⁠​Greenhorn dispatch #3: How do I improve my writing skills?

Short answer: become a masochist

Over the next few weeks, I will be publishing short articles that answer the top questions I get asked repeatedly on content marketing mentorship calls. In issue #3, we’re tackling how to become a better writer 💻

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One word: practice

Actually it’s five words: practice and loads of feedback.

My first freelance clients rarely edited my drafts. They’d just publish them and send me more work, which gave me the illusion that my writing was perfect.

That fantasy was shattered when I joined an agency. My editor would leave so many comments that I’d briefly consider a new career path.

Practice is good, but you can keep doing the wrong things if no one tells you what to avoid and how to improve.

So, let’s break it down. First, we’ll cover writing practice, and then we’ll cover where to get your drafts torn to shred. I mean, how to seek out helpful critiques of your work.

How to practice the right way

Before you put pen to paper, you need to get the foundations right.

Develop good taste

You can only write well if you know what good writing looks like. For example, when learning how to cook stir-fry noodles (yes, I love food), you will likely aim to replicate the taste from your favorite Chinese restaurant. In the same way, good writing sets the standard for you.

If you don’t know what high-quality writing is, look out for concise, relevant, clear, and actionable pieces. This is an oversimplification, of course. But at its most basic, those four elements are present in every great piece.

So, where can you find exemplary writing? It will mostly depend on your industry and area of specialization:

• Identify an industry blog or newsletter with well-written content and pitch your tent there. Read everything they have. Take note of the structure of the piece. Observe how they write intros and conclusions. See how the logic flows. For me, that was the Todoist blog. I read a large number of their articles and tried to model my writing after it.

• Look out for exceptional personal writing from marketers. I’m an avid fan of Fadeke Adegbuyi’s personal writing. Her pieces teach me how to think deeply and present my points simply and compellingly.

• Read non-marketing writing. Journalists & essayists create some of the best stories on the internet. They might not be your regular B2B blog, but they are great examples of well-structured and informative articles. The Atlantic is my favourite place to go.

• Take writing courses and read books on grammar. The English language has its own rules and you’ll become a better writer if you know them and learn when to use or disregard them. One book I’ll recommend is William Strunk’s The Elements of Style. A good course is Julian Shapiro’s Writing Well Handbook.

Understand the rules of the game

Writing has tons of guard rails that ensure that it’s legible at the very least. If you don’t understand the basics, it’s hard to become better at your craft.

There’s a lot of ground to cover, so here’s what I recommend you focus on:

• Structure of articles, paragraphs, and sentences

  • The logical flow in writing by Cuyamaca Writing Center

• Outlining articles

  • How to write a blog post outline by Gail Marie

• Writing introductions

  • Further reading: Hook, Line, and Sinker: How to write an introduction by Gail Marie

• Punctuation marks

  • Further reading: The Ultimate Guide to Punctuation Marks by Grammarly

Write daily, weekly, or at any preferred cadence. Just do it regularly.

Some writers get stuck in the theory aspect and never move on. You don’t want to be one of them. You need to actually do the thing to get better at it.

One way to do this is to challenge yourself to write a long-form article every week. If you have the time, you can also do it every day.

I used to wake up super early in the morning to write on a topic a day in 2019. (I don’t think it lasted up to a month, but that’s not the point.)

Pro tip →While writing, remember to apply what you’ve learned from other people’s work.

Act like a scribe

It’s not the 3500 BC anymore, but there’s still some value in writing out a good article/post by hand. It helps you actually pay attention to the structure, transitions, and word choice, etc. You can use these to improve your own writing.

Imitate good writing

Let’s clear the air. I’m not telling you to plagiarize anyone’s work. What I’m suggesting is that you adopt the elements you like into your writing.

For example, I love how Fio Dossetto writes her intros, and I’ve borrowed her approach several times. I don’t use the same words, but my approach is similar to hers.

This intro was inspired by one of her listicles for Hotjar (unfortunately, I can’t find it to reference it😥)

How to get good feedback

Good feedback can come from an editor, a writing pal, or a random (but helpful) stranger on the internet.

Look out for corrections from your clients/editors

If you have clients or an editor who gives you really good feedback, ensure you correct the mistakes and keep doing what they commend. This has helped me get fewer edits on my drafts.

For example, when I joined Animalz, I received feedback about making my conclusions more actionable. I observed my editor’s changes and incorporated them into subsequent work. The new drafts had fewer comments because I corrected myself.

I still keep documents with feedback from anyone editing my work

Ask for help in communities

If you don’t have an editor to review your work, you can reach out to a content writer or just share your post in a community and ask them for feedback.

Remember to ask politely. It’s favour, not an obligation.

Get suggestions from LLMs

Alternatively, you can use LLMs like Lex or ChatGPT as your editor. You can load your draft into them and ask for feedback.

Here are some prompts I use:

• Are there logical gaps in this piece?

• Is the flow of ideas sequential?

• Is this intro clear?

Don’t take it personal

The thing about feedback is that it hurts. It’s painful to hear that your finely crafted sentences are “jumbled” or “confusing”. It’s difficult to watch someone spot a hole in your outline and tear it apart. It’s hard when the intro you took two hours to develop is “not engaging enough”.

But you’ve to be a masochist. Seek out painful feedback, enjoy the process, and improve.

Once you’re done writing, don’t forget to add that piece to your portfolio 😉

Till next time 👋🏾