How to get better at writing
Day 33 / 365
I’ll explain right away that this is not a blog post where I would teach you how to be a good writer, because I myself am not one. But this year, I am taking these blogs a bit more seriously, and I am always looking for tips online as to how I can improve my writing. This post would be a compilation of some of those tips that have worked for me.
Note down your thoughts and ideas
If you think you can just sit down with a blank page and start writing, you are going to be really frustrated and disappointed. It helps a lot if you already have a repository of notes that you can then turn into something presentable.
I have gotten into the habit of using the notes app on my phone more and more. Every time I have a thought that has some potential, I note it down. When I read something that inspires me, I note that down as well. When I sit down to write these blogs, I am never short of ideas.
First drafts are always shitty
You need to accept the fact that the first thing you write will always be bad. If you wait till the thought in your head is perfect enough to write down, you will never get to write anything. Just start putting words on paper. And read through it and refine it.
Good writing is not about using complicated words
I used to always think that I need to improve my vocabulary and learn lots of new shiny words that would make my writing seem mature. But the more I read, the more I have found that any words are ok, as long as you are able to invoke an emotion in the reader. If I go through my highlights from the books I have read, they would be sentences that are technically simple, but yet they move me. That’s what you should aspire to achieve.