Writing is a communication skill virtually everyone can use. For example, marketing a product this day requires good writing skills. You need good copy. You should be healthy to tell the reader of your ad in clear and concise terms what your product is about, whether that pitch is in a blog, on a “squeeze page,” in a flyer, or even if it’s script for your video or podcast. Even if you don’t make your living as a writer, you should be a good writer. Even leaders of churches, such as pastors or priests or administrative persons ought to have good writings skills.
If you’re a writer of fiction, you need to have imagination. It’s also good to have a wide reading experience. A good reader will make a good writer. If you write without imagination, you’ll write boring stories. One way to expand your imagination is, of course, reading a lot of fiction, particularly in the genre in which you write. Pick an author you really like, then study his or her work and try to pick up clues as to why this writer appeals to you.
Study the techniques of that author. Look at how she opens her stories. How does the author use his characters? How does the author bring the reader into the story? Does he use an omniscient view mostly, or does the reader view things through the eyes of the characters, or a character? Most good authors will use a variety of viewpoints in a story. The more you know about these things, the superior writer you will become. Writing good fiction requires reading beyond other ficition. You should know some of the history about the period in which your story is set. For example, writing western fiction is a specialized kind of writing. One needs to be familiar with many things of the Old West, particularly the history. If you’re going to describe a character in the Old West, you’d need to be familiar with many things. (See the following article “Describing the Western Fiction Character”).
Dialog in a story is what butter is to bread. Dialog will capture the interest of your readers. Dialog, for whatever reason, is an interest capturing device. However, if it isn’t done right, it can become very boring. Learn to capture the interest of your reader by injecting interesting dialog. You can use dialog to develop the story, or to flesh out a character, or even to set up a scene. There are many uses for dialog. But don’t just use dialog as a filler. Babbling characters can be as insanely boring as it is on Facebook or Twitter. And finally, have realistic dialog.
Those who write non-fiction need to check their facts. Depending on who you’re writing for (magazine, newspaper, blog, etc) and who you’re writing to (target market), you should follow some variation of the “Who, What, When, Where, and Why” model. Introduce your topic early, tell the reader what the article is about, and depending on the piece, you might need to show other elements.
Perhaps you’re writing a “how to” story. You’ll need to have something in the piece that will help the reader to comprehend how it is he or she is going to do whatever it is you’re proposing to help them learn. Since you’re not writing a book, it isn’t supposed to be a comprehensive article. You’re not going to exhaust the subject in an article. Instead, you’re going to focus on one or two things, or you’ll generalize. Sometimes, you might want to direct the reader’s attention to stories or articles that might help them further in their learning, or might illustrate superior what you’re speaking about. If you’re writing a religious piece, try and focus on one aspect of that religion, like prayer for example, or one aspect of prayer.
Writing is communicating. Study the craft. Learn the basics. Expand your skills. And above all, write. Do it. Write as much as you can.
One day you just might be surprised at what you’ve managed to accomplish.
You might even begin making money because you’ve place effort into developing this skill set.
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