5 Tiny Things You Can Do To Make Your Writing Soar

A guide by a guy who gets paid to write.

I made this image as large as I possibly could. It’s gorgeous. Kudos to and thanks to Daniela Cuevas.

1

Get words on the page.

LOL. That’s the first tip? Get a load of this guy. Great guide, Magellan. What’s next? “Remember to breathe. Can’t write if you can’t breathe!”

I hear you. Now let me ask you this: Any of these sentences sound familiar?

• No one’s going to read this. Why bother?
• Someone might read it and hate it.
• I suck at writing.
• This is a terrible idea.
• I’m too busy.

I’ve had all those thoughts. You have, too. If you’re human, you’ve had an itch to write something that you eventually talked yourself out of.

Fact is, there is a dark force that prevents you from expressing yourself. Enjoying true creative freedom is food for the soul. Pure light. And that’s exactly what darkness hates most. Steven Pressfield calls that force Resistance. Great name. I prefer to call it Shithead.

Whatever you call that darkness, it exists. The ONLY way to conquer it is to beat it to death with the 10 hammers you have on your fingertips. Sit down. Armor up. Get those words on the page. It’s gonna be rough, but that’s why it’s called a rough draft.

2

Don’t write to everyone. Write to one specific person.

You and I are having a 1-on-1 conversation right now. I can see you in my head. You may call it creepy, but I call it…

Well, yeah. It’s a little creepy.

Doesn’t matter if you’re working on a technical project or a children’s book. The task is the same. Picture your ideal reader and have a conversation. Oh, and speaking of conversations:

3

Read it out loud.

Copywriters pride themselves on having conversational copy. Authors love to have realistic, page-turning dialogue. This just means we write like people talk. The best way to make sure you’re writing like people talk is to talk out what you write.

4

Vary the length of your sentences.

Time to plug something I wrote in the past. I’m insufferable.

Sentences Don’t Need To Be Short. They Just Need To Be Good.

Good writing is a dance. Varying your sentence length creates music, and nothing gets people dancing like music.

5

Have fun.

If you’re bored writing it, they’ll be bored reading it.

Every writing project contains a goldmine of fun to unearth. It won’t happen at first. You’ll have to dig for it. But once you give the blank page the finger, once you establish that exhilarating flow state, you’ll have a blast. You’ll come out of it hours later, thoroughly jubilant and in dire need of a snack.

Then tomorrow will come and you’ll battle Resistance all over again. Because being human is equal parts cruel joke and beautiful gift.

Sit down. Armor up. Get those words on the page.