How To Be A Good Writer Top 20 Tips

Become A Good Writer - Top 20 Tips

  1. The good news is even though some may say to become a good writer is an art form; how to write is actually a science. The most important ingredient in the process of how to become a good writer is to have something to say. When one has something to say, it is amazing how one’s language skills seem to instinctively gain a greater focus and intensity. In addition to having something worth saying, a writer must carefully consider the purpose of a piece of writing.
  2. A second tip on how to become a good writer then involves a clear identification of one’s writing purpose; to mainly inform, persuade, entertain, challenge, inspire or educate.
  3. When considering how to write, one’s purpose is closely connected with one’s potential or actual audience.
  4. To become a good writer, one keeps in mind the likely impact the content and expression will be having on the potential readership. Audiences will be diverse and have different expectations of what they read, based upon prior conditioning to how other writers typically approach a given topic.
  5. To become a good writer, one would do well to read sample work written for widely different audiences and contexts, and look closely at the topics selected and how they may appeal to readers.
  6. A sixth writing tip on how to become a good writer, is to examine ways writers use a language register which will allow readers to connect more strongly with the subject matter and indeed, with the writer. If the purpose of the writing is to address a technical subject, the language used will involve some technical terminology, to demonstrate a working knowledge of the subject.
  7. A related tip on how to become a good writer, involves identifying the appropriate tone to use, that complements the subject matter, message and suits the audience. In this case, the issue of how to write involves a consideration of whether the purpose, context and audience of the proposed writing demands a light hearted, positive tone, or perhaps a more somber, reflective and deliberate tone. It is helpful to realise that the tone of a piece of writing is the reflection of the writer’s attitude towards the subject matter in question and their feeling towards the audience.
  8. An eighth tip on how to write, involves keeping notes on a topic of future interest in a practical place, to overcome the phenomenon of ‘writer’s block’ when one sits to write. This note keeping is an easy habit to form.
  9. Connected to this, a ninth tip on how to become a good writer, involves developing the skill of being a keen observer of detail. One may observe and record anything unusual, or indeed things about life which are characteristically common, (those things that add up to the universal patterns of people’s lives). Unusual things may be uncommon names for future characters if learning to write good fiction, or quirky place names for that matter.
  10. To become a good writer, one must become more attuned to the sensory world, observing scent, sound, sight, touch and taste, noting both the commonplace and the eccentric. A tenth tip is to play with the assembled notes after a period of time, experimenting with different combinations, to see if an original pattern emerges upon which a work of fiction may be based.
  11. Another tip is to be attentive to how people speak and this can be done online, where a vast repertoire of human voices already reside, awaiting a writer’s plunder. In this regard, how to write involves learning to capture the human voice, in its myriad of forms and personas. One quickly learns there are a seemingly endless number of ways of saying things and attention to such detail helps a writer develop a distinct writing style known as a writer’s voice.
  12. Another related tip on how to become a good writer is to take time to read examples of established writers’ approaches to managing dialogue. Accomplished writers have fine tuned their approach to constructing human dialogue, in a way that reflects the nuances and subtle differences of how people communicate.
  13. A thirteenth tip on how to write and how to become a good writer, involves observing people’s mannerisms when they are engaged in a variety of human activities. Aspiring writer can fine tune their ability to ‘read’ human nature by making comparisons between the ways different people express different emotions. These observations can be recorded as aids to good writers creating more vivid characters.
  14. A fourteenth tip on how to write and become a good writer involves learning to use the World Wide Web as a virtually endless research tool. Almost every type of writing benefits from research, to add depth, relevance, detail and contextual information to better inform the writing process.
  15. To hone the skill of researching more effectively, to become a good writer one may identify the details of a historical setting, check the accuracy of facts for a piece of journalism, or check how other writers have previously approached the same or similar topics.
  16. A sixteenth writing tip improves the ability to say a more user fewer words. This skill can be improved by writing 100 words, then rewriting the same idea in 50 words. This practice of learning to be concise assists one in how to become a good writer when aiming to improve informative writing skills.
  17. A seventeenth writer’s tip is to read one’s work out loud, to become more sensitized to its strengths and weaknesses.
  18. An eighteenth writer’s tip is to view punctuation as a servant of more effective communication.
  19. A nineteenth writing tip, aiding the process of how to write, is to avoid using repetition of word, phrase or sentence, unless repetition is used consciously to create emphasis or resonance.
  20. A twentieth writer’s tip, to prove categorically that writing is more of a science than an art, is to review the pieces of writing one has completed in the past to remind oneself how far you have come, and to note that any piece of writing, is a window on one’s mindset at the particular time the writing was done, in the same manner that a photograph is a frozen moment.