Few non-native English speakers seem to become bestselling authors. . Writing in a foreign language is even tougher. Professional writers spend years perfecting their art. But most of us can’t put in the effort required to become one. Writing is tough When I first started writing I was unsatisfied. My sentences felt clunky and didn’t flow very well. Luckily, I noticed that by sticking to a few patterns my style improved significantly. The book that helped me the most was . It’s mandatory reading for all journalists and book writers. I’m neither, but the perspective it gave me was invaluable. You should still read the book, but here are a few rules that will help you boost the quality of your writing immediately. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction Pick a Good Topic I found these to be the best sources of high quality, information dense articles: . Write a response in the form of a blog post. Now you have well thought out content to reply with. A question on social media . If one person needed that long reply, chances are others will want to read it too. A lengthy email reply My friend asked me to review his article. I sent him my review, copied the email to a text editor, replaced advice specific to his article with general thoughts and got the first draft of this post. Next I slept on it, rewrote portions of it in the morning and published it. Stick To Your Topic , then say it. Each paragraph must have a purpose. Determine what you want to say removing and simplifying everything you can. Write a rough draft, then rewrite it . If there are multiple topics you wish to discuss, write multiple articles. Leave your reader with just one new thought Style Make your blog stand out, but not your writing style. Otherwise you’ll appear barbaric and foreign. Here are some rules of thumb worth sticking to: , use . Capitalize your titles correctly Capitalize My Title . If you can remove it then you probably should. This one is the most difficult for me and I’m still struggling with . Avoid abusing commas comma splices . If it’s not then it’s just your diary, or worse, a lame attempt at SEO. Make sure your content is actionable . It’s like laughing at your own jokes. Don’t answer your own rhetorical questions . Book writers have editors and they do a great job. I’m reminded of that every time I read a self-published book. Luckily for us the job is getting automated. Many people recommend Grammarly. A popular number two choice is . Use an automatic editor Hemingway Editor and back up your claims - otherwise they’re just opinions. Add examples and anecdotes . Be humble. Your readers are just as intelligent as you are, just slightly less knowledgable in that one particular field. Treat your audience as you would like to be treated yourself . I like . Use a thesaurus to avoid repeating words The Free Dictionary . Those reading your content are “individuals”, but it’s better to refer to them as “your audience” or “readers”. Use a thesaurus to find more accurate words . It’s cleaner than “At all times make sure to remember to try and look for words that might be considered as clutter that you may wish to remove”. Remove clutter words , like you would when talking with a friend. This one comes from my girlfriend. After reading one of my articles she said it’s rather dry and I should just write the way I speak when I’m telling her a story. There is no “audience” reading your text, it’s always one person. Express your personality . Let your readers disagree if they wish, trying to please everyone with vague advice will neuter your article. Share your strong opinions . Are you sharing your personal experiences or are you writing a textbook? Are you writing in the past tense or the future? Be consistent . Copy what successful authors are doing, because they’re doing it deliberately. They’ve worked on their style for years. They write and rewrite each sentence leaving nothing to chance. Learn by imitation Resources . How to start a business blog . How to do content marketing . On Writing Well . Derek Sivers’ notes . Capitalize My Title . Hemingway Editor . The Free Dictionary
