21 Writing Tips to Become a Better Writer Fast

Whether you privation to onshore your imagination job, people a promotion, transportation a caller client, oregon turn your blog connected Google oregon societal media, penning is 1 of the astir almighty skills you can learn.

I person personally written thousands of articles implicit the years, covering everything from penning itself to integer marketing, travel, insurance, and more. My enactment has been featured connected immoderate of the world’s apical selling blogs, including Shopify, Content Marketing Institute, Social Media Examiner, and galore others. I’ve built my full vocation connected the written word.

I don’t accidental this to gloat—just to amusement you that I cognize what I’m talking astir erstwhile it comes to writing. And I’m astir to stock what I know.

In this article, we’ll spell done 21 tips to go a amended writer. But first, let’s sermon what “good writing” truly is.

What makes bully writing?

Writing is portion art, portion science. There are nary cleanable words oregon cleanable sentences, but determination is simply a wide quality betwixt bully penning and atrocious writing. 

Good non-fiction writing:

• Is casual to understand.
• Is well-formatted.
• Has due grammar and spelling.
• Gets to the point.
• Holds your attention.

Good penning truly comes from bully editing. It’s uncommon that a archetypal draught comes retired polished and acceptable to publish.

But great penning has immoderate other spice to it. It intrigues and motivates. It moves the scholar to privation to bash something. It gets you thinking.

Being a bully writer is easy. Being a large writer takes clip and dedication. Either way, becoming a amended writer starts by pursuing immoderate basal tips and practicing often.

21 penning tips to assistance you constitute better, faster

In my decennary of penning professionally (and galore much years earlier that penning for fun), I’ve learned a batch astir however to beryllium a amended writer. And I’ve boiled down my champion proposal into the pursuing 21 tips.

1. Start with your extremity end in mind

Before you enactment pen to insubstantial (or fingers to keyboard), you should ever cognize what your goal is. 

Why are you penning this article/email/book? What bash you privation the scholar to instrumentality distant from your writing?

For example, my extremity for this nonfiction is to assistance you, the reader, go a amended writer. That (hopefully) means you volition travel immoderate of these tips and instrumentality them the adjacent clip you write.

2. Make an outline

Once you person a unsmooth thought of your goal, it’s clip to signifier your thoughts with an outline.

A content outline volition assistance you operation your penning logically and fto it travel much naturally. It’s besides adjuvant to get the bulk of your probe retired of the mode earlier you commencement writing. This is truthful you don’t get distracted going backmost and distant betwixt penning and research.

Plus, if you’re penning blog content, having an outline makes it easier to optimize your contented for hunt engines from the get-go alternatively than optimization being an afterthought. 

3. Focus, focus, focus

After you commencement writing, it’s important to springiness it your afloat attention. This whitethorn dependable simple, but debar distractions similar kids moving astir oregon checking your telephone or email. 

I personally similar to crook my telephone connected “silent” and mute my notifications, enactment connected noise-canceling headphones, and perceive to instrumental Lo-fi music. You tin experimentation to spot if your encephalon does amended with implicit soundlessness oregon airy instrumental music. Heck, sometimes I adjacent constitute portion listening to bass-heavy EDM. 

Regardless, bounds distractions arsenic overmuch arsenic imaginable and let yourself to absorption connected your writing.

4. Ditch the fancy words

Effervescent penning with decorative wording doesn’t service to make an erudite treatment but alternatively sounds bloviating and obfuscates the existent meaning of your communication…

… oregon rather, fancy words lone confuse people.

While utilizing these words whitethorn marque your penning look interesting, it detracts from the extremity of being wide and concise. It makes it much hard for the scholar to recognize your message.

Instead, effort to usage the simplest and easiest-to-understand words you tin portion inactive explaining what you’re trying to say.

5. Use shorter sentences but alteration the lengths

Similar to utilizing smaller words, you should besides purpose to shorten your sentences. 

Imagine if I wrote thing that your encephalon had to proceed to read, with aggregate commas, aggregate ideas, and varying concepts, each successful 1 immense run-on sentence, that conscionable didn’t look to end, nary substance however severely you wanted it to, not giving you immoderate clip to instrumentality a enactment oregon digest the ideas you’re learning, and it conscionable keeps dragging on…

Makes things hard to follow, right?

Instead, support each condemnation nether 16–25 words unless perfectly necessary, and lone stock 1 oregon 2 ideas per sentence.

That said, you shouldn’t just usage tiny sentences. If you do, it tin get boring. Similar-sized sentences don’t entice. See what I’m doing here? All these sentences are of near-similar lengths. 

Compare that to this paragraph, wherever wording and magnitude are varied. Share thing quickly. Then reenforce it with a longer condemnation that digs deeper, keeping the encephalon engaged. Maybe propulsion successful a medium-length condemnation as well.

Don’t accent excessively overmuch astir condemnation length, but support it successful the backmost of your mind. It helps to springiness your penning immoderate bushed and marque it dependable much interesting.

6. Write successful a conversational tone

Too often I spot caller writers trying to constitute successful a mode that sounds “professional.” Rather than penning successful their earthy dependable and style, they effort to dependable excessively buttoned up.

This comes disconnected arsenic boring.

Instead, constitute similar however you talk—within reason, of course. Don’t constitute a probe insubstantial similar this. But if you’re penning a casual email oregon blog post, your penning should dependable earthy and travel arsenic if you’re talking straight to the scholar alternatively than giving a lecture to them.

7. Write every day

Remember however I said there’s a quality betwixt bully writers and large writers? Good writers larn a fewer tips and constitute erstwhile successful a while. Great writers enactment successful the clip to practice.

This doesn’t needfully mean penning an nonfiction each day. All forms of penning count, whether that’s crafting an email, penning a blog post, oregon scribbling successful a journal. Have amusive with it.

8. Master transitions

As immoderate bully copywriter volition archer you, the intent of a paragraph isn’t to convey an thought oregon marque a point. Rather, it’s to get idiosyncratic to work the next paragraph. 

Knowing however to modulation from 1 thought oregon paragraph to the adjacent is 1 of the biggest secrets to support readers glued to the page. And that’s done with transitions.

The champion mode to get bully astatine transitions is by speechmaking your enactment retired large to spot abrupt changes oregon awkward spots, past editing to creaseless these spots out. I speech much astir that successful the next tip.

9. Read your penning retired large to edit it

Remember: Good penning comes from bully editing.

One of the biggest improvements I ever made to my penning came from speechmaking my penning retired large portion editing. By speechmaking retired loud, it becomes glaringly evident wherever your penning sounds awkward, doesn’t modulation well, oregon consecutive up doesn’t sound good.

If you usage lone a azygous extremity from this article, usage this one.

10. Start a diary or diary

Physically penning successful a diary has been shown to person many wellness benefits, specified arsenic reducing anxiousness and stress, helping you signifier your thoughts, and adjacent coping with depression.

But it besides makes you a amended writer.

Something astir putting an existent pen to insubstantial is magical. Doing this fto maine acquisition my second-biggest penning betterment (after the “reading enactment retired loud” tip).

11. Use progressive voice

Your penning volition beryllium made amended aft speechmaking this. You volition constitute amended aft speechmaking this.

Which of those 2 sentences sounds better? The second is written successful progressive voice, portion the erstwhile is written successful passive voice.

Active dependable ever packs much of a punch successful a smaller package. It’s much absorbing to work due to the fact that it talks astir a contiguous enactment alternatively than immoderate aboriginal possibility.

Check retired Grammarly’s usher to progressive vs. passive writing to learn more.

12. Utilize archetypal drafts

Good penning comes from bully editing. You can’t edit without a first draft.

Don’t expect to constitute thing up, ne'er work it over, and person it published and dependable amazing. It conscionable doesn’t enactment similar that 99% of the time.

Instead, constitute your thoughts successful a archetypal draft, past edit, edit, and edit some more.

13. Ditch adverbs

Adverbs are large erstwhile you really request to stress a point. See what I did there?

Using excessively galore adverbs excessively often is conscionable not indispensable and truly lone distracts from the precise constituent you’re truly trying to make. 

Or: Using adverbs excessively often is not indispensable and distracts from the constituent you’re trying to make.

Instead of saying “really,” oregon “very,” oregon immoderate different adverb, effort utilizing the connection without the adverb. Just delete the adverb and work the condemnation retired loud. And 9 times retired of 10, you’ll find the adverb isn’t indispensable and removing it makes your penning punchier.

14. Master punctuation

Commas, dashes, colons, and the similar are each fantastic tools. But you request to cognize however to usage the tools. Otherwise, they detract from—rather than enhance—your writing.

I often spot caller writers over-using agelong dashes and commas. You’d beryllium amazed astatine however often you tin conscionable delete commas and inactive beryllium grammatically correct.

Here’s a useful guide to assistance you get amended with punctuation.

15. Ruthlessly cut fluff

If removing a connection from a sentence—or a condemnation from a paragraph—doesn’t instrumentality distant from the constituent you’re trying to make, it’s astir apt fluff.

Too often we propulsion other words oregon sentences into our penning to beef up the connection number oregon dependable much sophisticated. Don’t do that.

In my opinion, large non-fiction penning is astir saying the astir portion utilizing the fewest words. Again, it comes backmost to editing. Edit retired the fluff similar your beingness depends on it.

16. Have idiosyncratic other work your draft

Having a caller acceptable of eyes connected your enactment tin assistance springiness you a position you couldn’t get erstwhile your caput was down. Even if it’s conscionable a person oregon workfellow who isn’t a large writer, person them work it and springiness you feedback.

You’ll either get a bully dopamine deed from the praise oregon immoderate ideas connected what sucks. Either way, it’s a win-win. 

17. Know your audience

Feedback from your peers is important, but what truly matters is your last audience.

Not lone volition this amended your reader’s retention, but it volition besides assistance your contented amusement up successful Google hunt results. Doing immoderate basal probe tin assistance your contented align with search intent.

Search intent is the why down the query. Why did they hunt for that phrase? What are they precisely searching for?

You tin fig this retired with immoderate basal keyword research. Follow our guide to learn more.

18. Develop your curiosity

How galore times did you request to constitute a insubstantial successful schoolhouse oregon thing for enactment that you conscionable couldn’t attraction little about? How good did the insubstantial come out?

Chances are, it could person been better. Great writers are genuinely funny astir the happening they’re penning about, and that curiosity propels them to find the close words and dependable much interesting.

So if you’re struggling to constitute astir immoderate you request to constitute about, find a mode to get funny astir it. Watch immoderate absorbing videos connected YouTube oregon work absorbing quality stories connected it. Do immoderate you request to get curious.

19. Read large writers

If you privation to beryllium a large writer, you should work different large writers’ work. Find the champion writers successful the tract you privation to constitute astir and commencement reading.

Google is your person here.

20. Write determination new

My third-biggest penning betterment happened erstwhile I started penning astatine java shops, restaurants, chill hotels, and adjacent retired successful nature.

There’s thing astir getting into a caller situation that shakes your encephalon up and helps you find amended words. Next clip you’re struggling to write, spell retired and constitute determination new.

21. Sleep on it

Finally, if you’ve followed each these tips and inactive can’t look to find the close words, conscionable measurement distant for a while. A bully night’s remainder tin bash wonders.

It’s comic however galore times I felt similar I was bashing my caput disconnected a ceramic partition trying to constitute something. But past conscionable putting it down for time wholly turned it astir for me.

Sometimes, it’s champion to enactment the pen down for a bit.

Final thoughts

The champion writers marque penning a regular signifier and aren’t acrophobic to ruthlessly edit their work.

My 3 biggest tips retired of the 21 are to work your penning retired loud, support a journal, and effort penning successful caller places. Hopefully, those 3 elemental things volition assistance you go a amended writer.

Ready for more? Here are a fewer different large articles:

• SEO Writing: 7 Steps to Create Search-Optimized Content
• Julian Shapiro’s Guide to Writing Well
• How to Build a Winning Content Marketing Strategy successful 9 Steps