4 Tips to Improve Your Writing

Whether you are a seasoned veteran or an absolute beginner, writing is a skill that needs to be trained and honed. Like an athlete needs to practice their sport, a writer needs to practice their craft. Your writing skills won’t improve overnight, but the routine and discipline of regular practice will help improve your abilities over time. Consider these tips on how to start improving your writing:

Join a Community of Writers

Joining a group of writers is an excellent first step toward improving your writing skills. Longstanding communities like Wattpad have existed since 2006 to help writers and storytellers workshop their writing. Smaller places for aspiring writers serve the same purpose of assisting wordsmiths in honing their skills and sharpening their ideas.

Only other writers genuinely understand the hurdles that come with writing. Some of your biggest allies could be found in a writing community, ready to help you strengthen your abilities. There is also plenty to be learned from hearing the works of other aspiring writers and giving them feedback on their abilities.

Improve Your Writing By Reading

A vital component to being a good writer is also being an avid reader. There are enormous benefits for writers who read what other writers are writing. Reading is essential to writing, whether exposing you to a new writing style or inspiring an idea of your own. 

Even world-renown, best-selling authors are passionate readers. Stephen King, for example, does not shy away from the fact that he is a voracious reader. He recommends a list of books and has posted reviews for novels. It would not be easy to find a top-tier writer who is not a fervent reader.

Make time to sit down and read every day. A lot can be learned by reading the works of other writers. Those lessons will go a long way to help improve your writing. 

Write Something Every Day

The advice to just ‘start writing’ might seem counter-productive, but getting into a daily habit of writing is a significant step in building a healthy writing routine. Starting a journal or freewrite space are great outlets for daily writing. Whatever you decide to call this practice, getting words onto the paper should be your goal.

Both journaling and freewriting are simple ways to avoid one of the most common problems writers face: What do I write about? Keeping a journal allows you to write about yourself or your day. The practice of freewriting, by design, pushes writers to jot down whatever comes to mind. Create a space, set a timer for 10 minutes, and write until that time runs out.

This is an exercise meant to get your thoughts out on paper. Do not worry if your writing is rough or nonsensical. As you get more comfortable with this exercise, try increasing the time limit and continue building your writing routine. This exercise could yield good ideas worth developing into a much bigger project. 

Exercise to Improve Your Writing

Like any skill or ability, practice makes perfect. To keep their writing abilities fresh and to work towards improvement, writers need to exercise too. Where a football player might run drills, writers can use writing exercises to work out their writing muscles. 

There are no shortage of writing prompts available to choose from. A brief Google search will yield hundreds of results, making this an easy process to adopt into your daily writing routine.

While finding a good prompt can be a challenge in and of itself, consider picking one at random. A football player does not only practice what they already excel at.

Like any skill, dedication and practice can improve your writing ability. According to experts, becoming a master of something takes approximately 10,000 hours. Implementing the tips listed above will help give writers the time and discipline they need to develop. With a solid writing routine, there is no limit to what a writer can accomplish.