There are many people who call themselves writers but not many of them take writing seriously enough that they strive to improve their skills daily. It takes more than reading journals, magazines, books, newspapers, etc. to improve your writing. You have to become completely immersed in the writing world. The following are some techniques writers can use to improve their writing.
1. Keeping a journal: Whether or not you believe it, a journal can help you to improve your skills. Writing frequently in a journal also helps writers to discover new ideas for their stories – ideas that could give birth to the next bestseller. Writing in journals should be done without any restrictions. Don’t censor your words and let your imagination roam free.
2. Get involved in writing prompts: Creative copy challenge, Writer’s Digest, and other resources for writers provide many writing exercises. They enable writers to challenge their abilities and test ideas for stories.
3. Rewriting your blogs: Writers who have blogs should take some blogs from long time ago and rewrite them. Repurposing blogs will show you exactly how far your writing has come.
4. Rewrite magazine and newspaper articles: Take some articles and rewrite them to see how much better you can make them. Also try to come up with better topics for them.
5. Activating Google alerts: Set up alerts for writing skills, book writing, and other topics related to writing. This way you can stay up to date with the latest stories. Alerts will enable you to read other people’s pieces to improve your skills.
6. Read beyond your comfort zone: Everybody has a favorite category or genre of books. Sometimes writers can be intolerant of books that are not from their favorite categories. If sci-fi, YA, NA, romance, or any other genre is your bread and butter, read books from other genres. It will help to stretch your thinking and writing styles as well.
7. Comment in blogs: We all read blogs and articles all over the Internet. However, most people who comment usually go for single-sentence replies. You should avoid short comments and write long detailed comments. By writing a reasonably long comment, you improve your writing skills and will also get noticed by the owner of the blog.
8. Joining a writer’s group: Authors should never shy away from sharing their writing. They should join groups of fellow authors and share their writing with other members. You can join groups to receive feedback about your writing. You will also get valuable advice about how to develop better characters, how to write better introductions, how to write more vivid scenes, etc. Join several groups before deciding which one you like best.
9. Attend writers’ conferences and workshops: Some traditional bookstores organize workshops periodically. Conferences and workshops are also organized by groups of writers or publishers. You should attend these events to get valuable writing tips and to learn what is happening in the writing industry.
10. Write a lot: Doing all the above will not make you a good writer. The only way to do that is to do a lot of writing. It doesn’t matter what time you write, for what purpose, or to whom. Just write a lot.
