The Writing Advice They Don't Tell You About
Why do you write?
Because it pays well? Because it gets respect? Because you like to write?
If you’ve been writing for quite some time, you know the first two things don’t exist for most of the writers. (If they do for you, then congrats!)
If you’re writing because you like to (the third reason), then you’re the one I wrote this post for.
The web is full of writing tips.
If you search for ‘writing tips’, you’ll see things like:
- Use active voice not passive
- Keep your writing interesting
- Write as you talk
The common thing in writing tips like these is they all work on the technical aspects.
If your writing is an egg, then these tips are the decorations on its shell.
They make your writing look good, but that’s all they do.
To help people digest your writing, you’ll need to go an extra mile. You’ll have to work on the inner stuff.
You’ll have to shift the focus from the audience to yourself. That’s why you wouldn’t have heard this tip:
Write the way you like to
There’s a deep meaning behind this sentence.
If you have to ‘fake’ your writing. If you have to play ‘make believe’ with your writing, then I’m sorry, it won’t work.
Why?
Because it isn’t natural. You know how easy it is to spot if someone is lying, right?
If people can sense the lies in your speech, then why can’t they identify the lies in your writing?
When you write as you like to, you get a chance to have a talk with the real writer inside you. The one, who is always conjuring new ideas, making different connections and making you get lost in the thoughts.
The real writer inside you is full of inspiration and ideas. To help it, you’ll need to create a natural habitat.
And you can do this by writing the way you like to.
How to Use this Trick:
I don’t mean to say you should write randomly. To get the most out of this approach, you should do the following:
- Write naturally in your first draft
- Then, edit the draft without mercy
When you’ll write the way you like to, words will come naturally in your mind.
You’ll have a distinct voice and a unique tone. Your copy will be able to achieve its goal.
And, you’ll be able to do all this without effort.
Write whatever you want to, put your heart out, pour your soul in, because that’s the kind of readers want from you.
The web is full of dull content. Heck, the world is full of dull content.
This is one of the secret techniques to make your writing stand out.
When you’ll be editing the draft, however, forget the love you had. Your editing needs to be merciless. You can do all the refinement during this part.
Writing this way will make editing easy for you as well. (See the benefits below)
How it Helps:
You may think, “This sounds so cheesy, it won’t work.”
Well, when you write naturally, the following things occur:
Generating New Ideas:
Have you ever seen a 5-year old create a drawing?
Does the 5-year old care about the angles, the contrast or the colour palette of the drawing?
I don’t think so. Instead, the kid creates whatever it wants to. This simple activity helps the kid in expressing its feelings and thoughts with more effectiveness.
When you write this way, you don’t have to scour the internet for content ideas. They’ll begin to come to your mind naturally.
Improving Existing Work:
Self-editing has always been a popular tool amongst distinguished writers.
You need an eagle’s eye to spot errors in your work and a harsh critic to make the necessary improvements.
As an artificial writer, it’ll be a little difficult because you’ll be focused on the appearance of your writing.
But with your honest work, the situation will be different.
You’ll spot errors yourself and making improvements will become a natural instinct.
Why?
Because you’ll care about your product. Like a parent, you’ll gently rectify its errors and ensure that it reaches perfection.
Higher Productivity
If you ever played video games, there must’ve come a time when your parents had to force to stop playing.
On the other hand, such an incidence rarely occurred when you were studying.
Why?
Because you enjoyed the first activity. The second one wasn’t as much interesting so you didn’t enjoy it as much.
When you’ll write the way you like to, you’ll enjoy it as well. It’ll become difficult for you to stop writing unless you’re exhausted.
This is why great writers are able to write thousands of words in a day. In fact, Ruskin Bond suggests writing 10,000 words in a day.
I don’t want you to write this much but I assure you, with this simple implementation, your daily word count will increase.
Summary
This post was just a hint to your real writer. Write the way you like to and you’ll unlock the treasures buried deep within its cove.
Write anything. It doesn’t matter because you’ll be editing it later on.
Just promise me this: You’ll write as you like.
