6 pieces of advice that improved my writing
Simple tips to help you prepare, research, practice and analyse.
Some people seem to be born with a pen in their hand and an instinct for clear expression. I was not necessarily one of these people. I learned to communicate my ideas through trial and error, practice and gradual improvement.
Along the way I had teachers, peers and guides who gave me good advice and feedback. In this newsletter, I will share a few pieces of advice I was given along the way that stuck with me.
1. Write mindfully for 20 minutes every day
It doesn’t matter whether it is an email or a text message, whether you’re romancing or being passive aggressive, whether you’re doing it for work or for fun - take the time to make a short piece of writing per day as good as it can be.
Not only will this get you in the habit of thinking about and practising writing, but you may well come to enjoy it. Twenty minutes is a very modest time commitment to invest in such a useful skill - and soon it may naturally extend as you improve and enjoy it more.
2. Plan your writing on a separate page
Making notes to guide you in preparing your piece will keep you grounded. Have a few bullets answering questions like: What is the purpose of this piece? What do I want people to know or do after reading it? How am I going to persuade them to remember or act?
Good writing starts with good research - and this should be in your preparatory notes too. Think about who the reader is, make notes on the format and its style, and jot down ideas or turns of phrase you would like to include.
3. Have a “content file”
I have a dedicated file on my desktop for quotes, case studies, stories, data, ideas and anything else I might find inspiring. Open a file or a have a notebook and make a habit of filling it with things you find interesting or identify as potentially useful. Take notes on the things you read, watch and listen to and put them in too.
Sometimes I have found myself hitting a wall creatively. When this happens I jump into my “content file” to try and find inspiration. It can also be helpful in the editing process. Sometimes you really need to cut something you spent some time on and somehow sending it to a new home is easier than deleting it.
4. Read and analyse good writing - and bad writing too
You wouldn’t expect to go out and play a full football match without watching a a game or two first, so how can you become a quality writer without experiencing good writing yourself?
If you are enjoying a piece of writing (a book, an email, a post or whatever else), pause and ask yourself questions about what works. The same goes for something you’re not enjoying. Ask yourself why it’s not working. Is it too wordy? Is there too much detail? Are you unclear of the intention?
5. Write like you’re in a conversation
My stress test for writing is imagining myself speaking with someone from my target audience. You don’t need to use a different vocabulary or style in writing than you would in a face-to-face chat. But how might that conversation sound? Two things worth reflecting on voice and tone.
Your voice could be defined as your relationship to the audience. Are you a teacher or a peer? Are you an expert sharing knowledge or a reassuring friend?
Within that relationship you can strike a tone. A teacher can be chastising or light hearted - and a friend can comfort or tell hard truths.
6. Edit viciously
In my experience, some of the best writers are excellent self-editors. It’s more than just spelling and grammar. You look for what’s redundant and cut it. You look for what’s unclear and find ways to make the point stand out - use bullets, bold and formatting if you have to.
Be merciless in your editing - think of yourself as the bad guy, here to bully your own piece (you might even come to enjoy that role!). That said, editing can be heartbreaking. You need to chop up, change or remove things that you love, but fear not - you can send them to live in your “content file”.
One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever received was to take a break before you edit. Try to put as much time between writing and editing as possible. This might mean a good night’s sleep or, if time won’t allow that, just doing another task. Try to make that different to writing though - do your timesheet or something more mechanical. This will give you the distance, intellectually and emotionally, to edit viciously.
Do you have any writing advice you would like to share?
Leave a comment below - or shoot me an email!
Thank you so much, I have my Notes-app full of "content files" elements since I started studying because I usually can't get rid of my long sentences ( I am french...) or my mental wanderings while writing and even after... I should actually do something more useful with it starting by gathering them all !
Don't kill your darlings - at least not immediately. If you get a wild idea, try it on paper, sleep on it, test it on a colleague or two - and only then decide if it was going a bit too far creatively. It probably wasn't.