13 Things You Can Start Doing Today to Become a Better Writer

Let's get obsessed about writing. Let's get passionate about writing. Let's raise the bar and make writing our life's work like nothing else mattered (even though, let's face it, lots of things matter way more, for example, integrity, loyalty, friends and loved ones).

This piece is my take on Mary Jaksch's "73 Ways to Become a Better Writer." (on the "copyblogger" blog. She got it right!) This month, I'll list my first 13.

1. Write more. Increase the number of words you write. Start writing every day.
2. Write faster. Don't worry about sentence structure and all the junk they drummed into your head in school. Give yourself permission to stream words faster than you can think. Just get them down. Revise later.
3. Start writing a blog today. Express yourself! Go on record. Say what you need to say! (That's a song and a way of life!) It doesn't matter what you write about. This is public writing, so tell your friends you're writing a blog. (Go to www.blogspot.com now and start your blog.)
4. Write on deadline with specific word limits (Notice my EWA comes out on the 23rd of each month. Right now, as I'm writing these words, I'm writing on deadline.)
5. Go to wordsmith.org and subscribe to "Word A Day." You'll receive a word and its definition in your inbox every day. Learn that word. Use it. Words are a writer's tools. The more tools a writer has, the better.
6. Write privately. As Julia Cameron suggests in her Artist's Way book, write Morning Pages every day.
7. Write privately about your deepest fears in your morning pages. As Mark Twain said, "Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain." We all have our demons. One way to face them is to write about them.
8. Write about your grandest aspirations in your morning pages. Inspire yourself. Fill your mind with your dreams. Indulge yourself. Think of your dreams as awe inspiring beautiful clouds that can take you anywhere you want to go.
9. Go on "Artist Dates." Let yourself be inspired by all kinds of artistic expression: dance, art, music, magazines, television dramas and talk shows. Take it all in.
10. Challenge your assumptions. Write a short story in ten minutes. Write a novel over a weekend. Write a story in future tense. Write a story in second person. Stretch. If you're bored, move on.
11. Revise more carefully. Raise the bar. If it doesn't sound right, it's not right. Correct yourself.

12. Improve your interviewing skills. Ask questions that entice people to reveal themselves and tell their deeper stories.
13. Become a collector of stories. Understand how and why stories work. (Read Story by Robert McKee.)