How to Get Better at Writing Introduction

Whether you want to get better at writing to make a book, blog posts, emails, or social media posts, writing is a skill that will benefit you regardless of what you do in life. Knowing how to write well is one of the essential skills everyone should know. Being effective at writing will help you become more understandable instead of being vague and hard to understand. Writing well can help you speak better, thus by being a wordsmith other people will enjoy conversations with you and you’ll be able to express yourself clearly. Now that you know why writing well is important, let’s dive into how to get better at writing, shall we?

Write More To Get Better at Writing

What does a runner do to get better at running? They go for a run. What does a surfer do to get better at surfing? They go surfing. What does a singer do to get better at singing? They sing. Thus to get better at writing one must write a lot. I suggest developing a writing habit by doing it on a daily basis. The best approach would be to focus on writing in a single format until you become very good at that style. Here’s song formats that you may want to learn:

Blog posts
Copywriting
Sales Emails
Landing Pages
Social Media Posts
Professional Emails
Short form educational posts
Long form educational posts
and much more.

Find both your format and subject and focus on them. Now that does not mean you cannot expand, though it will be more efficient if you focus on a few topics that benefit whatever you pursue writing for. Also, some knowledge can be beneficial to all topics regardless of what you write about. For example, grammar rules apply to every topic.

Read the Books of Great Writers

By reading books from great writers, you can absorb the way they write subconsciously. Once that happens, your writing will get better because you will imitate what you have read. When you read, you will have better sentence structure by familiarizing yourself with the sentence structures successful writers use.

Reading can help you expand your vocabulary. Often when reading, you can find words you did not know of and research their meaning to increase your vocabulary.

Once you have read many books, you will have a variety of unique writing styles. you can then mix those styles to cultivate your own. With this newfound knowledge, you’ll create more valid arguments and logical structures.

Fiction Books Improve Your Writing

Fiction books in particular can help you get better at writing by enhancing creativity due to how creative fiction authors are. Also, fiction books or books in general that describe a story are much better in helping with sentence structure. An author of such a story is impeccable at describing the environment in the story in which things take place. Narrative flow also becomes better as fiction uses writing techniques to create suspense and build characters. These are just some of the reasons why fiction books are the best to read to get better at writing.

Be Consistent

Writing, much like all skills requires consistency for improving it. Practicing often can help the knowledge you absorb be reinforced in your memory. Being consistent builds accountability and discipline. It would be wise to build a routine via consistency to achieve the best possible results and get better at writing.

You Either Upgrade or Downgrade

I’m a big fan of the quote, “You either upgrade or downgrade.” (Unknown author of quote.) It’s true regardless of the skill practiced. Here are some examples:

If you stop working out, you lose power and muscle size. Whereas if you continue not only do you keep it, but it improves.
If you stop playing guitar for a while, your fingers will hurt again the next time you play, and you will no longer have playing endurance.
When you stop going for walks, you will lose endurance as your heart will get used to a lazier lifestyle.

Much like these examples, if you stop writing, your memory of the rules of writing starts to deteriorate and you start downgrading. To not deteriorate you need to keep on learning or reinforcing what you already know. So to get better at writing: write every day.

Learn the Writing Process to Get Better at Writing

There are five stages in the writing process, and it’s necessary to learn these to get better.

Stage 1 Involves gathering inspiration on the topic you will write about. Thinking of key points and writing them down, brainstorming ideas for what you will write for, and researching the topic. Establishing a clear direction in which your post will be headed to get better at writing.
Stage 2 is drafting, this is where you start putting your ideas together to make a rough version of your project. Here you focus on getting your thoughts on paper, you are less concerned about making grammar mistakes as you can fix those at a later stage.
Stage 3 is revising, it’s improving your writing by making it more clear, and effectively structuring your ideas and sentences. Here you rearrange sentences or paragraphs so that the writing will flow better.
Stage 4 Involves editing, here you focus primarily on grammar mistakes, punctuation, and word choice. The goal is to polish your writing and ensure there are no mistakes in it. To make your writing perfect we move on to stage 5.
Stage 5, Proofreading. Here you review your work by reading it a minimum of 5 times, trying to find out any remaining mistakes such as typos or formatting errors. Once you have proofread your work and are sure it’s great, you can publish it.

Expand Your Vocabulary

Expanding your vocabulary is necessary to write better. By expanding your vocabulary, you say with one word what others say with ten. Examples of this include:

“Living in terms of what is actually happening” turns into, “Living in reality”
“A large grey mammal with a trunk and a tail” Turns into “An Elephant”
“A problem that has not been solved yet but can be solved” Turns into “A puzzle”

By expanding your vocabulary, you can make shorter sentences as one word can be used instead of many and this makes your sentences easier to read.

Use a dictionary to expand your vocabulary. A dictionary is filled with new words to add to your arsenal and get better at writing. Once you learn a new word, try to make sentences with it and put it into context to become more familiar with these new words.

To expand your vocabulary, you can look out for unknown words in a conversation. Ask what these words mean to expand your vocabulary. Actively pursue conversations on topics you are less knowledgeable in as that is where unknown words are. You can make a list of topics that you are not knowledgeable about and research them and the words you are not familiar with.

Write First, Edit Later

Focus on getting all of your ideas onto paper and making a rough version of your writing first. Do not bother with finding typos, grammar mistakes, punctuation mistakes, structure, and so on while writing. This is crucial as too many good ideas are lost by concentrating on fixing mistakes instead of writing. As soon as you are finished with getting your ideas on paper, you can start editing. This is my favorite tip for someone to get better at writing.

Editing Makes Mediocre Writing Into Great Writing

Now that you have a rough version of your work it’s time to edit it. I suggest doing turning it into sections. For example, read the first paragraph again and again 5 times to find mistakes there. Do not continue reading after the first paragraph if you are not sure it is perfect. If you continue reading while unsure if the previous section is perfect, you will end up fixing it anyway so you might as well do it step by step. This is how one can go from mediocre writing to great writing.

Be Crystal Clear to Get Better at Writing

The most important part to get better at writing is to be crystal clear in what you are trying to convey to the reader. First off, know the purpose of your writing and identify your target audience. Use words they also use so they can feel more familiar with your writing. Ask yourself questions about the target audience. For example, if the target audience are children, you should not use complex words as children do not know complex words yet.

Use active voice instead of passive voice as it helps the reader understand what is happening better. Examples include:

“The pen was grabbed by Jim and he started putting words on the paper.” Becomes ” Jim grabbed the pen and started writing.”
“The water was drunk by Alex.” Becomes “Alex drank the water.”
“The food was eaten by Mary.” Becomes “Mary ate the food.”

Read Out Loud

Reading what you wrote out loud can help you identify punctuation mistakes. It can help you see where your writing might be awkward or unclear. You can then revise it to improve the clarity. By reading out loud, you can find where the flow of your writing is lacking and edit it. Reading out loud can also increase your public speaking skill, although unrelated to the topic, but it’s a nice bonus. If what you write uses characters, reading their words out loud can help you imagine the dialogue they are having and immerse yourself within it. This can boost your inspiration for future chapters and show you how this chapter plays out.

The Simpler the Writing the Better

If your writing is simple, it is easier to read and appeals to more people. Almost no one wants to think hard about what they read, because of this, accessible writing is the best writing. I suggest typing as you would talk to a 5th grader because the simpler your writing is the more engaging it is. Always avoid unnecessary complexity unless the topic you write about is complex but even then, try to make it easier for the reader to grasp. To paraphrase Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The easier it is to read, the harder it was to write.”

Develop A Unique Voice

There are multiple things one has to do to develop a unique voice and get better at writing. First off, start by reading a wide variety of writers and see what makes them special. The more styles you know, the more likely it is to combine some of their elements into your own.

Second, be authentic, write from your own perspectives and emotions. You have something that no one else on the planet does because no one can write exactly the way you will. I cannot write like you, and you cannot write like me. Find the topic that interests you and give your own insights and authentic opinions on it to get better at writing.

Third, try to write the way you speak. By doing so, your unique personality shines through for the reader to see.

How to Get Better at Writing Conclusion

Now that you know how to get better at writing, let’s recap. Do it on a daily basis and develop a habit. Find your topic and the format you want to get better at and focus on them. Read great authors to absorb how they use words and structures. Read fiction as fiction writers are impeccable at describing scenery. Be consistent to drastically improve your writing and reinforce what you know. Don’t stop writing so your knowledge stays fresh. Learn the writing process stages. Expand your vocabulary by reading a dictionary. Get your ideas on paper and edit them later. Be crystal clear with your message so the reader understands it. Read out loud to find mistakes with punctuation or flow. Write as simply as you possibly can. Develop a unique voice by using your own insights and authentic opinions. I wish you all the best and I hope you reach your goals.

Resources

Get Connected

- If you have enjoyed this article, you can get alerted to new articles and exclusive information by joining our email list. You can access this through the pop up on our home page. (You’ll also get a bunch of free stuff.)
- If you would like to keep learning, check out more of our articles!