Better Writing Habits
Every ambitious writer strives to consistently produce better writing. We work to master grammar, develop a strong voice, and build sentences and paragraphs that captivate readers.
There’s a lot to learn, and in order to establish the skill set that every successful writer needs, we must foster beneficial writing habits.
Better Writing
Better writing simply doesn’t happen overnight. Sure, there are quick tricks and fast fixes that you can use, but developing smart, long-term writing habits is a much more effective way to generate better writing.
So, what habits can you foster to continuously improve your writing over time?
There are lists, articles, and entire books that will tell you countless ways to cultivate better writing, and most of the suggestions out there are legitimate. But I’ve scaled all that advice down into just five simple ways that you can refine and build your writing skills.
Tips for Better Writing
- Write every single day.
- Proofread. Edit. Repeat.
- Read as much as you can.
- Collect useful writing resources, including grammar and style guides.
- Get feedback from other writers, and from readers.
Foster Better Writing Habits
Most of these tips are beneficial to all writers – whether you’re a poet, a novelist, or a copywriter. In creative writing, we often lose sight of the technical aspect of writing because we’re so heavily focused on making our work compelling and coming up with interesting writing ideas.
But by mastering the mechanical stuff, like spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and by taking in a whole lot of writing (reading a lot), our creativity will be more at ease and will flow more naturally.
It would be an impossible challenge to try and work all of these habits into your daily life immediately. You are likely to become overwhelmed. Instead, work each practice into your schedule slowly.
Start by setting aside ten or twenty minutes to write every day. After a week or two, make revising and proofreading a regular step in your writing process. Set aside time each week to read – either in the evenings before bed or on the weekends when you have time to relax with a good book. When you visit bookstores, make it a point to stop by the writing resources section, and when you have questions about writing, find the answers. Finally, when you’ve polished a piece to perfection, show it around and get feedback.
Before you know it, your writing habits will be ingrained and you will be on a steady path to better writing.
Feel free to share your ideas for better writing in the comments.
Excellent post on developing better writing habits. I think #1 is especially important. The more you do something, the better you become at it (read Outliers if you don’t believe this one!). Writing every day is so important for keeping your skills sharp. Thanks for the great tips!
Positively Present´s last blog ..a happy life is not a perfect life
Thank you! I’ve spent many years trying to hone good writing habits, and it’s a pleasant chore
Captivating. I like that.
I tend to measure myself against 3 things:
1. How well do I help a reader solve a problem?
2. How well do I help address a question?
3. How simple do I make the information to use and act on?
My emails tend to be more captivating than my posts (I’m just a bit punchy and sometimes prophetic there.) Part of me says the information should just sell itself, but the pragmatic side of me says, heck, that’s not how it works. I know I need to work on my captivation skills and throw in some razzle dazzle.
I’ll work at it incrementally in bits, from adding story, to better headlines and more concrete examples to light things up. Well, at least that’s what I think I’ll do
… the tough part for me is shifting from authoritative writing on the job to conversational blogger on the Web.
J.D. Meier´s last blog ..Six Sources of Influence
Your posts are quite captivating, I think. I like your straightforward, clear style. You have a way of taking fairly complex information and making it simple and easy to understand. That’s a good skill for a writer to have!
Forgive me if I’ve said this before, but sometimes I dislike you for being right all the time.
I’m only saying that because I recently just told someone exactly what you wrote here. Okay, so I didn’t say ALL of what you said verbatim, but the points you made about writing everyday and reading more. Especially setting time aside to do these things. That’s my main issue: time management. But I do like what you said about this process takes some time. Indeed it does. There are many times I’d love to just stop what I’m doing to write, and I’ll tell myself “Tonight, after work, it shall be done!” But it doesn’t happen because there’s something else I need to do or I’m not feeling that urge.
Regardless, I need to force myself when I have the time and even if it’s crap, surely I can recycle it into something better at another time.
Unfortunately these urges to write happen while I’m at work, which I can only engage in if I’m ahead (lately that hasn’t been the case). Coincidentally, this is also usually when I read your blog, but my job has been busy lately and I blame you for writing such intriguing material because that sucks up time I should be doing my job.
Nevertheless, when I have started putting time away on the weekend to do some kind of writing until I’m able to write more often and eventually everyday like I had been doing. So thank you for the tips, encouragement, and being one more person to annoy me in a good way to just do it already(ya know, like a nagging mother who wants you to do your best).
t.sterling´s last blog ..a night at foxwoods
I guess that’s not a bad reason for being disliked
Your solution (listening to audiobooks) is a good one for getting more reading into your daily life. I’m not sure what you can do when the urge to write strikes while you’re working, other than take notes and try to flesh it out later. Many, many writers recommend choosing a time each day and committing to that time – even if it’s just fifteen minutes (come on, that’s nothing!).
The idea is that you can probably draft a whole page in fifteen minutes. If you do that every day, you’ll have 365 pages at the end of a year. That’s an entire book!
I was just thinking about what in my writing could use improvement.
That is something all of us writers think about, constantly. I think it’s a great strength for a writer to identify areas of weakness. It means you take the craft seriously, and provides you with the foundation that you need to grow and improve your writing.
“Read as much as you cam” is my favorite as this is what i practice and this is what gets me best insights. To read as much as a can i use simple principle of “kill dead time.” Any time i have a free time (duh…) i have a book with me, or a PDF abstract, or link to interesting article, or offline blog posts my RSS reader sucked while i was working
Good tips, i like it.
Alik Levin | PracticeThis.com´s last blog ..Powerful Consulting – #2
Reading is, to me, the most essential task for a writer. Far too many people want to write but don’t want to read. Thanks Alik.
Totally agree with you here, you should never stop learning!
Of course, it is important to be creative but writers should not lose sight of the technicalities such as spelling, grammar and punctuation.
As a writer I find that the best way to progress is to read, read, read and most definitely write as often as possible!
Thanks Danielle, I agree with you on all points. Reading is the number one activity that every writer should engage in regularly.
This is a great post! It makes me feel as though I’m doing at least a few things right. That helps a lot.
That’s great Meredith! Just keep on writing and you’ll be fine! Oh, and don’t forget to read too!