by Lorelei Cohen

Created on: June 22, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

There are a lot of people who write, and thousands more who live to write, but there are only a handful of these writers each year who manage to accomplish the dreams that they have set out for themselves.There is a lot of competition out there. So how do you rise to the upper ranks? How do you become more successful than 99.99 percent of the other writers out there?

The key to being a successful writer is to write often, write well, and write about issues that you feel strongly about. Writing, like most other things in life, improves with practice. The more works that you place on those blank sheets of paper than the better a writer you will become. Also the more often that your work is read, then the more likely you are to gain recognition for your work. Get your work out there. Don't leave it sitting in a drawer or set in a binder with a lot of other unfinished pieces. Publish it, put it in an Online article, or donate it to a local newspaper. Submit it to Magazines and E-magazines but get your work out there and visible for others to read.

Concentrate on learning everything that you can about the written word. Never stop learning. Watch your spelling, your grammar, and your tenses. Use a thesaurus to encourage a more creative use of words and a dictionary to learn new words. Ensure that your work has a strong opening sentence and a creative ending. That all important first paragraph can be the reason why a person continues reading, or why they simply skim through your article, or worse they toss it aside for a more interesting topic. Grab their attention right away! Remember that your last paragraph is important because a poor ending can leave your reader feeling disappointed. A strong or surprise ending will insure that your reader remembers your work.

Practice creating suspense within your work. Pour your emotions into your work. Take your feelings in any given situation and place these into the thoughts and feelings of the characters who exist within your work. Force your readers to reach into your heart and to feel your very soul. Place it on the paper before them. Make your readers laugh, make them feel empathy, stir them enough to make them cry. Give your very self to those who will read your articles and you will develop a loyal following. People love the strength of emotion. Whether these feelings are of happiness, anger, or sadness, it is this emotion that lets us know that we are really truly alive. Let those who read your work, live within the stories that you tell, let them feel the emotions that exist there.

Accept criticism, but don't allow it to daunt you, just keep writing. The more often that you write then the better a writer that you will become. The more often that you get your work out there then the more known you will become. If you love to write and you really truly want to rise above other writers, then just start writing, keep writing, and don't ever look back.

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