In the quest to become a better writer, practice is important. Have you already written your first million words? Start on the second million — keep practicing.
There’s lots of value in trying different writing styles, techniques and forms. While you may not stick with some of those experiments, just spending some time struggling with a different form than you’re used to can help make you a better writer in the forms and styles where you spend most of your writing time.
So here are nine ways to stretch your writing skills:
1. Try writing something without using “to be” verbs. That means “The pizza delivery guy was late” has must be rewritten as something like “The pizza delivery guy arrived at the door — late.” To be verbs sneak into our language so much that it becomes easy to rely on those verbs as a crutch rather than reaching for a better word.
2. Write poetry. Haiku, free verse, sonnets, whatever – click here for some examples and definitions of different poetic forms. If you normally write prose, trying poetry will force you to think about word choice, structure and composition in new ways.
3. Give yourself a deadline. Maybe even an unreasonable deadline. Say to yourself “I’m going to finish this blog post in the next 10 minutes.” If you usually procrastinate or write very slowly — stopping to do a little “research” online, getting something to drink, sitting at the keyboard staring into space — a deadline can help you complete projects. That means more writing done, and more writing practice.
4. Revise once more. How many revisions do you usually do on your own work? One, two, more? Whatever the number, do an extra revision and stretch to find ways to improve that piece.
5. Try three different openings. When I was a newspaper reporter, one of my basic principles was that there were many ways to write the “lede” for a story. One of them was the best, and my task as a writer was to find that best opening sentence or paragraph. Try the same thing with your writing. Draft at least two other openings beyond your first try, and see which of the three works best.
6. Twitter — seriously. Trying to write something worth reading in 140 characters is a challenge, and an opportunity to stretch your writing skills. Brian Clark at Copyblogger ran a contest on this recently; check out the results to see just how creative people can be in exactly 140 characters.
7. Write longhand on paper. If you’re reading this, chances are you do most of your writing on a keyboard. Give old-fashioned pen and paper a try. You’d be surprised at how different the process can feel.
8. Use writing prompts. The Internet is full of writing prompts – here’s a collection from Writer’s Digest. Pick one each day and write for 10 or 20 minutes and see what you get. Do this regularly and your writing will get stronger and your creativity will bloom.
9. Free writing. Free writing is the process of simply writing whatever enters your head, without regard to structure or form, for some period of time, such as10 minutes. This can help get you into the writing mode, and help you learn to enter that state more easily.
What’s your favorite way to strengthen your writing skills? Leave an idea in the comments below.
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In no particular order, I'm a writer, MBA, ex-journalist, blogger, geek, strategic communications pro, father, struggling novelist 
