A few weeks ago, we looked at how we can improve our writing, such as by practising as much as possible and reading as much as we can. To build on this, here are a few ideas and tips that you might like to try to see if they could help your writing further. After all, no matter how good we are, we always want to keep on improving, and we never know what might help…

Try writing a story in 100 words. If Ernest Hemingway could do it in six words (For sale: baby shoes, never worn) and still pack a punch, 100 words should be more than enough for us to work with.
Try using prompts to get you started. The challenge of a prompt forces you to think before plunging in, which will hopefully make the finished piece more considered as a result. You can use anything you like: an image, a word from the dictionary, a sentence given to you by a friend. You could also use one of these – butterfly; dead tree; untied shoelaces. If you use one of them, do let me know!
Write a stream of consciousness from the POV of one of your characters.
Set yourself the challenge of writing 1000 words a day. The benefits of practice, discipline, progress and improvement are more than worth the effort.
Imagine you’re seeing your house for the first time. Write about it. Consider all the senses.
Write in a form you’re not as familiar with or don’t often use. For instance, if you’re normally a prose writer, try writing some poetry or a non-fiction piece, or in a radically different genre to your usual. Different styles of writing can flex different creative muscles and make us look at things in new ways.
Learn a new word a day. You might not use all those words in your writing, but a good vocabulary is a great thing for a writer to have.
Go back to something you wrote a long time ago and revise it. The benefit of hindsight and experience can be wonderful when it comes to making the most of past good ideas that never quite got off the ground.