••• The International Writers Magazine - 24 Years on-line - Creative Lives

5 Ways to Become a Great Writer • Jamie Ann

Do you think you are a good writer? Are you in another line of work? Are you an architect drawing plans every day or a doctor thinking about surgical supplies? Maybe you do not have the time to write. If it is something you love to do, you should make the time.

When you look at the greatest writers of the last century, Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Tom Clancy, and the rest, ask yourself what they did to become such exceptional writers. You ask yourself if it's a skill they were born with or did they use magic pencils to write their books. You too could become an exceptional writer, especially now with the pandemic and loss of employment, the social distancing, and staying at home you may have more time on your hands to improve your writing skills. As you keep yourself safe from the virus, here are five things that will help you go from just being a good writer to being a great writer.

Embrace imagination

To become a great writer, you must embrace the power of imagination. J. K. Rowling would not have become a household name if she did not imagine a kid running around waving a wand. You should embrace your imagination—the bigger the better. The more unrealistic it is, the more interesting the story. Here are a few tips to improve your imagination. Destroy all the boundaries you give your imaginative world. Stop resisting crazy ideas. Talking to children will improve your imagination as kids enjoy and believe almost everything they hear.

Stay focused and persistent

Writing is a long process that's monotonous and tiresome and more often than not you may feel like giving up. Persistence is hard but rewarding in the end. J. K. Rowling was denied twelve times before the first Harry Potter book was published, but she kept trying until she got her break. Writing a thousand words in a sitting may be tiresome and focusing could be hard. However, you could try these techniques to help improve your focus. Write down your ideas whenever they pop up so when you sit down to write you just build on them. You could also listen to focusing music.

Strong research skill and a proper understanding of SEO

The growth of technology has made writing easy and hard equally, in the sense that you can create your blog in five minutes and become a writer. However, for your blog to get maximum readers, you must understand search engine optimization and utilize it to your advantage. To be a good writer, you must do due diligence for all your stories, research on all aspects of your story. Good research is an important part of being a writer as it improves the quality and credibility of your story.

You should be organized and be able to beat deadlines

Being organized is an important part of becoming a writer. You should be able to plan and organize your work in chronological order. Being organized has also been proven to improve time management and gives you the ability to track your progress. You should also be able to deliver before the deadline. Most of the publishing companies have deadlines that every writer should meet. Even when becoming a freelance writer or a blogger, it is important to have deadlines so that you can push yourself and hold yourself accountable for the time and effort put into the work.

Final editing

The most underrated but most important bit of writing is editing. Writing was invented 5,500 years ago in Mesopotamia. Almost every idea conceivable must have been written at some point in history so your content should be unique, interesting, and captivating. Editing skills are needed to ensure the originality of your work with the ability to correct the grammatical and factual errors in a piece. Condensing the information to the necessary facts will still maintain the message or otherwise modifying the words or sentence structures.

Writing has become an important part of our day-to-day lives with bloggers blogging everything from the weather to the latest movie. People are consuming reading materials at an extremely high rate since the invention of blogs. This is because of the rise of new and amazing writers that write passionately about specific topics making it easier to target a specific group of readers. 

The more traditional companies that have been publishing for years, like the New York Times, are even offering online platforms for teaching writing. These kinds of platforms give rise to good young writers. 

How Can a Writer Find Inspiration When Writing In Their Home?
Jamie Ann
As a writer, you may lack inspiration at times. Fortunately, there are different ways to get the inspiration that you need to get you going.


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