2 Ways You Can Save Yourself From Being a Mediocre Writer

Avoid being just another okay writer.

What even is a writer nowadays?

There are so many genres, subgenres, and sub-sub genres that it’s hard to keep track of what’s brewing. On top of new avenues being made in the writing world, plenty of unique writers are popping up out of the woodwork to show us their skills. However, like every writer, they all start out mediocre before they deliver us quality work.

It’ll take years before they get themselves to halfway decent writers.

So how can you save yourself from being a mediocre writer? Here are two ways to improve your writing as a newbie that have helped me with my writing career.

Read at least two articles a day with the intention of becoming a better writer.

I’m not going to be one of those writers that preach reading a bunch every day because I don’t do that myself.

There’s a difference between being a writer and a reader. I love to write. Reading is fun too, but I’m not trying to make a living as a reader (even though that would be cool). I’ve been reading Nicolas Cole’s book, “The Art and Business of Online Writing”, and here’s a quote that resonated with me the most:

“The time I spend reading should never exceed or equal the amount of time I spend creating”

There’s a difference between reading for fun and reading with the intention of being a better writer.

You can’t even begin to become a better writer unless you get a feel for how an article is written. Pay attention to the structure, the format, the prose — everything. Soak in as much knowledge as you can.

Whenever I get bored with my writing style, I find more articles from prominent writers and write down the techniques they teach so I can practice them for later.

Practice splattering your thoughts on the canvas every single day.

My writing is like a food fight or something.

Every night I just sit at my computer and jumble up some thoughts I have in my head, throw them on the blank page, and publish a couple of days later after reading it for ten minutes. That’s how I like to write at least. You may be different.

You might be a writer who needs to make an outline first. You might be a writer who needs a few hours to pace back and forth to edit one sentence. You might be a writer who wants to make sure all your ducks are in a row with adequate research.

That’s dandy.

But you can’t get feedback if you spend too much time harping over one article. Writers have completely different growth curves because some people have written over a thousand articles and still hit the blank canvas every day with their thoughts. While some get too scared of negative feedback and hide in their shell.

Here’s the best advice I could give you on dealing with this problem:

Who cares?

If you’re too scared of negative feedback, writing may not be for you. The only way you can splatter your thoughts and see what sticks is if you have fearless determination to get better at the craft. So what if someone called you a bitch in the comments?

You’ll never see them.

To be honest, I don’t take that much feedback for my articles. Ya, sometimes I glance to see which articles are getting the most attention, but ultimately I write for therapy — but I also turn it into a learning lesson for the reader.

Final Thoughts

There are really two ways to save yourself from thudding into that pit of mediocre writers.

Read at least two articles a day with the intention of being a better writer and splatter your thoughts on the screen without a care in the world with a lesson for the reader.

I know what you’re thinking — “It can’t be that simple.”

Well yes…yes it is.

Get my free writing guide that can teach you how to build a writing habit in 90 days or less here.