How To Become A Good Writer [Part 1]

8 years ago

How To Become A Good Writer [Part 1]

Want to become a good writer? It will take time, but it is easier than becoming a major sports star or singer. Writers are infamous for their self-doubt, whether they're world renowned or just another unknown soul. If you commit to a procedure of continued and perpetual
improvement, then there are no limits to how far you may go.

Sub-Title: Practicing Your Writing

1. Write every day. You may prefer to write a new short scene every day, or work on a long-term, writing project. You might have a daily minimum of one paragraph, or an entire page. But if you take any advice from this page, stick to one important habit: write every single day.

*. If you can't find room in your schedule, try getting up early or going to bed late, even if you can only spare fifteen minutes.

2. Write your way through writer's block. Don't be so afraid to write something "bad" that you end up staring at a blank document. Getting anything on the page at all can help you get started. Write about how you're stuck and can't think of something to write, or describe an object in the room in painfully exhaustive detail, or rant about something that irritates you. A few minutes of this will often put you in "writing mode" and lead you to another idea.

*. Look online, in bookstores, or in libraries for collections of writing prompts. These are designed to give you a starting point to work from, and are often ridiculous to spark your imagination and get you started.

3 Challenge yourself. If you've been writing for a while, chances are good that you keep getting drawn back to a particular style, topic, or format. Practicing a favorite type of writing is a great way to keep yourself motivated, but make an effort to vary your writing exercises once in a while. Deliberately tackling new and difficult challenges is vital for improvement in any field. Try these challenges as exercises, whether or not you're interested in polishing the end result:

*. If your writing projects or your narrators all sound similar, try a different style. Imitate another author, or combine the styles of two authors.
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*. If most of your writing is for a blog, or for one long project, take a break from it. Think of a topic that could never fit into your usual writing project, and write about it. (For a followup challenge, rewrite the piece so itcouldfit into your project.)

4. Trade feedback with a group of supportive writers. Invite feedback on your writing, and offer to read other writers' drafts. Welcome honest criticism offered as advice for improvement, but keep your writing away from friends who act dismissive or negative. There's a big difference between useful critique, and disheartening negativity.

*. Look for online communities such as Scribophile or WritersCafe, or search for a more niche community on a specific type of writing.

*. Check your local library and community centers for information on local writing clubs.

*. You could even practice writing on a wiki, such as wikiHow or Wikipedia. This lets you help people as you practice, and might be one of the largest communal writing projects you ever undertake.

5. Commit yourself to a writing schedule with other people. If you have trouble getting around to your writing projects, make a commitment to other people to give yourself external motivation. Get a pen pal to write letters to on a regular schedule, or start a blogwith weekly updates. Find a writing contest a few weeks in the future, and promise to submit an entry. Join a writing challenge, whether that's a single writing session with a group of friends, or NaNoWriMo's annual "novel in a month" extravaganza.

6. Rewrite the pieces you care about. The first draft of a story always has room for improvement, and often ends up looking quite different after a few revisions. Once you've written a piece that attracts your attention, go through the "finished" piece of writing and find sentences, paragraphs, or whole pages you're dissatisfied with. Rewrite a scene from a different character's perspective, try out alternative plot developments, or change the order of events. If you're not sure why you dislike a passage, rewrite it without referring to the original, then see what you like best in each version.

*. Scrapping a beloved passage and starting again can be incredibly tough, so much so that writers have been phrasing this advice as "murder your darlings" for over a century.

Stay Tuned While We Update You With The Other Parts.