A part of learning how to be a good writing and to write effectively is to undergo different writing exercises that will help you improve your writing more.
Many people, both writers and teachers alike, suggest writing exercises as a way to improve your writing. Even some of the best writing software I know incorporate them as part of their feature sets. However, some people belittle them, claiming that spending time doing drills can be better spent actually writing new material. So, which is which?
As a rule, nothing can benefit you as much as getting writing jobs and working hard to beat those deadlines, all while attempting to produce the highest-quality work you can manage. To make a basketball analogy, that is comparable to a basketball player just going to the court and challenging others to a 3-on-3.
Just because that’s an effective strategy for a gifted player to get more experience, it doesn’t mean that’s all they need to get to the NBA. For the most part, the players you see going pro are those who have been schooled in the fundamentals and know the technical aspects of the game – things they picked up from, you guessed it, drills and exercises.
Writing works in a similar way. Sure, you can just sit down and whip up a novel. But if you’d like to learn a new technique or a specific style, doing drills designed to isolate the skills necessary for them might serve you better.
So, do writing exercises work? Of course, they do. It depends on what you’re looking to accomplish as a writer, though.