I got an interesting email from a reader the other day with a question I had never been asked before. I’m paraphrasing here but the question went kind of like this:
“How do you learn to write when you’re just starting out? Especially if all you have is a GED or high school diploma?”
I actually really loved this question for a couple of reasons.
First, your education does not matter. If someone says you need a degree to become a freelance writer, they are lying. What matters is your drive and ambition. That was all that I had going for me when I first started. (The 100 rejections I received should be proof of that!)
Don’t you ever, EVER let someone put you down because you don’t have a degree, or a high school diploma, or whatever. (<—-Imagine me saying that in my stern Mom voice.) It doesn’t matter. Some of the greatest and wealthiest businessmen of our time have no degree.
If you don’t believe me read Think and Grow Rich.
I have no degree and am doing just fine. I also have the perk of not having a gazillion dollars in student loan debt.
Also, I want to clarify that I don’t think going to college is stupid or pointless. If you worked your butt off for a degree, feel proud about it! It IS an amazing accomplishment and I am not trying to belittle your hard work.
All I’m trying to say here is that if your particular life path didn’t involve a college education it doesn’t mean you have to work at McDonalds for the rest of your life. If you have personal determination, a desire to learn, and can handle rejection you will be 100% fine!
Secondly, I am not a good writer by nature. I still wouldn’t consider myself a great writer but I am certain that I have vastly improved. I seriously cringe when I read some of my first articles. They are horrible and I wonder why in the world anyone actually paid me to write for them. (Although I’m certainly grateful that they did!)
Writing is a Learnable Skill
Writing is a learnable skill. Nobody comes out of the womb a great writer just like nobody is born a great photographer, or scientist, or architect. These are all learnable skills.
What you need to learn highly depends upon the type of work you want to do.
For instance, if you want to get into journalism then you need to learn the terminology and know how to properly cite sources. If you want to be a blogger then you need to be at least mildly entertaining or useful to the person who is reading your blog post.
I am not a journalist so in this article I am only showing you how I was able to become better at writing blog posts and how you can develop your own personal writing style.
Find 3-5 Bloggers Whose Writing Style You Like
One thing that I have continuously done over the course of my writing career is study other writing styles that I love. For instance, there are about five bloggers whose writing I love, all for different reasons.
I love one style because the author is straight to the point, another because she’s so inspirational and another because she comes across as very intelligent. But my two favorite writing styles come from bloggers who make me feel like I’m their friend.
I’ve never met these women, never spoken with them, never emailed them and yet I feel like I’m friends with them. That’s good writing to me. (And because I feel like you are my friend I hope that you, too, feel like I’m your friend.)
Find 3-5 bloggers whose writing style you really like. Take note of exactly what it is you like. Be sure that you’re not concentrating too hard on just one style or you’ll end up copying it rather than putting different elements together to develop your own style.
Read A lot of Books
In addition to reading a lot of blog posts from your favorite bloggers you should also read a lot of books. The more you read the better of a writer you’ll become.
And if you don’t read in the first place then I’d say becoming a paid writer or blogger isn’t for you.
Some books I reread a lot are:
I like these books because they draw me in. I can’t put them down. (Especially Robert Kiyosaki books!)
Google Grammar and Spelling Questions
I suck at grammar. If I wrote exactly how I spoke my posts would be so grammatically incorrect that you wouldn’t be able to decipher them. While I still want my writing to come across as my actual personality, I have to correct my grammar when I write. It was hard at first!
When I first started freelance blogging I spent a ton of time Googling my grammar questions.
If you get stuck on grammar or the spelling of a certain word just Google it. You’ll find the answer!
If you get stuck on the opening or closing of a particular article then go read other articles similar to the one you’re writing and pay attention to how the blogger opened and closed. Figure out what you liked and what you didn’t like about their articles and then use that information for your own benefit.
Edit the You-Know-What Out of Your Blog Posts
Like I said, I am not a natural writer and my writing process has drastically changed over the past three years. I spend way more time editing my blog posts than I do writing them.
The writing process for me is fairly easy. I just get all of my thoughts out on paper (screen?) Then I go back and I edit. I delete the “fluff,” fix my run on sentences, and make sure I’m not super repetitive in my word choices.
My advice would be that you should just write. Record all of your thoughts. After that go back and edit. From there you can add sources and change everything around.
Write A Lot
Last, but certainly not least, just write a lot. The more you write the better you will get.
It’s like the 10,000 hour rule which states that you can excel at anything if you put 10,000 hours of practice into it and that “natural talent” isn’t really important.
The more you write, the better you’ll get!
When I read the title of this blog post, it got me. I said it in a way that not everyone is born a good writer, including myself, that I have probably spent more time than most people, to learn how to write better. I’m like you, Alexa, chooses 3 to 5 bloggers that I personally think their writing has unique style. The good writing is also when I think of they are my friends because although I haven’t met any of them in person, but their writing is beyond that.
Time definitely does improve a person. I’m embarrassed to even read some of my first blog posts. They are so bad!
I am completely agree with you, think in Italy there is a famous writer that never started high school but he writes really well and reads a lot, I am working on writing more quality contents in my blog daily, following bloggers that I admire, taking notes and write daily. Thanks for sharing I really loved this post!!!
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it! I was recently reading Think and Grow Rich and was just amazed at how many of the super successful businesses were started by people with hardly any formal education. It just proves you can do anything if you put your mind to it!
I love this post, Alexa! I don’t think education has a lot to do with being a good freelance writer at all. If anything it’s just confidence. I am a lawyer and I have had the hardest time writing. I have been turned down several times, I’ve read “how to write non-fiction books”, and I’ve practiced a lot. My writing has improved solely from practice and learning and really not at all from my formal education. I wouldn’t have thought that if you told me before I started blogging and freelance writing, but it’s the truth. It’s a completely different type of writing and education has little to do with it at all.
Confidence is so underrated! Confidence can really take a person far even if their skills are slightly lacking.
I’ve read your blog for a long time now and don’t remember any of your blog posts ever being bad. I think you come across as a strong, independent woman, which I love 🙂
My recommendation would also be to JUST KEEP WRITING. You do eventually get better, with lots of practice. Reading a LOT is really helpful too – like you said, other bloggers, books in your niche. But also just “random” reading – fiction books you like, newspapers and magazine articles. They will open you up to a new style of writing and interesting phrases you could incorporate in your writing to add more personality.
And you’re so right, Alexa. You DON’T need a degree. Writing for blogs and the Internet is totally different than writing for school!
I totally agree. The more you do it the better you get.
And reading all sorts of things will help! I personally just can’t get into fiction books. I really loved all V.C. Andrews books as a teenager and pretty much read every single one of them. I haven’t found another fiction author that I really love since then.
This is such a great post. It’s very encouraging for those who may be intimidated by the thought of having to be a literary scholar in order to pursue writing.
Recently found your blog Alexa and I’ve missed hours of sleep pouring over the pages of it.:-)
Thank you Kaye 🙂 I appreciate you reading!!
Fantastic advice Alexa…and I need to spend more time Googling grammar!
I still do it. All. The. Time. 🙂 And I still have a few choice words I always spell wrong. Thank goodness for auto-correct!
Suggestion: Print out your work. For some reason, I find more typo’s, errors on paper.
You could also hire a Virtual Assistant / Proof Reader !!!!
~ C
Yes, I had someone proof read the freelance blogging book I wrote and then never released….oops. She is much, much better at grammar than I am and was able to really clean everything up.
Great advice! I never thought about looking at writing styles I like. That would be a big help because my writing is definitely something I want to work on.
I find it helpful to just figure out what draws me in to certain blogs. It’s always the way the person writes 🙂 (Well and an interest in the particular topic!) Figuring out why you like something can really help you with your own writing.
Thanks, I am a regular reader. Your writing style to me is encouraging, informative, inspiring, and non judgemental, and you do make the reader feel like a friend. And I agree, I writing is definitely a skill that gets better with practice, like most skills.
Thanks so much April! Non-judgmental is one of my top priorities so I really appreciate your comment 🙂
One reason I keep coming back to your blog is that I enjoy your friendly writing style. This is great advice!
Writing is the best skill any one can learn easily. Writing skills can make you proficient enough to earn money. Apart from all the writing jobs one can start up small business in content too. Thanks for sharing.
Writing, via either blogging or freelancing, is actually a great way to circumvent not having a degree or formal education. If you apply for a job at a company, your degree(s) or lack thereof will most likely come in to play depending on what the job is. With writing, you can become as good as you need or want to be simply by honing your craft. Practice makes perfect!
Spot on. I am a web designer and have absolutely no format training. All I know I learned by myself, probably after more than 10 thousand hours 😉
I am currently trying to get better and content marketing, hope to make some big progress in the near future.
I definitely agree. Education doesn’t have much to do with it. I think anyone can write but it takes a lot of practice. Reading a lot is helpful too. I’m still not a great writer by any means but I think I’ve improved with practice!
I have always enjoyed your blog because I feel like you are a friend (no I’m not a stalker). You have inspired me to start my own blog and I even used your How to Start a Blog post to do so. I struggle with finding content. I can write about anything, but I find good ideas hard to find. This is a great piece of writting and I bookmarked this post. Thanks for writing it.
Thanks so much for this post. I am so bad with spellings and for some reason I can’t get over it. Your post is very encouraging especially after getting rude comments about my spelling mistakes on my blog from my colleague. I was so taken a back that I almost quit writing. Now I feel much better and trying to find ways to improve my writing and spellings. I hold Doctorate degree in Physics and still make tremendous amount of spelling mistakes. You are right it’s not the degree which matter in blogging world it’s the zest of constant improvement and sharing that is what makes you successful.
Oh, thank you for this. I used to write freely before, but then they told e my writing was not good. and since then I have a block at writing. I am still writing sometimes for others but I have a block going full tie with it. English is not my home language though I live in English speaking countries.
I do not have a problem with spelling, but sometimes the structure of sentences are not great or I have some editing problems. SO how do you ensure that everything is correc.. Like my clients will fix small errors for me. And I feel too embarrassed to go and offer my services to others.
There are not major errors, I have seen English speaking people with bigger mistakes than mine. I know many people that write in English even though English is not their home language. But somehow I still feel insecure myself. I have no problem writing in my blog, but whne I am writing for others then I get nervous.
For grammar you can use Grammarly.com to check for mistakes. I’m pretty sure there’s a free and paid version but it could greatly help you.
I had been losing confidence in my writing, especially at the end of the first draft of my Masters thesis… and then I searched ‘How To Become a Better Writer’ on pinterest. I am SO glad that my intuition guided me to your post. Thank you so much for your tips!! And yes, totally feel like we just had a face-to-face talk while drinking coffee at the park. Thank you thank you!
I’m glad it helped 🙂
I love this post. I have always thought about doing some freelance writing but never thought I would ever be good enough since I have never studied to become a writer, but thanks to your post I feel a lot more positive about it. You give some really good advice and since English isn’t my first language, Google will surely be used a lot 🙂 I have started reading a lot more books recently and I love the idea of finding 5 or so bloggers I admire and start reading their posts more often as well. Thanks.