I’m going to make a bold statement. Whatever level your writing ability is at right now, you can make it better.
I’m assuming that by reading this article you already think that improving your writing is something you need to do, so I’m not going to convince you about why you should improve it. I’ll just dive straight into how you can improve it.
Even if you are a complete beginner.
Getting Started
The first step will sound easy, but you might shy away from it at first. So I’ll make it as easy as possible.
By the way, this isn’t just for beginners. All you seasoned writers out there that want to improve should think twice before skipping this bit!
- Find something to write on and something to write with. If you prefer pen and paper, use that, if you prefer typing on a laptop do that.
- Open up this random topic generator and click ‘Generate Random Topic’.
- Copy the first topic that comes up to the top of your paper or screen.
- Set a timer for whatever you’re comfortable with, but make it at least 10 minutes.
- Write about that topic. Don’t stop writing to think too much about it, just get down on paper the first thing that comes to mind, even if it isn’t even related to the topic.
The purpose of this is to just write. It doesn’t matter what you write about, the act of writing will do many things for your writing abilities, including:
- Getting more confident at actually starting to write (and moving past the dreaded writer’s block).
- Starting to exercise the parts of your brain that contribute to creativity.
- Seeing writing as a fun practice, not just a means to an end.
Getting started can be daunting, even for experienced writers, so using an exercise like this is a great way to take the pressure off and enjoy the process.
Another awesome exercise is to use images.
- Get your method of writing ready.
- Go to Unsplash.com and type in a topic, any topic.
- Download any image that comes up and either display it on your screen if you’re writing by hand, or copy it to the top of your page if you’re typing.
- Write a story about that image.
This is a great exercise because you can take so much from an image if you really look at it.
I sometimes use this exercise to come up with content ideas.
Practice
The biggest thing you can do to improve your writing skills is to practice. I could end this section there, but I’ll explain a little more.
The more you actually take part in the act of writing, the more freely the words will come. You will get faster at actually writing (or typing). You will unlock vocabulary you forgot you knew.
But you won’t get noticeably better at writing.
Wait, what?
Practice by itself will only get you so far. You need to practice with purpose.
“This is a fundamental truth about any sort of practice: If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve.”
Anders Ericsson, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
Write the difficult stories, push yourself to learn new words, find out about sentence structure and many other facets of writing. Then practice those things in your writing.
When I taught myself to juggle, I didn’t just grab hold of three juggling balls and have at it, desperately trying to juggle those three balls. I started with one ball, throwing it to the right height, throwing from one hand to another. Then added in a second ball, juggling with one hand, throwing between hands, getting the speed right. Once I had that mastered (relatively speaking!) I finally introduced the third ball to practice with.
But in order to do this with writing, you need to know what things to practice.
Learn from the Best (and your comrades)
You might not have considered a writing course, or at least learning writing skills from an expert. But writing is perhaps the main skill you will need for your online business or blog (if that is the reason you want to improve it).
You should be investing in the key areas to ensure you succeed and writing is without doubt a key area.
There are so many writing courses out there, but I would choose between these two:
- Dave Schools Medium Writing Course (specifically for successful writing online).
- Shani Raja’s The Four Levels of Writing Mastery Course (more general writing skills).
I would also recommend joining a writer’s group. Ninja Writers Club, run by Shaunta Grimes, is the best I have come across. In a writer’s club, you will be surrounded by people at different stages in their writing journey. You will find people at the same level as you, people that you identify well with and people that you can learn from.
Just being in a community like this will improve your writing no-end.
There is also the Ninja Writers Academy that gives you an assignment every week to help improve your writing.
Use Some Tools
You all want the tools, right?
Here are a few that I use all the time.
Grammarly, in particular, is a well-designed piece of software and it integrates well with other programs, websites, etc. The free version will give you a lot of help with basic grammar and spelling. The paid version will look more in-depth at your structure and tone.
Medium is a wonderful place to read good writing. You’ll recognise it when you see it and most of the time the cream rises to the top, so you’ll be recommended good writers.
Spend some time on Medium finding writers that write about things you’re interested in as well as in a style you enjoy. Use these writers as inspiration for your own writing. The more you read, the more vocabulary you will pick up and the more you will subconsciously learn about writing.
Google Docs is my preferred word processor as it keeps everything in ‘the cloud’, is shareable and is nice and simple (for my simple mind!).
YouTube. What the??
I use YouTube primarily for ‘writing music’. I experiment with different styles and save a playlist of the ones that really work for me. Try searching for ‘writing music’, ‘binaural beats’ and ‘productivity music’. But then just try out other styles yourself to see what works. If nothing works, maybe you’re better with silence!
That’s my top-level view of how to get good at writing. There is so much more to write about the subject, but I wanted to keep this short.
The fact of the matter is, you can get better at writing, anyone can…
If you really want to.