Unveiling the #1 Writing Advice that Boosts My Writing Skills by 80%
The incredible story of simple writing advice to boost practical knowledge and enhance your writing skills.
Imagine starting your writing or other careers in the endless acquisition of knowledge without practice, as described below.
You have an incredible desire to write.
You love writing to share knowledge, discuss issues of interest and engage your audience. The motivation to write is not money making, but knowing this is also possible, your interest in writing grew.
You’ve written blog articles and Facebook posts and have contributed to several publications, including Medium. Your writings are getting attention, drawing audiences and attracting comments. Now, you can also make some income from writing, you concluded.
There’s a need to improve your writing skills to earn money.
There is a growing need to improve your writing skills. You want to be more fluent, consistent and authoritative in your niche. So, you seek more knowledge, ideas, and means to enhance your writing and earn money.
You subscribe to all sorts of training to gain more writing knowledge. So, you are a target for online trainers, course providers and six-figure-earning writers seeking to teach you how to make it big writing.
Your mailbox gets filled up daily with irresistible sales emails to enrol in new forms of training. These mail chimps claim to train you to become a six-figure paid writer in no time.
Confusion sets in
The training you received has helped you gain more knowledge of your writing niche. But the newsletters you subscribed to continue to fill your mailbox. The newsletters share information about fantastic new courses and new earning hacks. They also tell success stories that tempt you to keep learning.
Although you are now confused, you still want to get new skills to drive your writing career. But you have little or no time to practice the art itself. Sometimes, the new things you learn conflict and cancel one another, leaving you even more confused.
You are yet to fulfil your dream of being the great writer you desire and trained to be. Also, you are yet to earn a living through the craft.
The above writing journey could be yours.
Does the above story sound familiar? Have you encountered a similar situation in your writing journey? Do you see yourself in the character described above? Are you engaged in endless learning without practice? Is it easier for you to learn theory than practice?
If the situation described above applies to you, you are not alone. Many successful writers went through this path. But there is a difference between the successful writers and those still struggling. The successful writers drew a line between confused, unending learning and actual practice. The struggling writers remain on the path of endless search for knowledge without trial.
Back to the subject of this article: the best writing advice I ever got.
There is too much online advice on how to become a successful writer. I’ve read more than 1000 articles across platforms on how-to or not-to write. Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many articles I’ve read on Medium offering best-practice writing tips. The summary of all that I’ve read and learned came down to one solid piece of advice, which is:
Ditch the unending learning and embrace constant practice to become a successful writer.
The relevance of this advice may be obscure because it’s commonplace or ordinary. Yet, it’s the root of success in every career. In the online writing business, you’re good to the extent you can show practical, not theoretical, knowledge.
My ugly writing experience and how the advice helped.
I had my share of the confusion inherent in non-stop learning without practice. I was a regular target for online trainers struggling to sell all courses to me. The certificates and training endorsements I acquired include SEO, Copywriting, Blogging, Content writing, digital marketing, portfolio building and more.
I’ve spent more time learning to write niche-based, audience-focused and income-generating content than I’ve spent practising the art. But judging by my expenditure of time and money in pursuit of writing knowledge, I’ve earned less than I ought to.
The path to self-discovery
More than 80% of my writing knowledge came from practising, making and learning from my mistakes. For instance, I learned more about SEO by practising on my website.
I started a blog as a novice, buoyed only by the desire to write. I observed and followed some tiny red SEO prompts on the admin page for every article I wrote for publication.
The SEO prompts indicated all I needed to do to optimise my posts for search engines. Through this process, I became familiar with various components of SEO writing. Subsequent training in SEO was easier to understand because I had encountered all the theoretical elements in practice.
Of course, I made so many writing mistakes in the earlier versions of my blog. But no amount of theory could be more helpful than what I learned practising with my WordPress website.
Experience and perfection come from practising rather than non-stop learning.
I know many people are passing through this writing journey. If you do, please stop and reflect. What do you want to achieve with your writing? To succeed as a paid writer, you must know when to suspend theory and practice.
Writers who embrace more theory than practice become burdened with information overload. They struggle to avoid conflicting versions of the same information from various sources. With information overload, writers need clarification and help to discern a realistic path to success.
The central message of this story is “Practice your art: WRITE.”
This write-up does not suggest that acquiring knowledge in your career path is wrong. It also acknowledges the need to read and train to understand any subject of your interest. But your knowledge and training are only helpful if you put them into practice.
Know when to step down the learning process and practice. You can only become perfect by practising what you’ve learnt. Let the mistakes happen, discover what works and doesn’t, and learn from your mistakes.
Learning from other people’s experiences and writing mistakes helps, but remember that individual circumstances differ. So, while you trade successful writers’ paths, remember you may only know some of their stories.
People are more inclined to talk about their wins than their challenges. I’ve seen that in many success stories, I read in Medium. Many writers magnify their small victories while hiding their rough paths to success.
Learn from the experience of others, make your own mistakes, and develop your path to success. Perfection comes only through practice. This is the best writing and career lesson I ever learned.
Last Word
Finally, practice your art more than you engage in the endless pursuit of theoretical knowledge. This advice applies to all career paths, whether changing or enhancing an existing strategy.
Here’s the approach to adopt for career success:
First, get basic knowledge of your business or craft through training. Next, put the basic knowledge into practice. Ask questions, make mistakes, accommodate errors, and document unusual occurrences. Then, return to theoretical training to confirm your technique and learn more about your errors and mistakes. Finally, apply the feedback to enhance your skills and improve your practice.
I am Francis Osuagwu. I write about entrepreneurship, personal development, career success and tech. Please follow me on Medium for more stories.
You may also visit my blog at https://www.researchaids.net for related stories.
