Talent is not something you develop, it is something you are born with. Skill is something you develop. It is like a blunt knife which needs to be sharpened. You may be a talented writer, but that does not mean you are a skilful writer. Talent is something that you see on the surface like a reflection of a mirror, but to be a good writer, to be a kick ass content writer that takes a mix of talent and skill.
Here are a bunch of tips to transform you raw writing talent into something skilful.
Read
As a writer, you should be a reader. Expose yourself to various types of writing from journalism, storytelling, blogging to marketing. You never realise it, but all what you read, whether you remember it or not, is always affecting and improving the way you write.
Target Audience
Always ask the question – who are you writing for? Different types of audiences have different cultural backgrounds, upbringing and situations. Most importantly by being aware of the target audience, you realise their concerns in life and it is through this, you can pull them into your writing. You can weave an article that connects to their concerns.
This also means that you are spiking the audience’s interest in what you are writing and pulling them along to finish reading your article.
Structure the Article
As a content writer, you are often going to write an article providing information. In such cases, structure is very important. The audience does not want to read every word of your article, and at the same time, they want to get a strong gist of what you’re communicating. There are a few ways you can do this:
– Divide your article into sub topics.
– Write in points instead of compressed paragraphs.
– Highlight any important points or keywords.
Grammar and Vocabulary
This where reading a lot will pay off. Through reading, you will get exposed to new vocabulary and different ways sentences can be structured. You have to write sensible sentences which are not confusing and are clear to the reader. Learn to expand your vocabulary so words don’t get repeated and you are better to describe things.
Editing
Whatever you may think, you’re writing is not perfect, there is always room for improvement. Once you finish writing, read over what you have written. Consider changing the font of your articles, this way the article looks completely fresh to your eyes. Restructure your sentence, change the grammar and make corrections to improve your article. Attempt reading it aloud, once you hear it out in your own voice, you will notice many mistakes.
Practice
Before the Beatles were The Beatles, they used to tour Germany and that is where they got over 10,000 hours of practice. You’ve got talent and you write well, but the only way to really develop the skill is to practice.
There is no substitute for practice. The more you write, the better you get.
So get to it, start writing!