5 Must-have Skills for New Writers
These are the skills that make you apart when it comes to writing as a professional.
Writing is the fourth form of language skill after listening, speaking, and reading. It is an art that allows us to express our ideas and thoughts in a written form.
It is a passive form of expressing yourself, but it has a lasting impact.
There are three main purposes of writing any content.
1. To educate or to Inform:
The first and foremost purpose of any piece of writing is to disseminate the information or to educate the targeted audience.
Textbooks in schools, colleges, and Universities are the best examples of this.
2. To create awareness:
It is written to create awareness among the masses or the targeted audiences.
It has a broader audience. But it is time-bound and useless when the purpose is served. Spreading awareness regarding the Corona-Virus through magazines, posts, and pamphlets is a good example of this form of writing.
3. Opinion-based writing:
The main purpose of this kind of writing is to express one’s opinion.
This can be biased or unbiased. It emphasizes “freedom of expression” in the sense that everyone has a right to express what he/she thinks. But the opinion of the writer may not necessarily be right for others.
Writing for any kind of purpose is not as easy as it seems. Right? It is not impossible either. Is it? No, it is not. There are 5 basic skills that a fresh writer must focus upon.
These are the skills that make you apart when it comes to writing as a professional.
Here we go…
1. Originality:
Originality is what everyone requires from any writer. Regardless of the purpose of writing, a writer must craft original and authentic content. It is the essence of any writing. It attracts the audience.
But wait, don’t confuse it with Novelty.
Novelty is something that has never been heard, spoken, read, and/or written before. No, that is not the case with originality. And that may not be possible. Especially, in the case of a new writer, like you, me, and most of us here.
As perfectly put by a young German writer, Helene Hegemann:
“There is no such thing as originality, Just authenticity”
Believe me not!!! Believer her.
So, originality is how you put forth or write any existing content purely in your style and way. It, sometimes, is referred to as Repurposing. You need to repurpose the content for your audience.
But avoid plagiarism at all. Copy-paste doesn’t serve your purpose as a writer.
2. Research:
Here is the most important skill that either we lack or, more importantly, ignore.
I tell you honestly, this is where we put ourselves down when we don’t Research. This is the borderline that separates us from the established writers. Read the autobiography of any writer to confirm it.
Until you research well, you cannot write original and authentic content.
When any topic or idea comes to your mind, first thing is to get the knowledge and information before writing or typing it down. How? Through research. And in this global world, you just need to Google it.
Remember. To get high-quality content, Research it from authentic and high Domain Authority (DA) websites.
Add ubersuggest Chrome extension to know the DA of websites or blogs.
The research will not only broaden your knowledge about the topic but it will also let you know the tone and style of other writers. It will also enable the ways to approach the topic and craft the content in your unique style.
Last tip about the Research. Explore as many websites as you can.
3. Good and Unique Written Expressions:
Another skill a writer-to-be must focus on as a writer.
Writing is all about the written expressions the readers read. A good expression is what attracts the reader lovers to read your writing. You must develop a unique and good way of expressing the things in your writing.
It may be a bit difficult for a beginner to have a unique written expression, but it is achievable with practice and consistency.
Initially, you can follow the written expression of your favorite writers. Because it is more important to have good written expression than to have a unique style. But, the ultimate goal must be to achieve a unique style.
4. Adaptability:
Adaptability means adjusting oneself according to the situation given.
As there are different purposes for writing. A writer must adapt the style and tone according to the need of that piece. For instance, as a sales marketer, he needs to use or adapt such words which encourage buyers to buy that product.
Similarly, a fiction story needs fiction-related jargon.
The more the writer is adaptable and flexible, the more the audience he attracts. And as a freelance writer, it is more than a must skill one needs to adapt to be a top-rated freelance writer.
As Darwin described in his theory of “Survival of the fittest”:
“In the struggle for survival, the fittest wins out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.”
The same is very true in the case of writers. it is a universal truth.
5. Understanding of Search engine optimization(SEO):
When you write for your blog or website or e-book or for any of your clients, you must make sure that your content can be ranked on Google and is easy to find for your targeted audience.
It only needs a basic understanding of SEO.
It is important to know high search volume keywords, SEO-friendly titles and descriptions, and sufficient usage of these keywords in your content.
Therefore, it is a must-learn skill for a new writer to engage a large audience with highly optimized Content and SEO-friendly titles and descriptions.
Here is the conclusion:
A New writer must learn the above-mentioned 5 skills to engage and attract a large audience.
It needs consistency in writing and reading for developing these skills.
It includes originality in writing, researching before taking pen and paper, expressing oneself in the best possible way, adapting the jargon and requirements of the topic, and making it Search Engine optimized content.
These are the skills every new writer needs to emphasize to become a successful writer.
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