The One Thing You Need to Do to Improve Your Writing
I don’t know a single writer on the face of the planet who doesn’t want to make their content better — you’re likely reading this because you have that desire.
But I like to recognize the beautiful individuality writers have. And in that context, all of us will thrive with different techniques, setups, and so forth. There’s really only one constant I’ve found that everybody has to tap to become better wordsmiths. I share that in the video below.
[Transcript summary]
So, I am in the final stages of editing a devotional that I plan to publish, and that makes me super excited. But it also has me thinking about, what does it actually take to improve your writing? What does it take to make a draft better? And I think as writers, we have a tendency to get sucked into the headline versions of that, like, “Five Tips to Improve Your Writing Instantly.”
And so, if you — but if you ask me what is the one thing that could improve your writing — not instantly, but over time — I would say keeping an open mind. It’s not a skill. It’s not a routine. It’s nothing like that. It’s having the open-mindedness, because if you do not have an open mind, what’s going to happen is, when you look at that draft, when you get feedback, everything that you see, you’re not going to want to change it. You’re not going to see the possibilities. You’re not going to see the potential of other options. So, that open mindedness is absolutely essential to pivot to where that draft needs to go to cut things out and to make it better.
So, what I would advise you to do is, when you’re looking through your draft and you’re not necessarily sure of where to go with it, just ask yourself, “Do I really have an open mind with what I’m crafting here?” And you might be surprised at how rigid you might have become, especially you people who like to outline. There’s nothing wrong with an outline, but sometimes you might get into it and say, “You know, that’s really not working.” So, even if you are not a pantser, this applies to you.
So, that’s my challenge for you. Take care. Bye.