Level Up Your Writing Skills In 5 Ways

Many authors claim that writing is a gift that a person is born with. However, in the latest times of today, we would say that it is not a talent you are born with; these are the writing skills that you develop over time. Those individuals who do turn out to write outstanding pieces of content for the first time they connect with pen and paper would have prepared themselves for accomplishments – Even if they did it consciously.  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• KNOW YOUR GOALS AND PURPOSES  
• DIVE DEEPER INTO THE KNOWLEDGE OF OTHER WRITERS 
• SEARCH FOR IDEAS AND REFINE THEM INTO A MASTER PLAN
  
• WRITE ROUGH DRAFTS 
• USE EDITING AND REWRITING TOOLS
  

If you are interested in becoming a writer, then we will help you take your skill to the next level of awesomeness. Here are five ways to level up your writing skills.  

• KNOW YOUR GOALS AND PURPOSES 

Before we get started, we would like to clear out one simple thing. Writing is a form of communication. The piece of text could communicate a story, a plot idea, an emotion, or reasoning. The simplest way you can do to write better is to clear the purpose and goals of your work. Such as,  

1. WHY ARE YOU WRITING THIS? 
2. WHO ARE YOU WRITING FOR? 
3. IS IT FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES? 
4. ARE YOU TRYING TO INFORM THE AUDIENCE OF SOMETHING? 

The answers to all these questions will have an influence on the way your content should be written. The best to educate yourself on multiple types of writing is to read a lot. Here are some basic types and their characteristics.  

CREATIVE WRITING

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when we say creative? It’s imaginative and lets its events, characters, and settings. The actual purpose of writing a creative and fictional piece is to narrate a story that resonates with readers. As an outcome, creative writing is focused on its character development, pacing, plot, and the writer’s ability to immerse the readers into an imaginary world.  

Creative writing is the beauty of the prose that is more significant to this kind of writing. Of course, the focus of attention given to the prose style depicts depending on the formats. It could be flash fiction, a novel, poetry, or a fictional short story and genre. The genre could be mystery, fantasy, literary fiction, and much more. However, you need to create your distinct authorial voice if you need to enhance your creative writing.  

Here are: 6 Different Types of Creative Content Writers Should Know!!!

CREATIVE NON-FICTION

Creative non-fiction is a sub-field of creative writing. It depicts the storytelling techniques and literary devices of fiction writing to recount real stories. Think about investigative news stories, memoirs, biographies, and personal essays. For multiple reasons, writing a good creative nonfiction CNF depends less on world-building and imaginative plotting. However, the author’s voice is just as essential as it is for fiction.  

MARKETING WRITING SKILLS

Marketing writing is any type of content that is used to develop a brand image for the customers or sell something by persuading the clients. This is a writing skill set that is high in demand as many brands and companies are focusing on getting the attention of their clients. Marketing material is about writing content as taglines, blog content, website copies, and product descriptions. The actual purpose is to offer information about the product or service that hits the right keywords to search for them online, convincing the readers to purchase the product and reinforce the brand image. To attract a wide audience, this type of writing is more conversational and digestible compared to creative non-fiction.  

ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS

Academic writing takes the forms of essays, journal articles, and books. This is highly focused on both content and format. This writing field demands factual accuracy with sharp analysis and sometimes methodological explanations. The intent is to delay the information and to engage and derive meaning from it. Hence, academic writing requires to the point, logical, and persuasive writing skills.  

• DIVE DEEPER INTO THE KNOWLEDGE OF OTHER WRITERS

Once you have decided which type of writing you want to ace in, then the next step is to educate yourself. According to Annie Proulx quote about writing states: “Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” 

LEARN TO READ LIKE A WRITER

It sounds obvious that you have to read a lot, and you need to read critically. When reading a piece of content, know about the purpose of every written content and trace how the author has succeeded in it. What made their content so effective? It will not be obvious what was so good about a piece of writing, but with time, you will notice that certain techniques do work. It is like watching a sport that you are not acknowledged with – the more you see it, the clearer the game rules become. And once you know how to play, you can ace it along.  

• SEARCH FOR IDEAS AND REFINE THEM INTO A MASTER-PLAN
  

Let’s go to the part where you have to prepare for a particular writing assignment. Professionals’ writers and students may be assigned a remit by teachers, employers, or customers. At the same time, others would have to write a novel or a short story. No matter which task is given to you. It is effective to start from a strong central idea. By there, you can tease out some little points and form a direction for the piece before you write – take a look at some methods which might help you do this effectively.  

WRITE YOUR THOUGHTS

It is important to write freely. It is exactly how it sounds like: you can set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes and write freely. Make some bullet points or sentences about your topic that ideally addresses these questions: 

1. WHAT DO YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT MIGHT ASSIST? 
2. HOW CAN YOU REACH THE OBJECTIVE WITH DEPTH? 
3. WHAT RELATED DETAILS CAN YOU INCLUDE? 
4. WHAT REQUIRES MORE RESEARCH? 

This is the exercise you have to carry on your initial research once you have jotted down all the important things in one place. You can also find yourself focusing connections between certain points with everything laid out, some of which may be crucial parts of your argument or could be the plot of your story.  

START BRAINSTORMING

If you want something organized or visuals, you can brainstorm it. It’s pretty straightforward to start your main topic from the middle and bring out branches of relevant points or facts that develop your thoughts. It is a great way to construct extended arguments or plot-lines, and it will offer you a sense of direction before you put your pen on the paper. Make a mind-map, connect the dots, and align it with sticky notes.  

CREATE AN OUTLINE

One of the important things to do is to prep work one step ahead by writing an outline. An outline looks different when relying on what kind of writing you are working on. To offer some ideas, here are a few examples.  

Novels: A famous story structure is like the three acting structures, which can be helpful in mapping out the events of your plot, so there is a complete arc to compel the audience to keep on reading.  

Nonfictional Books: A book outline is an important part of a non-fictional book proposal. In this, you can make chapter titles and explain what you mean to tell in each chapter.  

Essays: In this, you can summarize every argument you have in mind to make with a single sentence. Start arranging them in your organized order. By doing this, you can see whether the central line of argument works or not.  

Blog Articles: Jot down the potential sub-headings for your article. Ideally, each one would offer an extra bit of details about the topic you are blogging about, so the readers can skim through and go to the main gist of the article. 

You are ready to jump into the writing with the points mentioned above.  

• WRITE ROUGH DRAFTS

The basic key is to write the first draft by getting it out there initially. To quote Jodi Picoult, “You can always do editing on a bad page, and however, you cannot edit a blank page.” Points for perfection in the first go can easily lead to writer’s block. This is why you’re already stuck trying to write down one end and aren’t able to move to the next one. Be assured that the chance to edit your work will come later. At this point, what matters is that you focus on the earliest iteration of your pieces. But of course, you have to be in the right headspace for creating content that is easier said than done. Try out these productivity tips.  

Break your project into smaller writing objectives. Sometimes the end goal of writing, let it be a book or an article or a short story, can look too large and sprawling to reach. It is overwhelming and discouraging to even realize it. If that is the case, you can divide the project into smaller objectives that you can easily complete in a single session. Your outline comes in handy – it depicts you all the smaller parts of a project you can easily tackle one by one to avoid fatigue. Although you can also set these small objectives as a daily writing exercise to enhance your writing skills, rather than being overloaded over a short period. 

• USE EDITING AND REWRITING TOOLS

In the end, once you have written all of it. It’s time to make the edits and proofread. No draft is ready for publishing in the first go. Even if you are the world’s most well-organized wordsmith, there are grammatical errors, inconsistencies, inefficient turns of phrases, and passages that would grate the ear. You can refine your thoughts by polishing your work and self-editing. Other than errors, punctuation, and spelling mistakes, some other things also need to be reviewed. Such as,  

• The structure and flow of your written content.  
• Usage of passive voices instead of active voices.  
• Sentence length.  

We recommend you sign up for free courses that help self-editing your writing. It would help you when you are working on major projects, such as a book. You can definitely work with a professional editor to ensure no weakness in your writing goes unnoticed. With the help of the five tips mentioned above, you can reach every piece of writing with a mastermind and create every project with perfection. Remember, practice makes perfect, and this is why you need to stay calm and carry on polishing your writing skills.