Content is king and you work hard to attract people to your blog.
You want the people that you attract to your posts to stick around and beg for more so you need to make certain that what you write is top quality.
There are several things that you need to ensure that your content is the best that it can be. You need to research what you are writing about. You need to know your audience and how to meet their needs and wants.
One of the most important things is to make sure that your writing is good. There are certain things that will send readers running from you:
- Poor grammar
- Super long paragraphs
- Run on sentences
- Misspellings
- Typos
Those are signs of a writer who is not professional and who doesn’t care. If your posts are full of those things listed above people will move onto find a blog that provides quality content. You may have useful things to share with your readers but they will not stick around to find out.
If quality writing is not your strong suit you can improve your writing skills! I am here to share three simple ways improve your writing!
3 Tips to Improve Your Writing
Read, Read, Read
It’s a well known fact that good writers are readers. You can learn a lot about writing from reading. You can pick up skills by reading what others have written.
Read other blogs, read books, read magazines, read whatever you can get your hands on. As Stephen King says in his book On Writing: forget about being polite. Take a book (or a reader such as the kindle) with you wherever you go. He suggests reading while you are in lines, in waiting rooms, or any other place waiting.
I have been an avid reader since I was very young and I have always believed that is a huge reason that I have always loved writing and why it comes easily to me. I love reading blogs, novels, self improvement books, and so much more.
If you’re up for a challenge then take this one. Take an hour each day this month and read. It doesn’t have to be a consecutive hour of reading. Feel free to read ten or twenty minutes here and there. Reading is a wonderful habit to build.
Reading helps to sharpen your skills. It may have been a long time since your last English or writing class so your skills may have gone down without the reminders of how to properly use our language. It does take its toll as I can tell you from my own experience.
There are some books on writing that you can read which can help you out. I’m reading On Writing by Stephen King which I just referred to above. Whether you love him or think he’s the devil you have to admit that he knows a thing or two about writing successfully. His book not only gives good tips but it is very entertaining at the same time.
I recently read a book called Hooked which is primarily about how to start something so that it grabs the readers attention right away. It also has general writing advice throughout the book. It was another read that I enjoyed.
Practice Makes Better
Practice doesn’t make perfect but it can help you to get better and improve your skills. Stephen King recommends one to two thousand words a day. If you are a blogger you probably write a lot more than you realize. You write your posts, you reply to your comments, and you comment on other blogs. It adds up.
If you enjoy free writing then you might enjoy a free online tool called 750 Words. You log in and are given a blank page to write anything that comes to your mind. You don’t worry about your grammar you just get it all out. Many people find that this type of writing really helps them to overcome blocks and that it helps to inspire the imagination.
Another nice thing about that tool is that they send you a daily reminder to get your writing in and they give little rewards such as badges and awards so that you don’t feel like you’re just writing. It’s also completely private so nobody else is going to read what you’ve written.
Write With The Door Closed and Edit With The Door Open
I’m quoting our friend Stephen here. What he means is that when you sit down to write your first draft write it for yourself. Get everything down that you want down and don’t think about what anyone else will think. Writing with the door closed is writing solely for yourself.
When you edit your writing open the door and write for others. Take care and consideration of your grammar, sentence structure, etc. Take out what really doesn’t need to be there and add what does. Think about how others will view what you’ve written and make it shine.
I want to hear from you! What do you do to continually improve your writing skills? Which of these three tips stands out the most to you?
To Your Success,
(Image by Pascal Maramis)
Thank you for reading! I'm Stacy, the owner of this blog. You can learn more about me here.
I'd love to hear from you, please share your thoughts or questions in the comments section.
You can get free bonus chapters from my novel Deception!
Website: → Stacy's Fiction
Connect
As a writer myself, I am always on the look out of new tips and willing to learn better writing techniques…thanks for the valuable information.
[Reply]
All your advice are great.
I will add two more.
I often will take my audio recorder to record thoughts when I am going for a “thought” walk in the park and it is amazing how well this works for me.
Also I go to You Tube often for grammar tips and blogs like yours.
BTW, I like your writing style.
Thanks.
[Reply]
Hey Stacy,nice tips especially for a writer like me. Though I am working as a freelance writer for last 4 years but still there is lots more to learn. I would like to add a turnoff here. I have seen people using too tough words in their post to make it look classy and I hate such posts rather I guess all of us would hate such posts.
What I feel is that we mus write the post using simple and understandable words. We must keep in mind that every person searching for some help on internet might not be a scholar to understand such hard words.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Shiwangi peswani invites you to read… Best iPad Apps For New iPad 3 With Retina Display
[Reply]
I’ve never heard ‘write with the door closed and edit with open doors’ but I like it. I often tell people a draft is just for ideas and leave perfection for the final copy.
Reading and practice are definitely the best ways to improve your writing, followed by a willingness to get feedback and learn from it. If you take feedback too personally, you’ll never write your best work.
Tash invites you to read… Choosing a side of the story
[Reply]