ARTICLE | ILLUMINATION

3 Steps That Can Make You A Better Writer

You Can Be A Better Writer Than You Are Today If You Follow These Steps

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

― Stephen King

It’s not rocket science to understand this harsh truth: If we indulge ourselves in the craft we want to hone every single day, we will get better at it.

So, if you want to be a writer — a good writer, start to involve yourself in this art. Follow the successful ones, see how they write, and then write yourself.

When Stephen King asks you to read a lot and write a lot if you want to be a writer, then I’m no one to complain. I have been following the words of the Master, and with each day, I feel more and more comfortable in writing.

So, here are the 3 things helping me be better at my work (by no means I’m perfect, yet!).

Read A Lot

Among the 2 things Stephan King has exclusively asked us to do, the first one is “Read a lot”. There are multiple reasons why we should probably do so. Despite being a no-brainer most of us as writers don’t read much.

If you don’t read the articles and the books written by others, how would you know what’s the quality the readers are used to reading. Remember, the quality of your works will matter the most. So, the more you read, the more you will have an idea as to how much you are lagging behind.

Follow Your Favorite Writers

If making it on Medium is the ultimate goal, follow other writers in your genre who are actually successful in getting the readers’ attention.

See how they write. On average for every article I write on Medium, I read at least 4 articles written by my favorite authors.

Only reading for the sake of reading won’t help either. Try to formulate how they are structuring their content, how they are bringing stories to life, and how you can build your own voice.

Build Your Vocabulary

The more you read, the more words and phrases you will encounter. If you don’t understand a certain word, Google it. Or if you want to learn the traditional way, sit with a dictionary.

Vocabulary is a writer’s sword. The better you are at it, the better craft you will deliver. Now I am not saying that using high-profile words is the ultimate answer. If you read my articles, you will understand that my writing style is more of a conversational one. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a good vocabulary.

It’s important to understand your audience. If you are writing an article that is for all kinds of readers, then it’s better you follow Hemingway’s principle — write simple, concise sentences.

But if you are writing a novel, you have to up your level a bit.

Write A Lot

Now, only reading will make you a reader and not a writer. To be the writer you always wanted to be, you have to “write a lot”, as King said.

Discover Your Tone

The more you write the more you will be clear what your tone of writing is. What’s your voice? It’s important that you give yourself enough time and opportunity to discover this. Because your tone is going to make you unique and differentiate you from other writers.

You can follow other writers to understand how you want to write but copying them or their tone won’t get you the readers you think your writing deserves. Think it this way, why would someone read your articles if they are already consuming information from someone similar to you.

The one point you can note here is that almost any topic you decide to write on, someone else has probably already written something on it. So, it’s only your voice, your style of writing and presenting that will attract you the new audiences.

Build Your Researching Skills

The more you practice writing the better you will get at researching. That’s because you will need to research the topic every time you decide to write. The last thing you would want is to provide your readers with false information.

A good article is always about the great experiences you already have and the great researching skills you possess.

Get Creative

Once you have found your tone, built your vocabulary, and developed your researching skills, it’s time that you experiment. Get creative. Writing is not just putting pen to paper or keyboard to screen. It’s more than that. Writing is an art. And creativity is at the heart of every art form.

Learn From Your Experiences

This is the third and final point that I would like you to know. Although this is pretty much universal, I would like to write a few more words. And no, I am not trying to increase the word count. Ha ha!

Imagine this way, you read articles on the topic you want to write on, researched well, and have decided to include one of your personal experiences. You have written a wonderful article that you think your readers will be mesmerized reading.

What are the next steps you take? You hit the “Publish” button and check on the stats again and again and again. Despite how the article did, you follow the same steps tomorrow to create the next article and then the next. It goes on. Soon you will forget about the article you once wrote that you thought would mesmerize others.

This is true. Despite knowing the fact that we need to analyze our articles and learn from our experiences, WE DON’T DO IT.

That’s the reason I wanted to include this point, and let you all know — please do, especially if you are starting out.

If you liked this article you can follow me for more: My Profile

Also, I would like you to check this article out if you are struggling with writing.

See you next time. :)

Regards.