21 Writing Tips For 2021

So, 2021 is here. New year, new me! Right?

Well, no. It’s the good old me, just a little tiny better than yesterday.

I got into writing in September, and it’s been a blast. I applied a lot of writing tips since then, and I will apply more writing tips in the near future. If you can see in my case study, I managed to boost my income with the same views!

How?

I applied all of the tips below. Micro-changes that can improve your writing quality.

“If you quit on the process, you are quitting on the result.”

― Idowu Koyenikan

Personally, I’m all about the process. So, write 21 stories and apply one tip at a time. It will still be good for you! Or write 7 stories and apply 3 tips at a time. Everything works just the same.

Okay, let’s head right into it.

1. Create a writing schedule. I was all over the place, and couldn't keep up with a routine. But by creating a schedule, I found purpose. Personally, I’m using Notion to track my schedule, my ideas, and my process. It’s awesome and free.
2. Write for your reader, not you. People read you because they want to leave wiser. I always write with the reader in mind, and I always use the word YOU more than the word I. Your next story should be about them if it isn't already.
3. Trust your perspective. Everyone has their point of view. And every point of view is equally important.
4. Revisit your posts. You maybe wrote 30 stories last month. That’s great. But you evolved since then. Go on, give a read at your older stories, some of them may need some tweaking. And even if they don't, they need some backlinking.
5. Backlink your posts. Apart from providing more clicking methods for your older stories, you help your story to improve in SEO.
6. MORE SPACES. Never get too far with the length of your paragraphs, they are exhausting. Usually, 5 rows per paragraph are the best limit you can have. Except if you are writing fiction, novels, etc. But for guides and personal takes, 5 is good.
7. Simple language is better. You are not writing for academics. We are everyday people, and many of us aren’t even natives, like me. Your language doesn't have to be sophisticated to prove a point.
8. Edit your story…tomorrow. I know I know, you want to publish your gem today! But, revisiting with a clear mind, will help you notice mistakes that are hiding under your excitement and exhaustion. I usually edit the stories I want to publish in bigger publications some days later.
9. Research and provide links. You may wonder, why is this important? Well, I researched why research is important, and I stumbled upon this great article.
10. Quotes are helpful. You are using words from authority to back up your claims. I could quote about quotes — quoteception.
11. Socialize with comments to other articles. Comments are independent stories actually, so every writing tip applies there as well.
12. Engaging intros. Can you draw the audience’s interest from the beginning? If yes, you are on the right track. If no, give them a short and sharp sum up of what will they learn in your next words. Attract them with a question that will make them think, so they’ll stay to find out the answer.
13. Take your tags seriously. You have 5 of them and they should describe what you are writing for. They also need to relate with your title and appear in your story as well. Again, the principles of good SEO.
14. You can use other’s success to your advantage. I’m not talking about exploiting their success in any way. Just “imitate” their successful story that relates to yours. I wanted to write about the benefits of not using technology for 15 days, so I copied the story of Sergey Faldin , “I Moved Away From Civilization for a Week”. I got triple curated for mine!.
15. Begin with a personal story and transition to how is it helpful. As I mentioned before, you are writing about them. Personal stories are usually about you, but you can turn them into lessons for others to learn from.
16. Keep track of everything you do. Apart from writing about them, you want to create an ecosystem of your brand. Keeping track of what you do as a person can help you backlink into your past optimally. Imagine writing 200 stories this year. You need a plan to put them in order and know what you have achieved.
17. Apply one tip at a time. 21 tips do sound much, right? Give them a read, and apply them slowly in your writing.
18. Write at your 90% of capacity. Why? Well, you don't want to get discouraged early on, and exhaustion is the most often cause of someone giving up.
19. Get a Copywriting course. There are plenty of courses about copywriting out there. Why Copywriting? Because it teaches you how to make the reader more engaged with what you write. You’ll learn about words that are more effective on the brains of people that read you.
20. Try publishing in niche related publications. You are writing about Yogurts. Write in a publication called Yogurt History or something…You get the idea, right? More niche related crowd, more views.
21. TRUST THE PROCESS. Rome wasn't built in a day! Don’t overwhelm yourself so you don't burn out. The success of others can be yours, in its time.

I do hope that 2021 will be your year. I know it will be for me. I have all the tools to succeed.

But what about you?

Originally published on Medium.