Learn How to Write Good/Well

There’s no perfect approach when you decide to learn how to write a novel.

When baseball and softball players train to bat, they ask for various pitches to expand their hitting ability. If all they prepared for was a fastball down the middle, the batter could only hit when pitches were strikes over the plate.

The same is true when learning to write a book. You’ll fully develop your skillset if you learn how to write from various sources. I’ve included a few ways to learn your craft and stay relevant to your writing.

• Read about how to write, such as Strunk/EB White’s Elements of Style and Stephen King’s On Writing.
• Listen to writers talk about writing at conferences, online, and in podcasts.
• Go to writing conferences.
• Take courses on writing, including Great Courses.
• Read poetry and learn the beauty of words.
• Write poetry to become a wordsmith.
• Read your genre. Read deeply and take notes on style.
• Read outside your genre. Again, read deeply and take notes on what you like and don’t like.
• Write blogs, social media posts, bulletin pieces, articles, scripts, chapters, books. Write nonstop.
• Give your work to others to critique. Be gracious with their feedback.

Change how you educate yourself to fit your needs in response to your life circumstances.

The perfect approach to great makeup, contours, and highlights is to change as life changes. Let’s face it: if you’re wearing the same makeup brand and style you wore in high school, you’re lucky you haven’t developed an allergy. The perfect approach is to vary in brands, styles, and colors to fit your surroundings, age, and habits.

The brain best learns when you continually vary the ways you’re learning. As you discover new ways to tell your story, the memory is stored much better because you alter your sources.

Beliefs represented by individual authors are not necessarily shared by all members of ICW.