Not too many people have a passion for writing. But sooner or later, most of us come to the realization that it is really something worth learning. Writing is one of those things one has to do at one point in life or the other. It could be a research paper, an article, a book or maybe just poems. You may have to write a letter of application, a report, and the list goes on and on. These are some things that compel even those who do not take up writing as a profession to want more knowledge about it. So you don’t necessarily need to be a writer for what you are reading to make meaning to you. On whatever level we write or for whatever reason, one thing is sure, knowing how to write well pays and becoming a better writer is always beneficial for anyone who takes out the time and invests the energy into it.

Most times than people realize, being a writer or one who can cleverly put words together is what makes the difference between getting a job or being rejected, passing or failing an exam or even being able to impact the lives of people positively. What’s more, there is nothing to loose when you decide to learn and become better at something as important as this. For writers at any level, the following tips and suggestions hold the potential of helping you get better at writing as you communicate more effectively through what you write. After all, effective communication is the ultimate purpose of every writing. If the ideas and information written do not succeed to pass across the intended message or ideas, the writer has failed, no matter what impression he or she holds about what was written. Some people wonder whether or not being a writer is a result of an ability you are born with or a skill you develop. Well, some people are born with the ability to write well. Others through practice develop the skill. But you can trust me on one thing, whether or not you were born a writer, you will need the following information.

Be fun of reading

Outstanding writers are first dedicated readers. Anyone who wants to be a writer or get better at writing must of necessity first be a dedicated reader. Those who make a habit of reading widely and passionately will definitely witness an improvement in their writing skills. I doubt there is a more important way to becoming a better writer than being a great reader. It is in reading after great writers that our own ideas and creativity in using words rightly is unlocked. Simply put, reading inspires good writing. If you have been writing for some time now and you have realized that your writing skills have not witnessed any tangible change, then it is time to drop the pen and pick up some books, articles, magazines or whatever is of interest to you. It may seem like this is going to slow you down but actually when you are well read, writing will not seem as stressful as it is now. You are definitely going to write better phrases with less mistakes and more inspiration because reading unlocks those potentials. Being a writer can be a lot of fun for people who really enjoy reading.

The principle is that those who do not enjoy reading can hardly write anything that some other person will enjoy reading. Take out time to read. It may be hard work and will require exercising discipline but you can be sure that at the end of it, you are going to be a better writer. You may not be a good writer yet, but if you care about becoming one, you should take delight in reading after great writers. It is easy to tell the difference between a good book, article or any other written piece and the poorly written ones. You don’t even need to be interested in writing to know the difference. Good write-ups just stand out and appeal to those who read them.

When the idea comes, write it down

Those who write well do not only make use of words, they write from inspiration and ideas that come to them. This is especially true for creative writers. Writing is one of those things which are most beautiful when done from an original point of view. Imagine that there are always people writing on different subjects but no matter how often and how many people write on a particular topic, one can still do another writeup and run a plagiarism check that proves their own write-up is unique. This is primarily possible because we all have unique ideas, much like the uniqueness of our fingerprints. There are more than a billion people on earth and to think that no two people have the same finger print is just as miraculous as it is remarkable. But more remarkable than the uniqueness of our fingerprint is the uniqueness of the creativity of our minds in birthing creative ideas. No matter why you may want to be a writer or what you are interested in writing about, so long as your ideas are going to be creative or to come first hand you must know how to take advantage of the creative power of your mind. There are a few steps to take to get better at writing.

First before writing, spend some time pondering on what you want to write about. One of the best ways to trigger the creative power of your mind is to spend some time thinking about the subject. When you begin to do this, ideas start popping up in your mind, creative ideas that will definitely make a difference in the way your writing reads and how well your readers are going to understand and enjoy it.

When you think or ponder on what you want to write about and the ideas start coming, don’t just keep them in mind. Write them down. Too many people think their minds or brains are some kind of machine that can receive and store information for future use. But that is not the case. As you would have noticed, if you pay attention to your thoughts, the things that come to you as creative ideas especially for writing only stay with you for a moment. They may stay with you for some time if you really think about them. What ever you think about stays in the subconscious for longer. But even at that, there is still the possibility of forgetting what you get as ideas if you don’t write them down. The safest way to keep an idea is to write it down. Then from what is written, you can develop the idea to make up a body of text. Whatever you do and no matter how clear the ideas come to you, just be on the safe side and write them down. This is a vital part of becoming a better writer and they that take it to heart and apply it will surely write better.

Do some background research on your topic

The issue of carrying out background research is even more important for those who write essays, articles, research papers and other write-ups that are not basically creative in nature. There is usually so much that others would have written on a particular topic and the writing style or perspective of each writer will be a foundation upon which you can base your own writing and the way you explain things.

Take note that the issue of carrying out a background research is not the same thing as reading widely. You may read for research purposes just when you are working on something in particular but you have to be a reader whether or not you are about writing something. Doing some background reading or research on what you want to write helps you get better at writing.

Use a rough plan or layout

Those who want to write better must learn how to use a definite plan or layout. Developing an idea is like developing a building or any other work of art. You need something sketchy or a skeletal structure you take advantage of as a framework and add “flesh” on it so that it is now one full body. There are a few reasons why using a rough plan or layout to better master the art of writing is important.

First, when ideas come to our minds, they hardly come in a concise manner. At least not in the order in which they have to be used. This may pose a problem if one decides to simply write a whole body of text from mind to paper without using a plan because instead of being inspired by the ideas that come to you, you will be confused. Even if those raw ideas don’t seem to confuse you, the order in which you write them without a rough plan may finally confuse those who read your writeup.

It saves time and makes it possible for you to write more easily. It is like every other work that needs a great profession or work of arrangement and preparations for it to be successful. If your work surface is messy or you have no plan to accomplish what you are working on, it is going to be more difficult to come out with something good.

Keep away from common distractions

Writing alone takes a large amount of brain energy and attention and even more energy and focus will be required of you in order to write better. As a matter of fact, the amount of attention and energy you are able or willing to put into it determines the quality of writeup you are going to produce. This should give you a hint to how much you need to keep distractions away. There are so many things that are distractions, some of them may even seem like good things though you know how detrimental they could be to accomplishing your goal of writing. Since writing usually takes a great deal of time to produce something worth reading, you cannot afford to allow distractions come in the way.

Distractions are even more besetting when it comes to writing because once your mind and focus is taken off course, it could sometimes take more than five minutes to get things back in perspective before continuing. That’s why you will find that great writers are usually lonely people as far as their time of work is concerned. It could get even worse when an important idea or inspiration is lost because of distractions. Sadly, for some people, no matter how wonderful an idea or inspiration to write was at the time it came to mind, it will not be recalled. At least, not without further waste of time and a great deal of brain work. That is why endeavoring to keep away from distractions is an important ingredient to becoming a better writer.

Only do the editing after writing

Many people are perfectionists, and though this is nothing wrong in itself, we could sometimes let it come in the way of writing something great. Having an eye to perfection is part of being a writer but that too must be used wisely. When typing for example, you usually have to go back and correct some phrases or words that have been wrongly written. This may not seem like a problem for many people because they have really not considered what conspires when they go back and forth for the purpose of making corrections. However, it is an effective way to hinder yourself as you make efforts to write better. You break continuity or the flow of ideas and slow down your brain’s speed of processing information. It consumes more time and you stand the risk of loosing ideas when you go back to correct things.

Editing is a whole different part of writing and it should not be mixed up with the actual process of writing down words. You can go through a write-up as many times as you can after you finish writing but just don’t do it while you are yet in the process of writing.

When you loose track, read the last paragraph again

As a result of some of the distractions already mentioned above, it is common to loose track of what you were writing and have to spend some time figuring out how to continue from where you stopped. The best way to do this is to go back and read the last five sentences or the last paragraph you wrote. This is one of the best ways to remember the line along which you were writing and get your ideas flowing in the right direction again. It is refocusing as far as writing is concerned and anyone who wishes to be a writer or to get better at writing must make this a practice. What you have been writing is simply what has been flowing from your brain, whatever is already written is an exact flow of your thought pattern up until then. So reading what you have written will definitely help you get things back in perspective.

Avoiding common mistakes

It will be an injustice to the subject we are talking about if you don’t get to know how to avoid common mistakes made during writing. To be a writer or get better at writing, you must have a keen eye to errors and be skillful at correcting them. Mind you, most of these errors are not a matter of one’s inability to write well. Even the best writers make some of these errors, sometimes as frequently as you do. What makes the difference is their commitment to identifying these errors and correcting them. So here are a few tips to rectifying common issues that come up as you write.

- Proofread at least twice

No matter how well you think you have written, proofreading once is never enough. The first time you read through your work, you are simply going to correct spelling and phrasing mistakes that will be very obvious or easy to identify. But you can be sure that so many errors will be missed as you proofread for the first time. So you have to do it again and again until you read through and are pleased with what you have written. You can also ask another person to go through it one or two more times before making a publication. The more times you read, the less mistakes you are going to make.

- While proofreading, read out loud

Those who have been writing for some time will know this principle of proofreading and its importance to becoming a better writer. The mind has a way of missing errors when you read without pronouncing the words out loud. The errors you make are sometimes so subtle that the mind will subconsciously correct them as you read on. This happens because your mind knows what the right thing should be and instead of realizing that something is wrong or odd about what you have written, it simply makes the correction as you read and you fail to consciously notice some errors in what you have written.

When you proofread by reading out loud, you do not necessarily think about what you are saying before your mouth pronounces the words. Consequently, the process through which the brain bypasses or subconsciously makes corrections to wrong phrases and spellings is short circuited. More so, your ear gets involved when you read out loud. So as you read, you listen to yourself and can hear anything that does not sound proper and make necessary corrections. On the other hand, when you read quietly, you don’t hear yourself. Sometimes you are not thinking about what you are reading. The main difference between the two is that one involves the active participation of the sense of hearing which helps you judge the write-up better and the other does not. When next you write and get to the point where you have to make corrections, be sure to read out loud.

- Be sure to use a dictionary when in doubt

Never get too familiar with words simply because you have come across them in books or other written materials often or have even used them a few times yourself. It is possible for one to hear a word and assume that he knows what it means when in fact he has no clue. Remember, too, that words have different meanings and using a word out of context could badly affect the quality of your writeup. Have a dictionary handy when ever you write and especially when you proofread. The fact that a word sounds nice and seems to explain what you want to say does not mean it is the right word to use in the context. There may be a better word to express or convey the information you are trying to pass across. If you are not sure of the meaning of a particular word, don’t assume that you know. It could be very costly as far as the meaning of what you have written is concerned.

- Take a break after writing before proofreading

The time between writing and proof reading could determine the effectiveness with which you meet errors and make changes. It is advisable to take a break and let your brain rest for a while before coming back to proofread what you have written. Remember that there are professional proofreaders. Though most of them write, they actually make a demarcation between their writing and proofreading roles. That’s one way to proofread and minimize errors. When you proofread, you have to do it from the perspective of a critique or proofreader. Not as a writer. So after writing you should take some time to withdraw from the writeup and then come back to it with a clear head to make corrections.

Writing may seem like a mystery for some people but if you have aspirations or look forward to being a writer, don’t be intimidated by the experiences of others with regards to writing. Just put the tips explained to work. It will take time, dedication and hard work but if you are willing to invest these three things, there is nothing you cannot achieve.