8 WAYS TO BECOME A BETTER WRITER

Type what you love.

This one is my favorite. Who are your favorite authors? Malcolm Gladwell? Amy Tan? Alice Munroe? Toni Morrison? Grab something in the genre you are writing, and type it out. The first few pages of the book or a whole essay; whatever you need work on. Maybe it’s dialog or an emotionally charged scene in a memoir that is tripping you up. You can read something twenty times, but when you type it out your brain shifts from the consumer to the producer role. You start to get why they did what they did, and you absorb it in a different way.

• Outline something that works. 

  Here you really evaluate the structure of a piece. If you’re really into the book you’re reading, or loved a certain commencement speech, make an outline of it. It will help you see different ways things can be pieced together.

• Read your genre, and read it a lot.

  If you’re a nonfiction writer, lay off the fiction for a while. Try to read the best of the best too—the award winners, best of… books, best sellers, those recommended at your local bookstore… 

• Start a book club. 

  Call up your most nerdy friends or post on the socials looking for writers in your genre who want to read the same stuff you do. Maybe one memoir a month? Then cozy up with Zoom and a bottle of wine for virtual book conversation.

• Listen to audio books being read by the author. 

  Hearing the author’s cadence and intonation lends a different spin to a book. And you can cook dinner at the same time.

• Join a good writing critique group. 

  With so much available online now, you have access to all sorts of groups. Find one focused on your type of writing or if you can’t find a group that’s a fit for you start one! Be sure the group you choose is not all beginner writers (even if you are new to writing, you’ll want advice from people with some experience in publishing). Be prepared for some honesty; you need to know what isn’t working in order to improve.

• Make a list of ten great first sentences.

  Why are they good? The first sentence is the one that has the most pressure on it. Its job is big—to catch the readers’ attention and draw them in. It’s the first glance of a love affair.

• Take a writing course in your genre.

  There is every type of writing course available online. Many of them free. You can learn from the greats on your own time. What could be better?