Writing Activities

You don't need to be a professional writer to enjoy and benefit from writing activities!

Writing is, unquestionably, good self therapy. How many times in a day do you find yourself biting your tongue when someone says or does something that annoys you? Probably plenty! During adolescence, you may have kept a diary, where you poured out your frustrations to dear diary. Maybe your grammar or spelling wasn't perfect, but you certainly felt better after getting your gripes or secret thoughts down on paper.

Much like the adult version of talking to a therapist, you gained the satisfaction of venting. “There, I've said it!” People never outgrow the need to vent. Unfortunately, many adults believe that such writing activities must be put behind them. Child's play? No! The only difference between dear diary and a journal is the moniker. Get yourself a notebook and practice putting your daily thoughts to paper. Don't worry about spelling and grammar and the technical aspects. You'll be amazed at the beneficial effects this simple activity brings to your state of mind.

No matter what your level of writing skills, there's always room for improvement. Better writing skills can make a big difference in your career, grades and how people perceive you. Communication is everything. If you can't communicate well, people are less likely to understand your message. One excellent writing activity that is fun and profits your communication skills is to increase your vocabulary. Use your dictionary to find just three words you don't know. Read the definition. Now use a thesaurus to look up that word and find other words which are similar in meaning. Now, write a sentence using that word. From the thesaurus, choose a few similar words and write a sentence for each of those. You'll discover that these words are usually not interchangeable. Now your vocabulary is larger and you can use these words in your daily life to more precisely convey your meaning.

Let's say you don't particularly enjoy writing. Before you discard the idea, keep in mind that, in dear diary or journal mode, it's for your eyes only, unless you choose to share. Try writing a children's story. Remember how much you enjoyed bedtime stories when you were a youngster? Kid's stories are short and uncomplicated, yet highly entertaining. For ideas, think of your favorite childhood book. Why did you like it so much? One or more of the characters probably fascinated you, made you laugh or otherwise held some appeal that captured your attention and devotion. Dream up some fanciful characters and tell your own story. If you like to draw or are good with computer graphics, make your own illustrations. You may be pleasantly surprised at the results of this writing activity.

Writing short stories or fiction pieces can be very rewarding. Follow the old adage, 'write what you know'. Every one has some expertise in a subject. Pick yours and go for it.

Be aware that such writing activities can be addictive! Once you start, you'll find the pleasure you get is hard to give up! Your writing skills will show up in your more ordinary daily writing, such as emailing a letter to a friend, writing a class paper or even a business report for work. With practice, you'll also develop your writing style.

Whatever writing activity appeals most to you is your best starting point. You may well find yourself looking at free online writing workshops designed to improve your writing. Next thing you know, you might just look forward to your next opportunity to write!

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