Writing is an essential part of our daily lives. If you attend college, work in an office or run a business, you are likely to spend plenty of your time doing one thing – writing all kinds of essays, emails, proposals, reports, tweets, Facebook update, blog posts, texts, and occasional hand-written ‘thank you’ notes. Nowadays, the written word is the king. So if you are dreaming to become the next Hemingway or Suzy Menkes in the fashion world if you just want to write great posts for your blog or learn to write better essays instead of thinking: “who can do my essay for me?”, you need to improve your writing skills.
Here are some practical tips that will help you become a better writer.
Read a Lot.
This is actually where you have to start from. If you don’t read work written by great writers, you will have no idea how to do it. You should read as much as possible and pay attention not only to the content but to some technical issues and style as well. Analyze what you read and try to understand how the writer did something in a certain way and imagine how you can repeat the same techniques in your own writing. Learning from great writers and using them as models for your writing practice, you will develop your skills and find your own voice.
When it comes to fashion writing, read a lot of reviews, whether by Tim Blanks on Busines of Fashion, Suzy Menkes in her regular Vogue columns, or the reviews on the actual Vogue Runway site – the more you read the better. Writers such as Suzy Menkes or Tim Blanks are the top circle of fashion writers, they are one of the few voices whose fashion critic still matters in the image and fast paced Instagram obsessed culture. At the same time, they are always very knowledgeable about the subjects they write, designers they interview, influences they spot in any collection they are to review.
Also, fashion magazines are often more than just pieces, many hold brilliant articles beyond the fashion subject – picking up fashion bibles such as editions of Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar and reading them front to back is a great start.
Write Often and Write a Lot
Try to write regularly because the more you write, the better you become at it. Writing is a skill and it requires regular practice. You may practice journal-writing, free writing, taking notes on your reading or writing for a blog. You may experiment and try different genres such as letters to an editor, memoirs, stories, speeches, etc. the more you write, the more confident you will feel and the easier you will do it.
You may find ideas for writing and inspiration everywhere. You may experiment with new words, with your style, your mechanics, invent new words.
Make Your Writing a Routine
Find a certain time of the day when you will be able to write for at least an hour without interruption. If you are staring at the blank screen and have no ideas, just start writing anything that may come to your mind to get into the flow of things and then it gets easier. You may also try brainstorming, clustering or imitating the first lines of your favorite stories. You can also find a lot of ideas for creative writing in your own life’s experiences.
Eliminate Distractions
It’s impossible to be productive with a background noise. You will succeed more in quiet or with some pleasant music playing. You’d better turn off your cell phone and email notifications to work with interruptions. Avoid multitasking and give yourself a time limit to complete some piece of writing.
Find the writing process that works for you.
Organize your writing as it is easier for you. Your writing process doesn’t necessarily have to be linear, you may move freely among the different stages of writing, drafting, revising, editing until you are satisfied with your piece of writing.
Plan and then write
Although this advice may sound contradictory to what has been said above, it’s very useful to do some pre-writing thinking before you actually sit down to write. You may think about your future writing doing something else, for example, washing dishes or having your daily run. It really works. When you are ready with your ideas, you will sit down and start writing at once.
Start and Close Strong
The most important parts of any writing are the beginning and the end. These parts are most likely to be remembered by your readers. Grab your readers’ attention with a hook at the very beginning to make them interested in reading further and wanting to know more.
Revise
No one can write a perfect first draft so you have to learn to revise to become a better writer. Your task is not only to eliminate grammar and spelling mistakes but look for unnecessary words, confusing sentences, and awkward structures. You should check the flow and improve the logic. Edit every paragraph and every sentence and make your writing clear and concise if you want it to be powerful.
If you want to get better at the craft of writing, get ready to do some work and be enthusiastic.
