How to Write Better

Tips on how to improve your writing from ContentWriter compendium

Read Authors Better than You

By experiencing and digesting the writing of others we enrich our own. Through reading daily you can improve your vocabulary and sentence construction.

You should read whatever is of interest to you without forcing yourself to focus on any particular kind of literature. To benefit from this method you need to be engaged in what you intake, to activate your creativity.

You should however avoid reading works of only one author or of only one genre to avoid developing bad habits from that particular style.

Read Your Own Texts

After writing, and preferably a break, read through your text from the perspective of a reader. Try to see if what works and what doesn’t and then edit accordingly.

Let Your Texts Be Read by Others

It’s important to get feedback from someone else on your writing, especially as a beginner. It’s great if it can be a better writer, but it’s also a good idea to test the text on someone from the target audience (a person with no IT knowledge, when writing beginners guide to coding)

Plan Your Texts

especially the longer ones

1. List the points/arguments/information you want to include in the text
2. Organise the list in order - try to create organic flow from the introduction through the development and into the conclusion.
   • The first sentence specifically should be interesting - something strong or funny is a good fit
   • Conversely, the last sentence will stay with the reader so it’s a good place for a strong conclusion, or a call to action
3. Write the paragraphs, not necessarily in order

Imagine Your Reader

Especially useful in copywriting, where the intention is to persuade the reader. By creating a profile of your reader, you can gear the text specifically towards them. Consider who the target audience of the text would be and what are their needs.

Develop a Good Routine

Good habits and workshop is often more valuable in writing great texts than inspiration.

1. Set up a writing corner - it should be comfortable space, suitable for focus, and preferably dedicated to writing
2. Minimise distractions - phone, noises, objects
3. Clear the digital space - log out of social media, close unrelated tabs and windows
4. Keep fairly regular hours - it’s not always possible, but writing at the same time will be beneficial
5. Develop your rituals - the things that help you get into the writing mode and focus
6. Invest in equipment
   1. legal software, advanced text editor, anti-virus software, anti-plagiarism software
   2. Quality laptop, mouse and keyboard
   3. anti-reflection glasses

Rest well

• Get enough sleep
• Take breaks
• Don’t overwork yourself
• Exercise

Control Your Bad Style Habits

Try to identify your bad habits, check your texts yourself, as well as giving it to others to read. Noticing them will help to reduce their future impact.
Don’t forget that as you fix your old habits, new ones arise and the evolution of your style never ends.

Analyse Texts in Your Surroundings

Pay attention to utilitarian texts around you. Ask if they are good and why? What idea is making it worthy of reader’s attention? Or if it’s bad, why is that?
Do it also in context of SEO. Is the text well optimised and written according to the rules?

Expand Knowledge of Language

As a professional writer, your language skills need to be on appropriate level. Expand your knowledge in the following areas:

• punctuation and spelling
• grammar
• linguistic correctness

In addition it’s good idea to learn new words and phrases regularly and expand your vocabulary.

Exercise Creativity

Fixing My Mistakes

Improving Sentence Structure

1. Use active voice
   It’s clearer and more concise than passive voice
2. Connected items must follow the same structure
   Lists and clauses connected with: for/and/nor/but/or/yet/so/not only/but also should be consistent grammatically
3. Use modifiers close to the noun
   When using a modifier (description of something else in the sentence) make sure it’s clear what they are describing
4. Don’t use too many subordinate sentences
   Split them up to avoid confusion

Improving Vocabulary

1. Read
2. Use dictionary - it can tell you of antonyms, root-words and related words
3. Use Thesaurus
4. Play word games
   • Wordle
5. Use flashcards
   To aid your memory and remember the words
6. Use the words you learned
   practice makes perfect
7. Keep a word journal - Word Journal
   Write down the new words, read through them from time to time, and try incorporating those words into your speech/writing

Theme

A story’s theme is it’s main point - the one sentence summary. It can be a truth you believe in you want to share with others, or a point of view/problem you want to explore. And I suspect it can be also something entirely else