How long did it take you to write well

Folks can you share your experience. How long did it take you to write good english articles? Especially if you are a non-native speaker. Can you share some thoughts, tips.

You mean to learn ? Few months for me.

if you are not native - better outsource. My English is still kinda Kazakhstan

Long enough to put a question mark behind a question.

Have a spell-checker turned on, helped me tons of times with some of these ridiculous words.

The non-native speaker would need to achieve a pretty good level of fluency, and would need, like any writer, to have knowledge and style to stand out in order to be successful.

I mean at the beginning what was your English level, before you began write well? How much time did it take you to write well. It`s more interesting if you are a non-native speaker.

Billy Batts said:

Have a spell-checker turned on

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I use it everytime.

soa0611 said:

My English is still kinda Kazakhstan

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you mean like intermediate level B1-B2

krishnaverma said:

Few months for me.

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Because you a native speaker ?

I need over two years to build my own writing style.

I'll say to outsource your content if you're non-native especially if your site is primarily for an English audience. You will gradually get better with time and probably with a few editing software (but the software work best if you are already comfortable with the basics of writing properly so you know what recommendations to ignore and what to accept). And this brings you back to the beginning - outsourcing to someone who can give you better contents if it's within your budget. But like they say, practice makes perfect so keep practising and you will eventually, gradually, get better. How long will it take you to get there? Honestly, it all depends on your baseline and what you consider good enough.

Its a ongoing process, but atleast six month of daily writing will make you better.

kuzuryu71 said:

I need over two years to build my own writing style.

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Folks, please clarify if you are native or not, or do you know English, or how well had you known english before?

I meant to add tips that can help you become a better writer since that was your original question:

1. Practice writing every day.
2. Read a lot of English books. Read everyday pretty much.
3. Install a few free editing software like Grammarly or ProwritingAid but use them cautiously
4. Install a free text to speech software and allow it to read your writing back to you. Sometimes it's easier to pick up an error when someone reads it back to you.
5. Take a few English/grammar/writing classes. I'm sure you'll find a few free ones on Google
6. Use the thesaurus when you need to add variation to your work
7. And keep practicing and don't give up.

(Native here)

missmyrah said:

it all depends on your baseline and what you consider good enough.

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I near Intermediate level B1-B2

Purush said:

but atleast six month of daily writing will make you better.

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How much better? Can you write like native speaker or below his level?

About 22 years. I did 12 years of school then a 4 year law degree in Australia.

I have some admiration for non-native speakers who can write native quality articles. To be honest though, native quality English is very hard. Even the people here who speak exceptionally good English have obvious mistakes in their writing. You can tell it is from a non-native speaker and these people may be relatively excellent at writing in English.

Around 7-8 years. However I wasn't active writing all the time. Started my IM career in 2010. First few years my English was not that good, even though I have it prior in school for 8 years.

I "mastered" it while doing IM for all these past years.

Ravzar said:

About 22 years. I did 12 years of school then a 4 year law degree in Australia.

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missmyrah said:

Native here

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So you are all native speakers. Maybe writing well for a non - native speakers is not achievable.

Sizus said:

Around 7-8 years. However I wasn't active writing all the time. Started my IM career in 2010. First few years my English was not that good, even though I have it prior in school for 8 years.

I "mastered" it while doing IM for all these past years.

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Your English is good but there are mistakes even in the above. This is not meant to be criticism. What you have achieved is great. I just make the point that it is practically impossible for anyone to write as a native speaker. It is impossible even for people with master degrees in Mandarin to English translation! I know this from experience lol.

Ravzar said:

Your English is good but there are mistakes even in the above. This is not meant to be criticism. What you have achieved is great. I just make the point that it is practically impossible for anyone to write as a native speaker. It is impossible even for people with master degrees in Mandarin to English translation! I know this from experience lol.

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I totally agree with your mate

dkv023 said:

So you are all native speakers. Maybe writing well for a non -native speakers is not achievable.

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I couldn't write great English even after I completed high school. It took university study before I knew how to even use a comma.

Ravzar said:

Your English is good but there are mistakes even in the above. This is not meant to be criticism. What you have achieved is great. I just make the point that it is practically impossible for anyone to write as a native speaker. It is impossible even for people with master degrees in Mandarin to English translation! I know this from experience lol.

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Maybe you are right. But we are talking about articles for web, rewriting articles. Maybe it is unnecessary to have a fluence level to write middle quality posts for web. I think for writing science posts you must know a lot of science words.

dkv023 said:

So you are all native speakers. Maybe writing well for a non - native speakers is not achievable.

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It's achievable with time and effort. I personally don't think it's impossible. Again, really depends on how well you want to write.