One of my weaknesses is creative writing. I find it difficult to get words onto paper (figuratively speaking) and structure it in a way that flows elegantly. With this in mind, I’m looking for suggestions on how I can improve this – suggestions?

This sounds like a no-brainer, but practice really does make perfect. Or at least better.

The more often you write, the better. Try to make a habit of writing whenever you feel like it rather than whenever you think you can say enough words. Too many people I know stop themselves from blogging because they’d only have a few paragraphs to write.

This next tip sounds weird, but works for me. If I need to write something important, I put my shoes on. It helps put me in a different state of mind. I concentrate more—and write better—when my environment changes.

Last but not least, be honest. Trying to change your words from how you actually feel will stifle your creativity. Another no-brainer, but a commonly overlooked one.

Get a sheet of paper and write down a couple of words that randomly come to your mind, no matter how out of context.

Then start a story based on those words. Best exercise against writer's block. Best way to get started. Works for me every time.

Practice as much as you can. Whether journaling or online or sharing with friends or for some other reason, find opportunities to write! It need not be fiction, either: if your job has need of writing, practice writing concisely with your audience in mind! Reading your work aloud is also practice, especially when you have a chance to hear your words spoken.

Don't look backwards. You'll write some decent pieces at first—great job! As you get better it might be tempting to revisit or revise older works. While I'm not here to tell you to not, I'd suggest this question to help move forward: will revising an older piece push you more than crafting a new one?

I find 750words.com incredibly helpful for daily writing practise. But the best advice I could give you is this: understand that writing != editing.

First, get everything you want to say out of your head - it doesn't really matter what order it comes tumbling out, as long as it's out. When you have your shitty first draft, that's when you can begin editing and re-structuring to get to a point that you're happy with the piece.

Good luck! :-)

I'm sure this isn't better than any other random 'get better at writing' tips you can find by searching the web, but as a starting point, some were posted to Hacker News recently: news.ycombinator.com I hadn't heard of "object writing" before. It's basically what Daniel described, but apparently there are communities where everybody writes about the same word and shares, which is neat.

I recommend reading books by writers with interesting voices. I remember my writing style changing completely after every book we read in my high school English class. It happened after "The Sound and the Fury" and "The Sun Also Rises," among others. I don't remember it ever happening after reading something online. Conclude from that what you will. :)

Another one: find ways to challenge yourself! I have written some of my best work when I lost a draft or failed to save properly. At the time, those instances were frustrating and tiring. Yet I had opportunities to write the entire piece again—largely from memory and notes—resulting in a draft far more cohesive and stronger than my initial attempt. Had I not lost my original work, chances are I'd have been content with mediocre work; not pushed to write great stuff. And yes, it can be less drastic than a full rewrite: find ways to step beyond your comfort, new themes, writing with an editor (a friend is just as good for an extra pair of eyes!) or writing by hand before transcribing, another personal favorite.

Benjamin: Oh yeah! I can't remember who it was, but there was an author I was told (in high school English, ha!) who would repeatedly rewrite chapters instead of edit them. Anyone know who that was?

I tried it once. I scrapped most drafts after the first paragraph, but I finished a few and they got progressively better. It was stressful to do under a deadline, though.

To build on Dan's point, practice is always useful even if what gets written isn't ever published. Similar to sketching, drafting written ideas will give you some output to reflect on and assess how well your thoughts have been translated into writing.

Also, the structure of a written piece is as important as the style of the sentences which make it up. It's often useful to rough out the points you want to cover, and the order in which you'll tackle them, before you begin. In addition, something I learnt from university essays was to address your conclusion up front. Don't wait until the last paragraph to make your point; get to the crux of your argument/point right away and then use the rest of your writing to tease out your ideas.

I'd second Benjamin's tip, to read your own work aloud. It's very, very helpful for any kind of writing you might be doing. If you can read it aloud to somebody else, so much the better.

I also like doing a reverse outline for certain kinds of writing—including creative non-fiction, if not so much fiction. Purdue's Online Writing Lab has a great guide to how these work. (Link below.)

Finally, said the usability professional, user testing! Show your work to people and see where they get stuck. This one's particularly useful for structure and flow issues. Do proofread first for grammar and spelling, distractions for your readers. (On which: Try proofing from last sentence to first. It can reveal otherwise obscured sentence-level issues.)

One of the things I've learned about (creative) writing is that it doesn't just come down to being/feeling creative. It's also a matter of discipline and *making* yourself write. It's like any other job you'd do. You don't just do it whenever you feel like it. Same with writing. Instead, have a schedueled moment every day — or every week if you like — just to spend on writing. The more you'll practice, the better you'll get, like Dan says: practice does make perfect. Perhaps it sounds like I'm talking about writing as a full-time job, but really, I'm not. I'm still a teenager, and I've spent the past three years reading and writing loads, just as a hobby.

I used to just write when I felt like it, but now I 'force' myself to write everyday, even if the words simply don't flow anymore and I've been improving loads. I personally think this is the way to go. So, as a conclusion, practice, practice, practice, and make yourself write. Force yourself to get those words on paper, and just keep doing so. You'll improve and it will get easier over time.

Good luck!

Another thing I'd like to add: write and don't look back until the first draft is finished. Just write. Of course, you'll edit it in the end, but while you're actually writing; while you're being creative; don't look back. You'll probably lose motivation to write on. It's something I've noticed in the past.

And I'll shut up now ;)

I think all the things said by everyone here are very helpful. For myself, however, I had to realize that I cannot force myself to write. I doesn't work and I will just produce useless rubbish. I can, however, get myself into the mood of writing by just sitting down and relaxing in front of what I want to write. A good cup of coffee or tea usually sets my mind in the right frame. And then I can basically give only the same advice that has been given here before: just let it flow, don't look back and go for it. You are at the stage of writing, after all, not editing.

One other thing that helps me very much is record little snippets of ides, fragments of sentences or whatever in a notebook. Not digitally, but on paper. This, I think, helps me to just let go when I then sit down to write, because I've practiced to just write down what my mind wants to write down. Just give it the physical space on paper it wants, I suppose.

I'd second Laurens' point about trying to force yourself to write. Even if you feel that what you're producing isn't very good, the very act of producing it can help to build up your writing 'muscle'. You can learn a lot from writing bad stuff as well as good.

Just found an interesting site that might also be of interest: cowbird.com. Haven't had much time to explore but seems like an interesting place for some creative writing.