You Don’t Have To Be a Good Writer To Be A Great One

Encouraging news for the rest of us

Who decides what it means to be a good writer?

Some people are naturally gifted and can write like the greatest literary writers of our times.

Their style is inspiring, their voice is engaging and their words flow off the screen. Their sentence structure is solid, their grammar is flawless and you’ll never find an unnecessary word in their writing.

You may believe that you’re not a naturally gifted writer with the style and flow that good writers have. You may not have a degree from a fancy school, have been a journalist, or have a best-selling book.

You may not speak English well or understand the dynamics of writing well.

Another way to define good writing

What if being a good writer doesn’t mean you’re the most technically competent or grammatically correct one?

What if being a good writer isn’t about good writing but about readability and connecting with your audience?

What if being a good writer isn’t necessary for being a popular and well-read writer?

The secret that I want to share with you is this: you don’t have to be a good writer to be a great one. You don’t need to be someone who writes well to have a lot of people reading your writing.

I’m not the best writer that I know and never have been. I’m not stylistically great and make lots of mistakes in my writing. Go through my writing and there will be grammar errors, redundancies, and poor sentence structure.

Yet I’ve had viral articles for my blog and other guest blogs. I’ve had articles that have reached over 100,000 views over the years.

Most recently, I had a viral article that had over 20,000 views on this platform. You won’t find this article I wrote in the New York Times but enough people enjoyed it, got value from it, and read it.

There are alternative ways for you to become well-read without being able to write well.

It’s why regular people, bloggers, and online writers get more views than University professors and authors of popular books. It’s why more people read some writers more than they read newspaper columnists or magazine writers.

How to be a great writer

You’re in a new world of writing today where there are fewer gatekeepers between you and your audience.

Anyone can open a Quora, Medium, or LinkedIn account. Anyone can open a Yelp, Facebook, or Twitter account.

You can open these accounts and start writing today. You can be a phenomenal writer who is read by many even if you’re not a technically good one.

7 alternative ways to be a great writer

1. Write more unique ideas

You can outdo good writing by writing more unique ideas. Please don’t write another morning habits article or why you need to meditate article. Please don’t write another how to quit your job article or how to have more confidence article.

If you’ve read it and seen it, then please don’t put the same ideas out there. Don’t regurgitate the same old boring personal development advice.

Try to come up with something unique, interesting or that has never been said before. Come up with something with a unique take and perspective.

2. Share more personal stories

You may not realize it, but your life is the greatest reality television show in the world. People want to read it. I know this because any story that gets into my personal life gets to read a lot.

I wrote about my family trying to set me up with a potential wife and it has close to 2000 views. I wrote about a love gone wrong and it has over 1000 views.

People are curious about your life and want to read about it. Write stories about your life and about your personal experiences to draw more eyeballs to your work.

3. Write stories that connect at the emotional level

Personal stories that share vulnerable events about your life are stories that people want to read. We all go through difficult and challenging things, but few people will share them.

An online blogger who was a popular author, Glynnon Doyle, writes about the personal and the vulnerable happenings in her life. Vulnerable stories are filled with emotions from the writers’ life and you’re able to feel the feelings that the writer felt.

Emotional writing is very addictive writing. Once again, I know this too well because I write all about my divorce for my other blog. Thousands of people read my blog and have told me they resonate with my life experience.

4. Make people burst out laughing

You know who the funny people are around these areas. Writers like Michael Burg, MD and Sarah Paris are simply a hoot when it comes to their writing. You know that any article they write is going to make you laugh out loud.

Being funny and writing funny are once again something that everyone loves to read. You can become a popular writer if you make people laugh.

People love comedy shows, listening to funny comedians and they even love reading funny people writing online. Use humor to stand out.

5. Write more helpful ideas

Help more people in more areas of their life. Whatever area you have expertise in or are familiar with, guide people on that. Help people do something better, quicker, smarter, or more easily.

The more helpful you are, the more your writing will be valued. Show people how to do something you did or overcome something that you’ve overcome.

Help them with a problem they’re facing. Teach them something that they are unfamiliar with and before you know it, you will have a loyal audience waiting for your every word.

6. Write more about unspoken topics

The fewer people talk about it in public, the more people want to know about it. If you can write about money, sex, or any other taboo topic, you will find yourself a popular writer.

There’s so much that isn’t discussed in public or on the blogosphere. Most of us don't want to talk about sex or money online but we likely do. If you’re willing to be open about erotica, romance, porn, or sex, please drop your profile in the link below and we will all follow you.

Talk about money, earnings, or ways to get rich and you’ll grow your following.

Write about religion or politics. Write about historical controversies. Write about true crime. Write about conspiracy theories.

7. Write about counter-intuitive ideas

Write the opposite of what everyone else is writing. Take a stand for something you believe in. Take a counterpoint of view.

If you say something that’s the opposite of what other folks are saying your writing will come across as taking a stand and will challenge readers’ thinking. The more controversial or against the tide your writing is, the more attention it will get.

You may get people who don’t like what you say and disagree with you but they’ll still show up to read your writing.

You don’t have to be good to be great

You don’t have to be a good writer to be a great writer.

If you can’t be the best stylistically or writing-wise, use these 7 hacks above to become a popular and well-read writer.

A good writer doesn’t have to mean that you’re good at writing.

A good writer can just be someone who has unique points of view, interesting stories, make people laugh, or help people.

Improve so you can become a better writer stylistically but in the meantime, become the most interesting and unique writer you can be.

Good writers write well. Great writers have the ability to connect with their audiences and get people reading them.

Don’t worry if you’re not that good of a writer. You still have the potential to be great.

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