So, let’s say, for example, that you are a lousy writer. Your sentences are dull, your paragraphs disjointed and your overall point muddled and confused. But, for whatever reason, you still want to write. Unfortunately, I can’t give you talent–it is debatable whether or not I actually have any–but I can give you tips that have worked in the past.
Write on the page, not on the screen. It’s very easy to get distracted if you try to write on a computer. There’s your music program, the internet, games. All these things take away from your writing experience, especially if you are just starting out as a writer. Remove these distractions; get out a pen and a pad of paper and write that way.
There are several advantages to this: One, as I said, it removes distractions. Two, it is possible not only to get distracted by the other things on your screen while you write, but by the writing itself. It is natural to be a little bit enamored by seeing your own words on the screen, in type. You will be less likely to want to change and/or delete them. Three, you will eventually type your writing up. Since the act of typing forces you to read what you have written and think about it again, writing on the page guarantees that you must "automatically" review and revise your text at least once. Four, if you write a lot, like for example a novel, you get a nice big stack of pages and the sense of accomplishment that comes along with it.
Read what you write. In a way, actually writing is the easy part of writing. Much harder is the revision, editing and proofreading phase. The secret here is to separate the phases.
Phase one: Prewriting; this is the preparatory phase of writing, it includes everything from getting a pen and paper to the much more difficult and often elusive ‘getting inspired’.
Phase two: Writing; this is the easy part. Forming words and putting them down on the page.
Phase three: Revision; going back and making major changes to the work. For a novel, this could include major plot changes, eliminating or changing characters or removing scenes. This phase can occur concordantly with phases four and five.
Phase four: Editing. Editing is like revision, but on a smaller scale. Editing occurs on the sentence, phrase and word level. If you change a word choice or fiddle with a sentence structure, you are editing.
Phase five: Proofreading: Proofreading is the simple correction of errors on the word or grammatical level. If you know the English Language well, this is an easy phase.
The hardest of all phases is revision. This is because it requires utter brutality. We grow attached to what we write and are usually not interested in changing it. Editing can be difficult, too. Writing is easy; once you start, it is easy to keep going. But the difference between good writing and mediocre writing is often the number of revisions.
Read what you write out loud. This is just a general tip for any post-writing phase of writing. Read what you have written out loud. At least whisper it to yourself. Reading words on the page only uses sight. If you read out loud, you also hear what you have written and feel it in the muscles of your face. The more senses you involve in your writing, the better it will be. If there were a way to smell or taste your words, I would recommend that too.
Trust your mind, not your tools. There are various tools a person can use while writing: a dictionary, a thesaurus, the spelling and grammar checkers. They can be useful, but only if you use them correctly. I can’t count the times that a grammar checker has recommended utterly obtuse and horrible sentence structures to me. Especially if you are writing dialogue for a novel: it is sometimes okay to be ungrammatical. Spell-checkers can be wrong too. They don’t catch everything, like the difference between cell and sell or there, their or they’re. Thesauri (thesauruses) can steer you wrong too. Imagine a child going up to his mother and saying ‘Wow, these brownies are so dank’. If you look up ‘moist’ in a thesaurus, it will tell you ‘dank’, but in that context, it makes no sense.
Hopefully, these tips will help you to be less of a lousy writer. But even if you are the best writer in the world, there is always room for improvement. With a skill like writing, you can never be too good.
