How to write well – in a few easy steps!

You might have come here hoping to skim through it to find some tidbits to add to your lengthy reminders for your next report. You probably think that there is nothing else that I could tell you that you haven’t already heard – and you are probably right!

Knowing the difference between their, there, and they’re barely scratch the surface of what constitutes good writing. In fact, I was motivated to write this lengthy article to focus on the commonly overlooked problems that plagues nearly all of the amateur pieces that I see on a regular basis.

The most common problem that I diagnose in people who “cannot write” or in those who hate writing, is that they tend to write with resentment (“what is the point of documentation! It’s a waste of time!”), listlessness (“I don’t like writing! I keep zoning out and catching myself in the middle of a TV show whenever I try to start.”), or with anxiety (“I froze in front of the screen and deleted the sentences over and over again! I’m trapped and I cannot proceed”).

The truth is something to roll your eyes over: there is no shortcut to writing better. Reminders and tidbits don’t work unless you actively engage them. You have to put in the effort at first, and chip away at your bad habits over time. Eventually, you may cross over to the other side – euphoria. The pen and the paper meld with your mind, and you can will those around you to listen, understand, and even fall in love.

Step 1: Research

Don’t skip over this. You know you want to skip it. You might nod your head and agree to play along, but after you walk away you toss this into the waste bin. Do not!

“Why not?” You ask, but you think you know what I am going to say.

The answer is simple: writing without research is bullshit. If you think you can skip this step, then anything you produce is no more than bullshit. That may be very well for some unimportant emails, some off-the-cuff pieces that hardly define your life. But your thesis, daringly intimidating report, your last plea to the love of your life not to leave you; are these really things you are willing to allow become bullshit?

The best way to research something is to gather as much as information as you can. Don’t put the information into an outline yet, even if you think that it will save you time. Take notes but make it no more than just an informative list. Don’t let your own bias or your rusty and untrustworthy memory influence this process. Your opinion should be on hold until the next step.

If you are writing about your own writing, then you should review your work and take notes that will come in handy. There are things that even you forgot!

Even if the work is fictional, you still must research the time period, related works, and other small tidbits of information you would like to have handy. It would be terrible to lose your flow right as the mystery is about to be unraveled.

Even if you are extremely knowledgeable about the subject, no writing worth reading comes from the information in your brain’s temporary cache. You wouldn’t go to a TED talk and wing it, would you?

Step 2: Development

You haven’t even started writing yet. And this step isn’t even part of the writing either. You grow impatient, why waste time on things that nobody sees?

Because you don’t to make a fool of yourself that’s why.

Nobody gets to see your outline, so there isn’t going to be a mean English teacher that fumes over your outline and scribbles over it in red pen. You can fill it with all the profanities, and you can ramble and dance as much as you like, so long as it makes sense.

The Rabbits

Don’t forget the #$&%^ carrots

Wrap up with analogy to sea turtles

This is a perfectly good outline. You may want to expand, contract, delete, modify, add to this. But you must have an outline. The thesis could be a thousand pages long, but you only really need to remember to write enough to fill in the section in focus.

You can quell your anxieties; you don’t have to jump back and forth between your mental notes when writing your piece because everything you planned to write is already recorded. Anything new you come up with can be squeezed into your outline so you can free up your mind for writing.  

If you read up to this point, I assume that you are somewhat convinced into writing an outline. Now here is the real secret for those who are serious about writing well: analysis.

Analysis begins during the outline period. This is where you line up the evidence needed to convict the suspect of murder. And this outline is a map of how you will tie together all the discerning points to a conclusion.

Without an analysis, your writing doesn’t matter. You can write a piece about how your fair maiden has flaxen hair, but what does it mean? She might assume that you meant to give her a simple list of her basic attributes. The analysis is when you tie together these basic attributes and insist that each one tickles your nose. Your nose gets itchy and your heart starts beating. Your heart beats, for you are in love. A ha! You are writing this letter to give her the perfect justification for why she must listen to your feelings, for they are feelings of love! Sixty years later, the round curious eyes of your grandchildren might fall upon the letter and unravel the mystery of their own family’s history. They see their grandparents as not merely wrinkly old people who give them biscuits and tea, but also as the former youngsters who fell in love. Long story short: write an analysis, or you won’t have grandchildren.

Step 3: Write

We have reached the most important step, but also the least important one.

Writing is no more than coloring in the lines. An artist never colors in the basic sketch perfectly the first time. They might start with a base color that looks like the work of a child, and then add and subtract light to refine their painting until it becomes a stunning portrait of a man in such distress that you feel chills when you look upon his face. Before you get too carried away with that you want your final piece to look like, you need to add the base color.

Just fill in the outline and write all the important information. You might mess up. You might write something badly. You might write improper sentences. You might run your sentences to a page long. You might write a few phrases in your native language – to be translated later. Keep going. Don’t move backwards. 

Get the shape of the piece you want. It is starting to look like a story, as long as you don’t look closely.

What if you are afraid of starting? What if you are so petrified of writing that you cannot type the first character? Try freewriting. This is technically an exercise to develop an outline, but nonetheless it could work to teach you that you can write whatever you want on the page.

Set a timer for ten minutes and then just write and write without stopping. Try to stay on topic but nobody is really stopping you from wandering. Explore, try to write what ever you are thinking, no matter how silly it sounds. Perhaps try to explain the same thing in three different ways. Keep the words flowing as quickly as you can think.

Once that’s done, set it aside and actually write. You can use some of the phrases and creations from the freewriting to inspire you when writing your piece.

When writing, you can take breaks, fill in other sections, and take your time to put down your quality thoughts. If you are tired, just stop and take a walk, then return with discipline until the piece is finished.

In all, this should be the easiest and quickest step. What happens next is the reason why writers suffer.

To be continued…