Whether you're writing for work, school, or fun, there are always ways to improve!
There are so many different types of writing that we can't provide advice for each of them individually, but here are some of our favorite tips and advice for improving your writing in general.
Plan Your Creative Writing with Structure
Whether you're getting started with creative writing or sitting down to write something new, planning is essential. Put on your thinking cap and start planning what you're going to write.
While there's certainly no harm in writing a stream of consciousness, we find this is much better for getting ideas together rather than forming the basis or structure of your writing.
It's much easier to write what you know so if you want to start writing about a new topic or genre, it helps to do a lot of research.
Your research could start with a lot of reading. If you want to write a novel or fiction, then books published on similar topics in a certain genre can help as it never hurts to read lots of different kinds of creative writing as there are always ideas and conventions you might be able to use in your own reading.
Just make sure to vary your reading where you can as if you read too much of a certain author, style, or genre, you'll run the risk of your work being too similar to your inspiration.
For academic and technical writing, your research may need to be quite rigorous and involve finding the right sources and details.
Fiction is quite different as your research will likely be in character development, creating settings, plot devices, etc.
Either way, fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Have a Clear Audience in Mind
There are as many different types of readers as there are types of writers. Different text types will generally follow a set of rules, but it's also very useful to think about who you're writing for.
How informed is your audience on the topic you're writing about? Are they an expert on the topic or will certain terms and concepts need to be elaborated on?
Why will the audience be reading your content? Is it an article they read on their phone on their way to work or a novel that they'll read at the end of a long day?
For example, long wordy sentences aren't ideal for young readers while short sentences might disrupt the pace.
There are even cultural and historical considerations to think about. Perhaps your writing includes references to something specific to a certain culture that other readers might not understand.
Is it important that you call it a “pie” or should you use the more general term “pizza”?
In an academic article, you might prefer the latter. However, in a story, using the term “pie” could tell the reader a lot without overtly having to explain everything.
Write with a Clear Purpose
While you need to think about who your writing is for, you need to think about what your writing is for.
You'll decide on the purpose of your writing as you plan it, but it can certainly help to think about the overall purpose as you write while also thinking about the smaller goals and purposes of individual sentences, paragraphs, and chapters as you write them.
In creative writing for books, novels, etc. the purpose may include more emotional goals as you aim to evoke certain feelings in your readers. If you're writing for work, your content may include commercial goals to inform or convince readers.
How you achieve these goals will still depend on the audience and also affect the language and structures you choose to employ in your writing.
Focus on Grammar and Punctuation
Writing with proper grammar and punctuation is important as it'll help your reader to better understand your writing.
Just remember that not everyone can even agree on what proper grammar and punctuation are and how they should be used, which is why one sentence may be fully acceptable in an email to a friend or colleague, but not acceptable in an academic essay.
If you're writing for a particular publication, then it's a good idea to look at their style guide if they have one. If they don't, there may be a style guide that they prefer using which will include all the conventions for grammar and punctuation.
Some places want you to avoid contractions whereas others won't mind if it's in keeping with an acceptable voice or style.
Grammar and punctuation are sometimes a question of style and in fiction books or novels, a writer may use them to control the flow of a sentence, indicate how a character speaks, or to create a dramatic effect.
For other kinds of text, you might not be free to play around with common writing conventions and rules.
Edit and Proofread All of Your Creative Writing
Before you get anyone else to look at your work, it's a good idea to edit and proofread it. Even if it's your first draft, take the time to look back over what you've written.
It's unlikely that you got everything perfect the first time around and your typical professional writer will have their books and novels edited and proofread more times than they can count before they're even close to publishing it.
For short texts, we find it quite useful to read them aloud. It's a quick and easy way to find a clunky or inelegant sentence. While it might be easier to read in silence if you're trying to write like you speak, say what you've written.
Different professionals might not agree exactly on what editing and proofreading are, but generally, editing will look at structure, clarity, style, etc. whilst proofreading looks for more objective mistakes and errors like spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
There are also plenty of great tools to improve your writing, help you with proofreading, and catch some of the errors that many of us might miss after a long day of writing.
Get Feedback to Improve Your Creative Writing
In writing, it's very easy to get lost in the weeds. For longer content like a book or novel, you can spend so long writing it that you lose track of time, the characters, and maybe even the plot.
It never hurts to get feedback and a fresh perspective on your writing. Whether you ask friends or family for feedback and suggestions or have an editor helping you get the most out of your writing, don't be precious about it and take on board what they have to say.
Not all feedback is created equal, however. Remember that not everybody is an authority on your content and some feedback may ultimately be detrimental to your writing.
The best artists and writers can take constructive feedback and use it to get the most out of their work. If a reader says a sentence is too long and they struggle to understand it, consider changing it.
You might find that the thing they highlight is just the tip of the iceberg and part of a bigger problem throughout your writing. When you ask friends and family for feedback on your writing, you may find that they're not critical enough.
You can ask people online and in writing communities for feedback, too, but just remember that not everybody online can separate their opinion from fact and one person's opinion doesn't necessarily mean that everybody hates your writing
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Manage Your Writing Time Carefully
How you manage your time and your workflow will improve your writing, too. Different people have different workflows so try to work out what you need to do to get the best out of your writing.
Remember to take breaks when you need them as there's nothing like tiredness to ruin an otherwise good piece of writing.
You'll see that errors creep in or something that made sense when you were tired is pretty nonsensical after a good night's sleep.
If you're writing professionally and to a deadline, then it can also help to remove distractions, focus on your writing, and write somewhere you can concentrate. If you're writing an essay, creating an essay outline will take some time at the start but ultimately save you lots of time when you start writing.
Clean and tidy your writing space
Use apps and tools that block distracting websites
Work out what distracts you and remove them from your writing space
Set yourself goals
Read a Diverse Range of Writing Types and Genres
Last but certainly not least, the more you read, the better you'll write. Every piece of writing is an example of a way you should or shouldn't write.
This doesn't mean that you have to read thousands of books, but you can if you want. Start by reading lots of examples of the text types that you're going to be writing.
Reading more in general will help and you might be surprised at how much you can learn from different text types.
You shouldn't write an email like a novel or vice-versa, but there are always opportunities out there to improve your writing through reading.
Improve Your Creative Writing with a Dedicated Superprof Tutor
Creative writing isn't easy and while these tips can certainly help, they can't necessarily be applied to everyone. Every writer and student is different and to get the most out of your writing, you need advice that's tailored to you and specific feedback on your work.
We can't all be lucky enough to have an editor to go over our work, but you can enroll in english classes near me and get a dedicated private tutor to provide you with tips that will improve your writing.
A creative writing tutor can work with you on your goals, spending the right amount of time on every challenging aspect of creative writing. If you're organized and good at planning out your writing, they won't have to spend much time on it and can instead focus on areas like writing with purpose or helping you to catch those tricky grammatical mistakes.
Think of english classes near me as the possibility to find a dedicated creative writing coach. They'll come up with your training plan and the exercises.
On the Superprof website, you can find english tutors near me. Whether you learn with a local tutor in person or over a webcam with an online tutor, you can get tips, advice, and feedback on your writing.
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