Are writers born or made? This is the first question you need to ask yourself. Hmm! I guess they are born, you might have muttered.

You see yourself constantly writing and ending up not publishing them. “I don’t think it is good enough, Will it be appreciated? Oh! my use of words suck”. These keep popping in your head. You have been trying to write for a while and still see yourself not getting better at it? Brace up, let’s dive right in. That shell you’ve wrapped around yourself needs to be broken. Writer’s block is not for you.

Writers are not born, you can develop the act of writing. You can grow to be like or better than top writers you admire by putting in more effort. It will surprise you at how amazing you will become when you work towards it. Persistence fuels success.

A writer is a person who uses written words in various styles and techniques to communicate their ideas.

Writers use words to express their feeling or share knowledge. It may not be perfect, but it should be communicative enough to your target audience.

Why Write?

People write for different reasons; some writers feel that there are concepts that are not properly explained or are misunderstood and seek to correct the wrong notion being circulated while others seek to create a world they always wish they had through writing.

So why do you write, torturing yourself to put it down? Find a reason to write. Your reason is your motivation, it gets you going. Seek to brighten someone’s day through your writing.

When you write;

• You learn every day
• You educate and connect to the world better
• You get the opportunity to make an impact on someone’s life

According to George Orwell,

“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”

Our problems stem from man’s inability to sit in a room and act. We keep waiting for inspiration before we act. Renowned writers do not wait for inspiration. They commit their thoughts not minding how bad it might turn out to be. You may be smart but what matters are the choices you make today. Choose to write today, the number of words you put out to the world should not matter at first rather you should work towards publishing quality works and with time, you will grow into writing more quality contents.

Here’s how to get better

In a quest to becoming better at writing, you need to define your parameters first;

• Which type of article do you want to write?
• What aspect of the type chosen do you want to write on?
• What do you hope to achieve through the article?
• Which aspects do you need to cover?
• Who are you writing for?

Structure

At some point, topics pop into your head, don’t let them go, jot them down immediately and form a skeleton of the article. Put the most important information first. When creating headlines, don’t use click baits. It gets you the click but makes you lose your audience. Break down your story in such a way that it will be appealing to everyone, let each section explain a particular thought. Use readable font types and sizes with adequate spacing.

Tone

You wouldn’t want to get that feedback right? In this digital era, readers allocate very little time to your content to ascertain if it is worth their time. Find your voice in writing, be concise and unique. Use easier words to convey your thoughts.

If you can’t explain the concept to a child, then, you still have a long way to go. — Richard Feynman

Simplicity should be your watchword. Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.

When considering making a good impression on your readers, what you write is not the only thing you should think about but how you convey your thoughts. Analyze different interpretations that your readers may likely give to your tone.

Grammarly can help you restructure your sentences. It is a nice tool I recently discovered that uses artificial intelligence to transform writing styles.

Visuals

Every content you create needs an element of visuals in it. Images, illustrations, graphs etc., attracts and sustains your audiences’ interest. The impact of this element should not be overlooked in your quest to becoming a better writer. Tons of them are available on Unsplash, Freepik, Undraw, Pixabay, Pexels and other platforms providing varieties of free images to choose from.

Read

Read works of great writers. When you consistently read the work of a great author, you notice that it soon begins to reflect on your work of art.

Writing is a function of the mind, declutter your mind and arrange your thoughts.

Promotion

Promote your articles on LinkedIn, Twitter and other social platforms. Be open to criticism, get people to criticize your work and learn from it. Great authors seek feedback and bank on it to grow.

Tools That Can Come in Handy

Tools offer great ways to be more productive. The under-listed tools can aid you in becoming better at writing.

• Headline Analyzer
• Grammarly
• Hemingway Editor
• Copyscape
• Power thesaurus
• Asciinema (for techies)

Don’t be ashamed to identify as an author. Go out there and conquer your fears.