You are a good writer, but there is always room for improvement. Here are tips to help you style up and push your writing to a whole new level.
Do not say you are in a hurry, do not say your PC failed you, shoddy writing has no excuse. We all want to write well and be read. It helps when you keep the following in mind.
a) Spell checking is a must – Do not submit an article before this mandatory bit of the writing process. Do not say you were too busy to notice the glaring mistakes that keep off even the most faithful of your fans. One mistake, two mistakes are fine. Ten mistakes in one article are too many and will make you lose readers including yourself, the very first fan.
b) Research into what remains unknown to you – Facts don’t lie, none of us knows everything. Supplement the little you know with thorough research especially for scientific or historical information. Counter check any misinformation before you post that article. A student may use it while doing an assignment, or worse still it may lead to a world war!
c) Do not write for the money – True writers look at money as a secondary gain. If you write for the money alone, when enough doesn’t come in you feel frustrated and may quit writing altogether when a little patience and hard work would have brought in the money.
d) Get a second opinion – Writing depends so much on critics. Getting a second opinion always helps us improve. If criticism easily angers you, accept my verdict. Better try something else that is easier than writing, like digging trenches. See what I mean?
e) Never let a day pass without writing something – The world is full of happenings and mis-happenings waiting for your third eye. As a writer you have the responsibility to put them in black and white for either present or future generations.
f) Do not sweat the small stuff – Writing is at its best when it comes freely but this never happens so easily until you build the rhythm that is required in order to churn out piece after piece, day after day. Good writers such as Ruby Hawk have been at it for years and have mastered it, hang on too.
g) Think of yourself as a professional – Forget the peanuts you are getting. You want to earn from your writing and that means you are a professional. Well, start behaving as one by treating this noble profession seriously. We are entertainers, teachers, and informers rolled into one, start by respecting what you are doing. You are great!
h) The first critic is you – What do you think of what you have written? If you feel it sucks and won’t be read, you are probably right, it does. Don’t post an article you feel needs reworking, never post that novel if it requires a second or even third rewriting. You are the first reader, editor, and critic.
All the best with your writing.
June 8th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Excellent tips doc. This should be published in Hot Content. Practice makes perfect. I like how you said never let a day pass without writing something. Second, do your research. This is very true especially when writing health related articles. Nobody is a genius except Einstein. Third, visualize yourself as a professional and having already accomplished that goal. I like your introduction. I am a firm believer of putting in that extra time and getting the job done right. If you are going to submit sloppy work, then don’t even bother. There are plenty of features that many people aren’t aware of. You should read your article several times before submitting and don’t just rely on spell checker. Play around with the features such as indent and justification to make the left and right margin even and bold titles and make them stand out by using format. Thanks doc.
June 8th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
This rings so true. If you read your article and it doesn’t make sense to you, it probably won’t make sense to others, either. Although I write mostly poetry and usually start with a “free for all” of thoughts, I go back and glean the best lines off the page and use those. Then I go back AGAIN and put those lines into some sort of cohesive order. It takes discipline for sure, and if one wants to be thought of as a professional, one must take a professional approach. Would you submit shoddy work to your employer and expect to keep your job?
Great write here AGONY. I hope people take heed.
June 8th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Great tips that will help all writers.
June 8th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Good article… as they say there’s always room for improvements.
June 8th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Thinks for the tips.
June 8th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
It was sweet to find this great article at my Blogger.com site, I jumped for joy when I realized the author was Agony from triond.com, my favorite site. Thanks for this great post.
June 8th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Well done – good tips.
June 8th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Thank you for the excellent tips, friend. Great article!
June 8th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
It’s true that practice makes perfect but most of us who write on triond would never publish anything if we waited to write the perfect paper. I think we should do our very best, check our spelling and when we have done that, publish on triond. We will get better if we continue to try.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
these are powerful tips on writing, professional tips!
from a) to h), all are recommended for writers to improve their writings. thanks for the share.
Liked! SU’d.
June 8th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
thanks for sharing,
June 9th, 2010 at 4:50 am
All points well taken. I failed the point e, may be because of point f. lol. Thanks for the share.
June 9th, 2010 at 5:57 am
love this post.
I definitely don’t write for money as I have no potential for earnings as I cannot write professionally like most writers here, however I write from my heart,whenever I have the inspiration. Appreciate your advice on how to improve our writings, I hope I can improve as days go by, thanks.
June 9th, 2010 at 6:19 am
Nice tips for authors.
June 9th, 2010 at 7:42 am
i’m nt a good writer but with these tips i think i can improve.thank u
June 9th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Thanks a million for point “e” — I find it hard to stick to it.
June 9th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Thinking of yourself as a professional is the key. If you act like a professional you will be a professional no matter how much money you make.
June 9th, 2010 at 11:37 am
I average about $2.00 a day from passive income, freelance income and royalties. Do I think of myself as a professional? You better believe I do. I’m wroking hard toward $3.00 a day.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Thanks for all your lovely comments.
June 9th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Learned a lot from this. Will keep in mind all these points.
June 9th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Very good advice. Thanks for the reminders.
June 10th, 2010 at 3:45 am
Great tips. I can relate to the one about whether I think an article is good enough. I can’t tell you how many dozens of time I sat and wrote out an article only to throw it away and not try to get it posted.
June 11th, 2010 at 5:42 am
Good tips for us.
June 11th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
This is a great article. Yes, I absolutely agree that in order to improve your writing, you have to keep doing it every single day. And of course, reading habit is also a must. But don’t just read fluff.
June 12th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
This article is absolutely amazing. Thank you very much for the share. These are very good tips.
June 13th, 2010 at 5:29 am
I disagree with the third point (c). The right idea is to not expect results when writing. Money is only one form of results which must have affected your motivation to write because of poor performance of your articles. Later something else will get affected.
But I liked the rest of the points.
June 13th, 2010 at 11:37 am
An other great set of tips for the next big write cheers
June 17th, 2010 at 1:47 am
Very nice advice!.. ^^