Ways to improve your writing

Most people can write a whole lot better than they already are and I’m not just talking about incremental improvements here; I’m saying a whole lot better, and I do mean those precise words. If you start writing on a topic that you know is a winner, and if you feel you have a firm grasp of your audience and what they like, you’ll normally end up with an article that is more than just decent. It’ll end up being pretty good, if I’m being honest. But why settle for pretty good, why not aim for excellence? Just taking a look at the finer nuances of your writing style means that you will be able to tweak things to go from good to great with ease. Here’s some principles to do just that.

Go crazy, edit later

Okay, so this is a bit sensationalist as advice goes, I must admit. You don’t literally need to go apeshit while writing a post, an article, a letter or just about anything else you can think of. What I do mean is that you need to simply cut loose and write whatever it is that you like writing about in your own, distinctive style. As my good friend Mr. Hemingway once said (okay, you got me; he isn’t really my friend), be real; it is the best way to produce compelling prose or copy that reels people in. Trust and persuasion is vital for the written word, so don’t ever write like some robot spitting out text heartlessly. Don’t write, tell; your copy needs life.

Patience is a virtue

Being patient is a very vital virtue when it comes to writing well. Sometimes, you just have to write whatever it is you want to and then walk away from it in order to gain some perspective. Anything looks better in hindsight (especially beautiful women walking away, but that’s not the point), so let that text simmer overnight instead of being in a tearing hurry to just get it done rapidly. Okay, so you have to be in a hurry at some times, but don’t get so excited about whatever it is you’re writing that you end up losing perspective. You don’t need to send it out straight away; give it some time and take a second look at it. You’d be surprised by how much you missed first time out.

Get a little help from your friends

If you’ve followed the previous piece of advice I mentioned in this post, read it out aloud. Not you, silly; get a friend to do it for you. This way you can pick up on little errors that you might have missed earlier. Problems with flow and continuity that just skipped by you earlier become clear as day all of a sudden. I’ll be honest; I rarely every do this myself and everyone says it’s the way to go and I do agree with the idea behind it all even if I rarely ever get around to doing it myself.