How to become a good writer

Yoooooooo,

How are you all doing?

Been a pretty exciting week for me.

This happened on Wednesday:

So if you see me with shoulders like Kanye, ermmmmm, bear with me for now!

Enough about me and my big head. How did your week go?

While you are thinking of which part of the week you’ll share with me, let’s get into today’s topic.

Becoming a good writer…

I got this question as a DM sometime this week - “how do I become a good writer?”

Now, there are many ways to skin a cat. But this is what has worked for me (By the way, I still do all these things):

a. Find two or three blogs you like their writing and hand copy a blog post for 30 mins every morning

Look, this might sound ridiculous. But it works. This tactic was popularized by Gary Halbert ( a legendary copywriter) in his book The Boron Letters. When you do this, you start to notice and pick up:

• How they use punctuations

• How they structure sentences

• The sort of words they use

• Their writing rhythm

• How they set up the lede

• And much more

I am all for finding your voice/tone from day 1. But let’s be honest, that’s impossible in the beginning, especially if all you’ve been doing is academic writing.

Find a great voice and learn to write that way. Over time, you’ll discover that every now and then, you change certain things in the structure or flow.

At that point, you are beginning to discover your own writing voice.

But nwannem, it’s grunt work. So, get ready.

b. Create a swipe file

Use an e-note book to curate sentences, paragraphs, introductions, and any other writing element you like. Before you start writing an article, scan through your swipe file.

It doesn’t have to be complex. I use Bear. But your iPhone Notes app works perfectly for this workflow.

It’s a great way to get your writing brain going.

c. Write a lot

Write every day if you can. You can only get better by pouring out all the bad writing in you.

The more you write, the better you get.

No blog. Start a Medium account. Write on Notes and share on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Just write!

Content tools

A content tool I discovered this week

Infogram is an easy-to-use infographic tool. It has a free plan that should work for most of your needs.

Not Enough Writers

Create once, distribute forever.

Join us and Ross Simmonds for a deep dive on using content distribution to win the B2B content arms race.Event details:📆 Saturday, September 4⏰ 2 - 3 PM WAT | 9 - 10 AM EST📍Online | Zoom

Register here 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3seHeHY

Content writing jobs (Remote/Freelance)

✅ Copywriter, Canva | Apply here

✅ Newsletter writer, Digital Wildcatters | Apply here

✅ Copywriter, Revenue | Apply here

✅ And here’s a Google Docs link that also includes high-paying pitching opportunities.

All the best, folks. And please share with any of your friends/colleagues who might find this useful. 🙏🏾

You still haven’t told me how your week went!

My biggest takeaway this week 🚀

Resharing this paragraph from Ryan Holiday:

As crazy as it sounds, you don’t need to believe in yourself. That’s not what’s holding you back. Whether you think you can do something is so much less important than whether you actually can or can’t do that thing. You need to assemble a case that proves you can. You need to do the work that stands as evidence for what you’re capable of.

So you can walk by sight, not by faith.

That’s how you actually end up achieving the things that other people are too busy believing they can do.

What I’m thinking about?

Don’t waste energy on things you can’t control.

What’s your biggest content marketing challenge?

Reply to this email. Let me know what you’d like me to cover next.

I read every reply.

Plus, if you would love me to review your writing and give you feedback, you can book a time here.

Thanks for reading this far. I am grateful!

Stay safe and sane.

I’ll be back on 8/27.

Dozie

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