This piece was inspired by Mary Jaksch's ''73 Ways to Become a Better Writer.'' (You can find her piece on the ''copyblogger'' blog. She got it right!)
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 are writing a blog. (Go to www.blogspot.com now and start your blog.)
4. Write on deadline with specific word limits.
5. Go to wordsmith.org and subscribe to ''Word A Day.'' You will 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 you have, the better.
6. As Julia Cameron suggests in her Artist's Way book, write Morning Pages every day. 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.
7. When you're stuck, get out. Do some Yoga. Stretch. Roll a dowel under your feet. See a movie. Bridget Foley says, ''Writing is physical.'' It takes body and mind working together. Getting out can free up the mind to get in touch with your body.
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 powerful 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 is not right. Correct yourself before anyone else does.
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.)
14. Become more observant. Watch how people dress, how they walk, how they express themselves, how they shop. Watch how they relate to and talk about everything from their religion to their children to the make of their car.
15. Ask for a writing critique from a professional writer. Submit a piece and see what that person says. Ask the person to use track changes so you can see specific suggestions. See what you can learn.
16. Read books, blogs and essays more carefully. Learn new ways to expand your methods of writing. Become a vacuum cleaner, taking in all the ways people express themselves and all the subjects they express themselves about.
17. Notice your writing ''crutches,'' the methods you routinely use to express yourself. Notice the ways you can break out and leave those crutches on the sidewalk. Learn to use new sentence structures. Learn new ways to attack sentences.
18. Read more widely. Be adventurous. Read outside your comfort zone. Pick up kinds of books you'd never be caught dead reading until now. And give yourself permission to love, hate or be disgusted by what you read.
19. Find ways to say things in fewer words. Condense. Work at this. It's an invaluable talent.
20. Write with passion. First, settle on something you feel really passionate about. Then write about it. (Writing with passion is the best way to quickly improve your writing skills.)
21. Buy a book of grammar and use it. Don't try to read it from cover to cover. Use it as a reference when you're stuck or not sure about something. I like The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers by Anson & Schwegler. And don't forget to read the ever popular Elements of Style by White and Strunk.
22. Copy the writing of a favorite writer into a word file. I know it sounds crazy and it's obviously illegal if you try to pass it off as your writing. That's not what I'm suggesting. Take a passage of a favorite writer of yours. Type the words yourself. See if you can learn anything from immersing yourself in the syntax and subtext of the writing by doing that.
23. Join a writer's group. If you live in Dallas, visit The Writer's Garrett and see what's going on. Show up for readings of writers your admire.
24. If you happen to lve in Dallas, be sure to attend meetings of the First Friday Book Synopsis. Visit www.firstfridaybooksynopsis.com. Randy Mayeux and Karl Krayer present two business books every session. Read their handouts very carefully.
24. Become an active watcher of movies. Dissect stories. (Read Story by Robert Mckee.) Discover how the story is told.
25. Tape record yourself reading your writing aloud. Listen to it. This technique helps some writers improve. It's helped me.
One Client's Recommendation of ExcitingWriting Communications
''Chuck is a top-flight business writer, up there with the very best. He has insight into the businesses and business processes he is writing about that sometimes amazes me. He expresses concepts in a way that is extremely clear, compelling, easy to read and persuasive. He can write effectively in a wide variety of styles, everything from white papers to direct response. And Chuck is so much more than a writer. He is a strategist, an effective communicator and the source of thought leadership. He is an excellent project manager, and multi-tasking writer, and has never missed a deadline.''
--PJ Hoke, VP Marketing, Thomas Group
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
