Interview a close friend or family member about their life story and events and take notes. When finished with the interview, write a mini-biography of the person. This will give you experience at writing a story in a chronological order. As a bonus, you'll probably learn some fascinating information and gain insight about someone who is close to you.
Keep a written journal of your daily activities. This will help you convert your thoughts into a written form, which should give you additional writing practice and improve your skills. Besides making you a better writer, keeping a journal can also have a therapeutic value, as you will identify troubling thoughts and feelings, increasing your self-awareness.
In addition to being educational and entertaining, reading can also improve your writing skills. By reading well-written works, you can learn more about crafting sentences. You can also take the time to analyze passages from the work to see what makes the writing effective.
Outlining your piece can be a big help, especially if you're having trouble getting started. Outlining gives you a road map for your piece, and it also helps organization by breaking down the piece into separate sections. Even if you don't need to write a piece now, you can practice outlining while sitting at home. For example, choose a common household object such as a coffee table. Write an outline about all of the possible uses of the coffee table, such as displaying books or flowers, setting down drinks or putting your feet up. For additional practice, write a brief paragraph about each use.