How to Become a Better Writer and Improve Your Writing Skills

Set time aside every day to write, and watch your skills improve.

If your goal is to write fiction, you may need to create believable settings, intriguing characters and a spellbinding plot. If nonfiction is your forte, you'll need to present your information in an interesting, concise manner as you use words to teach and inform. Whichever kind of writing you want to pursue, you can hone your craft by reading other authors. In turn, your writing style will improve over time.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Books
• Articles
• Word processor

1. Write often. If you wanted to become a great runner, you would run. So write every day, even if it is an essay about how you have no idea what you will write that day.

2. Read the classics. Seek out works that are acknowledged as good literature. Start out with Charles Dickens' "The Tale of Two Cities." Reread Shakespeare's plays. Or dig out your college copy of "Beowulf."

3. Take writing classes. If you are already in school, enroll in some creative writing courses. If you've long since left the classroom, consider enrolling in a writing class at your local community college.

4. Join a writing club. Many communities have writing clubs, where members get together regularly and share their work, offer critiques and give support to their fellow wordsmiths.

5. Join an online writing forum Many writing forums help writers to improve their work. But, if you are sensitive, you may want to toughen your skin before jumping in. Forum members can be excessively blunt in their responses, and at times cruel.

6. Use a word processor. If you use a word processor when you write, you can also make use of all its cool gadgets, like spell check, grammar check and the thesaurus. With a word processor, a writer can move paragraphs, pages and words around with minimal effort.

7. Read your work out loud. It will help you catch awkward phrases and other errors that silent reading will miss.

8. Create your own blog. It is easy, quick and free. You can do it at Google's Blogger. Choose a subject you are passionate about, and blogging will help you practice your writing skills. You may even get feedback from readers.

9. Brush up on your grammar. Everyone, even college graduates, can benefit from a grammar brush-up. Multiple websites offer free tutorials to help you "remember" some of those grammar rules you learned in school.

10. Write what you know. That says it all.

References

• National Council of Teachers of English: So You Want To Be a Better Writer? Try These Tips and Tools