I guess the first question is “what do you really mean by improve your writing?”
You might mean “make it easier to read” or you might mean “make it better for capturing and recording my ideas for future reference” but I suspect given you’ve linked to a blog you probably mean “build an audience”.
Which then leads into “why do you want to build an audience” and “what ideas do you have that are worth sharing” and “why would people even care?”
There is a lot of bad writing out there. Generic “thought leadership” nonsense that says little but takes a lot of time and space to say it. Think the awful recipe preamble that food influencers churn out, but for “business writing”.
The best writing has something interesting to say, but doesn’t need to be original, and has its own very clear tone of voice.
The thing that will have the most impact on improving the way you write is to know who your audience is, and why they read your content, or why you hope they will read your content. If you’re writing without an audience or objective in mind then your writing will have less direction and will fundamentally be written for an audience of one: you.
Over time your audience should be able to recognise your content by its style, structure and tone of voice.
So you need to decide how you want to communicate (vocabulary, structure, length) and how you want people to read. The best writing is writing that people will enjoy reading whatever the subject; as an author that works for you because it means that the ideas you are communicating reach more people and might provoke more interesting responses.
A big part of this is writing and workshopping and editing and rewriting.
The power of prosody - the rhythm and intonation of writing - is often underlooked by inexperienced writers and it why talented writers often get very upset when their writing is badly edited.
The British food critic Giles Coren is notorious for this, once laying into subeditors, saying “I have never ended on an unstressed syllable”.
Coming up with “set pieces” can be a good way to develop style, tone and personality in your writing. For example, if your write the same thing every few weeks - such and such company has released its quarterly earnings - you may find that the “templated” nature of what you are working with means that you are able to write better within those constraints, allowing (or forcing!) you to develop a unique style and tone.
Comments
I guess the first question is “what do you really mean by improve your writing?”
You might mean “make it easier to read” or you might mean “make it better for capturing and recording my ideas for future reference” but I suspect given you’ve linked to a blog you probably mean “build an audience”.
Which then leads into “why do you want to build an audience” and “what ideas do you have that are worth sharing” and “why would people even care?”
There is a lot of bad writing out there. Generic “thought leadership” nonsense that says little but takes a lot of time and space to say it. Think the awful recipe preamble that food influencers churn out, but for “business writing”.
The best writing has something interesting to say, but doesn’t need to be original, and has its own very clear tone of voice.
The thing that will have the most impact on improving the way you write is to know who your audience is, and why they read your content, or why you hope they will read your content. If you’re writing without an audience or objective in mind then your writing will have less direction and will fundamentally be written for an audience of one: you.
Over time your audience should be able to recognise your content by its style, structure and tone of voice.
So you need to decide how you want to communicate (vocabulary, structure, length) and how you want people to read. The best writing is writing that people will enjoy reading whatever the subject; as an author that works for you because it means that the ideas you are communicating reach more people and might provoke more interesting responses.
A big part of this is writing and workshopping and editing and rewriting.
The power of prosody - the rhythm and intonation of writing - is often underlooked by inexperienced writers and it why talented writers often get very upset when their writing is badly edited.
The British food critic Giles Coren is notorious for this, once laying into subeditors, saying “I have never ended on an unstressed syllable”.
Coming up with “set pieces” can be a good way to develop style, tone and personality in your writing. For example, if your write the same thing every few weeks - such and such company has released its quarterly earnings - you may find that the “templated” nature of what you are working with means that you are able to write better within those constraints, allowing (or forcing!) you to develop a unique style and tone.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/25/pressandpublis...