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What are your best tips on improving writing quality?
From the past few months, I have been actively working on improving my writing skills. From your personal learnings, what are the best ideas, practices and tips for improving writing?
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Chandan Das
1. Write Every Day
2. Create an Outline
3. Read What You Want to Write About
4. Choose Simple Words
5. Convey Your Message Easily
6. Avoid Filler Words
7. Follow other top writers in your niche
8. Keep Sentences and Paragraphs Short. Think for mobile device
9. Invest in an Editing Tool
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@chandan_shopify Splendid reply, Chandan. I think you gave a holistic approach of how to improve writing. Your answer will surely catch other writers' attention. Keep writing.
@chandan_shopify Yes, you have nail it. "Write Every Day" - It takes 10000 hours to be good in something, so Chandan advice is the essence.
I liked Paul Graham's piece on writing simply: http://paulgraham.com/simply.html
@sarah_wright7 Hey Sarah, this is gold! Thanks for sharing, I have bookmarked this page because I might need to keep looking at it periodically to keep reminding myself.
I would add, know your audience. Most of my writing is for HS aged students and teachers. I use Hemingway Editor, to keep my writing direct and clear for this audience. https://www.producthunt.com/post...
@david_grills This is a very important point, David. I have been writing for some time now, and I have realized that if a writer totally ignores the target audience, then all the hard work turns out to be futile.
@filipminev I will recommend to also https://relanote.com - for connecting research topics is perfect. Disclaimer I am on of the founders.
@filipminev Under rated comment. Hemingway is excellent. It stops you from using so many adverbs in your copy. It's changed how I write and how I think about writing with all the silly superlatives I use to use. I notice so many websites use "supercharge", this is now my current pet peeve.
@rg97 Read. Read. And read some more. Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. There was a time where I loved reading product labels. Funnily, that experience helped me cook up bottled magic potions for my latest novel. Nothing can substitute what you will learn from reading the works of others.
@rg97 @stuti We have something in common - reading product labels. It's indeed fascinating that how you can pick new words or hit on a new inspiration, all by reading the packaging information of a cereal box! Reading is the way to go about improving writing. I wish you all the best for your work on the latest novel.
Read the work writers that you admire - study the details of their paragraph structure, their expression, style, sentence structure and so on. Also grab a copy of Elements of Style by Strunk and White.
@aaron_tran2 Seconded! Every writer should know Strunk’s message:
“Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.“
@aaron_tran2 Thanks for sharing your advice and the book recommendation, Aaron. I hope everyone who crosses this comment, find this useful. :)
@aaron_tran2 @kbn_au Thanks Kyle. This is a wonderful message; worthy of taking a print and sticking it to my workstation.
Grammerly has been a good help. Not only with spelling, but punctuation, sentence structure as well.
@florence_walker Agreed, Grammerly is a great tool to learn, evaluate and improve writing in the long run. Since you mentioned Grammerly, I'm curious to know are there any other tools that you use to make your writing better?
@florence_walker I was quite sceptical about Grammarly at first. It actually really does help, even the free version is super useful for writing content. I did not notice how many mistakes I have in the text until I installed it.
Hi Tanoy,
I too have been working towards the very same goal like you.
Writing is a very investing quality which takes time to grow. But as we are into it, here are 3️⃣ things that helped me a lott!
1. Read Read Read!📚
Read as much as possible! You might want to focus on a particular genre, which is great but, do make a point to try different genres every once in a while just so that you know how writing styles and tonality changes for different audiences and moods.
2. Maintaining Notes📒
As you read, maintain a small notebook to jot down words, sentences, phrases that you find interesting. Go through your notes on end of the day and before starting your day.
You can have digital notes but I strongly suggest Pen✏️ and Paper🗒.
Our brain remembers better when we actually write those words with our own hands.
Every time you write, it gets etched a little deeper into your memory.
3. WOW (Word of the Week) & POW (Phrase of the Week) 📜-
This one helped me a ton!! 🌟
What I did for myself was that, once I had a good amount of notes ready, I picked 1word and 1phrase for the week and I would use them as much as possible when I talked to anyone, when I wrote emails, or when I was engaging with any social media community, or when I was writing my daily journal, literally EVERY WHERE 🔥.
I would purposely frame my sentences in way that I get to use my WOW and POW.
How this one helped❓
We all know a lot of words but when we actually sit down to write something, we fall short of words 🤔. We can't recollect them when we actually need them 😟.
📌This exercise helps us to REGISTER WORDS IN MEMORY📌
We understand how to use them or how to not use them. When is it accurate to use it, how the audience react when we use it, etc
I believe we grasp better when we apply our learnings.
And this one will definitely help to elevate our writing level. 🎯
Hope this helps you Tanoy.
Do tell me if you find it useful. Good luck and keep writing!👍😁
@juilee_mahimkar This answer is not just insightful, it's a thing of beauty. Juilee, I cannot appreciate enough for taking time out and writing such a detailed answer. Of course, this answer is very very helpful for me. And, I'm sure this will catch every other aspiring writer's attention. Keep writing, keep inspiring.
@tanoy27 Really glad to know this! 😁
And thank you so much! It's a pleasure sharing and getting insights form creative minds. ✨
Read fiction books! The amount of vocabulary, syntax, narrative construction, and style stuff you pick up from reading novels is really shocking and is a great way to improve how you write.
@theclairbyrd Really good advice. Thanks to fiction books I am in the computer space. They gave the imagination to believe that I can make things.
@theclairbyrd Yes, fiction books are great for picking new words, and learning more about sentence structure. I remember reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini," it has made a lasting impact on me. Do you have a favourite non-fiction book?
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1. Try to break up any sentence with over 10 words.
2. Don't communicate more than a single idea in each sentence
@killshiva True, adding too many words and ideas makes the reader ambiguous, and it deviates them from the central theme of the story.
i don't have much experience in writing, as i only recently started it. but what i've noticed is that- the more i read, the better I write. And this doesn't mean that I read things that are only related to what I write about. I love me some YA fiction. But my work includes writing about culture and history. But, just reading anything makes my writing just so much smoother.
@priyal Agreed, reading is the no.1 exercise to build vocabulary and learn writing style. I have been trying to push myself to read at least 5 pages every day, and so far it has worked well for me.
1. Read Articles
2. Have an app for new word a day
3. See videos for new ideas in content writing
4. Search for new tools
5. Practice
6. Listen to what people , you can get ideas
@jaskiran_kaur Great list! I think I did a good job with point no.6. I have been getting a lot of ideas from people after posting this question on PH. Thanks for commenting, Jaskiran.
If the thing you write is something kinda long -like book or diary or article-, logic is the most important thing. So every end of the week read what you write carefully and pretend like a reader of your work. You can determine somethings simply doesnt make sense every new week.
@caner_altundas Totally agree with you, Caner. This happens to me a lot; once you give some time for the thoughts to settle down and alienate yourself from the project that you're working on, sometimes, you can stumble on a new idea or inspiration that you had earlier not thought about.
Best way is to take a really good training on writing better content,
I am currently writing here http://oshodioke.com , but would really love a genuine rating on my writing skills:) good or bad. Thanks in advance ukanephilemon@gmail.com
@gmail @philemon_de_dev Yup, getting better at your art is like a guaranteed technique for improvement.
I've been surprised by how great Yoast SEO is. It tells me when I'm using passive voice or when I need to shorten sentences. I agree on the Grammarly advice, but Yoast has been helpful picking up broader readability issues that Grammarly hasn't caught. https://yoast.com/seo-blog/
@hardlyallison Yoast SEO is a life-saver. There were a few instances where my writing was passable by Grammarly, but Yoast SEO red flagged readability issues. Thanks for commenting, Allison.
Here are few top recommended book that can help you to improve your copy writing.
The Halbert Copywriting Method Part III: Reveals the editing formulas and patterns found in the works of history's best copywriters. https://amzn.to/3snDeDu
The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: Legendary copywriter and ad man Joseph Sugarman provides proven guidelines and expert advice on what it takes to write copy that will entice, motivate, and move customers to buy. https://amzn.to/3x45zCg
The Boron Letters: These letters date back to 1984, so don't expect tips about the Internet, email, & social media. Instead, expect advice that goes deeper than modern media. https://amzn.to/2Q3PFr3
Ogilvy on Advertising: This book is a comprehensive guide on all the facets of advertising. https://amzn.to/2Q4NELj
Few book suggestions on psychology and persuasion, as they’re the basis of good copy.
Influence: You’ll learn the six universal principles of influence and how to use them to become a skilled persuader. https://amzn.to/3tw2rgb
Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold, and others come unstuck. https://amzn.to/3n4SjJ1
Contagious: In Contagious, Berger reveals the secret science behind
word-of-mouth and social transmission. https://amzn.to/2QBwXqE
@alok_gangrade This is an interesting list. I had heard about a few of them before, thanks for reminding me.
Can you provide some info about: 1. The Audience, 2: The Publishing Mode. The first and the foremost thing to do is to identify who are you writing for. Is it a 15-year old high school kid you are targeting or is it a 50 year old business person who would be reading it.
The second important thing is to know where your target audience would be reading it. Are they going to read it as a blog or are they going to read it on a printed newspaper? Or are you planning to write a novel or is going to be a social media post?
One thing that could help anyone improve their writing quality irrespective of any factors is to read as much as you can. Hope this helps!
@sourabh_kaushik I mostly write for the B2B and B2C audience. My articles are published on our company blog and other websites that accept guest posts. I agree with you on the part that the nature of the audience largely shapes the way one writes content.