You Don’t Need to Be Talented to Write
Here is a beginner's guide to getting you started.
Having a degree in English, this is a hard pill to swallow.
The fact of the matter is this: by using the basic skills listed below and with practice, you too can write content that people want to read.
Writing comes in vastly different forms. For instance, I spent three years training my writing to be read by academics. This involved learning how to footnote correctly, plan methodically, and critically analyze among other things.
Your writing is like any muscle; train it enough and it will get stronger.
Take blogging for instance. It is vastly different from writing about critical theory. Yet, the basic skills are the same, and they are listed below.
Understand your audience
It is all about the mindset. You need to understand your audience. That is the most important lesson I want you to take away from this piece. Get into the mind of the reader.
Ask yourself, what are they getting out of this? If the answer is nothing, perhaps it is time to shelve the idea unless you can think of another angle to shoot from.
For example, what I hope you get out of this article is that you don’t need to be talented to be a good writer. Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo would be one of the best football players ever without training?
Have a voice
Read, read, and read some more. However, don’t fall into the trap of mimicking others' writing styles.
Read other writer’s work to see what makes them successful then apply some of these skills to your work. Things such as paragraphing, language, and content. Plus, reading articles may inspire ideas of your own. Perhaps you can discuss their subject matter from another angle?
Writing regularly will enable you to gain a voice. You’ll find your feet eventually.
Whereas a thesis would have a more professional voice, a blog post is more informal. You want to converse with the reader through your words. Be approachable but informative.
Make it habitual
On average, it takes 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.
It doesn’t even need to be much. Start with 100 words a day and steadily increase.
You may be wondering:
‘how can I possibly think of different things to write about?’
Well, as I mentioned earlier, reading another writer’s work is a start. Plus, the more you write, the more your mindset adjusts. You’ll start to see things in everyday life that is worthy of an article.
It can be as simple as trying a new food: ‘You Need to Try ____’. Go from there.
More often than not, if you have an idea, another of the 7 billion people in the world will have wondered the same thing.
You have fingers and a brain, now train them. Practice does, in fact, make perfect.
