by Simon Wright

Created on: January 03, 2009

There are millions of people across the globe who would like to become a better writer. For some, their desire is just to master the basics of writing and perhaps to overcome a disadvantaged education. For others, the desire may be to simply become more competent and may be driven, for example, by a need to write good quality work reports. Then there are those of us who aspire to making money from our writing and perhaps dream of having a novel or short story published. Whatever your current level of writing ability, and whatever your end goal, it is always possible to take on new learning and improve your writing skills. In this article, I'll touch upon some of the main ways that you can do this.

Tip 1: Read more:

The more you read, from accomplished writers, the more writing skills you will assimilate. You may be barely conscious of this process but you will find that your vocabulary increases and your understanding of basic things such as sentence structure, paragraph layout and spelling will all improve.

The material that you read doesn't need to be restricted to novels. You should look to read a range of things including newspapers, magazines, Helium articles, short stories and, yes, some novels too. Your choice of what to read will depend upon your interests but it can be valuable to branch out a little from your usual reading material. When I was younger, for example, I mainly read fantasy novels but I feel that my writing has benefited from reading novels from the like of Douglas Coupland and Kate Atkinson from outside of that genre.

I mentioned reading Helium articles and the great benefit that Helium offers is that you can see how people have ranked various articles on the same topic. Reading a few of the top-ranked and a few of the bottom-ranked articles will probably give you some insights into what people look for in good writing.

Tip 2: Write more:

If you speak to established authors or people who run writing classes, the single biggest piece of advice that they almost invariably impart is that writers need to spend time in front of their computer writing. It doesn't really matter if your initial output is disappointing, as you should find that with time you will become more proficient. I often liken writing to working out at the gym. The more you write, the easier it becomes as your creative muscles develop.

You might want to try experimenting with different types of writing. For example, writing Helium articles, writing a short story, beginning to

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