In everyone’s life, there happens to be a moment when one wants to write something about itself. That can be a blog, an article, an essay, or a book depicting life stories and circumstances. Yet, the moment passes without any happening as only a few people can write their thoughts effectively. This leads to insecurity and shakes one’s confidence badly.

So, how to write better and to the extent that your thoughts exactly match the words, you are writing? This is the challenge we are addressing in this blog.

We bring some of the easiest, time tasted, and most proven tips - used by many famous writers - that can help you write better. We guarantee that if you put in the right amount of effort and develop writing habits, the results will amaze you.

In this article, we also have some tips for beginners who want to write for digital platforms.

We list them as well so they can learn and start their journey. Thus, without wasting a single moment, let’s begin the journey of how to write better.

Writing is a skill, and the good thing is it can be mastered with practice.

So, if you are a freelancer who writes blogs for clients, a corporate worker who writes reports, or a student who writes assignments, these tips will help you in every way possible.

1. Get Your Hands on Basics:

Understanding the basics of writing and types of writing styles is the first thing that you should develop before writing.

While the basics are important, it doesn’t mean that you should start taking your high school classes again or enroll in one of the most expensive writing courses.

All it requires from you is to buy a copy of a good grammar and style book - Wren and Martin or any other high school grammar book is good - as it can help you understand the basics of writing.

Start practicing one or two exercises a day and the rest will be done automatically. This is how you take your first step towards how to write better.

2. Decide What to Write:

Decide topics to write on. This is another exercise that you should include in your daily habits.

Write on different topics with different writing styles by gathering data, and statistics and forming arguments on them. We recommend you start a blog in which you write on different topics and illustrate them. This will help you get better at making sense to your readers.

Understand different types of writing: Descriptive Writing, Expository Writing, and other types of writing. These writings are central to understanding how to write better.

3. Include Varying Sentence Structures:

As we have mentioned the importance of basics above, writing with varying sentence structures i.e writing styles is also essential.

Varying sentence structures add appeal to writing by providing variety and detail. To understand this read the given set of lines:

1- John enters the room. He turns on the light. He switches on t.v. He turns on both at the same time.

Now read this,

2- John enters the room. While he turns on the light, he switches on the t.v. as well.

See the difference.

The above lines sound monotonic and bore the reader because they are all simple sentences. Meanwhile, the second pair of sentences sound more attractive as it has a simple as well as a complex sentence with a sub-ordinating clause.

This is how varying structures add appeal to the writing.

4. Avoid the Use of Passive Voice:

Once you equip yourself with writing good sentences, the next thing is to choose between active narration and passive narration. This is part of deciding on writing styles.

Here we recommend you opt for active voice and avoid the use of passive voice. The main reason for it is the subjective emphasis of both narrations on the actor and action and the human bias to prefer the actor over the action.

In passive voice, the action is highlighted over the actor. While in active voice, the actor gets the most attention.

So, if you are writing for others, use an active voice.

5. Prefer Small Sentences:

For hundreds of years, writers have felt this urge to write long sentences to look more authoritative and to subdue their readers. They may it a part of their writing styles.

However, this is a misconception(existing misconception) and you should avoid this. Short sentences are easier to read.

They appear to be more clear and simple and hence have more readability. On the other hand, long sentences often create trouble for the reader in understanding, and many times it leads to a loss of interest.

So, make sure that you write short sentences. Even if you need to write a long sentence, make sure it doesn’t have more than two parts.

6. Avoid Being too Formal:

“Why so serious?” Remember this dialogue from the famous movie The Dark Knight? It gives a message of not being too serious and letting things go with the flow.

With writing, this is true as well.

Many times, it is noted that readers find the content interesting if it is written informally and has some form of entertainment attached to it.

Entertainment here refers to a list of add-ons of phrases, words, jokes, and storylines that a writer can use, Thus, if you are a beginner we recommend you apply informal rules to your writing. This can be the use of words like ‘dude or howzat’ to make it informal.

In case you are an intermediate writer, you can add a storyline or a joke that gets the attention of the reader. This is how you should proceed with your writing.

7. Stay Away from Overused Phrases:

There is a long list of phrases that are considered to be overused. These phrases are used by so many writers that their effect on the reader has vanished. Instead, they now add to the boredom of the reader.

As an example of them, read the following phrases,

1- Money can’t buy happiness

2- Now more than ever

3- How cool is that!

4- Remarkable it is.

These are just a few mentions which are now overused. Make sure that you bring something new to the table of readers.

Even if you do not bring something new or interesting, make sure you don’t bring something boring or outdated as well.

8. Write with Purpose:

If the driver in the driving seat falls asleep, the car will never go the way it was supposed to. Similarly, in writing, if the writer loses purpose, the writing will never have a clear meaning.

Therefore, always keep in mind the purpose of your writing. Keep in mind whether you are educating a topic or criticizing an issue. Keep in mind the audience and their liking as it will help you to address their issues without getting distracted.

Lastly, make sure every sentence aligns with the direction and purpose you have chosen. This way your writing will appear as focused writing.

9. Think as a Reader:

Businesses around the world use this technique often in which the whole thinking pattern of the firm shifts from a seller's point of view to a buyer’s point of view.

This helps a lot in understanding the buyer and then adapting it for better conversion.

In writing, the same shift also yields much as our focus on our readers enhances our writing. What does the reader want? Why should he read my blog? How can a reader get an answer as easily as possible?

These are the questions that if written results in better writing.

10. Write as You Converse:

Writing will never be an issue if it is considered a conversation. This is the point that you should remember while writing.

Consider your friend to be standing in front of you and you are explaining to him all the points one by one. You are mentioning all the technicals, along with the basics to him. The point that is difficult to understand is you break it down and try to explain it in bits.

Good writing is just the same. All you need is to write down your conversation, format writing styles and refine it to look more formal and structured.

11. Read, Read, and Read:

If a human body cannot survive without oxygen, a writer cannot survive without reading.

Reading is insightful. It gives ideas and forms mental representations of words that help while constructing lines. As you read, your mind focuses on writing styles, choice of words, and sentence structures which are important parts of any writing.

Resultantly, you become aware of them and your ability to use them also increases. Thus, make sure that you read every day and develop a good understanding of writing styles.

12. Plan Before Writing:

Good writing is planned writing. Make sure you plan your writing before you start.

For planning, you can write down all your points on a separate paper. You can think of their sequence as which point or line should be mentioned early and which at last. This way you can structure your writing and prevent much of the hustle. It will also leads you to adopt a separate writing style from different writing styles.

Planning also involves gathering all the facts earlier so that when writing nothing gets missed out.

The answer to how to write better lies in good planning of writing.

13. Edit with Eagle Eyes:

Think of a moment if there are spelling mistakes in the blog you are reading or the writer forgets to mention the headings or subheadings, will you still read it with the same interest as before? No, you won’t.

This is why you have to edit your writing with eagle eyes.

The standard time ratio between editing and drafting is 3:1 which means if you spend one hour on drafting, you will spend 3 hours on editing it.

Keep this in mind; practice it with everything that you write; otherwise, no one will read your writing.

14. Have Your Back With a Professional Editor:

One of the greatest deeds that you can do to improve your writing is to work or spend time with a professional editor.

Editors are professionals with years of experience in judging writings. They know what works and what doesn't work.

So, if you spend some time with an editor and show your writing, you will get a clear idea of your standing.

In case of any lacking, you will also receive invaluable guidance which can set you on track. So, try to have your back from a professional editor and know how to write better.

15. Use a Catchy Headline:

We know you are not a newspaper writer who writes to get the attention of millions of people out there. You can be a writer who writes for himself or any special one.

But, think of it as a moment when whatever you write gets attention. It gathers interest and forces someone to read it - even if it is not meant to be read. Think of it. Isn’t it a valuable addition to your writing? Yes, it is.

Catchy lines and phrases are important because they tend to evoke emotions or generate impulse in us which lead to reading the whole thing. So we recommend you consider adding a catchy headline to your writing.

16. Avoid Plagiarism:

If you are writing for online platforms, then remember with the new algorithms of Google, plagiarized content has no place on the internet.

Only original content with new ideas and information finds its place to get ranked by Google.

Therefore, it is mandatory or crucial for the success factor of your writing that there shall be no plagiarism of any sort in your content.

Here, you can use multiple ways to avoid plagiarism: adding more facts or details in the current literature on Google, using a plagiarism checker to avoid matching word sequences or listing your perspective of writing which turns into a unique piece of information. In this way, you can avoid the hanging sword of plagiarism.

17. Take Help from Writing Aids:

There are multiple tools available that help in refining writing and making it error-free.

There are grammar checkers which check grammar and highlight grammatical errors along with their corrections.

There are rephrasers and re-writing tools that are available to rewrite the content on multiple tones.

And, there are plagiarism checkers which work to remove any duplicity and repetition in the content. They work to remove it as the new algorithms of search engines do not accept any kind of plagiarism in published content.

In the presence of such aids, we recommend that you must include a set of tools that helps you in your writing journey. If you are looking for free tools, we present you with a list of some free writing tools.

• Copy Checker - a free tool for plagiarism checking available on all platforms. The tool checks for plagiarism from the database of multiple search engines and provides accurate results. The tool gets regular updates as well.

• Grammar Checker - a free tool for all types of grammatical mistakes. You just have to copy and paste your content into the given section and click on the check button. The tool will mark the grammatical mistakes and provide their corrections which you can use to correct your writing.

• Rewriter - a free tool for rephrasing and rewriting that works to improve, and rephrase writing of all types. You can select the tone of rephrasing as well.

18. Don’t Aim for Perfection, Aim for done:

It is a common tendency that we try to achieve perfection on our first try. Even if it is not our first try, we try for the best.

This approach is good but it has a problem when it comes to writing. The problem is the lack of completion of the task.

Aiming for perfection results in over-conscious attempts to perfect the writing as the writer continues to feel lacking in his work. He keeps digging, cutting, and rewriting to create the best line possible, which in most cases never comes into being.

In the meantime, it leads to a loss of great energy and time for the writer.

To avoid this, the approach should be to aim for done rather than perfection. When you prefer to complete the task, you can draft easily and with less amount of time and effort.

This will save you time and after you have drafted, you can aim for some improvements and restructuring that enhance the writing. In this way, a better piece of writing comes into being.

19. Avoid Generalisation of the Topic:

Many writers are found writing to please themselves even when they are writing for their audience. They tend to write their perspective - sometimes their feelings as well in the writing. They develop it as part of their writing styles.

This leads to a great amount of boredom - less readership as well - felt by the readers as they have to read more content than needed. So, we recommend you avoid it as it ultimately serves no purpose.

Instead, you should adopt a “stick to the topic” approach.

Gather the new data and mention the details which are relevant to the topic. If it does not match the content or serve the purpose of the reader, avoid using it.

You can also try a planned layout of writing that includes all the possible details and mission-critical information regarding the topic and then start writing.

This way you will not get distracted while writing and overcome the urge of writing more.

20. Use One-Word Substitution Words:

There is a growing demand for writing short lines, and short paragraphs while explaining a point.

This is due to the requirement of the digital world in which the time to get customers’ attention can be a few seconds just. Anything long or effortful is discouraged.

So, how to write better and shorter sentences?

Now to deal with this, one-word substitutions can serve a lot. These are words(single words mainly) that explain the whole happening. For instance, you have to mention a crime involving the speaking of hatred against Gods or sacred things; you can mention the word “Blasphemy” instead. This is how one-word substitution shortens your writing and makes it digitally friendly.

There is a complete list of one-word substitutions that you can memorize for effective use. We recommend you start with a 200-word list of one-word substitutions.

21. Include Images:

Different researchers suggest that content full of images and infographics explaining the points has more readability and understanding.

Therefore, you should include images or infographics in your content as well.

You can find multiple types of images for this purpose. Like you can add meme images or a famous scene from movies with dialogue - that refers to the point you are making.

You can also add infographics having pie charts, tables of statistics, and other content for this purpose. So, there are multiple ideas that you can use in your writing.

22. Make a Summary of all Points:

It is a good thing and many readers appreciate this if you write a summary of all points at the end of the writing.

It serves two purposes: one is that it helps the reader to revamp all the points in his mind and the second is if the reader is in a hurry he can directly go through all the points from the summary without reading every bit of the article.

Many famous writings that are expository have their summaries at the end of the article. So, you can use it if you are writing for a large audience.

23. Reading out Loud:

Reading out loud is a DIY trick for proofreading your content.

When you read out loud your text, three things happen:

• You can listen to your writing which gives a sense of your words and how they sound to your reader.

• You can objectively listen to the sentence structures as to whether they align with each other in synergy or whether their position has to be changed.

• You can remain focused on your proofreading as while speaking your attention remains on the text.

With all these things, proofreading your draft becomes easier, and you can edit them seamlessly. This way you will know how to write better.

24. Practice and Evaluate:

Writing is all about practice. The more you practice the more you will ace it.

However, often we keep on practicing the same thing over and over, thinking it will get better on its own. It usually never happens this way.

In a best seller book “Peak by K. Ander”, the writer makes a case against the unconscious practice and prefers to include deliberate practice which is based on constant evaluation.

According to K Anders, we only improve when we evaluate our current status and work on it deliberately. Otherwise, there is no improvement.

Therefore, how to write better depends on the effort you put in. If you include constant practice in your writing which is subject to evaluation and feedback, it will get better. This will greatly help in improving your writing.

Conclusion:

Many people find writing difficult as they do not know where to start. They don’t understand the information behind how to write better. They get overwhelmed by the tons of information available on the internet.

But, the tips we have mentioned above, can help people to get a direction on how to write better. Practice is key, so keep following the tips and keep on practicing them, your writing will get better.