Become A Better Writer
“Don’t waste time looking for a better pencil—learn to write better.”
How do you become a better writer? There are endless resources: theories, books, and blogs sharing advice on writing. But essentially, effective writing transfers your thoughts to others while hopefully providing entertainment and not losing your reader’s attention. That's basically what writing is. Taking your writing to the next level doesn't require a MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. I believe there are three simple things you can start doing now that will improve your writing greatly if you practice them regularly.
1 - Become a good reader
Writing begins as thought. To improve your writing, expose yourself to good thinking. Fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, sci-fi, psychology, genre is irrelevant; what you need to find are examples of superb writing. Pulitzer Prize winning author and New Yorker contributor John McPhee once wrote an entire essay on oranges. Masterful, engaging, prose has the potential to make any subject fascinating.
Once you've tasted good writing, you'll quickly be able to discern effective writing from lazy, dull, and average writing. Jiro Ono, perhaps the world's most famous sushi chef offers the following advice, "In order to make delicious food, you must eat delicious food." If you want to write quality content, you must start by reading quality content.
2 - Think like a designer
Putting the words down is only half the battle—there's editing to be done. That's why I recommend thinking like a designer. Architects for example consider space, function, size, safety, materials, before sketching blueprints. You too should be considering questions such as, “who's my audience and what do I want them to know?” Designers are particularly good at simplifying problems. Nicholas Petersen's design philosophy: "Good design is finding a solution to a problem. Great design is finding the simplest solution to the same problem."
Most people dread cutting sections of their writing. Good writers don't see it that way. Editing is a part of the writing process. Editing is solving for the "simplest solution". I cannot stress this enough. Spare your reader excess anecdotes, words, punctuation, etc. Editing might take as much if not more time than writing. Is this tedious? Yes, but your readers will thank you. If words are your raw materials, it’s choosing them that makes you a good writer.
3 - Try to write every day
In other words, practice. The only proven way I know to get better at a skill is by practicing. Practice requires time and patience. Failing and correcting is how we learn. My brother’s guitar teacher used to say, "Jake, you've got to play to play." And so I say, you've got to write to write. Write about anything, the weather, your day, food, how to tie a shoe—the important part is putting ideas to paper.
Want to improve your writing? Try these three things. Writing, like any work of art can always be improved. I believe anyone can learn to write well with a little focused practice. If you found these ideas useful, consider sharing with a friend or dropping me an email! Good luck, I look forward to reading your stuff.