Why You Don’t Have to Be a Great Writer

What to do if you are a complacent writer

So, you want to be a writer.

I tutored college English for 3 years. And I discovered people believe writing is simple and easy. After all, anyone can write a readable sentence. You string a few sentences together and you have a paragraph. Then combine the paragraphs and you have a story.

And, voila, you’re a writer.

Not really, but it’s a thought.

I’m assuming you enjoy writing but maybe question your ability. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this article. So let’s start with two premises that I learned from tutoring hundreds of students.

The first premise is a bad writer can’t be made into a good writer or even a complacent one. And the second premise is a complacent writer can, with a lot of hard work, persistent effort, and some help, become a good or even a great writer.

Know your tools

You must know how to use basic grammar, punctuation, and style. This isn’t optional.

Here are some of the tools you need in your writer’s toolbox:

Grammarly

The best resource to keep your writing tight is Grammarly. It checks your spelling and grammar, and it rates the tone of your writing.

Use Grammarly whenever you write.

Active tense

It’s common to write in the passive tense. Avoid it.

In the previous paragraph, I originally wrote: “It will not only check your spelling and grammar, but it will also rate the tone of your writing.” That’s a passive sentence.

The revised sentence is active and it reduces the word count.

White space and short sentences

Blocks of text are like walls. Readers don’t like to see big blocks of words. You want the reader to stay with you to the end. So write short sentences in small paragraphs.

Adverbs

Mark Twain said, “I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me.”

If you don’t know what an adverb is it is a word that describes or modifies a verb. If you wrote, “The lion roared really loud”, really is an adverb. In this case, you don’t need it. “The lion roared” is much better.

To make sure you aren’t using too many adverbs, use adverbless.com. It’s free. All you have to do is cut-and-paste your script into the box on adverbless then hit the check button. The adverbs will be highlighted so you can fix them.

As a general rule, adverbs are fluff words that don’t add to the story. They can add variety to your writing, but you should limit how often they’re used.

Strong paragraph structure

You should write using the basic paragraph structure. The topic sentence is followed by supporting sentences.

If you don’t use good paragraph structure you risk rambling in your writing and it can confuse the reader because you’ve gone off-topic.

I fail at this too often. I enjoy creative writing. So I throw down words as they come to me. Because I don’t want to slow down my writing as I’m writing my first draft, I have to fix any weak paragraphs in rewriting.

Good writing

If you use your writing tools, without doing anything else, you will find you’re a better writer. And even though you may not write a great story, it will be good.

Writing a singular, remarkable, attention-grabbing story is the goal. And every time you write, that is the objective. But if you fall short of a great article, you will have written a good story.

How to become a good writer

Read a lot and write a lot.

I don’t believe it’s possible to be a notable writer if you don’t read a lot. As you read many articles and books by different writers, you’ll pick up ideas on how to better structure your writing.

The second thing to being a good writer is writing and writing a lot. If you are writing less than 3 blogs a week, you aren’t putting in enough effort.

If you are new to blogging, you may feel 3 blogs is too much. So here’s what I recommend:

• Get 3 tablets. Put one beside your bed, one in your car, and carry one with you.
• Every day, write down ten titles of blogs.
• Continue this process for 10 days.
• When a title speaks to you and demands it be written, write it. This effort is like weight lifting. You may write 200 or 300 words. As long as you’ve done your best writing, it’s fine. Revise it and rewrite it. You will find your story will grow as new ideas come to you.
• Even though the article is short, publish it. The world is waiting to hear what you have to say. Don’t keep it from us.

One of the best things you can do to improve your writing is to read your story out loud. And don’t rush it. Read it in a natural, unhurried voice so that it flows.

Find someplace quiet

It’s hard to arrange your thoughts if the TV is blaring, the radio is blasting, and the kids are screaming.

So find a quiet place so you can write at least 300 words (if you are a new writer). If you are used to writing, a good goal is 700 words which I think is the minimum required to get your thoughts down and end up with a fleshed-out story.

If you feel 300 words is a lot, it isn’t. The average double-spaced typed page is 250 words. If you can’t write a single double-spaced page of text, you aren’t a writer.

Listen to music

Use a set of earbuds and put on music that inspires you to write. I like to listen to the blues, but you might like country-western. The style of music isn’t important. What’s important is that you write and write a lot.

Get started

You’re in your quiet writing spot. You’ve gone through your tablets and found the story that commands you to write it. You turn on your laptop and face …

A blank screen.

Like the roadrunner escaping the coyote, every word you planned on writing is gone.

What do you do?

Write. Write anything. But write something. Don’t judge it. Don’t critique it. Just get some words down.

When I started writing this article, I knew what I wanted to write about but I didn’t know what words to use.

So I started writing about writing. I wrote, “Being a writer is a great goal” which sounded strange. Then I wrote, “I like to write” but that sounded self appeasing. Who cares about what I like.

So I thought about my readers and how I wanted to connect with them. I asked myself some questions. Who is my reader? An old pro? No. Someone who can’t write and knows they can’t write? No. My readers are people who want to write but are unsure of themselves. That sounded right. So what is it they want?

They want to write.

So I wrote, “So you want to be a writer.”

And I had my opening line.

Being a great writer requires that “it” factor. I can’t define it. No one can. But a few have it, and the rest of us do the best we can.

If you want to be a good writer and maybe a great writer you have to:

Learn the basic rules of writing.

Read a lot and write a lot.

Tell the story as honestly and as truthfully as you can.

Publish what you write.

And you’ll be a writer.