Here’s three more ways to get some valuable writing experience.

Comment on Social Media

I’m talking professionally, not sharing pictures of your kids! Start on Twitter; practice saying a lot in a few words. Stick to topics that your readers might find interesting and keep it professional. There is nothing worse than a prospective publisher or client seeing controversial, nasty, or rude stuff, not to mention jokes, f-bombs, and so on.

Facebook is another good place; follow large websites with a focus on writing or publications that you want to write for, and offer your opinion on their posts. Be careful how you write; keep it concise and free of errors. Check your punctuation and grammar before you hit that Post button.

Lastly, share posts from your own blog on social media too. Blogging is social and if nobody knows where to find you, they can't visit your blog. Visit theirs too, and share their posts – they love that.

Write Guest Posts

Guest posting is a great way to get some experience and its nothing like writing for your own blog. You might not make any money out of it to start with but it is good experience and lots of writers to do it to link back to their own website or blog.

Write the very best post that you can; many sites that accept guest posts have strict guidelines to work to so make sure you follow them. Make sure it is organized, on topic, free of errors. Have you edited it and proofread it properly? If you are asked to revise it or correct something, do it cheerfully – experience, remember?

Join a Writers Group

There are plenty of these. Look on Facebook for writers groups in your geographical area; search on Google. Have a look on Twitter using the hashtags #writers or #writersgroup.

These groups generally have a specific focus, goals and some great insight, not to mention experienced members who can help you. Some offer social meetings in a coffee shop, a great way to get out and meet other like-minded people, especially if you work alone all day.

You can also get some experience by joining writers forums or group discussions on Facebook, not to mention the additional writing practice. And some groups offer motivation by offering critiques for free or contests where you can win a prize.

Bonus Tip

Approach your local newspaper about writing an op-ed, or an opinion editorial. These often take the form of feature articles and, so long as they are clear and concise with decent punctuation and grammar, there’s a good chance it will be published.

If it doesn’t suit you to sit at home practicing your writing, make the effort to get out and meet other writers. It doesn’t matter what you write at the end of the day; it’s all practice and it’s all experience and, if you really want to make a name for yourself as a writer, you need plenty of both. Get out there and do it today.