Advice on Writing from a ‘Spoken Word Poet’
6 practical tips you can start using today.
I started my writing journey as a “Spoken Word Poet”, the emphasis was always on how I read or performed my poems, expressing feelings is easier when it’s done using body language and tone of voice, which we lose 85% of when we are reading.
I felt that I need to express more and tell my story in a different way, so decided to start writing and that’s when my friend introduced me to the idea of writing here on Medium.
Writing my first article taught many things about my writing skills or lack of. I noticed I was trying to find hacks on how to get more clicks and reach more readers than spending time on learning how to improve my writing. This all was before I even published my first story.
I asked family and friends to help edit my articles, and here is what I learned I need to work on to make my articles better:
- Avoid jargon and sentence fillers
- Don’t use clichés
- Improve my sentence structure
- Use direct, straightforward language
- Always check my grammar and use the tools available
- Practice, practice, practice
Have you heard the super old joke? A lost tourist in New York was looking for a classical music theatre so he stops to ask a street musician “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” and the musician thinks for a minute before she says “practice, practice, practice.”
All these tools and hacks to get more clicks are useful I’m sure, but nothing will make me a better writer other than good writing. I might write less, but I will work on writing better.
