Good writing is an art as well as a skill. Like every other skill it can be improved upon by working on it. Advent of internet has made paperless publishing possible and that has resulted writing by common people. More and more people are stroking their keyboards [one of them is doing write now ;-)] to produce content that is read by even a greater number of people.
While internet has made publishing simple it has also resulted in lot of trash being published. People have always been averse to bad writing. Therefore you need to have good writing skills to get noticed and become successful.
I my constant effort to improve my writing, I looked for tips for writing good. Ha! Even this contained a lot of trash. Here is what I found reasonable, workable and worth trying. They come with dash of me. So please bear that.
Be A Voracious Reader
Writing is a creative activity. But apart from being creative genius, you need to equip yourself with language, style and craftsmanship. Moreover, new thoughts and ideas that mind needs to generate are easily provided by the input from books, magazine and other content media.
Be A Prolific Writer
If you want be a runner, you run. If you want to be a writer, you write. It is as simple as that. You must write on daily basis. Devote the best possible time in the day for developing this skill. You have to keep on writing to brush up your skills.
Get Guided
If you think you lack in some area of writing, you can take courses to develop that. You can choose between an online course or a classroom course. Take whatever suits you. But one thing, you need to participate fully to take advantage of the course. Course itself would be nothing if you do not involve yourself.
Join Forums
Forums are great places for brainstorming and get answers to your queries. You can ask question about a thing that is bothering you and you can get new ideas to write and ask for critique of your work. There are many forums for writers available on the net. Writers.com and writers.net are two forums which you can start with.
Get Critiques of Your Work
If you are just writing just for yourself then it is a different thing. But if you are reading this article, most likely you are writing for an audience. You can improve on your work by asking for review of your work. You can ask your friends if they are interested. Otherwise forums are great places to ask for construcive criticism.
Keep Record
Keep a record of your work. Keeping a small diary helps you to jot down ideas as they come. Ideas can come anywhere, any moment and they fade away if you do not write them. Be prepared. A digital recorder is also a good method to record your ideas.
As far as possible do not leave your work unfinished. If you have to write the outline for future writing.
Most importantly, do not stop your quest for improvement. We are never talented enough to stop practising.
