<p>Any good writers here who can give some advice/tips/exercises/etc on how to improve your creative writing skills? or just writing in general? I'm sure some of us <em>cough</em> like me <em>cough</em> would really appreciate it, especially when it's time to write those dreaded college essays. :)</p>
<p>Just write every day.</p>
<p>use a thesaurus.</p>
<p>Writing everyday can help, but, in my opinion, reading everyday will strengthen your writing the most.</p>
<p>Everyone says write everyday. But how exactly does that improve your writing? What if you write poorly everyday? o.o</p>
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Ditto.</p>
<p>As to writing (maybe poorly) everyday…
I used to write a lot in 6th grade. I sucked then. Everyone did. But looking at all of the mistakes I made just reminds me of the mistakes that I should avoid the most, because they’re my mistakes. If that made sense.
Also, writing frequently develops a style. A writer should be idiosyncratic–someone should read your writing and know who wrote it just by the text (not always, but in general). It helps you explore not only the tone and diction you tend to use but the kind of subjects you write about the best (usually, the ones that are most fun to write about for you).</p>
<p>Use cheat codes</p>
<p>The best advice I have is to read.</p>
<p>Read. I’d recommend classics and some modern novels. One of my personal favorites (out of many) is The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I have no idea why, but the writing style and the way the plot was told really clicked. Often I’ll find myself writing like my favorite authors do. </p>
<p>Dumas (please… not dumbass…)
Hugo
Wells
Verne
Tolkien
Fitzgerald (The Great Gatzby… fantastic book)</p>
<p>I’ve read too many books to recall them all, honestly</p>
<p>Seriously. Just read a ton. If you want to become better at, say, narrative writing, read a bunch of novels. That was basically my life ages 3-13 (until I actually had other things to keep me busy)…just devour a bunch of books you love. It should naturally start to rub off on you, everything from techniques, vocabulary, different kinds of tone, etc.</p>
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<p>That’s bad advice. Writing is so much more than substituting big words into blanks (and you run the risk of sounding pretentious when you do so).</p>
<p>I agree that reading is the best way to improve your writing, especially when you actually pay attention to the syntax and diction the authors employ.</p>
<p>How does using a thesaurus automatically suggest looking for “big words?”</p>
<p>Ideally, a thesaurus is used to find a better suited, or especially in a writer’s case, a more descriptive word–not necessarily a “big word.”</p>
<p>Ideally, there would be no poverty. I’d say the general population uses the smartest sounding/looking word when they use a thesaurus. Although, CC is not the general population.</p>
<p>ideally, the general population would already have the smartestestest sounding word in their vocabulary.</p>
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<p>Here’s a thesaurus that I’d highly recommend. It stands head & shoulders above all other thesauruses:</p>
<p>[The</a> Synonym Finder: J.I. Rodale: 9780446370295: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446370290/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0446370290&linkCode=as2&tag=hubp0dc7f-20]The”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446370290/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0446370290&linkCode=as2&tag=hubp0dc7f-20)</p>
<p>Write more, everyday to be precise. Even if you write poorly, you’ll be finding new/better ways of explaining yourself and/or your ideas.</p>
<p>Reading also allows you to see different styles and what works and doesn’t work.</p>
<p>There are only three words of advice I can give you:</p>
<p>Read and Write. </p>
<p>And then, when you feel tired of doing that, do it again. And again. Read not necessarily the classics, but books written well, with complexity and layered meanings. Write anything, whether it be creative stories or personal reflections. Create a blog to give you motivation to keep writing, and do it regularly. Doesn’t have to be daily, but do it as often as you can, just to “hone your skills.”</p>
<p>You will improve, eventually. I say that from experience: I’ve followed personally all the advice I’ve given you.</p>
<p>Practice, practice and more practice. Concentrate on the active voice, paying attention to the proper use of prepositions and conjunctions. Start with simple sentences and then build up to the complex. Don’t forget to study grammar, paying particular attention to proper punctuation. (Hint: sentences become easy to fix once you learn proper punctuation).</p>
<p>Another tip is to get criticism. </p>
<p>Constructive criticism can help you grow in unimaginable ways. </p>
<p>You can get writing feedback on such sites as CritiqueCircle.com, AbsloluteWrite.com and Reviewfuse.com.</p>
<p>Read good books and try to take note of what make their writing effective, but also read bad/mediocre ones since that can help you notice some faults in your own writing.</p>
<p>A lot of my improvement actually came from roleplaying. It really helps with character development and working with other people can give your character unexpected situations. Most of the “literate” places have some kind of word minimum, which I’ve found helpful for description.</p>