Developing Your Skills as a Writer

As an aspiring professional writer, you need to develop marketable skills.

In the past, being technically proficient at writing was what mattered most. But now that writing tools handle the technicalities, you need to focus on adding value elsewhere.

You need to be able to:

• Understand the task and requirements.

• Do your research.

• Draw insights.

• Craft the message.

• Take and implement feedback.

• Practice effectively.

Understanding the task and requirements

Understanding the task might seem simple, but there's actually a lot to it. It's also a big area where writers have the advantage over AI.

Asking questions

The first thing you need to learn is how to extract information. You'll usually get a brief of some sort for any writing task. "Write a blog post about cats." "Write an email offering 3 weeks free to people who sign up now." That sort of thing. The brief should contain all the information you need to get started, but you're only ever going to get a fraction of that.

It's important to ask all the questions you can at the start and get that information before writing anything. You don't want to waste your time, and you especially don't want to finish a project and hear "Oh actually, I wanted something more like this."

Get good at identifying and asking about everything you'll need to know.

• Who am I writing this for?

• What's the tone?

• How familiar is the audience with the product already?

• Are there any key points I need to hit?

• Have you sent anything like this already?

Etc, etc.

Doing your research

You almost always need to do some research before writing. That research could be anything from a quick Google search to years of study depending on the subject matter. Good research skills are invaluable to a writer.

Here are some of the typical kinds of research you writers do:

Building background knowledge

It's pretty hard to write about something you don't understand. If you're looking for a writing job in a particular field, learn about that field first.

You have to be pretty arrogant to think you can sell something to a bunch of experts in a field you only just heard about, but many aspiring/failing writers have that level of ego and wonder why no one appreciates their work.

That said, there are plenty of marketing managers who don't understand their products and happily hire writers who don't understand their products. If that's how you get your start that's fine, but I recommend learning as much as you can as fast as you can.

Knowing your audience

You should really know who you're writing to before you start. The more you know about your audience the better. What do they want? How knowledgeable are they? What turns them off? Get used to building a profile for your target audience members and writing for them.

Looking at what other people have done already

Nothing is completely new. No matter what you're doing, someone has already done something similar. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Get in the habit of looking at other people's work and taking any inspiration and lessons from them you can. Again, put your ego aside and recognize you're not some kind of genius bringing something unique and special. "No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you." — Homer Simpson. Learn to take advantage of that.

Drawing insights

Try to think about what you're saying more deeply. Say a car is 5% more fuel efficient. What does that translate to in practice? What does it really mean? It means you can travel further, see new places, and have new experiences. It means you buy less fuel and have more money to spend on your hobbies. It means you spend less time at the gas station and more time with family.

The better you get at finding these insights, the better your message will be.

Crafting the message.

Your research and preparation should inform what you write and how you write it.

The actual process of crafting the message is different for every format — a long-form article is very different from a medical pamphlet or a social media post. Learn as much as you can from experts in your writing field about the format you're writing in. Don't try to wing it, and don't waste time reinventing the wheel.

Taking and implementing feedback

Finally, you've done all the hard work and finished your masterpiece. Well done! Now throw it in the trash and start again because the client doesn't like it.

That's the painful reality of any writing job

Don't get too attached to your work. It's probably not as great as you think it is and even if it's brilliant it doesn't matter if it's not what your client/manager/audience wants.

Learn how to put your ego aside, and take and implement feedback. (Sometimes you should ignore feedback, but that's a topic for another time.)

Practicing effectively

Practice is crucial, but if you practice the wrong things you're just going to get really good at doing the wrong things. That's why there are so many writers who've been at it for years and poured their heart and soul into it and are still kinda terrible.

Feedback and guidance are really important. And not from your friends and family or hobbyists on Reddit. From real professionals.

Submit your work for professional review whenever possible, and try to find a mentor.

What next?

Read Building a Portfolio.