Writing Exercises For Stretching Your Style Muscles

Writing Exercises for Stretching Your Style Muscles

There’s a lot of writing advice on the internet, and a lot of writing prompts, but something I see relatively little of is an idea of how to actually practice.

The thing about learning a skill is that it requires practice – but practicing will only get you so far if you’re just doing the same thing over and over. you might get better at doing that specific thing, but it can seem really difficult to get over a specific hurdle to accomplish some new thing you’ve never tried. I think a really common frustration is wanting to do a thing, and knowing what your end goal looks like, but not knowing actually how to accomplish it.

So that’s where practicing specific skills can really help you to feel more comfortable with your abilities.

Here are some skills exercises I recommend experimenting with to gain proficiency and comfort in writing things.

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Write the Same Scene from Multiple POVs

Write a scene in 3rd person POV. Then go back and rewrite it from scratch in 1st person. Repeat for a 3rd person omniscient. Go deeper than just swapping out pronouns. Think: How does this scene change if I’m writing through the eyes of a single character vs over their shoulder? How does this scene change if I’m narrating the events through Character B instead of Character A?

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Write a Scene in Present Tense

Present tense bumps up the immediacy level of whatever you’re writing. I think it also helps to break you from more passive sentence constructions. Try taking a scene you’ve written and rewrite it in present tense. Combine it with the above – try switching a 3rd person past to 1st person present, or even try writing in 2nd person.

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Try Mimicking Another Writer’s Style

Sit down with a piece of writing from an author you enjoy, and pay attention to the writing itself. Ignore the plot and characters and story elements – look at just the nuts and bolts of vocabulary choices and sentence construction. Try to pick it apart. Is there a specific way the author tends to use commas? Certain words, or types of words, that they use more often? Longer sentences or shorter ones? Longer paragraphs or short? How is white space handled?

Study that and make yourself a little cheat sheet if that’s helpful to you. Then try writing a short piece – just a couple paragraphs, even – in their writing style.

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Describe an Entire Scene Without Using Visual Description

Imagine you’re writing a blind character, if it helps, or someone who’s been blindfolded. Describe a whole scene built entirely around the way things sound, smell, taste, feel. Try to make it clear what’s happening through description alone.

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Eliminate All Words like “Thought” or “Felt”

Write in deep-3rd or 1st person without any filter words. Make a character’s opinions and emotions obvious through the way things are being described without explicitly saying what they’re thinking or feeling. If you struggle with this, it might be easier to start in first person – write as a diary entry or even a Tumblr post from that person’s perspective – and then try it in 3rd person after you’ve had a bit of practice.

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Set Yourself a Specific Goal, and Write a Drabble to Achieve it

When I wrote “Happy Ending,” my entire goal was to write something that was highly descriptive in the most viscerally gross way possible. When I wrote “Mothman,” it was an exercise in writing something sexualized without explicitly being sexual, in the most disturbing way possible.

This is an exercise in word choice. It’s an excuse to bust out your thesaurus, not to sound fancy, but to nail a specific meaning. It’s also an exercise in choosing what details to focus on and which to exclude.

One way to approach this exercise is to describe something common and mundane that you’ve experienced, and write it in several different ways. Let’s say, eating a sandwich. How can you make eating a sandwich sound sexy? How can you make it sound disgusting? Which details do you focus on, and which do you omit? What words do you use to evoke the meaning you’re looking for?

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I hope these writing exercises give you some inspiration on things to try out to flex your creative wings a bit!

Why Commenting On FanFiction Is Important

Alright kids, Boo here with a hopefully non-arrogant PSA.

I’m a writer of FanFiction because I like it and it’s my preferred genre (also a great way to receive feedback on writing that I can use on originals, bref). But like with most artistic work posted online, I have very little feedback.

When I was in a slightly writing rut, I cranked one shots left and right, nothing out of the ordinary. But instead of people commenting with their thoughts and good feedback, they just gave me requests.

I don’t think I could ever put into words what that felt like, but I’ll try (the irony of being a writer). It suddenly felt tiring, being a writer, and very quickly I stopped writing altogether. I only ever showed my friend what I wrote and left it at that. I haven’t published anything for a while after. It felt like people were treating me like a mule wanting me to do work for them, and I just wasn’t up for that. I lost my will to write, and then I began to think, “If I post something else other than what was requested, will people even read it?”

Then you get the infamous comments, “You haven’t forgotten about my request right??? Here’s another.”

That just adds anxiety and guilt. I’m purposely ignoring the comments to save my own uncreative ass, at least that’s what it feels like.

After weeks of convincing myself that my stories are worth sharing no matter how many people read them, I started writing and publishing again while working on some longer pieces. Slowly it got better.

Now this week, I remembered I joined another fanfiction platform, and realized I had never published anything on it. I had an idea, and so I started writing. It didn’t come out as I imagined it would, but I was so proud? Like, I started feeling happy about what I created again. Like genuine happiness that I haven’t felt in months since my last published work.

A few hours later, I get this comment:

Why Commenting On FanFiction Is Important

I cranked out three 3k stories after reading this.

In four days.

It never happened before, and I don’t know how many times it will happen again. It was one comment, but it gave me so much fighting spirit that I think I’m on my way to regaining my initial writer mindset.

Fanfiction writers depend on feedback as a validation that their stories matter to people. If you’re wondering why your favourite author hasn’t updated/posted in a while, ask yourself, “Did I do everything that would convince them to continue writing this?”

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benry a Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill story Aleczandra's writing

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bubreherro

3 months ago

God. This is gorgeous. The symbolism is crazy

Cavallino Rampante 🩸 prints available here

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fanart f1 fanart charlos charlos fanart

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bubreherro

7 months ago

I feel like I’ve discovered the best thing, learned that it’s been going on for 4 years (albeit more) and it’s stopping before I get to understand it.

Wait. This is exactly what happened

BAHRAIN 2022 | Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz celebrating their 1-2 with Lewis Hamilton on the podium.

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charlos Bahrain 2024 so much to catch up

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bubreherro

1 week ago

This is what I needed, the gifs of this moment..

Gabi ran to Nico, past Lando, his good friend, without even congratulating him to he could get to Nico, saw Max congratulated him, got to clap handshake with Nico, was awkwardly around, but finally got to hug Nico

Gabi is so precious

silverstone, 2025

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f1 saving this for later gabriel bortoleto nico hulkenberg gabico british gp 2025 nicodium hulk podium Gabico hug Gabi is so precious

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bubreherro

1 year ago

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bubreherro

6 years ago

MISUMI’S VALENTINE 2015 / Part of the Top Extras

I just got asked a question by @nina-zorba about scanlating this comic extra.

I saw it in the Anniversary book and I don’t remember seeing it before, but I kinda remember seeing it before.

Has this ever been translated? Does anyone HAVE this actual life-sized comic? I scanned the above pic from the anniversary book, and it’s tiny, but I’ll have it translated if no one has it. If you have seen it and it’s done somewhere that I can’t find then please let me know. I’m happy to have this done too and anything else we are missing! (cough…cough…Doushitemo extra…)

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