7 writing exercises for community manager

Any community manager would agree, that managing a community is not an easy job. You have to communicate between so many verticals and also write a lot of new engaging content. It's borderline social media manager but here you are mostly alone and juggling between a close community of users.

Being able to write engaging content for your community members might seems a difficult thing to achieve. But with a little attention, instruction, and practice, anyone can enhance their writing skills. The challenge is determining which acts will actually help you improve as a writer and which will merely waste your time.

Outstanding writers utilize writing exercises (guided written tasks that build certain writing-related abilities) as one of the best ways to progress. The idea is to select daily writing assignments that are in line with your objectives.

Writing Skill

Writing is a skill that is comprised of multiple lesser abilities. Here are a few examples that apply to both factual and fiction writers:

• Clarity
• Grammar
• Idea Generation
• Punctuation & Spelling
• Style & Organizational

We learn how to write properly by writing on a regular basis.

The most effective writing exercises concentrate on helping you improve one or two key aspects at a time. We become outstanding at the major thing (for example, writing) by steadily improving at the tiny ones (e.g., grammar, style, speed, etc.).

You'll find a list of eight exercises to attempt below, along with clear instructions on how to get started and brief descriptions of how each one will help you improve as a writer.

Let's get started.

#1 Transcribe the work of another author.

⚡️ Useful for: Style

Reading a wonderful piece of writing frequently sparks the ambition to become a great writer. It might be any  piece of writing; be it book, letter, or speech

Transcription of a professional writer's work is one of the best ways to learn from them. There are two approaches to this task: How did they do that? How can I learn to do the same?

Directions:

1. Select the content from which you wants to study (e.g., book, article, etc.).
2. Pick a piece of the material to focus on, such as a single chapter or a few lines.
3. Option 1: Rewrite the text word for word in a tangible notepad or sheet of paper.
4. Option 2: Type their text word for word digital using any note-taking product of your choice.

This practice of transcribing their work will provide you with firsthand knowledge of how their writing feels. You'll get a understanding of their writing style, word choice, and structure.

The more you do this, the more you'll adopt aspects of their style as your own.

#2 Write what you experience or how you experience.

⚡️Useful for : speed, idea creation

The most challenging aspect of writing is coming up with what to write. You must have seen many movie scenes where a writer is sitting by themselves  staring at a blank page.

This is due to their failure to see creativity as an input-output system. If your input is devoid of reading, discussions, and fresh experiences, your output will suffer.

However, observing reaction to something is one approach to kickstart your creative production.

1. Locate a news item, popular video, or hit music that evokes a good or negative reaction in you.
2. Set a 10- to 20-minute timer.
3. Begin responding to the thing on paper or on the computer. Try not to take any pauses until the timer goes off.

Remember that your thoughts, sentiments, and arguments do not have to form a coherent story. These could be unrelated ideas for the future projects. The idea is to just get in the habit of writing your thoughts down and get your creative juices flowing again.

#3 Experiment with vocabulary builder prompts.

⚡️Useful for: word selection, spelling, and grammar

There are two ways to employ strange terms in your writing.

The less-than-ideal approach is to tie together multiple huge, intellectual terms to impress your audience. In most cases, this merely confuses them. A better approach is to expand your vocabulary so that you may periodically throw in fascinating terms that better convey the concepts you're writing about.

Moderation is essential. This technique makes your writing approachable while still providing readers with something to uncover along the road. So, how do you go about developing a usable vocabulary?

1. Sign up for a free service like Merriam-word Webster's of the day or purchase a book like this vocabulary builder.
2. Learn a new word every day.
3. Spend a few minutes creating 3-5 practise phrases with the term in them. If at all feasible, incorporate the term into another piece of writing you write later in the day.

In reality, you will not recall 100% of the terms you learn. Instead, the goal is to familiarise yourself with rare words so that as you improve your writing and editing abilities, you'll feel more comfortable reaching for these phrases.

Tip: You may use this practise to learn grammatical rules as well. Use a resource like this book to learn new rules, and then practise applying them using the instructions above.

#4 Describe a in-person situation in your community.

⚡️Useful for : clarity, style

Being able to authentically present people, places, and things is helpful whether you write factual or fiction.

You'll need in-person experience to follow this exercise.

1. Go to a nearby coffee shop, museum, or other place with a lot of activity.
2. Take a few moments to observe your surroundings. There's no need to seek for anything specific; simply pay attention to what you notice.
3. After that, spend a few minutes jot down the most memorable parts, eg. bullet points. Attempt to catch at least a few characteristics for each sense: what do you smell, hear, see, feel, and taste?
4. Later that day, use the notes to compose a paragraph summarising the situation.

The purpose of this exercise is for you to be transported back to that location by the paragraph you write. A successful description is almost never thorough. Instead, it cherry-picks the most crucial information for the reader.

💡 For extra practice, display your paragraphs to friends and family and solicit feedback. Did it make them feel as if they were present? If not, what might be done better?

#5 Create many headlines.

Useful for : inspiration

Just as writing is a talent composed of numerous lesser abilities, each piece of writing is a collection of separate elements.

Introductions, transitions, and conclusions are all present. Different sorts of phrases try to achieve different goals. Small modifications may radically transform the tone, voice, and purpose of an article, book, or other written piece.

Brainstorming various headlines is one approach to try influencing these particular pieces. These can be for things you've previously written, ones you want to write, or names you've spotted online.

1. Begin with a comprehensive title, whether you developed it or found one.
2. Play around with the wording and organisation until you have 20-30 alternative variations. The larger the disparity, the more helpful the workout.
3. Go over your iterations again and search for patterns you may use in other sections of your writing.

Headlines are an excellent tool to utilise since they are isolated pieces of text that may have a major influence on meaning. As you get more adept at swiftly developing a range of headlines, you'll be able to apply the same techniques to other aspects of your writing, such as testing different introductions or conclusions.

#6 Make free-writing a habit among your community members

Effective for: clarity, speed

Most writing requires some thinking. Research, planning, outlining, writing, and editing are all part of the process. All of these are required. However, putting all of these things aside, at least momentarily, might have unexpected effects.

Stream of consciousness writing (aka freewriting) is a discipline that challenges authors to brain dump their way into a piece of work. Morning pages is a frequent variant of this practise in which a writer fills out three pages as soon as they wake up in the morning, basically emptying their head of any mental clutter so they can focus on what matters most.

To begin, here are the stages to a flexible freewriting exercise.

1. Open a notepad or find paper and a writing implement; this practise works better by hand rather than digitally.
2. Choose one of two objectives: cover the full page with words or write until an alarm clock chimes (suggested time: 5-10 minutes).
3. Start jotting down any words, thoughts, or sentences that occur to mind. They do not have to be linked or coherent. The idea is to fill the page with whatever pops out of your mouth.

Freewriting is a fantastic technique to clear your thoughts so you can focus on the work at hand while also boosting your speed at getting ideas out of your head and onto the page.

#7 Proofread other people's writing

Style, grammar, and punctuation are all advantages.Finally, one of the most common and beneficial writing activities is to edit the work of others.

Editing is a somewhat different skill set than writing and necessitates a more analytical approach to content creation. Instead of completing an article or chapter, the goal is to improve the writing. Better might mean clearer, shorter, or more comprehensive.

Good editing can sometimes add material. It eliminates in others. It all depends on the project, paragraph, and sentence in question, which is why it's a skill set that any writer would benefit from honing.

1. Locate an incomplete piece of writing to edit. Online writers’ communities and local meetings are excellent places to start.
2. Begin by reading the full article to understand what it was attempting to achieve.
3. Add remarks that will assist the writer in reaching their aim. It is critical not just to indicate how you would accomplish it, but also to try to put yourself in the shoes of the other writer.
4. After that, check over the work again, looking for minor flaws like as grammatical faults and punctuation issues.
5. Always use positive language in your comments or feedback. Writing is challenging, and a little kindness may go a long way.

Although you don't want to edit while writing since it would slow you down, mastering the skill can help you produce cleaner first draughts instinctively. Furthermore, you'll get to meet other great writer with whome you can collaborate successfully and implement their remarks more effectively.

The most effective workout

Above all, the finest writing exercise is to continually produce content for your community.

Your writing abilities will develop over time if you make time to write on a regular basis. Targeted workouts can assist speed your progress, but they should never completely substitute actual community engagement

The community is waiting for your words, so get started right away.

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