The Road To Better Writing Isn’t Traveled In One Night…But You Might At Least Find The Lines

Every writer sits in front of the same blank page at the start of the day, with the job of putting words down after that blinking cursor.  This struggle is not new.  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve written, or in what capacity – all who write are writers, and all writers find the same dilemma. You might be writing blogs, or website copy, or a LinkedIn post. But if you’re writing, you’re a writer.

However, how we write is changing.

A couple of weeks ago, I argued that the world needs better blogs – which is to say, the world needs more good words. And for the world to get that, it needs better writers. If you happen to be one of those writers, or someone looking to find a better writer, the following guidelines will hopefully prove useful.  

So, without any further waiting – here are 6 lessons for better blogs.  

1 – Before You Write, Read

This suggestion has two ways of being carried out: first, find writing that you resonate with and read it. Read all of it. My favorite author is E.B. White, and to date, I’ve read hundreds of pages of his novels, essays, correspondence, poetry, and so on. I will read E.B. till I’m no longer a writer, or I’m dead – I’ll let you guess which one is going to happen first.  

The second point to this “read-before-you-write” concept has to do with research. If you’re writing on a topic that is not familiar to you, or even if it is, do some digging first. Chances are you’re going to find something in the digging that will make your piece better, more engaging, or help elevate your voice.   

We like Fargo because we know the Coen Brothers did the hard work of researching regional dialects before writing it. And it shows. 

The same applies here. Read first, then write. 

2 – When You Write, Write

 This one boils down to: don’t do other things when you’re supposed to be writing. Genius isn’t going to strike because of one more YouTube video or another scroll through the LinkedIn posts. Start writing and, if you can, don’t stop till it’s ready for the first edit.  

Unless…

3 – Don’t Be Afraid To Start Over

One side effect of the loss-aversion principle in humans is our reluctance to cut our losses and start over. Most of us would rather hang on to what we have than try our hand at something new. 

This tendency is especially true of writers, who would sink the time into trying to make the piece work rather than accepting that it’s rubbish and going with something new. I know this is true because I’ve been there.  

If you as a writer have a sneaking suspicion that the piece is bad, it’s undoubtedly so. Start over.

4 – Edit, Edit, Edit

You’ve got the first glorious draft of your piece done. Well done. Now you must fight that urge that you have to post it so that you can be instantly gratified by the praise and “likes” of others.  

You have to do the nasty bit of taking that piece and re-writing it. Also known as editing. 

Take a break, get a drink, use the bathroom, talk to a loved one. Then return to the piece with a bit of distance. Start at the beginning and go through it as if you were your audience. Would they understand all your metaphors, your wordplay, is the subject the same at the end as it was in the beginning? And so on. Sometimes, it’s beneficial to have someone else read your piece who can give notes. Then apply those notes.  

Also, picking up a piece of software like Grammarly can take your writing to the next level. But beware! That know-it-all can lead you astray sometimes.

In conclusion – if you can rework the piece at least twice, do it. If you can rework it more, do that too. A piece gets better and better with honest revision. But no piece can be good without it.  

5 – On Themes and Voice

Your writing has a better chance of standing out if it doesn’t sound like everyone else’s. That being said, there are a lot of writers out there. Chances are good you’re going to sound like someone else – at least for a while.  

So, pick somebody good. Pick somebody you admire, whose writing you like, and who you’d be flattered to have someone draw a comparison from between your writing and theirs. By adopting some of the cadence and inflection of someone else’s voice, we generally find our own. And if we don’t, at least we still sound halfway decent.  

As for themes, pick one and stay on point throughout your piece. If the piece is called “Grammarly Is A Know It All Yucky Pants” then the piece should be about that. And when I get to the end of it, I should think Grammarly is a…well, you get it.  

6 – Be Humble, Write Again

The last piece of advice I have is if you write something today and it’s bad, and people say it’s bad, that’s okay. In its now-famous review of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, The New Republic wrote:

“The book as a whole is disappointing.”

Serious burn. Take that, Salinger.  

Now, you’re not Salinger, and neither am I. Chances are good that someone isn’t going to look back on our blogs and think that’s the blog of the century right there. But the same lesson applies: there will always be critique, there will not always be praise.  

Your job is to be better than your last critique and more humble than the last praise you received.  

And never, ever, stop writing.  

Looking for more ideas on how good writing can help your business? Feel free to reach out to us to learn more!