How To Improve Your Writing Skills

Written by Annette Elton · Print This Article

One of the most common questions I hear from people on the street is, “How do I become a better writer?” It’s most often followed by a book recommendation and while there are definitely some very good books on writing, there’s really only one (okay maybe two) ways to improve your writing skills.

#1 Practice. It doesn’t matter if you were born with a talent for writing or if your struggling, the best way to improve your writing skills is to write. If you’re a business owner you may be shaking your head and saying, “Well that doesn’t really help me, I need to write well now.”

To that, I say:

* Plan your content before you write it:

- Determine the purpose of your content, keep the purpose simple

- Introduce your purpose in the first paragraph, include supporting material like a list, steps or a few points, and then summarize

* Write your content without editing yourself (save the editing for the end)

* Set it aside for at least ten minutes, several hours is preferable so you can contemplate the content without judging your writing skills

* Edit the piece.

This basic structure works well whether you’ve been writing for years or are just getting started. And the more you write, the better you’ll get. However, if you combine #1 with #2 here below, your writing will improve faster.

#2 Study people whose writing you admire. Study it thoughtfully. What is the structure? What is the purpose? Why is the writing good? What do you like about it? Emulate the writing style in your practice.

Combining the two steps, analyzing your writing and the writing styles of people you admire and putting that thought process into your writing is called “deep practice.” It’s the type of practice that involves problem solving rather than rote practice.

For example, if you’re hitting a tennis ball the same way over and over again that’s fine, you’re going to get better at hitting the tennis ball that way.

However, if you want to improve your forehand stroke, you need to first determine where it’s weak and break your stroke down into a series of smaller steps. This is deep practice and when you apply it to your writing practice, you’ll improve by leaps and bounds almost overnight.

If you’re interested in learning more about deep practice and how to improve any skill, not just writing, check out “The Talent Code,” by Daniel Coyle.