I’ve been asked by a couple of readers to write a blog post about how to improve your writing. As a pro-blogger and freelance writer this was the very first point of attack I had to tackle in order to further my new online career.
What many aspiring writers seem to forget is that there isn’t some complicated secret recipe to be a good writer.
It simply boils down to experience and daily exercise. Gary Halbert said “the key to writing is writing”.
And you know what: he was so damn right. Gary Halbert is the Rolls Royce of writers and if there is one thing you want to do by reading this blog post, then it is to visit his link and study the art of copywriting. See, Gary was a master of this craft and he continues to teach his disciples long after he is gone.
I couldn’t agree with him more. But to the heck am I do try anyway? From personal experience it is true however and I suppose you can all but try to aspire to be a good writer.
When I first got serious with my writing I suddenly realized that I had fallen in love with the craft without realizing it first. I guess it was a natural progression from my love of blogging which developed over the course of over 1 year.
Somewhere along the way it happened and the fact that I was passionate about the subject I’m blogging about made the transgression only easier.
Misconceptions of Writing Positions in the Market Place:
The common belief of many aspiring writers is to wait for a good paying writing job before accepting offers. After all, why should we waste our valuable time for a measly $5 and article?
In theory, this thought is correct, but unless you were born with a golden pen in your hand, I’m afraid this is one of the sacrifices you have to make to grow your ability and career.
Despite this obvious “downer” you need to be aware of a few important facts:
- even if you are new, don’t sell yourself short
- never ever write for less than $5/article. If you do, you only undermine your future self and all the other professionals in the market place
- as a newbie, the best way to get a feel for the right pay is to study your competition. Bid along similar lines and read their applications. Then go one step further and be better!
- always bid for the top spots first
- once you garner experience, move up your pay rate.
- be professional when dealing with clients and be courteous
- always deliver on time
Practice does make perfect. At the least you will become a better writer. What I noticed mostly with myself is that my confidence level has increased greatly.
This happened after a particular difficult job offer. I had to write about bathrooms. And I can tell you that I wasn’t happy at first, but hey who is to complain on the quest for better writing jobs. Now clients can hire me with confidence.
So I stepped right into it and came out on the other side as - a winner!
I had just learned to conquer my own personal devil inside. The silly little voice who used to tell me that I couldn’t do it.
Do you know what I mean?
That was month ago and it is amazing what happened in the time since. This particular experience helped me to move to another level.
What Can You Do To Awaken The Writer Inside:
You can do a couple of things to further your own writing abilities. For starters, if you are not a native English speaking person you absolutely need to
- read a lot! And I mean a lot, magazines, books, blogs, newspapers you name it, you read it. The more the merrier.
- If you struggle with grammar, then it might also help to study the dictionary.
- watch foreign movies with English sub titles
- write - write - write
It is simple really, if you have the passion to further your writing abilities you will find ways to do it. But if you are merely dreaming of a better life and wish you had what the other person has because it looks good, then you might need to reconsider your motivation.
In the end, if you are serious then write as much as you can. I have been blogging on this blog since April this year for a minimum of 5 days/week. Besides this I write every day for clients and I also blog on my other blogs.
I was trying to evaluate the amount of words I write daily and came up with something like 2,000 - 5,000 words a day!
My Parting Words Of Advice:
I’d like to tell you one thing: if I can do this, then so can you. Just in case you don’t know, I’m not a native English speaking writer.
Maybe the fact that I was always fascinated with other cultures, languages and travel has helped me a lot to better my English and I guess living in Australia also helps because I now speak and think solely in English and have done so for 17 years since I first met my husband working in the UK.
If things become hard, then remember that practice makes perfect!
I wish you a happy and successful writing career.
Monika
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Read a lot is probably the sure-fire way to better our writings. There is simply no short cut to writing success, my personal experience is practice, practice, practice!
I think it’s great that you’ve been able to stay focused on your objective. My biggest two obstacles are both time related. Limited time, and slow typing.
For me to type 2500 words a day would take about 12 hours, without stopping.
I takes me 2-4 hours to write 250-400 words. I’m improving, but even the improvement is slow. And English is my first (and only) language. They never taught us to type in school. Nor did they teach us to use a computer. I never had a computer until I was 27 years old.
It can be difficult not to be angry about not being taught a basic and important skill, like typing, but it doesn’t do much good to get angry. Just get better.
Good post, Monika! I also recommend that any writer should buy a copy of “The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White. It’s a relatively short tome with the wisdom of the ages.
Lovely and inspiring post Monika!
Writing is an enjoyable experience for me, especially when I’m doing it purely for my own benefit, like filling my own sites and blogs with lots of good content which are building them constantly for the future.
It’s a great feeling when you know that all your hard work sitting in front of the computer for hours on end are ALL for your own benefit!
Even when you do crazy things like get up at 5.30 in the morning because you had an idea that you simply must write about - like I did this morning. It ended up as my latest post on The Honest Way blog and its a pretty big one!
Funny how things happen!
Terry
I am looking for ways to improve my writings and have been following your blog for a long time.
I write everyday on my blog but the response seems to be fluctuating. I frequently change my style of writing to see which is the most accepted by my readers.
Although I have not tried professional writing, I enjoyed sharing my thoughts through my writings on my blog.
Every writer - no matter how “professional” - has to continue to improve her writing skills. One great tip I got was to write outside your traditional genre. I have found that writing blogs (especially for others that has specific subjects and deadlines) has helped me improve my fiction writing.
betshopboy: Reading a lot certainly helps. I used to read two books in a week and if I had time now I would still do it. I guess I always have been a bookworm.
Fiar: I’ll let you in on a little secret. My husband calls me the two finger blogger. I type only with both my index fingers. It’s more like an attack I guess and apparently looks very funny.
I also never had computers at school and got one when I was 36. 4 years later here I am.
There is no point in getting upset about things that are outside of our control. But I chose to take control by improving myself and that’s all I really can do.
Hope it works out for you as well.
Mark: thanks for the book tip. I never heard of this book so I’ll have to check it out for sure.
Terry: you are just as crazy as me.
Getting up at the crack of dawn isn’t that impossible or even better staying up until the chickens come home.
You are right though. Like you, I love working for myself and my future. I hope to help my husband retire one day too and that’s what keeps me going.
It is a great feeling!
Wayne: yes, I have seen you around for a while and am glad you participate in this discussion. I believe that sometimes the reaction of our readers is better than at other times.
This comes down to getting the target readership right I guess and we can only but try to get this happening. The best indication of hitting the nail on the head is the comment section.
If I get many comments I figure my post was valuable for my readers and if not I have to improve.
You are doing a great job Wayne, just keep doing what you do and monitor and you’ll be fine.
Kathryn: you are right there. You should see some of my articles I write for my niche clients. I could easily promote them as a
Hey Monika - allowing my husband to retire USE to be my dream as well. He pushed my deadline by a few years when he recently quit his job. Now I AM the bread winner. It’s exciting and scary and challenging all at the same time, but it definitely motivates me to do more.
Any suggestions about how to get my blog making money, or finding more freelance jobs will be greatly appreciated.
PS. I’m glad I found you guys. I’ve been trying to start a writer’s group around my area, but few (if any) write on line so we have VERY different issues.
Monika
There is no point in getting upset about things that are outside of our control. But I chose to take control by improving myself and that’s all I really can do.
Absolutely. I’ve been working hard to develop touch typing skills. I can now type about 12 wpm without looking at the keyboard, which is the speed I used to type with looking. Now that I know that much, it’s a matter of improving coordination. I hope in a few more months, I will have a respectable typing speed.
Hi Monika,
as usual a well written post. and that is why you are one my favourite blogger. the way you put your words just show how good a person you are. and i’m really glad that you are also a non native english speaking writer and two finger blogger. so i know it can be done.
the reason i want to be a good writer is to have the capability to express my thought in writing. i usually express my thought when read or see something sometime for 5 or 10 minutes in my head. i have been like that for a long time. so something has to change. i got to put it in writing because it will make me feel good.
this year has change me a lot in term of thinking wise. and i just feel that i’m headed to a very bright future. all my life i haven’t accomplish anything that i could be proud of accept quit smoking three years ago on my 38th birthday. starting at 18 years old i live in the US for 8 years to study but flunk out school in my senior year. i want to study computer science but i was given a scholarship to study chemical engineering. but then change to chemistry in my third year to continue my study there but unfortunately i failed.
out of school i stay there until my 8 years while working odd jobs to survive. then when i have save enough money i went back to my country to further my study and earned a diploma. after graduation i have been given a chance to get a scholarship to further my computer science study in the US again but i didn’t take it because i felt i would fail again and also felt i have been in my country for only 3 short years.
i worked as a programmer since then until 3 years ago when i quit my jobs. and that is the reason too why i quit smoking. something is not right but just can figure out how to make it better. one year ago i have the chance to explore internet opportunity. and since then i felt i found a jewel. i got to make this work.
with the reason to succeed on online biz and the satisfaction to express my thoughts make better writing is a very important skill i should have. since you are doing 2000 words per day i guess if i can do half of that it would be a good start. so thanks monika for sharing some tips.
i hope i can be better writer and successfull online entrepreneur some days because i have dreamed for so long to be back at my second hometown where i live for 8 years. although i can’t claim to be the school alumni because i flunked i still feel i one of them and this week i’m really happy because their football team is currently the no 1 team in the NCAA collegiate football.
i’m proud to be mizzou tiger the university of missouri columbia. hope they win this week against oklahoma to get the chance to play in the final game to claim the no 1 team. go tigers and go monika. hope this comment wouldn’t be consider as life spamming.
Kathryn: That is so cool what you managed to do. I dream of this moment and that is one of the things that keep me going when the going gets tough.
As for your question about making money from your blog, that is a tough one. I’ve seen you are blogging about working from home, Christianity, finances, writing and other topics which makes it a possibility to maybe incorporate some related affiliate products into the posts.
But to be honest, you are not going to make sales all of a sudden magically because of this. If you have a decent readership on your blog a better option might be to sell links or direct advertising instead.
I am going to write a post dedicated to finding freelance writing jobs very soon, so please stay posted for this one.
Fiar: great attitude you got there and I have no doubt, that you’ll get there soon.
moneytalks: WOW, this comment deserves to have its own post. The passion shines right through it and if you keep writing with this passion, then you will go a long way.
Probably your most pressing matter would be to attack your grammar a little. Capital letters at the beginning of every sentence is a start.
Other than this, your writing is captivating and speaks to the heart. I love the way I can relate to you because you are speaking from personal experience and that is in my humble eyes a very important bonus point.
Keep your dream going, work at it and it can be yours! I wish you all the best and if you ever need help, you know where to find me.
Brilliant, Monika! I always advice anyone wishing to learn writing to stop wishing and start writing. There is no shortcut to it. I have always loved reading and writing from young (well ok I was and still is, a nerd - but nerds can sometimes have the most colourful of lives!). In fact, one of my closet secrets is that I used to love writing romance shorts. But those were in Chinese unfortunately, so I won’t be doing a Mills & Boon anytime soon.
YC: I used to have my nose stuck in Mills & Boon when I was a teenager. Oh yes, I’m afraid I did.
But would struggle with the Chinese bit for sure. 
YC, a romantic a heart, you just gained some more brownie points.
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THANKS! Monika for your encouraging response. your answer just boost my confidence although i know i still have long way to. success is a journey not a destination so why not just go for a ride. it got to be fun.
I have no problem reading but writing still need to work a lot more. passion is the only thing that make me still going strong what i want to achieve. i never got any good encouragement from my family. because they didn’t see not much money coming in so they never try to understand what i want to achieve online. i stop explaining what i do because their word just don’t give me any extra strength i need to move forward drastically. so online and my laptop is my world at the moment.
Actually i enjoy like this. just do what you love doing and hopefully you will get to do the fun stuff later and just do whatever you want to do. but in the meantime just focus to get things done the best you can.