Keep trying. I'm sure you'll pull it trough. I'll just offer some of the practises I do a lot.
Draw small simple items you see on your desk or around you in general. Bottles, cd's, whatever you have lying around (I like drawing my brother's legos from different angles). It's not extremely fun, but it's good practise. Or the good old "not look at the paper while you draw"-practises. I love those. It turns out awful, but that's allright, it's supposed to turn out awful. It helps you loosen up your lines.
And my all time favorite, the drawing practise at
Posemaniacs. I do a session of these every day. It's frustrating at first, but I really like how I can see my lines loosen up for every 90 sec sketch I do. And I usually never manage to draw the entire model, but I think that's all right as well. So pull out some paper and those pencils and do that practise right thar. : D
There are other good practises out there as well. If you google a bit, or experiment yourself, I am sure you'll find something you like.
Writing... urr, I don't consider myself a good writer, and I don't really know any good tips for that. Could probably need some good tips myself. xD
I don't really know GIMPshop either, so I can't help out there too, but good luck at solving it. ^^