One of the most relevant, yet often overlooked writing tips is the value a writer must place on the daily writing exercise. Whatever the stature of the writer, whether a beginner, a professional, or a celebrated author, a writer must keep writing to maintain his or her writing skills in top shape.
Many writers, especially beginners, assume that writing is a lot about inspiration. If they wait for inspiration to strike, they will surely write a great piece. What they do not realize is that the more they write, the more inspired they would get, because in writing daily they are exercising a part of the brain that needs to kick in to produce good writing. As they practice, they strengthen that part of the brain. Becoming a writer is somewhat like becoming a body builder, a writer has to exercise his or her writing muscles every single day, or they would be in danger of becoming flabby and lack-lustre. Waiting for inspiration to strike might not be the best strategy if you want to be a successful writer.
The daily writing practice can take any shape or form. It could be just a free-writing exercise with a given prompt, or simply waking up in the morning and writing about the dream last night. It could be blogging, or a descriptive e-mail to a friend. The only real requirement for the exercise is a word count. A lot of writers set their word count limits pretty high. But to begin with, even a short two hundred and fifty words, which is about a page, should do. The trick is to be at the writing desk everyday.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the quality of writing in a daily writing exercise is not really important. That would come with revision, if the product of a particular day's exercise is good enough to merit that re-working. This exercise is more like a warm-up, something all writers should do before starting on their day's quota of writing. It makes the actual writing flow faster, more naturally, and of a better quality.
A daily writing exercise also means you are getting more writing done. If you set yourself a minimum target of writing five hundred words a day, you will have a novel before you know it. Every little bit counts, and adds up.
So, when in doubt, write. Just like singers sing till they're hoarse, dancers dance till their feet are sore, writers must write till they are dizzy-and they must do it every day. This ensures that all of a writer's arsenal of weapons and tools are sharp, and readily available, when the writer steps into the actual writing arena.