Being a good writer can mean a lot of different things - it depends on what they're writing.
First, let's look at the types of writers. A "good writer" might not be a "good writer" for your situation.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not claiming this is the best-written post ever or some kind of masterpiece. I'm writing quick, off the top of my head, since well - we're in a forum and I've got a busy day.
TL;DR: Get better at writing by reading more. Analyze what you're reading and your feelings while you read it.
Types of Writers
1. What makes a good novel writer is the ability to craft an interesting story. They can understand their readers, create interesting characters, and create a story arc.
Here's the catch - the writing probably won't be concise. Picture the last book you read.
You could probably sum it up in a page or less. It's not as interesting to read, but it gets the same point across.
You'll notice many popular novel writers are also artists with their words.
Interesting ways of combining words, ideas, and showing everyday ideas through unique words makes the writing enjoyable to read - but also might be confusing to some.
2. A technical writer? They need to be exceptional at cutting all fluff and providing the most concise, clear explanation possible.
It's dry, it's boring, but it does the job. You don't want to wade through a novel trying to understand the documentation for a new programming language - you want data, in the shortest amount of time possible.
3. A copywriter? They need to excel at analyzing their target audience, empathizing, and understand who they're talking to.
What keeps their audience up at night in sleepless terror? What makes their audience excited and want to buy?
A stellar copywriter needs to have the skills of not only the novel writer, and also the technical writer.
They need to understand how to include SEO keywords naturally, understand their audience, AND tell a story - all at the same time.
They're a marketer, analyst, and therapist all at once, who can condense a tremendous amount of information into a story told with subheadings that can be understood with minimal mental effort on the part of the reader.
So, are writers born or made?
Both.
Everyone's born with natural abilities, but these can be enhanced.
For writing - read, read, read. Read the type of writing you want to produce, and your internal voice will naturally begin to speak this way.
Here's how you can improve your types of writing.
1. The Storyteller: You've probably known people who can tell an incredible story by understanding the game - the push-pull game of flirting with the reader's mind through building tension and releasing, like a musician.
They are naturally empathic. They can instinctively feel the reader's emotions and manipulate them at will.
Want to become better at storytelling?
Read stories. Pay attention to how each sentence makes you feel. Watch people closely as you tell them stories and pivot.
Soon, you'll be able to tell compelling stories without even being able to see your reader.
2. The Artist: You've known people who can make a boring sequence of events a fascinating story by combining words and ideas most people wouldn't ever consider putting together. It creates an anomaly - something different to the reader's everyday thinking patterns - and these pattern breaks draw the reader in.
They are naturally creative. They know how to connect different unrelated ideas in bizarre ways.
Want to become a better literary artist?
Look at art. Personify mundane, everyday concepts. Combine ideas most people wouldn't consider. Put them into words. Use adjectives.
"Show, don't tell".
"The gluttonous clouds vomited onto the child as she huddled under the gentle arms of the tree" is a more interesting sentence to most than "The child sat under the tree while it rained".
3. The Technical Writer: You've known people who can take exceptionally complex concepts and put them in simple words that a child could understand.
They may not be creative, or storytellers, but they can find the essence of an idea and give you the facts in a logical way.
Want to become a better technical writer?
Read documentation. Strip almost every adjective and adverb from your sentences. Keep sentences short. Strip all emotion from your writing.
"The child sat alone under the tree while it rained," is exactly what you want to read. Is it riveting? No. Does it capture your emotions? Probably not. However, it tells you exactly what you need to know.
4. The Copywriter: A good copywriter can take the best elements from all of these.
Marketing is telling a story. It tells a story of empathy.
Sales copy usually follows a pattern:
"I know who you are. I understand your problem. I have a solution to that problem. If you don't take my solution, it's going to turn out horrible for you. I care about your success - I want things to go well for you. Did I mention I have a solution for your problem? These smart people - smart people like you! - took my solution - look how well it turned out for them. Your problem keeps you awake in terror at night. So, give me your (money, email) and I'll get you started with my solution."
See? It tells a story. It empathizes with the reader.
But since most readers will only be skimming this, they need the story to stay engaged while also being told in the simplest possible terms - the technical writer's ability.
Oh, let's make this more complicated: now we have to include keywords. This often takes a mastery of natural language phrasing - being able to dissect sentences, move phrases around, split an idea across multiple sentences while including the artists touch to keep it engaging.
Finally, this all needs to be packaged in a readable, skimmable format.
So, here's my general tips you can apply today.
1. Paragraphs of two to four sentences.
This makes content skimmable. Each break between a paragraph provides an opportunity for the reader to pause and let the idea sink in and become aware of their emotions.
Once they've connected with their emotions, you want to smoothly transition to the next emotion. Ideally, have the last sentence of your paragraph provide some suspense to introduce the next paragraph. This makes the reader want to keep reading.
You don't want to listen to someone who never stops talking with no pauses and no time for you to consider what they're saying? It's not fun.
It also provides the eye with a natural resting place. Every try to read a massive wall of text? Imagine this post, but with no spaces or paragraphs.
The difficulty in holding your place and finding the next idea makes you stop reading as soon as possible in utter exhaustion.
2. Subheadings and formatting
Summarize your paragraph in a subheading every paragraph, or every few paragraphs, with a bold subheading.
Subheadings give you a chance to summarize your content for readers skimming the page, and also helps you confirm that your story is focused and logical. People will skim an article to see if it's relevant to them. If they think it's relevant, they might actually read your content.
Most of the time, they won't.
Another thing to consider is whether the reader will be making emotional decisions or logical decisions. For example, using words that evoke feelings is good when you want the reader to decide with their emotions whether to take some action - when you want them to buy your cheap, completely unproven cure for genital warts in the next four minutes and twenty-seven seconds with free shipping because OH MY GOD it hurts right now, give me anything, it sounds like it fixes my problem it helped that guy's problem and my I won't feel repulsive anymore and life will be great I'll feel happy again no more pain....
However, sometimes a reader is going to logically evaluate your writing.
If I'm researching genital warts for the next three months (why the hell did I pick this example?), I'm going to evaluate what you're saying based on my logic, facts, and rationality.
Here's a simple trick to help shift them to logically evaluating what you're saying. Put something in bold. Then, continue the idea. Cut the fluff in the followup. This makes them pause and stops their emotional flow for a moment. Wait, where's the research showing how John's genital wart-b-gone works?
2. Small words. Active voice. Simple phrases.
Some people have an incredible vocabulary, while others are just beginning to learn English.
The copywriter needs to be understood by all these people.
The copywriter isn't the artist, whose goal is creatively showcasing their ability by connecting abstract, bizarre ideas - their goal is to evoke an emotion in the reader with easy-to-understand concepts.
Run your copy through an online tool which analyzes the difficulty of sentences. Also, before you start writing, create a document with an outline of topic headings and subheadings. Shift them around until the flow makes sense and tells a story with tension and climax.
3. Voice
A very common problem is that people begin to write in a strange, unnatural, formal way. "Now it's on paper - it must sound official. I must sound smart."
No.
It makes your writing hard to understand, and the reader visualizes being lectured by a pretentious, pompous, faceless robot they can't relate with.
Imagine you're talking to a friend. Write like that.
Remember, nobody cares about you. Sorry. They care about themselves.
Use the word "you" as much as possible without sounding strange. Talk about their problems, not yours - most of the time.
Depending on the tone of the article, you could possibly mention that you X solved your problem Y, or your experience with Z - but remember, they don't care that it solved your problem.
They care if it solves their problem. The only reason to mention yourself is if it helps them relate to you, trust you, and feel that you were in their shoes.
4. Visual Design
Studies show the most readable copy tends to be sans-serif fonts (like Arial) and approximately 400px wide (assumin 16px font).
If you can, update your website's theme to this size. A lot of Wordpress themes out the box go way too wide.
Long sentences become tedious to read with the eye, and it's hard to jump to the next one.
The more effort someone has to invest in reading your copy, the less likely they are to continue reading. Now you didn't make your sale or get that social media share. Mission failed.
5. Grammar and punctuation
This is important, but actually less important than the other points.
See what I did with that comma? It's where a speaker would pause in a sentence. Grammarly is highlighting it as an error, but I feel that comma actually adds drama to the sentence and makes it more interesting.
Try reading it with and without a pause after "This is important."
You want your reader to feel emotion. BUT, will they feel emotion if they feel that you're a robot, a machine with perfect punctuation that's lecturing them?
See what I did with that BUT? That's not grammatically correct. BUT, it does highlight the importance of the contrast in that sentence. You dwell on the idea for just a moment longer.
With that said - here's the thing, and why you should understand grammar:
For the reader, it is difficult, when wrong words and misplaced punctuation, and awkward phrasing, are making it the difficulty of being understood hard for them.
Did you find that sentence difficult to understand on the first glance? It probably made you pause, but not in a good way.
So, here's what you can do:
- Try to speak in an active voice.
- Vary your clauses. State an idea in a simple active voice sentence. To create some variety, follow with a clause separated by a comma. You can follow with another sentence in the active voice like this one - actually, you could throw in a clause with a dash to give an emotional spike since the reader is bored by now.
- Read, read, read. This will give you a natural feel for "what works" and different ways to structure sentences.
6. Proofreading and clarity
Ironically, I'm not proofreading this. It's a forum post that went on way too long, and I'm in a hurry - sorry.
If this was for a client, I'd do the following (sorry, don't have time to do it for you in this post):
1. Write the article.
2. Walk away for an hour and work on something else. You need to emotionally detach from your work, or you'll be blind to mistakes.
3. Skim the article on screen. Fix the obvious mistakes, like typos or broken sentences you missed while re-arranging content on the first draft, or ideas that don't make sense on second glance.
4. Print out the article, if possible.
5. Read it out loud to a friend. Watch their reaction. Where do they get bored? Can they tell you what the article was about afterward?
6. If they like it, great! If not - put your damn ego aside and rewrite parts, even the whole thing, until it makes sense.
7. If you really want to go the extra mile, see if you can find a child or less fluent English speaker. Repeat #5.
8. Picking up Grammarly (Chrome extension) can help you spot issues when you're in a hurry.
7. Fuck your thesauraus
If you need to pick up a thesauraus, don't (unless you don't know much English).
The first simple word that pops into your head is probably exactly what the reader will understand.
Conclusion
If you made it this far - awesome! I hope some of this helped you. Writing is my passion.
Maybe you have natural writing talent that can be improved, or maybe it's just not your thing. You can still get better. These skills will help you in every part of life - life is about communicating effectively to get what you need.
Leave a comment below if you'd like to know which articles or books which I've found particularly helpful (No, I'm not selling anything and not affiliated with any of them.)
Good luck!
