Need to “Practice” Writing?

If I could talk with my younger self — who wanted to be a writer — I would tell him to practice writing. My younger self would not have known what that would entail. So, I would say to him the following . . .

But first, let’s talk about why writing practice is essential. What does a budding musician do when they want to learn a musical instrument? Improve in a particular sport? Converse in a new language? Practice.

For some reason, society understands that practice is needed in sports, music, and most other things. But writing? Specifically, writing fiction? Everyone thinks that writing a story or a novel flows off their fingertips the first time. How many potential writers gave up because that short story sucked after writing half of the rough draft? For some reason, writing fiction or improving in the fiction writing craft is not connected with the concept of practice.

Writing needs practice, like playing an instrument or a sport. So there. I said it.

On the piano, a person practices scales or sports. My coworker talks about taking his son to practice every day. He goes to practice almost every day. My coworker can’t wait until his son gets his driver’s license.

So, if I could give any writing advice to my younger author self, I would encourage him to “practice his writing scales.”

But what does that mean? How does a writer practice writing? Here are some ways:

• Exemplars — Take a paragraph from a favorite novel or story and write it out two or three times. Pick a different one every few days.
• Prompts — Google “writing prompts” and sign up to receive an idea to write something spontaneous for five, ten, or fifteen minutes. Totally unrelated to your WIP.
• Reading — I have always been a reader, but I wish I had read even more as a kid. Even if it’s only for ten or fifteen minutes a day, read something — something in the genre you want to write, but that’s not required.
• Freewriting — Write nonstop for a set amount of time, maybe only ten to fifteen minutes. Don’t worry about making sense or how good it is. Just do some old-fashioned “stream-of-consciousness” writing.
• Writing Journal — Keep a writing journal. It is not a diary but a notebook of potential titles, names, scraps of favorite dialogue, or descriptions from your reading. Anything that helps you fall in love with your writing style.
• Character Voice Journal—Before you dash out your rough draft, write a page in one of your character’s ‘voices.’ Have them answer questions, like on a talk show. Or maybe the character is writing a letter or email to someone. You can create new entries for a character as you understand them more clearly. It’s a great way to nail down how the dialogue between your characters will sound, and you can practice voice journals even if you’ve already started your draft.

Doing one of these a few times a week can stretch your writing muscles and help you develop your writing voice and master various fiction elements. It can also be a way to gear the writer’s mind to start writing. Do one of these for a few minutes before you start working on your WIP, and you may find yourself psyched to work on your story.

Photo by Anastasia Kolchina