Evaluate the topic you intend to write about. Take your time forming ideas about the topic and forming opinions.
Challenge your ideas. Prejudice, short-sightedness and closed-minded thinking are eliminated when you challenge your ideas and find out other sides of the story. While you might maintain your opinion afterward, finding out what others think prevents closing your mind to possibilities. Writing is a creative work, so it requires challenge to form new thoughts and ideas.
Outline your ideas before writing. An outline is the basic structuring and allows you to stay on topic while also allowing you freedom to adjust your ideas as necessary. This helps improve the skills while still allowing you more time to think about the topic.
Write your story, essay, poem or creative work. All writing is a measure of creativity and thinking. As you write, expect ideas to change or further develop. Writing requires critical thinking and the ability to adjust to finish a work. You start with getting your ideas on paper, and then you challenge the ideas again during the editing phase. You then form your final conclusions.