There are essentially three basic steps in the writing process that good all successful writers employ use when writing; pre-writing, writing and re-writing. Follow these three simple steps and you will become a better writer.
Step 1: Pre-writing is the process of gathering your ideas before you begin to write. How much time you spend on pre-writing depends on the size of the article you intend to write. First, decide upon a specific topic to write about. Then state clearly your opinion about that topic. For example, let's say that you love the Roboco Automatic Article Writer and you want to write an article about it. Hey, that was easy! A specific topic (the Roboco Automatic Article Writer) and a clear opinion about it (you love it!). A specific topic combined with an opinion forms the basis for what is known as the topic sentence or thesis. It may look as simple as this; "I LOVE the Roboco Automatic Article Writer!" This could be the first sentence in your article (but it won't because we're going to make it much better in just a moment). Now it's time to move on to the writing stage of the writing process where we'll provide solid support for our emphatically proclaimed topic sentence (or thesis).
Step 2: Welcome to step two of the writing process--writing! Many people freeze up at this stage. In fact, I just did for a moment.
It's called writer's block and, according to acclaimed screenwriter Syd Field, "it happens all the time and it happens to everybody."
The easiest way to get past writer's block is to just get past it. Just plow forward. Just write. Anything. It doesn't matter. Just get the pen moving. You may be thinking, 'yeah right! Easier said than done!" And you know what? It IS easier said than done! Why else would there be only a handful of writers out there fortunate enough to earn a living through writing? I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Actually, I'm going to let you in on two little secrets. First, writing is simply the process of putting your thoughts on paper. The secret to getting your thoughts out on paper is you have to let them out. Focus on the topic of your article and embrace your opinion and repeat after me; "I love the Roboco Automatic Article Writer because...” or better yet, maybe now is the time to make our first sentence much better; "These are the top five reasons that I love the Roboco Automatic Article Writer." Now, consider why you love the Roboco Automatic Article Writer so much and write for five or ten minutes. Write whatever comes to mind. Don't stop to think about what you're writing. Just write about this thing you feel so passionate about. Don't worry about spelling. Don't worry about grammar. In five or ten minutes you'll have several hundred words to work with during the next stage of the writing process.
Step 3: Congratulations! You have arrived. You are a writer. You've managed to get your thoughts on paper. But before we present it to the world we'll need to clean it up a bit. The process of editing your work is called rewriting. Now is the time to turn on that part of your brain that loves to organize things. The first thing you want to do is go for the low hanging fruit. Fix all the obvious mistakes like spelling and grammar problems. Next you want to read your article out loud. Listen carefully for awkward sentences. Take your time. It's not like you're a cub reporter for the Daily News and you have a deadline to make! Take a break and come back to it later. Ask a friend to review it and provide feedback (be careful here--I once asked a friend to take a look at something I wrote and it came backed covered in red ink. The only thing missing was a big fat capital "D" at the top of the page).
Obviously good writing takes a certain amount of skill and effort. Fortunately it doesn't require that much time. It should take no more than a minute or two to come up with the topic sentence or thesis. You know what you like, you know what you're really good at--so write an article based on that. It only takes five to ten minutes to spill your unedited thoughts onto a piece of paper. It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to an hour to rewrite those words into a clear and concise 350 to 450 word article. Remember, to get really good at something you need to first learn the process of doing it. Then you need to repeat that process over and over again. That's called practice. I've shared with you the process. Now it's up to you to put it into practice. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the second little secret. According to many professional writers, the real secret to good writing is using examples. I’ll talk more about this later.
The fundamentals of article writing can be learned. Once learned they can be practiced. Once practiced they can be mastered.
About the Author
RC Bonay is an engineer with a passion for writing and drawing. He started reading comic books at an early age and soon discovered he had a flair for telling stories of his own. As he grew, he dreamed of following in the footsteps of comic book legend, Stan Lee. His passion ebbed and his dream faded as it became necessary to pursue a more traditional lifestyle in order to raise his growing family. The dream was rekindled as the youngest of his four children blossomed into young adulthood.
RC’s vision is best summed up by his mottos;
“The world would be a better place if we all just learned to draw.”
“Learn from the best, forget it all, and just write.”
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