No matter how tall the mountain, you can take one step at a time to become a great writer.
I was never the type of person who enjoyed writing. Everything about it was dreadful to me. In my mind, writing was equivalent to torture.
More recently, I have taken a keen liking to writing. The more I started writing blog posts and other content, the more I realized it was something I enjoyed doing.
Though I became emersed in the beauty of writing, I was also fully aware how terrible I was at it. I am passionate about self-improvement, so I took it upon myself to work at becoming a better writer.
When I first embarked on my self-improvement journey, I thought I could find a way to hack my writing. I figured there had to be an easy way to improve at writing overnight. Not only was I wrong, but it didn’t take long for me to realize, there is no quick fix for writing and communication. If I wanted to get better, I would have to put the work in.
As I worked day in and day out, I gradually noticed my writing begin to improve. I found the best way to enhance my writing was just to write.
I was delighted to see the strides I made over time. I am now to the point where I am happy with my writing, but have still made it a regular habit to improve at it everyday.
In the end, writing is the best practice. If you want to improve your writing, you need to stop making up excuses and just do it!
Although writing is the best practice, along my journey I found a few tools which helped me. I thought it would be beneficial to some for me to share them, so here they are!
750 Words
This program helped my put my nose to the grindstone. It reinforces the mentality of making writing a daily habit.
Previous to 750 words, every time I wrote there would be a feeling of anxiety because I presumed people could only write with a purpose. In my mind if people only wrote for a purpose it therefore had to be published. It terrified me to write about things I would have to publish because I was self conscious about my writing. It was a vicious cycle.
Then I found 750 Words. Their goal is to help you write 750 words a day, every day to eventually make it a habit. It sounds like a lot, but it actually works!
I found it therapeutic to start using this tool to write for the sake of writing. It is my daily meditation period where I can go in and write about whatever I am feeling.
It has transformed into my personal diary, which improves my writing skills and helps me clear my head.
Here is how the 750 Words Describe themselves:
“750 Words is the online, future-ified, fun-ified translation of this exercise.”
Grammarly
The Chrome extension extraordinaire, which saved me from countless ungodly grammar mistakes. I proudly present — Grammarly!
Not only is it a Chrome extension which will correct your grammar while using Chrome, but the paid version includes a desktop app as well. With the desktop app, you can upload documents to be checked or write straight from the Grammarly app.
(I choose to write my Medium posts directly on Grammarly.)
Here is their description from the Chrome Web Store:
“Grammarly’s free writing app makes sure everything you type is easy to read, effective, and mistake-free. Adding Grammarly to Chrome means that your spelling and grammar will be vetted on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, and nearly everywhere else you write on the web. Once you register your new account, you will start to receive weekly emails with personalized insights and performance stats (one of our most popular new features). Working on a large project, an essay, or a blog post? No sweat. You can create and store all of your documents in your new online editor.”
Hemmingway
Do you ever wish you could write as eloquently as famous authors like the great Ernest Hemmingway? Well, now you can!
In reality, this program may not help you write a classic like ‘A Farwell To Arms,’ but at least you can follow Hemmingway’s advice and attempt to try!
Hemmingway has one of my favorite writing quotes of all time. He was once quoted as saying, “Write drunk. Edit sober.”
In reality, this app will help you with not only grammatical errors but your writing style as well by highlighting mistakes in different colors. Each color highlight signifies a different writing error. It not only corrects you, but teaches you as well!
Here is how to site describes the app:
“Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear.”
Summary
If you put the time into it (much like anything), you will be able to become a great writer. Just like climbing a mountain, you will need to take one step at a time.
These tools will help, but they won’t fix the writing. That task will still fall on you. Think of these tools as a bandage, but you will need to work hard to improve.
With hard work, dedication, and some help from these tools; In one way or another, you can begin to write like Ernest Hemmingway.
It is my goal to make communication easier, through my messaging app. UNUM messenger helps you to unify all other messaging apps you use to simplify messaging. Learn more at http://www.unummessenger.com/ (We are in development, so sign up to be notified when we launch!)