Skip to main content

Guest Post: 7 Tips for Improving Your Writing

Every good writer will always want to improve upon his or her work. Any good writer doesn't simply write for a living or want to write for a living; they want to write and love to write. What's better than loving what you do for a living! However, how can you get better? There are many methods that you can use and tips you can follow that can give you the edge when it comes to completing each and every piece of work.

1. Reread your existing work. The first step is to reread your own work. You may spot errors or areas that can be improved. This is unlikely if a deeper issue lurks underneath the surface, but surface errors are easy to spot.

2. Learn to critique your work. Critiquing your work is a good step to take if you want to improve because you can go through every piece that you have ever written and list areas of improvement for yourself rather than getting others involved.

3. Read articles that give you information on how to improve. There are many of them out there. All give different hints and tips so you just have to decide what works for you.

4. Experiment with your style. A change in style can improve your writing infinitely if it could be more passionate or exciting. One of the biggest problems writers face is getting people interested in their work and a change of style may just give you that ability and the edge.

5. Get someone else to read through your work. A fresh pair of eyes can pick up issues or areas for improvement that you have missed. The more people that will read it the better.

6. Always have an aim in mind. What do you want from your writing? If you have an aim or goal in mind then you have something to work towards and it will make it easier for you to improve.

7. Persevere. So many budding writers give up when the going gets tough, but the ability to push through the tough times will stand you in good stead should any problems crop up in the future. The determined do far better in the writing industry than those who give up easily.

Copyright © Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ



Download an excerpt of The Authentic Self: Journaling Your Joys, Griefs and Everything in Between below:
authenticself-sampler.zip OR authenticself-sampler.pdf
If you want 3 writing *sparks* delivered to you every day for 31 days, check out WriteSparks!™ Daily HERE for info on how to get started -- it's free :o) Thank you for reading. Keep writing!

Popular posts from this blog

Interview Friday: Natasha Yim & Gretchen Maurer

Natasha Yim is a children's book author and freelance writer. Her first book, Otto's Rainy Day was published by Charlesbridge Publishing in 2000. It was selected as a Kids' Pick of the Lists. She has written for Highlights for Children, Appleseeds and Faces magazines, and her new picture book biography, Cixi, The Dragon Empress was released by Goosebottom Books in October 2011. Gretchen Maurer's writing has been published in Frances Mayes' The Discovery of Poetry, and in Adventure Cyclist and Highlights for Children magazines. She also co-wrote a short film, Alma, that has won multiple awards. Mary Tudor, "Bloody Mary" is her first picture book. She lives in Northern California with her family. Natasha Yim’s current book, Cixi, The Dragon Empress and Gretchen Maurer’s current book, Mary Tudor, “Bloody Mary” are two of the six books (all written by different authors) in Goosebottom Books’ series, The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Dastardly Dames. The seri...

Interview: Meet Author Sands Hetherington, Author of Night Buddies, A Lights Out Adventure Series for Kids - Books - Blogcritics

Sands Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the Night Buddies series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. Sands shared, “We always did bedtime stories and probably didn't miss a night for six or seven years. Stories were as essential as air and food.” It’s no wonder Sands loves to read and write, and is a big advocate in starting a reading schedule with young children. Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. However, he started writing at a very young age. “I think it was 10th grade. I handed in some sappy poetical piece and the very cute student teacher gushed over it. Her name was Ellen and she was spoken for, but that did it...