How To Improve Your Writing

There’s a lot of advice out there on being a better writer (some of it is pretty funny, intentional or otherwise), but the focus always seems to be on how best to inhabit the writerly identity and not how to, you know, actually get better at the underlying task. It’s like an article on getting rich that only tells you how to order champagne with élan, but doesn’t mention anything about how to make money in the first place.

As a big fan of the practical and as someone not particularly interested in playing the tortured artist card, the counsel I give clients and advice seekers on how to up their writing game tends to involve actions that can be implemented immediately and apply to both an undergrad term paper or the Great American Novel. Read on for my take on the nuts and bolts of getting better at the nuts and bolts of writing well:

Do more of it. Maybe [more...]