22 Proven Writing Strategies for Every Stage of the Process

Writing strategies are techniques that writers use to solve story problems, revise their work, and get past the finish line. Unlike generic tips (such as “Write what you know”), good writing strategies give you something concrete to try when you're staring at a blank page.

Here, we’ve gathered proven strategies from bestselling and award-winning authors — covering everything from idea generation to revision to overcoming writer's block.

Prewriting: How to generate story ideas

1. Start with a question

Many great stories begin as an attempt to answer a single question. National Book Award winner Mary Lee Settle explained her process to The New York Times as simply:

“I start with a question. Then try to answer it.”

Questions create narrative momentum, and “What if?” is especially useful because it immediately introduces possibility and tension. What if someone could hear other people's thoughts? What if a town forgot one specific day in its history? No question is too strange to spark a good story.

2. Use online resources to ideate

For a modern approach, you can also leverage online tools and resources that are specifically designed for story brainstorming.

Here are a few of our favorites:

• Plot Generator – Over 1 million possible plot combinations to discover. Simply lock the plot elements you wish to keep and hit “generate” to keep experimenting with the others.
• Creative Writing Prompts – 2,500+ prompts across different genres. And for some powerful deadline-based motivation, sign up to our weekly short story contest. You’ll get 5 new prompts in your inbox each week, plus the chance to win $250!
• Writing Exercises – Or for more elaborate story inspiration, try our writing exercises. (Note: these may work better for stories that are already in progress, whereas the creative writing prompts above are better for initial ideation.)

3. Read widely to learn how stories work

Ray Bradbury famously educated himself at libraries, clocking at least a hundred books a year:

“When I graduated from high school I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library 3 days a week for 10 years.”

Coincidentally, this was also William Faulkner’s writing strategy:

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read!”

Reading actively means noticing how authors introduce characters, how scenes begin and end, and how tension is built across chapters. Over time, your observations will naturally feed your own writing and might even inspire an idea or two in your own work.

4. Turn everyday observations into story seeds

Sometimes writers get so stuck in their own heads that they can't tell a great idea from a blob of words on the screen. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably time to step outside.

Ender’s Game author Orson Scott Card once said:

“Everyone walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”

Often inspired by a stroll around her neighborhood, Agatha Christie developed one of her early mysteries, The Secret Adversary, after overhearing a conversation in a café:

 “Two people were talking at a table nearby, discussing somebody called Jane Fish… That, I thought, would make a good beginning to a story — a name overheard at a tea shop — an unusual name, so that whoever heard it remembered it.”

While you’re out and about, look for details like a behavioral tic or a funny contradiction — anything that could become the seed of a larger story.

5. Capture ideas immediately

There’s nothing worse than realizing you’ve forgotten the great idea that occurred to you the previous night, all because you didn’t write it down.

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, had a simple solution:

 “I kept always two books in my pocket: one to read, one to write in.”

Today, that’s more likely a notes app than a leather diary, but the principle holds. Have somewhere to catch fragments of overheard dialogue, character trait ideas, or potential story premises when inspiration strikes.

Drafting: How to keep writing

6. Break the project into smaller tasks

Taking on a writing project can feel overwhelming, even for the most prolific writer. Mark Twain proposed a simple cure:

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

In short, make a molehill out of the mountain. This might look like:

• Setting a daily word count goal (even 200 words counts) with a writing tool like Reedsy Studio to track your progress. 

• Writing scene by scene rather than thinking in chapters.

• Taking part in a writing challenge, or joining a community like the Reedsy Discord to write alongside other writers. 

Progress feels much more achievable, and thus more motivating, with bite-sized goals. 

7. Stay organized with planning tools

Speaking of breaking your project down, it may also be helpful keep your plot, characters, and worldbuilding elements organized using designated planning tools. You can use these in the brainstorming phase too, of course — but they may be extra helpful if you’re easily overwhelmed by drafting. Check out our planning templates in Reedsy Studio to map out everything from your protagonist’s personality to the conflict and key themes you want to hit. To test these dynamic templates yourself, simply sign up to Studio and follow the instructions below:

• Create a new project
• Tap the "Planning" (📋) icon on the left-hand bar
• Select "Add → Browse templates" at the top
• Pick any template and start filling it out!

8. Find your window of productivity

It’s no secret that writing and procrastination often go hand in hand, but Norman Mailer had a simple antidote:

“If you tell yourself you are going to be at your desk tomorrow, you are by that declaration asking your unconscious to prepare the material. You are, in effect, contracting to pick up such valuables at a given time. Count on me, you are saying to a few forces below: I will be there to write.”

That said, there’s no universal “best time” to write. Benjamin Franklin supposedly sat at his desk to write at 6 AM. Then you have F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wouldn’t rise until just before midday to start his work. Find what time works for you, and stick to it. 

9. Write regularly to build momentum

As difficult as it can be, many authors recommend writing at least once a day. Daily writing doesn't need to show dramatic progress, but it’s essential to maintain the habit.

As bestselling author Jane Yolen explains:

"Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up."

So, even if you can’t dedicate more than 15 minutes per day to writing, that’s completely fine! Some progress is better than no progress, and you’ll find that over time, your words will have significantly piled up. 

10. Stop while you’re ahead

Maintaining momentum across a long project is one of the hardest parts of writing. Ernest Hemingway's solution might seem counterintuitive, but it worked for him (and plenty of others out there, we’re sure):

“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day… you will never be stuck… don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time.”

In practice, this means stopping mid-scene, mid-paragraph, maybe even mid-sentence. Roald Dahl swore by it:

"You make yourself stop and you walk away. And you can't wait to get back because you know what you want to say next."

If you're skeptical and wondering how you can stop worrying about halting at a midpoint, Hemingway addressed that too (in a sense): 

"By not thinking about it. As soon as you start to think about it, stop it. Think about something else. You have to learn that."

11. But don’t stop when you’re really in the flow

That said, if Hemingway’s strategy doesn’t suit you, there’s always Henry David Thoreau’s approach:

“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”

In other words, when the writing is going very well, follow it. A flow state is rare and worth protecting.

So before you sit down, do what you can to guard it. Put your phone in another room, close every tab you don't need, and let people around you know you're unavailable. The goal is to remove any friction that might pull you out before the heat runs out on its own.

And if inspiration strikes at an inconvenient moment — mid-shower or last thing at night — jot it down before it disappears. Some of the best ideas arrive uninvited, and you may even find that those written during moments of spontaneity often require the least revision.

12. Keep the tension taut between chapters 

When it comes to narrative pacing, you can heed Raymond Chandler’s strategy for chapter-writing: 

“When in doubt about how to end a chapter, bring in a man with a gun.”

Not something you’ll want to take literally, but rather as a reminder to keep the ante upped so that your story never becomes stale. In other words, end each chapter with a metaphorical bang so that the reader stays hooked.

13. Write the ending early

Some writers find it easier to draft once they know where the story is heading. While writing, Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Anne Porter reportedly started with the ending in mind:

“If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraph, my last page first.” 

Even if the details change later, getting the ending down early will give you something to write towards and the confidence that a finish line is in sight.

14. Seek a change of scenery

If you’ve ever gone through moments in which writing felt like pulling teeth, it could be time to switch up your writing environment. Here’s how a friend of Roald Dahl’s explained the author’s unique cocoon strategy:

“He steps into a sleeping bag, pulls it up to his waist and settles himself in a faded wing-backed armchair. His feet he rests on a battered travelling case full of logs. This is roped to the legs of the armchair so it’s always at a perfect distance.”

This strategy specifically hindered Dahl from gettting up to do something else. However, he wasn’t alone in finding unusual places to write. Gertrude Stein wrote in the driver’s seat of her Model T Ford, Marcel Proust refused to work anywhere but his bed. Edith Sitwell, despite her name, found that she wrote best lying down… in an open coffin (yes, really).

So whenever you’re in a slump, go to the place that helps you concentrate, whether that be at a quiet desk or in a busy café, and return to it consistently.

Editing: How to revise your work

15. Step away before editing

Distance is one of the most reliable editing tools. In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King recommends letting a finished manuscript sit in a drawer for at least six weeks before touching it again. Time away helps you return to your own work as a reader rather than a writer, making it easier to spot what isn’t working. 

George Saunders also describes that readerly mindset in action:

“I try to base my revision on a re-reading of what I’ve done so far, imitating, so far as it’s possible, a first-time reader. That is, I try not to bring too many ideas about what the story is doing etc, etc. Just SEE what it’s doing.”

16. Revisit the beginning and ending first

Once you’re ready to return to your manuscript, check whether the opening begins too abruptly, whether the ending is satisfying, and whether either section carries exposition that doesn’t need to be there. Polishing these areas often improves the entire narrative.

As Anton Chekhov once observed:

“My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.”

While you don’t need to literally remove the entire beginning and end of your work, it's worth taking a close look at where your story actually starts (and ends), and where it should.

17. Read your draft aloud

There’s a reason writers have sworn by this technique for centuries. Rudyard Kipling, in Something of Myself, describes his own editing ritual in characteristically vivid terms:

“Read it aloud alone and at leisure. Maybe a shade more brushwork will then indicate or impose itself.”

As academic Peter Elbow explains, reading your work aloud helps you notice any friction between the outer physical experience of hearing the words and the inner experience of feeling the meaning. Let your ear catch what your eye may have skipped over, and edit accordingly.

18. Cut filler words and weak modifiers

Stephen King famously warned: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” The point isn’t to eliminate every modifier, but to ensure that you’re not using too many adverbs and slipping into telling rather than showing.

Mark Twain offered similar advice with characteristic humor:

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

While you revise, be on the lookout for filler words — very, really, quite, things, stuff — and ask whether a stronger word (like “terrified” instead of “very afraid”) could replace them.

19. Proof like a reader

Even a strong piece can lose credibility when punctuation or spelling errors pull the reader out of the story. Walt Whitman boils it down into a very simple statement:

“I hate commas in the wrong places.”

Even after you’ve given your draft an edit to identify structural and flow issues, you’ll need to proofread it with a discerning eye to spot spelling errors, stray commas, and missing dialogue punctuation. 

Writer’s block: How to get unstuck

20. Write anything

When writer’s block sets in, the simplest solution is often the most effective. From Maya Angelou:

“I may just write for two weeks something like, ‘The cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’”

So take it from Angelou, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1971: keep writing, even badly, and eventually the momentum returns.

21. Write to one person

Sometimes, writer’s block comes from imagining an agent or thousands of strangers in the audience. To help curb this, here is John Steinbeck’s fix — as successfully tested and passed along by George Plimpton:

“Pretend that you’re writing not to your editor or to an audience or to a readership, but to someone close, like your sister, or your mother, or someone that you like.”

As Steinbeck himself explained:

“This removes the vague terror of addressing the large and faceless audience and it also, you will find, will give a sense of freedom and a lack of self-consciousness.”

22. Step away for a while

Then again, sometimes the best strategy is to stop writing entirely for a little while — a more extreme version of the “change of scenery” advice. Hilary Mantel once said:

“If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to ­music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don’t just stick there scowling at the problem.

 

“But don’t make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people’s words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.”

The brain continues working on creative problems in the background, and many writers find solutions once they return with a clearer mind.

If you’ve come this far and all else has failed, know that you can always resort to P.G. Wodehouse’s tried, true, and completely professional advice:

“I just sit at my typewriter and curse a bit.”

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Different strategies help with different challenges. If you’re struggling with ideas, start with questions or observations. If you’re struggling with productivity, focus on routine and breaking your project into smaller goals. If revision feels impossible, create some distance before you begin to edit. If writer’s block has you stuck, lower the stakes and just write anything.

Most writers end up combining several of these strategies over time. It’s less about checking every box on the list and more about finding the balance that helps you write better. Good luck!