There are a lot of writing exercises you can take on in order to challenge yourself and push your personal creative or technical boundaries, and there’s a lot to be said for writing that isn’t about earning a fee or even finishing a major project like a novel. Sometimes writing just to write is the best way to focus on the mechanics of it; in other words, remove the exciting idea and the thrill of creativity and you can really look at that sausage being made.
Of course, for those of us who do a lot of freelance writing, that’s already pretty clear. And believe me, once you see that sausage being made it’s impossible to get the image out of your head: Every preposition, clause, and simile haunts you.
Here’s an exercise I often find useful: Write about something boring.
The Thrill is Gone
Look, most of us started writing fiction because we wanted to create. We had ideas, and no one else was offering up exactly the kind of book we wanted to read, so we started making one up ourselves. It’s often that simple. Our desire to write was often born from a thrilling idea we simply had to explore.
That’s great! It also means we can sometimes lose sight of the actual writing because we’re so dazzled by the ideas.
To counter that, try an exercise wherein you write about something 100% boring. Write about brushing your teeth. Or sitting and staring at a wall. Or your job. Find ways to make that incredibly boring subject dance off the page, but also pay attention to your sentences, your phrasing, your vocabulary. Since you’re bored by the subject, you’ll be able to ignore it in favor of those mechanics, and your flaws and weak spots will be easier to see.
And heck, if you do manage to make something terribly dull interesting solely through the power of your words, that’s an achievement. Sadly, no one is hiring writers who can make the boring interesting (or, possibly, that’s what everyone is hiring us to do). Believe me, if they were, I’d be rich.