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You Can Learn to Be a Better Writer
One of the misconceptions people have is that they are either a naturally talented writer or they’re not. If they believe they are naturally talented, and they enjoy writing, they will probably write. If they believe they aren’t naturally talented, even if they want to write more than anything, they often say they “can’t write.” Someone who believes they can’t write isn’t likely to try, even if it’s something they really want to do.
My take on this? Anyone can learn to write. Every great writer was once a poor writer. We aren’t born with the skills to write, to create words, but we grow and learn how to put pencil to paper and create letters, then words, then sentences, then stories. As we progress from not even understanding the alphabet to learning to communicate via words, we also progress from using those words in the most rudimentary way, to eventually being able to create poetry or write novels if we so choose. Our skills build as we practice the craft of writing.
So how do we become better writers? What attitudes and skills do we need to build to improve our writing and, perhaps, get to the point where we no longer feel like we aren’t good at it? You might be surprised to know that it’s not things like spelling and grammar, although you might learn those along the way too!
Have a Growth Mindset
The most crucial thing to learning to be a better writer is your “mindset.” How you think and view the world (and your writing ability) means everything!
Writers who grow and improve are those who have a “growth mindset.” They believe they have the ability to grow and change. People who want to be writers, but who have a with a “fixed mindset,” believe they either have the talent or they don’t, and they typically give up, stating they just “aren’t good writers.”
While it may be true that one person is born with a “talent” for writing or seeing the world in terms of story, that doesn’t mean they don’t need to keep learning and growing and practicing. A person born with a keen ear for music and who easily takes up the piano at age five still practices every day to get better. You can do the same with writing.
Writers who want to have successful writing careers will likely have to deal with some negative self-talk. Whether it’s imposter syndrome (“Who am I to think I can be a writer?”) or worry that you don’t have the skills (“My grammar sucks!”), we all have thoughts like this at some time or another. But having a growth mindset can help you realize that those are all temporary states that can be “grown out of.”
Focus On Your Strengths
Once you’ve adjusted your mindset, you might be more able to recognize that we all have strengths that will help us succeed as writers if applied correctly. But this might require some rethinking on your part. We’re often asked first, “What are your weaknesses?” Even I ask my clients that, but only because weaknesses seem to be easier for them to identify than strengths.
When it comes to trying to decide if you can make it as a published author, though, maybe the question you need to ask yourself is, “What are my strengths and how can I play to those strengths to be successful?” By focusing on your strengths, you can work with what you’re good at, rather than worrying about what you’re not as good at.
In her book, Dear Writer, You Need to Quit (which is not about quitting writing, but about things you should quit doing that prevent you from being a successful writer), Becca Syme says: “The conventional wisdom about how to make work easier is to shore up and/or fix weaknesses. This comes from a long history of trying to figure out exactly what is wrong with us, and fixing those things. Like we could stop having weaknesses if we ‘fix’ them all. … We will never stop having weaknesses.”
If that last thought sounds defeatist, think again! When you accept that you’re going to have areas in which you are stronger or weaker, by not resisting those areas where you don’t excel, you can focus on the things you do do well! However, as long as you can only see what you struggle with, you’ll find it difficult to progress toward becoming a better writer.
Playing to your strengths doesn’t mean you don’t work on your weaknesses, but it does mean that you take the focus off them. Don’t judge your potential based on your weaknesses. If, for example, you’re a great storyteller, but suck at spelling and grammar, there are fixes for that (like hiring an editor!). But, if you look at that and focus on the weakness, allowing that to tell you you can’t succeed as a writer, you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
Writing strengths come in several categories:
Mechanics – Strengths in this category might include a strong handle on vocabulary and prose. Your descriptions might be rich and vivid. You know how to put together a killer sentence or have natural-sounding dialogue.
Storytelling – Strengths in this category could include excelling at world-building or knowing how to formulate a plot that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
Characterization – Do your characters feel alive to readers? Are you able to flesh out the people in your stories to make them feel real and relatable?
Organization – Are you able to keep track of details, even across multiple books in a series, with perfect precision? Is your researching meticulous and thorough?
Having strengths in any one of these categories can help you on your journey to success. Playing to your strengths, improving on those things you already do well, and then figuring out how to use those same strengths to work with (not get rid of) your weaknesses, increases your odds of having the career you want.
Practice Writing
I mentioned it above, and I’ll mention it again: Our skills build as we practice the craft of writing. Remember being a child, painstakingly printing out the letter B a thousand times until we had it right? The same has to be done with our stories.
Every word we write is a practice in word choice, verbal picture-painting, world-building, character development.
We can’t gloss over the practice and expect to be great writers. If you write, you can learn to be a better writer…and you should. Even if you’ve been writing for years.
How exactly do you practice writing? By writing, and by editing what you write! Write whenever you can, whatever you desire. Then read it over and over. The more you write, and the more you edit what you write, reading it aloud, listening to what you wrote, the more you learn how words flow, how they sound together, what sounds good, and what needs more work.
It’s a popular theory that it takes 10,000 hours of practicing something to become proficient. I would agree to some extent, but also want to point out that writing is subjective. It’s about so much more than putting words on the page, which, of course, you could practice for 10,000 hours and be very proficient at putting words on a page.
Writing is about storytelling, character development, understanding how humans interpret story, and then learning how to develop that. It doesn’t mean that you have to do this for 10,000 hours before you’re good at it.
It could be argued that a lot of books out on the market clearly aren’t the best “writing” in terms of what you might gain after 10,000 hours of practice, yet they have compelling stories that lead to great commercial success (Fifty Shades of Grey, anyone?). E. L. James told a good story, it’s true, even if the actual writing itself wouldn’t win any awards.
Additionally, many writers think they should be able to publish (or sell) the first book they ever write. The hard truth is, for many, the first (and maybe the second, third, fourth…etc.) book they write will just be a practice book. Ask many a published author and you’ll likely find they have more than a few manuscripts collecting dust somewhere. But those books? They aren’t wasted. They are all about practice.
However, you can practice writing every day and still not get a lot better. The next step in the process is to study the craft of writing.
Working on the Craft of Writing
If you’re not seeing the success you wish to see, really think about what it is you need to work on. If an editor tells you that you have issues with punctuating dialogue, that’s a skill that can be learned, both by reading books with a critical eye for how dialogue is punctuated or by reading any one of probably hundreds of books or articles on the topic, many of which can be found for free on the internet. You can learn to punctuate dialogue. The same can be said for learning to right relatable characters or to plot a edge-of-your-seat story.
All of this is called working on your craft. Reading books on writing, taking courses, or joining writers’ groups, are just some examples of how to work on the craft of writing. There’s a never-ending supply of resources out there with which to expand your writing skills. (Notice that I’m purposely not calling them “weaknesses,” because truly, a weakness is just a skill that needs some work!)
If you struggle to put a plot together, or you’ve been told by beta readers that your plot isn’t engaging, for example, take courses or read books on plotting. Books like Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody or Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K. M. Weiland can help you see where you need to improve.
If you have been told by beta readers that your character isn’t intriguing, you might find books like Build Better Characters by Eileen Cook or The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi to be helpful.
The point is, wherever your skills are lacking, there are resources to help you build those skills.
A Word of Caution about Balance
While I mention mindset and courses and books and classes, etc., as a means to build your writing skills and to grow as a writer, I would caution against doing too much to try to become a better writer without actually doing any writing. Seems silly I’d have to mention this, but it’s an all-too-common issue. Even though I mentioned “practice” above, it’s not always easy to do.
When I first made the decision to be a writer, I bought a lot of books about writing. I mean a lot. I’d read one, think about all of its brilliant nuggets of wisdom, and then I’d pick up the next one, and then the next, and on and on. Along with that, I read a lot of fiction in the genre I wanted to write in, and attended workshops, in order to “study” my craft.
What didn’t I do? Actually apply what I was learning to my writing.
Just reading writing books (or taking courses or joining writers’ groups) won’t make you a better writer. Putting into practice what you’ve learned from those sources, by actually writing, will. I recommend one source at a time, applying what you learn to your current work in progress, before moving on to another book/course/workshop, etc.
After a while, it’s actually counterproductive. Why? Because there are hundreds of theories about writing out there, dozens of different methods to reach the same conclusion (a good story), and by reading this one and then that one…and then yet another one…you never have the chance to discover which method works best for you.
Which brings up another point about learning to be a better writer…not every method for doing so is going to work for every person. We all learn in different ways. We all see the world through different viewpoints. We have different writing voices and different types of stories we want to tell. So, writing methods aren’t one-size-fits-all (similar to how the writing process is different for each of us. And the only way to find out what works for you is to actually put the methods into practice…by writing.
Now that you have a few things to work on, I hope you can see that you can learn to be a better writer! With the right attitude and mindset, some study and some practice, you can continue to improve your writing, which will put you on the path to achieving your goals.
Work with me!
Whether preparing to self-publish or to start the submission process, I’m here to help! You can Request a Quote today. If I think we might be a good fit, I’ll provide a 3- to 5-page sample edit of your manuscript to show you what I can do for you!