5 Easy to Follow Tips for Powerful Writing

When you make writing a long-term goal, you gain all kinds of new perspectives on what does and doesn’t work.

Writing isn’t solely about what you produce, but what it produces in your readers — and you as well. To pull off great writing, you have to reach inside your reader and find what stirs them. You have to share yourself, your truth, your lessons, and, when it comes to nonfiction, above all, be helpful.

I’ve learned everything I know about writing from trial and error. Most of those trials and errors are mine and were learned from direct experience. But some of it was and is by osmosis — I read a lot of the work of other writers and learn from their experiences too.

To write something powerful, something that can move the world for your reader, you have to be willing to learn your lessons, to put in the practice of applying them, and to simply show up and keep trying.

Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned so far. Let’s take a closer look.

• Take time developing your ideas
• Use an outline
• Pay attention to the process
• Let it sit
• Revision is where the magic happens

1. Take Time developing your ideas

This might be as much for me as it is for you, but it’s OK to slow down a bit. Take your time and let your imagination really work on an idea every so often. It can be better for you and your writing to jump out of the break-neck pace of regular life, to stop rushing your thinking and creativity every so often. To simply catch your breath.

Breathe in, let the ideas gel. See what happens.

Here’s how I put this into practice. I keep a running list of ideas where I jot down a few most days, or whenever an idea hits me. I keep this list organized by various topics, nothing too fancy or complicated. I write it in Google docs just so it’s faster and easier and comes with auto-saving to back things up.

Then every so often, I’ll go back through this list and see what stands out. This gives me time away from different ideas but also makes sure I don’t forget them. That’s important. I want some distance, but no so much that the ideas get dusty.

Also, if an idea is red hot, I don’t let it sit. I write it right then. I’ve put too many of these on the back burner to discover that coming back later just means returning to a dead idea that I feel little if any inspiration to pick back up. It’s all about balance and trusting your gut.

2. Use an Outline

I get it, I don’t always like the confinement of outlines, schedules, rules attached to my creativity. But you know what? I found that outlines, when left a little loose, can be a great help to my creativity.

Structure is not the enemy of creativity. There are a lot of other things that can get in the way long before a structure or outline or following a form ever will. I can’t say it enough or emphasize it enough, structure is not the enemy of creativity.

Now, maybe this is just my truth, but I live somewhere in the middle between a strict outline and flying by the seat of my pants. I like to keep things loose, leave some breathing room. Get an idea for how I want things to look, maybe give myself some launching off points but also leave room to change things and adapt as I need to.

Your imagination needs breathing room.

When I write, I have a process I follow. It takes me from idea to first outline, then to a Medium outline, and then to a first draft (all the way to a final one). All of that sounds fancy, sounds complicated, sounds a bit scary, right?

It isn’t.

3. Pay attention to the process

What process means to me, is that I like to follow an idea through a few outlines and let them gel a bit. So, I write out ideas in a running list. If I can’t get anything to come together, I mindmap and mess around with potential headlines. Then I create a loose outline from a template I use — mostly a collection of bullet points that come together over time to form the skeleton of a draft and eventually something a bit more substantial.

Let you in on a secret, my process is a living process. What this means is that it can grow and adapt to my needs as I have them. If the process I’ve been working with for months stops working or begins to feel a bit more complicated than I like, I adapt.

Now, I don’t scrap it or delete large parts of it just because I feel a bit frustrated with how things are going with the writing. What I do is closer to surgery — precise, pointed, with a purpose. I cut out the parts that aren’t serving me and replace them with an improved step (or several steps) that can do the job better.

A good process should embrace principles from a growth-mindset. In other words, a good process should embrace change, accept when things aren’t working, be willing to adapt and be flexible enough to grow and develop as you need — adding things and removing without losing sight of the ultimate goal of crafting amazing pieces of written work.

Following a process and having a growth-mindset have sustained my writing and led to quite a few milestones for me. I believe both are very important for writers and creatives to figure out for themselves and to have.

Your process can start out as a copy of someone else’s, but it shouldn’t stay there. Take what works, leave what doesn’t, and don’t be afraid to grow and develop it over time.

I’ve experimented with word count goals, not having word count goals, timed writing, not using timed writing, focusing on one part of the process or another and so much more. It’s all an experiment in the end. The main takeaway here is to find the steps you need to follow — like a recipe — to get the work done. Then pay attention to it. Look for ways to make it better and keep tinkering till you do.

Once you have a process, follow it, work it, and improve it. It’s that simple.

4. Let it sit

This is an old trick I picked up from a professor in my undergrad. When you finish a draft, lock it up in a desk drawer and leave it till the next day. My professor meant that literally, but I mean it however you want to take it as long as you push the draft out of your focus for at least 12 to 48 hours. How long depends on a lot of things, including your own needs, but the goal is to create some distance between you and your work.

You need distance so that when you come back to your writing you do so with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If you read a draft right after it’s finished you’re going to overlook mistakes because you’re just too close to the project and your mind will “solve” issues as you read, making you overlook them entirely.

Putting a little distance between you and the work is a cure for that.

5. Revision is where the magic happens

No matter how good I get, I never let myself think for a second that what I write the first (or second, or third, or fourth time around) is anywhere close to perfect. I might write something pretty good in a first draft, but the stuff that connects with readers usually takes a different level of effort.

This is where revision comes into play.

The more time you take with your work, the better it becomes. Don’t get me wrong, the first draft should be all about finishing it and getting something down to edit. But, just because you’ve written something doesn’t mean the job is done. It’s only just begun.

Revision is where you go over the typical stuff you might expect:

• Grammar
• Mechanics
• Making something presentable

But revision is also where you tinker with the words and double-check to see if what you wanted to say is being said. This is where you cut out the waste, remove the fluff, tighten up its strongest points, and really make it something your readers can connect with.

Remember, the first rule of great nonfiction writing is to be helpful. If you want to write something valuable, focus on how helpful it is for your readers. Question everything against this first principle and your writing will go much farther.

Takeaway

Here’s the deal, you never stop learning to write, and if you want to be successful as a writer, you have to embrace that truth as a part of your lifestyle. Being a writer is an ongoing process, an active one that requires your commitment and attention.

I still have lessons to learn, time to put into the art and craft of it, and I still have to study writing from every angle in order to get better at it. This is true regardless of what you’re writing, you have to learn the lessons, put in the time, practice, and stick to it. If you do, you will improve and who knows where you might end up? Your writing future is yours to define.