10 ways to become a better writer and booming in STEEMIT

 In the world of online and email communication, writing powerful copy makes all the difference.  

 How can you quickly improve your writing?  

What tools are there beyond grammar and spellchecker to make sure  you’re doing your best work? Sometimes we need tactical, specific, and  immediately useful  tips to make our writing better. Most  writing tips, for me, always seem  to feel good – and then I struggle  with the actual writing and  re-writing. How do you transform the  writing tips of Stephen King,  Stephen Pressfield, Seth Godin, and Ray  Bradbury (amazing storytellers,  all) into actionable outcomes? Here are  10 of my favorite strategies that help when you’re  self-editing,  scrambling to make ends meet, and holding both a beer and a  coffee in  your hands while trying to write-and want to do your best  work.   

1. Start with a story.

Begin your piece with a fable that illustrates your point and shows   the reader what it is that you’re talking about. Develop a scene and a   scenario where people can nod their heads and say, yes, I see, that   happens to me. I can picture myself doing that. Despite how useful  facts and lists are, stories are  what resonate. We’re  pulled into the grip of a helicopter crash, and  most of us can’t look  away when we see bright lights or hear loud  noises.    

2. Start with a question.

Much of life, and blog posts, are paradoxes, not answers. Starting   with the answer first can be terrifying (and worse, inaccurate or   incomplete). We revisit the same ideas over and over again not because  we’ve  conclusively decided, but because each topic is worth thousands  of  conversations. We need the reminders, we meditate on the ideas, and  we  each have our own flavor and take on the issue. In a recent New York   Times Opinion piece about the suffering in Syria, the author opens the   essay with a question that haunts human philosophy: “Does the torrent of suffering ever abate – and can one possibly find any point in suffering?” You don’t need to answer the question to write a great story or essay. Begin with a question, and add your thoughts.    

3. Play with the use of first, second, and third person narrative.

First person is filled with “I” statements-great when you know the   author, or you have a relationship with the person doing the writing.   Second person uses “you” all the time-and can be a wonderful tool for   creating empathy and describing a scene that you want the reader to   inhabit-but can become bossy quickly with excessive use. Third person   focuses on the scene or the action from an anonymous observer within  the  room. Most of the time, we don’t actually care about the writer.  Your  reader wants to know exactly how the writing affects him or  her-and  whether or not the reading is going to matter to them  specifically Right  from the start, you should paint a picture of the  person or scene and  show the action happening. While first-person can  be a tremendous tool as a writer, many  bloggers (myself included) are  often far too liberal in writing our  experiences. Luckily, there’s a  quick way to fix this: write the post  you would normally write, and  then edit selectively to remove the “I”  from a couple of paragraphs.  Take a paragraph that looks like this, for example:  

I was tired and hungry from a long day and the rain was  beating  down on my bike helmet. I didn’t want to work anymore-I was  completely  exhausted and ready to hit the hay. But I knew how important  it was to  continue to get this project out the door-it was my first  real project  as an entrepreneur, and delivering it mattered. 

And turn it into this (reducing the use of I statements-but still narrative):  

The rain beat down on my bike helmet. It was a long and  tiring  day. Sometimes it feels better to hit the bed instead of  continuing to  work-but I wanted to impress my newest client. Getting  projects out the  door on time is critical for first-time entrepreneurs.  It was important  to deliver, and deliver well. 

4. Talk it through.

Start with the communication vehicle you’re most comfortable with.   Most people get stuck writing because they haven’t done it enough. They   haven’t sat at the computer and made writing a habit, and each time  they  do eventually get to the screen, they agonize over each word  choice and  sentence until they’ve beaten the poor essay to death, 500  words and 2  bottles of wine later, declaring, “I’ll never write again,  no, not me!” If you’re stuck on writing, chat with a friend and use  voice  recorder, or stomp around your office or hallway and talk things  out.  Much of great conversation and thinking is done while moving-why  should  we sit and expect the great ideas to pour out of us once we’ve  relegated  our bodies to stillness? Start talking, start recording, and  go for a  walk. Many a mile I’ve walked with an earphone in my ear and a  voice  recorder on, pretending to talk to someone else while I’m  actually just  talking to myself.    

5. Write the outcome you want first-by beginning with the ending.

Start with the ending, and the desired action. Sometimes the posts I   write are creative, lyrical, poetic, and exploratory-that’s fine. Other   times, I want something, and I want something specific. Perhaps it’s a   donation to charity water, or a sign-up to my latest writing workshop.   Each time, I think carefully and specifically about the person who  will  be reading the essay, and the end of the piece, and what action I  want  them to take.    

6. Write about things you know.

Write about things that seem incredibly obvious to you (and that   you’re perhaps overlooking). Describe how you do things, and how you   sort your day. Pay attention to the questions people ask you at   conferences, in email, and during dinner conversations for clues to  what  people want to know. Surprisingly, people are incredibly different  and  what you do may be novel to someone else.    

7. Be incredibly specific.

Clichés and abstract thinking are painful to read and prevalent   across every type of writing. The solution to clichés is to get   incredibly specific-start detailing the scene and describe who is doing   what, where you are, and what is happening. Examples are more powerful   than anecdotes. For example: It was grueling, and I was exhausted. I’d never worked so hard in my life. Can be turned into something much more specific, with details about who, what, where, when, and why: My  arms were quivering and shaking; in retrospect, doing a  26-mile run  the day before writing my launch essay was probably not the  best  strategy. I could barely keep my fingers above my keyboard.  
  

8. After you’ve written your essay, go back and delete the first and the last paragraph.

After you’ve written your post or essay, go back and delete the first   and last paragraph. The body usually contains the most of the “meat”  of  the post, and many writers amble on too long in the introductions  and  conclusions. Try deleting it and shortening it to make it sweet and   punchy. 
  

9. Mimic great writers you like.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If you’re stuck, use Evernote   to copy and trace patterns that you like. I like to save out great   essays and drafts from my favorite writers, print them, and then   highlight them to study how people write effectively. Behind the words   that you enjoy the most are patterns and clues to great writing. For  example:    

• Email headings: Pay attention to  what  you click on in emails-what were the five emails you opened first  today?  What did the headlines say? Jot those down. Circle words that  felt  great. Were they long or short? What made you want to click? Take  one  you like and flip it around to become something that works for your   business, idea, or model.
• Start with a bang. Use powerful ledes. Not sure what a lede is?   (It’s the bullet or grab at the beginning of a story, made clear in  the  first paragraph) – skim 5 opening paragraphs of the New York Times  with  a highlighter and see what you like about each one. Convert it to  your  own style.
• End with a boom. Wrap up the writing   with a punchy statement, a leading question, or a call to action. If   you’ve deleted your first and last paragraphs, perhaps there was one   sticky statement you wanted to keep-perhaps distilling that into one   sentence will do the trick.

10. Write less and link more.

Find examples and point to them. It’s perfectly okay to not reinvent   the wheel – it can be equally valuable to curate great content or   showcase your process of discovery if it’s lead you to a great outcome   or conclusion. 

 
You can read more article here and here to become a better writer