10 ways to be a good writer
I might be a bad writer, but in my life, I have read a lot of good books and more than a lot of really bad ones. Some of the good stuff includes articles about how to be a good writer, and advice from great writers like Stephen King.
Trust me, if you read through all the following points, you’ll close this tab a better writer than you ever were. Who knows what the internet Gods will grant you for spending your time on something useful for once? Maybe you’ll get a grade bump on your next writing assignment.
Write for yourself, be prepared to receive more criticism and failure than you think you deserve, take positive feedback, don’t be ashamed of your flaws and stop trying to please everyone.
Tell me a story because no topic and no piece of writing should be boring. Get people to relate to those stories. If you’re trying to sell something, tell me about how nobody taught you money-saving skills when you were young. In a world of scrolling through hundreds of news feed, you need an attention-catcher, and stories are usually the best way.
Do you have a point? A lot of people tend to use long, braided and decorated sentences that lead nowhere and is loved by only one person – the writer. Every sentence must be born with a purpose. People aren’t impressed by your vocabulary; they react to the impression your writing leaves on them.
Strip it down: I know you want to meet that 1000-word mark and finish your homework as soon as possible. However, to produce a good writing, try to meet that mark with as few words as possible. What do I mean by that? Avoid unnecessary explaining and useless words. If you’re writing for the internet, most of the times, you only have a couple minutes to get reader’s attention before he or she is done using the toilet. So, keep the attitude of asking yourself “All I need from you right now is…”
After you’re done writing, go back and delete most of your first and last paragraph. Because everyone tells us that the introduction and conclusion must be strong, we tend to overdo it. Most of the important stuff is usually in your body paragraphs, so learn to sacrifice. I know sometimes we spend a lot of time structuring a sentence in a divinely perfect way and we hope the whole world sees what we did there, but the world may not really want to see all that.
Stop using “He said” and “She said”. Avoid “that” whenever you can and never start a sentence with “So”. 98% of the time, adverbs are absolutely useless. Think about what jargon words are in your paper, and get rid of them.
Going back to keeping it short, clear and concise again, be incredibly specific. This helps to develop a deeper relationship with the reader. I know I have been saying that keeping it concise is important, but there are times where you need to explain me in details how your shivering hands can’t move around the keyboard instead of just telling me you’re tired.
Argue and Analyze when you can as long as it gets you to your point; it will keep your article engaging.
Disconnect from the world and take yourself to your happy place when you sit down to write. There is no need to be pretentious by dressing up your vocabulary. Writing is often called a form of telepathy, and no two minds think alike. So, it is important to be true to yourself and avoid plagiarism. Also, avoid clichés; they are annoying. Reading often and writing more helps a lot!
Being a good writer and being a grammar savvy are usually two different things. It’s important to have a proper grammar, but as long as you are succeeding to communicate with your reader, there’s a reason you’re reading this last. This doesn’t mean you should undermine the importance of well-structured sentences and properly organized paragraphs.
Finally, understand that this is me listing out my opinions. So, take risks and don’t be ashamed of criticisms. All the advice listed above is trying to lead you to the way of concise writing with good content and focus. In order to make it fun, I use writing as a thinking exercise. As Paul Graham said:
"Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you’re bad at writing and don’t like to do it, you’ll miss out on most of the ideas writing would have generated. "
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