Fifteen writing exercises with instant feedback on your own work
Most online writing exercises are well thought out, but they don’t give you anything back. Just think about it. You do them, and afterward you still don’t know how well you did, what you need to improve, or why. Then you’re left judging your own writing, and that doesn’t work well. You read what you meant, even when it isn’t on the page. Or you lack the knowledge to judge it properly. With the exercises below, you get feedback right away on what works and what doesn’t.
These exercises are similar to the writing exercises in ViaScripta’s courses. Each one focuses on a single technique, and they all follow the same format.
That means that for each exercise you get the assignment, the learning objective, and four criteria, plus a worked example with its analysis. So you know exactly what to expect.
Of course, you can also get to work on the exercise yourself (please do!). Then you paste your text into the widget at the bottom of the page, and within half a minute you get focused feedback on your writing exercise. And no, you don’t need an account.
TIP: Start with the exercise that covers what you think is your weakest point. And if you don’t know what that is, just start at the top.
Writing a Short Story
Write a complete short story of no more than 400 words, with a beginning, middle, and end.
Writing a Scene
Write one powerful scene with clear stakes, conflict, and change.
Building Suspense
Build suspense without action, using only details and timing.
Opening a Story
Write two different openings for the same story and find out what each opening does.
Plotting a Storyline
Plot a storyline in three passages in which every choice your character makes causes a bigger problem.
Writing a Flashback
Work in a flashback in a way that moves the story forward instead of interrupting it.
Writing an Ending
Write an ending that feels like real closure, without explaining everything.
Narrative Pacing and Rhythm
Write the same scene twice: once fast, once slow. Feel the difference.
Sensory Writing
Describe one room through the eyes of two characters and find out whether your details show who they are.
Writing Point of View
Write one scene consistently from one character’s point of view and check that your point of view never slips.
Show, Don’t Tell
Write a description without judgments or emotion words and see whether you’re showing or still telling.
Writing Dialogue
Write a dialogue in which you can see what’s going on between the characters, not just what they say.
Developing a Character
Write one scene that reveals your character, without describing or explaining them.
How the Feedback Works
You paste your text, and within half a minute you get an analysis for each criterion: what already works, where it goes wrong, and, above all, why. So there’s no grade, no rewritten version (this is not an AI that writes for you!), and no one looking over your shoulder.
The feedback looks only at the learning objective of that one exercise. If the assignment is about dialogue, the feedback assesses your dialogue, not whether your sentences are beautiful. That’s exactly why, after one scene, you know whether you’ve applied the technique successfully.
Want more exercises? Every course has sixteen to eighteen of them, with feedback on every exercise. On top of that, you can get feedback as often as you like.
