Your writing reflects who you are. Whether you are writing a resume for a job or simply writing a letter to your mom, it’s important that you improve your writing skills so that you can express your ideas in clear, concise and coherent manner.
If you are struggling to find the right words or fail to become creative when you write then it only means you haven’t been writing as often as you should. Below are 5 compelling reasons why you need to take your writing to the next level and why you need to take your writing seriously.
Writing is a Part of Life
No matter what level you are in this life, what profession you are in, what work you do, what kind of business you own, you can’t run away from writing because writing is a part of life.
You might reason out that you only write once in a while but the more you don’t write the more your writing skill gets dull. Instead of writing an email to your superiors that would take you half an hour why not save time and write the same letter that is well written and with coherence in just a couple of minutes. You can do this by writing often in order to improve your writing skill.
I remember during my 4th grade, a bible scholar advised us to write at least 100 words or fill up an entire page a day. We can write anything or to make it easier we can maintain a diary or journal. I did that for a few months but stopped. It wasn’t until during my early thirties that I took my writing seriously.
Have I followed his advice, maybe I wasn’t struggling to write emails, letters, newsletters, reports, quotations and resumes during my early career in the corporate world.
I can’t recall his reason why he advised us to do that but now I do understand the importance of writing every day.
Writing Will Gain You Respect and Trust
Imagine you’re sitting inside the plane going for a week’s vacation to Malaysia when all of a sudden Stephen King walks in and sits beside you. Now I’m pretty sure it would be a privilege to sit beside the famous author.
With more than ten hours flight (USA to Malaysia), you get to talk with the master of horror books. Just try to imagine what you learn from this well respected writer.
In this scenario, you respect and trust him not because he is your friend, your boss, your guru or your teacher. You show respect because he is a famous author. Whether you have read one of his books or not just knowing he is Stephen King will be enough for you to be proud of that you have met him in person.
Becoming a writer (a good writer) makes you influential. You give your readers valuable information, you entertain them, you teach them, you solve their problems, you improve their life and in return you get their respect and trust.
It’s really worth it which makes it more important that you improve your skills in writing.
Writing Can Make You Rich
I define being rich as having a business, a vehicle, a house, a life free of debt, and enough cash in the bank to be able to travel once a year, cover my retirement, a trust fund for my kids and be able to donate to charities. I don’t dream of having a net worth of more than 66 billion like Warren Buffet.
So the question is, will writing be able to give me those kinds of things that I listed above?
I am enjoying them right now. I passed the essay part of the CPA board exam through practice. I landed a great job because I wrote an effective resume. My boss compliments my writing every now and then from the reports I am sending him. I also blog and I write newsletters and with these I am earning extra income online.
So depending on your definition about being rich, if you will do the hard work, you will get your riches through writing.
Writing Can Make You Famous
There are different ways for you to become famous through writing. It is inevitable that your name will be known the more you write.
The fastest way to become well known is Blogging. Put up a blog, then guest post to other blogs (like pickthebrain.com). These will do you three things. First it will drive traffic to your site, second, the owner of the blog gets to know you (connections) and third it will scatter your name across the Internet.
Obviously another way to become famous is to write books and if one of them becomes a bestseller definitely you will be well known author overnight.
But before you become a famous author, you really need to work hard. It is expected that you have improved your writing to the next level and you have established enough connections who know what you are up to-selling a book.
Writing Will Bring Out Your Creativity
Have you experienced wanting to write something yet you keep on staring on the wall right in front of you waiting for new ideas to pop out of your mind? You look out of the window, hoping your creativity will help you write the first two sentences but nothing.
They call this writer’s block but I call it beginner’s block. If you don’t write often, it would be difficult for you to come up with great ideas and write creative sentences to keep your readers engaged. But as your writing improves, your creativity will get better as well.
When I took my writing seriously I struggled to write a 400 word article and after finishing it, the results were horrible and I would re-write them again and again until it becomes acceptable.
You will struggle at first but as you sharpen your writing skills, you will become more creative, soon you will be writing and sharing unique ideas no one has ever thought about.
Writing is fun. Composing a sentence which is not boring but engaging to the reader is an art. Like painting or sculpture it takes practice to produce a masterpiece but unlike painting or sculpture you can write without acquiring the necessary gift or talent.
If I would compare my writing 10 years ago, you won’t believe it but through the years I have honed this skill though practice. So start writing today, begin writing 300 words per day. Write freely, write your aspirations, write your feelings, forget about grammar, forget about the rules, just write, follow what you feel then and once you’re done go back and edit everything. Do this each day and you will be surprised at what kind of manuscripts you will be producing day by day.
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