There’s a standard piece of advice out there that tells you that you can improve your writing by writing more. But the flaw in this advice is that if you aren’t writing well to begin with and doing nothing to improve it, then writing more, by itself, isn’t going to change much. Or it will take a very long time to get better this way.
Writing more will allow you to improve your writing of course, once you’ve got the basics down. I’d like to propose that you can improve your writing by doing what an English major does. But you don’t have to spend all those years studying the language and literature! Once you are doing at least some of the things listed below, writing will become easier, which makes you more likely to write. Then, as you consistently write better and more often and fall into a groove, your writing will continue to get better.
The Benefits of Improving Your Writing
- When you improve your writing, it becomes more natural. Therefore, you write more.
- It saves time, and money on editors.
- Your ideas, stories, and thoughts will be more clearly expressed.
- You’ll attract more readers.
- It will bring you a sense of accomplishment and confidence.
- Writing well improves your communication skills.
These are all good things, whether you are writing novels or nonfiction and seeking to get published, or even if you’re planning on self-publishing. Whether you want to improve your writing to express yourself or communicate better in your blogs, newsletters, and other content marketing, being a better writer is extremely beneficial. This is why those English degrees aren’t useless. The discipline prepares you for doing well in many fields.
1) Read A Lot (in and outside of your genre) to Improve Your Writing
You’ve probably heard this one before and I can’t express enough how important I believe this one is! Even if you want to bend or break all the rules, you must learn them first. Reading in your genre is a passive type of learning. You pick up on things as you read. You note structure and tropes and tone and flow. Plus, reading is, or should be, enjoyable, especially if what you’re reading is similar to what you are interested in writing.
If you want to write blogs, read blogs that are similar to what you want to write. To write better Sci-Fi or Fantasy, read those types of books! Do you want to write a business book? Read business books, or blogs and articles on the topics you will cover.
There is no downside to reading more. You can read for fun and passively learn how to be a better writer, or you can analyze the text and take notes. However you do it, just read more if you want to improve your writing.
Worried you’ll be too heavily influenced by someone else’s style? Well, the good news is that nothing is truly original and as you get better at writing, your own style will develop naturally.
You can read more in your genre by:
- Browsing online and creating a To Be Read list.
- Subscribing to blogs and newsletters of those in your sphere.
- Searching your local library and picking books at random from your category.
- Seeking out magazines and other publications that cover your topic of interest.
2) Read Your Writing Out Loud
This is one way to improve your writing that is so simple, yet extremely valuable. Oftentimes, we write and it flows out of us naturally. It seems so easy…. Well, this is what is known as a first draft. Yes, you’ll have moments of flow in your writing process, and sometimes it works perfectly.
But don’t rely on this ease as being a marker of quality.
Read your writing out loud. Don’t just scan and reread it. Before you go back and revise anything even, read it out loud.
Why? Because reading it out loud allows you to catch things you wouldn’t by just scanning it again with your eyes. Reading something you’ve written out loud will allow you to notice the tone and the flow of the words. It will catch awkward phrasing. It forces you to analyze the structure of your writing.
FICTION WRITERS! This trick is especially helpful with dialogue. If it doesn’t sound natural when you read it out loud, it’s not going to seem natural to your readers. There is nothing worse than stilted, awkward dialogue and this mistake will become very clear when read out loud.
3) Use the Thesaurus and Dictionary
This one may seem obvious. But consulting a dictionary and thesaurus will not only help you understand language better, it will spark your creativity. Have you ever wondered, Is there a better way to say this? That’s exactly what a thesaurus is for.
If you don’t already have these in your home, buy them. Paperback versions are super affordable. If you don’t want to spend the money or don’t have the space on your desk, use the online versions. Having easy access to these tools can dramatically improve your writing.
Whenever you’re feeling stuck, or unable to express yourself, consult these sources. Read them for fun, or just to satisfy your curiosity.
Go ahead and experiment with phrasing and usage. This can help improve both nonfiction and fiction writing and help you develop your style. It also prevents you from using redundancies, or overusing phrases in your writing.
These two resources are basically required materials for an English major, and they’ll help you improve your writing no matter what type of writer you are. They will help make your writing more articulate, expressive, and correct.
4) Consult Writing Manuals to Improve Your Writing and Editing
Besides a dictionary and thesaurus, writing manuals are the most long-standing, invaluable tools a writer can have. Having physical copies on hand is ideal. I say this because not much can replace them and searching online for answers to grammar and usage questions is time-consuming and you won’t always get a clear answer. Sometimes you will be led astray.
The one sure way to get it right is to consult these manuals. Now, there are different manuals for different types of writing. You may be familiar with some of these standards, such as MLA, which is often used in academic writing. But the point is to make sure your usage, grammar, and punctuation are as correct as possible.
Here are some writing manuals that are consistently praised for their value and will improve your writing in a big way:
- Elements of Style – Strunk and White
- On Writing – Stephen King
- The Emotional Craft of Fiction – Donald Maass
- On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction – William Zinsser
- The Chicago Guide To Copyediting Fiction– Amy J. Scheider
5) Create an Outline and Follow it to Improve The Structure of Your Writing
Just like you learned in school, writing an outline helps your writing maintain its structure and focus. It may sound silly, but this method is still useful for many types of writing, especially if you tend to be a rambler or struggle with getting your point across.
Creating an outline will not only improve your writing, it will save you time. Outlines are the most helpful when writing articles, blogs, and other nonfiction, but some writers even use them for fiction.
An outline helps keep your focus too and creates a logical flow of ideas. This all matters to readers because it makes your writing easier to read. And online, writing structure matters because people tend to skim rather than hone in on details.
An outline, in case you’ve forgotten, goes something like this:
INTRO
Thesis and overview, basically.
TOPIC or POINT
A) Expand on point
B)Another aspect of point
C) Yet another
TOPIC OR POINT
A)…
B)…
C)…
Repeat as needed.
CONCLUSION
Reiterate overview and thesis.
It doesn’t have to look exactly like this, but the basic structure will allow you to organize your thoughts, and the flow, and ensure you don’t miss anything. If you want to read more about online content structure, go here.
6) Use Writing Assistance Tools the Right Way Because the Wrong Way Won’t Improve Your Writing
The promise of generative AI for the average consumer is that it will help improve your writing. But it’s not entirely living up to its promise, and possibly never will. And if you truly want to be a better writer, relying on AI is more of a hindrance than a help. Think about it. Has autocorrect made you a better speller? Or has it made you so lazy about proper spelling that you’ve forgotten how to spell things you used to know how to spell? I know it has made me a worse speller.
So, with that in mind, I suggest you don’t waste your time in figuring out the most effective writing prompts to feed to ChatGPT, or whatever you may use, so that it can put out something that resembles okay writing on a topic. Instead, use that time to become a better writer.
These Tools Do Have Some Benefit
What you can use these types of writing tools for are spelling, grammar, and punctuation checks. This really will save you time, and they can be generally trusted with these small tasks.
These tools aren’t great for phrasing and usage, especially if they’re free and if you write fiction. Because they just don’t have the capabilities of giving accurate suggestions for anything that isn’t standard, academic-style writing anyway. They will make your writing generic and kill your voice. But that’s what you have your dictionary and thesaurus for. That is why you are reading often!
But using them as a grammar, spelling, and punctuation checker will save you time, and possibly money on an editor if they don’t have to correct obvious and multiple mistakes.
Treat these tools as a time saver and don’t trust them implicitly. They will never help improve your writing as much as doing the work will.
It should be noted that when I ran a grammar and spelling check on this, it missed multiple of the same words it corrected once or twice. So, always review your work! And I’d like to note that I don’t use these tools in my editing process because they can’t be trusted, as I’ve pointed out.
I hope this was helpful. Happy writing!
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