We have prepared advice and instructions on how to improve your writing skills and make papers look better.
1. Write every day
It is essential that you get into the habit of writing. Make progress in writing by at least a couple of words every day, and you will be surprised at what happens, or maybe not, but you will have something. Twyla Tharp’s “The Creative Habit” can be a great help in forming this habit.
2. Learn to be self-critical
The ability to soundly evaluate your work is just as important as writing. You need to learn this. If you think it’s not that important to be good at spelling, grammar, or punctuation, drop that thought right now.
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3. Read like a writer
In his book, Stephen King says that if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time (and skills) to write. Make it a habit to carry a book with you and keep another one in your bag. Learn to read in small portions, thoughtfully, and not “diagonally” excitedly.
And when you read, do it like a real writer. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Read books about writing. Read the kind of fiction in which you see what you would like to see in your own writing.
4. Watch TV like a writer
We absolutely believe that if you’re a writer, you need to watch TV. Some of the best stories we can see on TV. As with reading, you need to look at the plot from the perspective of the writer.
Think about why you love certain shows – what motivates you to spend your time watching them or why you don’t want to waste your time on them if you turn them off and don’t intend to go back to watching them.
5. Watch movies like a writer
Ray Bradbury advises people who want to be writers to watch a lot of movies, especially old ones. Writers are supposed to be story lovers, and a movie is a great way to learn a new story in just two hours. Pay attention to the structure of the script, how fast things move, and what impresses you and what doesn’t.
6. Set up your workspace
You need a place where your brain knows that you need to write. It is normal to write on the kitchen table, Starbucks, library, co-working space, or office. Wherever you are, train your brain to turn the writer mode when you are there.
7. Find your community
Find other writers or “your” people. Look for them online, at conferences, at school, or in literature clubs. Being around other writers will help you feel like one of them.
8. Write for a specific reader
When you find your community, don’t try to write for them. Thinking up a story for a whole group of people will scatter your attention. Writing and reading are too subjective things for that. Choose a person – just one – and write for them. Then the work will go. You can listen to the opinions of others or engage beta readers, but pay attention to divergent opinions and “filter” them.
9. Set boundaries
Your writing is important. This is your task, even if you are months or years away from the tangible results that other people want to see. Design your own schedule for this, and then stick to it the way you would do with any work schedule. Don’t let anyone interrupt you.
10. Write As if it’s your job
If writing was your job, you’d be investing your time in it. You should do your best to study in order to write well. You would finish the job. You would expect other people to appreciate your work. So do it.
11. Write with the “closed door”
Students often know the beginning and end of their paper, but what to write in the body—which is, in fact, the bulk of the text—they don’t know. Therefore, they start looking for other people’s opinions, asking them questions like, “I don’t quite understand where to direct the story.
What should I do about it? The opinion of your like-minded people is, of course, important enough to take into account, but your paper is yours until your readers read it. Only then will it belong to them. Don’t let this happen ahead of time.
12. Set small goals
Small goals make a big difference in our lives. You can achieve anything if you take small steps toward your goal over and over again. Therefore, set yourself such a goal – it will be much more difficult to miss it than to achieve it. Write 10 minutes a day; read 10 minutes a day.
13. Reward yourself for reaching your goals
This is one of the easiest and most effective things to do. It works for everyone, starting from kindergarten. Get yourself a calendar, set those very small goals for yourself, achieve them, and mark them with a gold star on the calendar (and if you are too old for stars, mark it with a big X). A visual representation of a series of successes will push you to new achievements.
14. Get things done
This point is very important: there is little you can do to make papers look better if you don’t finish them. Your writing brain will come up with brilliant new ideas when your current writing is going badly. Write them down, but keep focusing on the current paper. Go all the way to the end.
15. Write!
The first item on that list was the advice to write every day. And the last point will be the same. No other will be more effective than the daily habit of writing. You should write every day and get things done.
