To be an NBA player, or a FIFA champion, you can’t just sign up and start playing with no prior training. You have to train yourself first. You can’t just practice once a month, though. Consistent practice is crucial to becoming a good writer. Just like Olympic athletes train every day to grow and develop they’re weak spots and strengthening their good spots. After years of this training, then you can roll with the big dogs. 

Someone who wants to write also has to train. There are many ways to train your “writing muscles” just like an athlete trains their physical muscles. The best way is probably to free write. To free write, pick a time of day. Every day, at that time, pick up a notebook or a paper and force yourself to write. If ideas don’t come to you, you can always go to the park, the library, or pretty much anywhere you want. As long as you write, you’ve exercised for that day. Try to set a goal, such as “write for at least 20 minutes” or “write more than a page.” If you still don’t get any ideas, start a journal and pour your thoughts and feelings into it or pick up a book about writing and read. Even if your writing seems uncreative or uninspired or has not much thought put into it, what matters is that you wrote for the day.

Image by jefield via Flickr

Don’t think about quality when writing these free writing exercises, but more on the fact that you should be writing as fast as you can and as much as you can, in a set time. This helps you put out as much writing as possible to get as much training as possible.

The key to writing is just like any skill. It can be improved with hard work and dedication.