Try The New Thing

Stepping outside your normal comfort zone to try new things as a writer is one of the most vitally important things you can
do to improve your craft.

Do you normally write short? Write a novel. (And vice versa)

Have you only written
stories? Try telling one in a different media: make a video trailer, write a
screenplay, write a script for virtual reality, design a game.

Do you write only science fiction and fantasy? Write a
romance. Or a mystery.

Have you always written as yourself (i.e. under your own
name)? Write under a penname. Secretly. BE THAT NEW PERSON. See what it does to
your writing.

These things may seem like a waste of time. Or painful. Or something
you simply don’t want to do. 

But here’s the thing: you will steadily improve
your craft by writing lots and lots of words; you will take significant leaps
by earnestly studying the craft itself and applying it to your work; but you
will take warp-speed jumps by doing something radically different with your
craft (and then bringing those lessons learned back to your regularly scheduled
writing show).