We all know that writing and reading will make you a better writer. At least, assuming you’re practicing both with the intention to learn and grow your skills. But what if I told you there are so many more ways you can improve your writing abilities?
Honestly, I think almost anything can be an opportunity to develop your writing awareness. It’s more about how you think than the specifics of where you are or what you’re doing. So, with that in mind, here are a few activities you can approach differently to level up your writing this year.
Video games – not a waste of time after all!
I love spending a weekend morning gaming. There are a few games I play that often get me inspired to write, but most games will provide opportunities to hone your writing instincts and skills.
For games with a strong story component, pay attention to how the story is paced out. How much new information are you provided with at a time, and how is it delivered? What information about the world and other characters are you explicitly told, and how much are you left to discover for yourself? How much do you drive the storyline forwards, versus having events happen that you have to react to?
You have to make similar decisions when you’re writing a novel – about how the characters will discover new information, and whether plot events will happen to them or be driven by them. So, paying attention to the way these things play out in other media, such as games, can give you new ideas to pull through into your writing. A keen awareness of pacing and who’s driving your story can absolutely make you a better writer.
Okay, so what if it’s not a story-focused game?
Even if a game has no interest in telling a story, it’s still been carefully put together by somebody. Someone chose what would happen between character selection and the first point at which you could take a step of your own volition. Someone decided what weapons or tools would be available to you at different points. Thought went into map design and game mechanics to draw you into a fictional world and incentivise certain behaviours from you as a player.
You can pay attention to these elements to consider how you can set up your scenes and plot to draw your characters down certain paths and prompt certain actions.
Grabbing a coffee can make you a better writer
Cafes are a GOLD MINE for writing practice! The specific activity I’d recommend here is thinking about how different characters would interpret the place. If it’s busy, do your characters find that soothing? Threatening? Interesting? Is it an opportunity to blend in, or a heightened risk of being recognised?
Look around and think about what features different characters would pick out. Their attention might be drawn immediately to any dogs in the room. Or maybe their first thought will be about the prices – which might be too expensive, or cheaper than back home. How characters respond to an environment can provide a wealth of information about them. So, consider how you could combine scene description with character exposition next time you’re picking up a hot drink.
Going for a walk is another opportunity for practice
Looking closely at the world around you is a good activity while walking. Not just from a writing perspective, but just as a general bit of advice. To turn it into a writing exercise though, I recommend writing descriptions in your head as you walk.
Specifically, try to approach description in different ways. Go beyond the obvious traits like colour, shape and size. Think about comparisons you could draw to unrelated objects. If you likened a person to this scenery, think about what it would tell you about that person. Come up with ways you could describe your environment to make it sound appealing to a reader. Then write a new description in your head to make it sound as unappealing as possible. Developing this kind of flexibility will help make you a better writer.
Challenge yourself to edit down your imagined descriptions to make them as short as possible. If you have a notes app on your phone it’s a good idea to write down your favourite lines from these exercises. But the practice isn’t wasted if you don’t end up having a way to keep them.
Look for small details you can pick out in your surroundings to highlight in a description. Details can often help to make a setting feel more real, so building up a bank of examples from places you’ve been can be helpful.
Listening to your friends and family isn’t just polite, it can also help make you a better writer!
Making your characters sound different can be tricky. After all, they’ve all come from your head, and you are (probably) only one person. Luckily, you (probably) know at least one or two other people! And the people you know and love don’t all talk in the exact same way – I guarantee it.
Pay attention to the way the people around you speak. Listen to the way their different senses of humour show up in conversation. The way they describe other people. The details they choose to expand on when they’re telling a story.
I don’t necessarily advocate for stealing exact phrases and conversational quirks from loved ones to attach to characters. Not too many at once anyway! But if you practice observing these differences in conversation, you’ll find it much easier to adapt them and come up with your own versions for use in stories.
To level this one up even more, pay attention to what those around you do have in common. People who spend a lot of time together pick up mannerisms and ways of speaking from each other all the time. You can use this in your writing as well! Sure, you can tell the reader that these two characters are best friends. But if the reader can also see that their ways of talking are influenced by each other? The relationship will feel that much more real.
What activities will you be bringing more writerly attention to?
Those were just a few ideas that occurred to me over the last couple of weeks, but I’ve barely scratched the surface. As you’ll no doubt have gathered from this, I think there’s a wealth of opportunity for writing practice in almost any day-to-day activity.
I’d love to know what things you do that help make you a better writer – whether through deliberate attention or just absorbing new ideas! Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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