Seven (7) Best Quick Tips for Aspiring Writers in blogging
1) Write as Much as You Can.
Seriously. Write anything that comes to mind. The more you write, the more you can edit and thus publish. And the more you write, the more practice you get. Write like a maniac, and then some. Ask any good writer and they’ll tell you that the draft is about getting as much as possible on paper. “Write drunk, edit sober,” as Hemingway said.
And do it daily. Set a daily word goal and achieve it, regardless of the excuses your lazy mind comes up with (I highly recommend reading Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art” for a fascinating perspective on procrastination).
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Seven (7) Best Quick Tips for Aspiring Writers in blogging[/caption]2) Edit as Much as You Can.
Now you have all those words on paper. Great. But don’t forget to edit them. Beginners fall into one of two traps here: They either over-edit their texts, or they don’t edit them at all. In the first case you’re not publishing anything, and in the second case, you’re only publishing bullshit. So make sure both quality and quantity are right by editing every draft for:
Structure & Flow
Grammar & Spelling
Phrasing & Style
3) Store Your Ideas.
I recommend Evernote, but you can use anything from writing on index cards to carving into your arm. If you have an idea, store it so you won’t forget it later — you’ll be surprised how many ideas you have throughout a day that you often forget. And don’t discard “bad” ideas — according to Seth Godin, “the more bad ideas you have, the more good ones you can pick out
4) Publish.
Don’t be afraid to get something out there even if it’s not perfect yet. You’ll get valuable feedback, and start attracting a following. There are different platforms like blog, Medium or Quora you can use, and each is a bit different. Try different channels and see what works best for you.
5) Improve Your Writing.
No brainer, eh? There’s a lot of great books that will help you improve your writing, such as these:
Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird (General)
Ann Handley: Everybody Writes (More content marketing-focused)
Stephen King: On Writing (General)
Wilhelm Zinsser: On Writing Well (General)
D.B. White & Wilhelm Strunk Jr: The Elements of Style
Style Guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style, The Economist Style Guide, The BuzzFeed Style Guide (seriously!) or The Associated Press Style Guide
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Seven (7) Best Quick Tips for Aspiring Writers in blogging[/caption]6) Do Marketing
You can reach more people and build awareness for your personal brand if you market your content, for which you should acquaint yourself with things like content marketing and SEO. Great books about this are “Known” by Mark Schaefer or “Content Inc.” by Joe Pulizzi.
7) Read. A Lot.
From this, you’ll gain inspiration for your writing technique and subjects. There are writers who, when clueless about content, stop writing and read something completely different from their area of expertise for an hour. If you want to write a lot, you’ve got to read a lot, as Juvenille Paris says.