3 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer

They Are Not What You Think

We’ve all heard it before.

If you want to be a better writer, WRITE.

If you want to be a better writer, READ.

At least that’s what so many of the writing gurus tell us.

For years, I had read and heard that advice. So, I read, and I wrote.

And I taught in a high school English department,

BUT —

A student in the first creative writing course I taught shocked me when he told me he hated reading.

AND —

Then, another student told me he didn’t like reading because he struggled with reading due to a reading disability.

“How do you expect to improve your writing if you don’t read?” flew through my mind, but gratefully not from my mouth.

I also had the voracious readers who wrote — horribly.

Then, I attended the University of Wisconsin: Madison’s Writers’ Institute. One of my favorite events at the Institute was the Success Panel where authors who had become published that year shared their experience. Here, I met a young man with cerebral palsy. He was confined to a wheelchair and had few verbal skills; however, he had recently published a book.

All guru sayings about writing and reading shattered.

READING

With today’s technology, the age-old concept of reading, sitting quietly with a book in hand, has been challenged.

For a long time, reading novels, magazines, and newspapers via the internet was difficult for me. It just didn’t seem right. I needed (still need) to touch the book, to underline passages that move me, and to write in the margins. (Maybe that comes from being a communications major within the educational field.)

Technology has brought the written word to a number of people who, without it, wouldn’t be able to “read.”

Electronic text can be enlarged for people with vision problems, or the contrast between the background and the print can be made more pronounced.

BUT ALSO —

People with extreme reading difficulties can enjoy the written word via audio books, and audio books allow the reader to enjoy a book while driving or working out at the gym.

WRITING

Technology has even affected the task of writing. No longer does one need to possess a pen/pencil and paper to write. Even the invention of the typewriter has become obsolete for most people.

I learned the value of voice to text when I got bit by a dog earlier this year. My hand swelled up to twice its normal size, and it took nearly six weeks for the muscles in the hand to function well enough to actually type.

BUT —

voice to text aids writers with physical handicaps and writers with reading disabilities put their words on the page.

SO WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BE A BETTER WRITER?

To me there are three skills that are more important than the actual tasks of reading and writing that you need to develop to improve your writing.

Appreciation of the story.

You don’t have to sit down with a book in hand or words strung visually on the screen of your computer to find story.

Story is everywhere.

It’s the television programs you watch, even the news.

It’s what we share in daily conversation.

It’s in our movies.

It’s in the stories about growing up your parents and grandparents tell.

Story is even in the play of children.

An Analytical Mind

In high school and college human physiology, we learn that there are two hemispheres of the brain and that the right hemisphere is associated with the ability to use our imagination and be creative while the left hemisphere rules our ability to use logic and reasoning and to analyze our world.

But these two hemispheres work together when we write.

Our right hemisphere lets us create the words on the page that develop a story, but our left hemisphere allows us to look at our writing and determine if the story works or not and what holes might exist in what we are trying to say.

As a teacher, I would ask my students what they thought of a story to begin a discussion.

My favorite response came from a quiet student: “It was a stupid story.”

I know a number of teachers who would take offense at that and try to tell the student why it wasn’t a stupid story.

Me? Nope. I turned it on her. “Why did you think it was a stupid story?”

“Because the main character made some dumb choices. If she had done ‘B’ instead of ‘A’, she wouldn’t have had so much trouble.”

Me?

“Exactly. You got the point of the story.”

“Huh?”

“The point of the story — we should really consider the outcome of any decision we make, no matter how insignificant.”

Our analytical mind is important in story telling; but unfortunately, we tend toss it to the side in favor of our creative mind.

A mind open to your imagination.

I loved to challenge my high school students’ creativity.

One year, when I was teaching the Native American section of American Literature, I gave my students an assignment to write a myth of origin or a creation myth about something in nature.

During the time I gave them time to start in class, a student approached my desk. I was expecting her to inform me that this was a stupid assignment. Instead, she told me she couldn’t write a myth.

I was about to go into the explanation about how attempting to create a myth with her own imagination would help her understand the storytelling in Native American myths with greater depth.

“Mrs. Kojetin. I can’t create a myth about how something began because God created everything.”

She had closed her mind to any story that might explain the origin or creation of something because her religion had shut that ability down.

Interested in becoming a better writer?

In addition to reading voraciously and writing every day, you really need to develop an appreciation of storytelling, allow yourself to analyze what you have written, and let your imagination out to play.

Rebecca (Becky) spent 34 years in a teaching career, but when she retired in 2014, she picked up her pen and pursued her passion to write. As a high school English teacher, Becky held the philosophy that she wouldn’t give any writing assignment that she personally wouldn’t or couldn’t do. That philosophy strengthened and broadened her own writing.

In addition to publishing her writing on various platforms, Becky also blogs at Life is for Living, a blog to encourage, motivate, and help others live the best life possible. As an extension of Life is for Living, she also publishes a weekly newsletter, Let’s Chat. (Check it out HERE.) Life is for Living also has a social media presence with the group Coffee on my Porch. (Check it out HERE.)

After teaching writing for 34 years, Becky began Ink & Keyboard, a blog for writers at all levels. She supplements what she writes on the blog with a subscription newsletter, The Writer’s Notebook (Check it out HERE.) and the social media group Ink & Keyboard (Check it out HERE.)

Thanks for reading.

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