“When I’m writing, I know I’m doing the thing I was born to do.” - Anne Sexton
Words. They have the power to captivate the imagination, impart knowledge, express feelings, and share ideas. They are magical, and they are powerful.
A writer makes things out of words: sentences and paragraphs, essays and articles, books, poems, stories, and scripts. We use writing to create, communicate, share, and express ourselves. We use it to connect with people.
Writing is one of the most useful skills a person can possess. Think about how stories, speeches, films, and books have impacted society and culture, how they have shaped people's thoughts and beliefs, and you'll get an inkling of just how influential writing can be.
Everybody learns how to write. We go to school, learn our letters, practice reading, and eventually, we can put words on the page.
We aren't born writers; we become writers.
We all have to work at building and growing our writing abilities. Whether writing is a hobby or a career, if you want to be good at it, you have to make a commitment to it.
Good writing requires an extensive set of skills. We have to organize our thoughts and ideas, express them clearly, and compose sentences that are correct and make sense.
Great writing requires a whole lot more. An expert writer understands language, syntax, and context. A firm grasp on grammar and orthography is essential. A vast vocabulary, a talent for puns, and a knack for storytelling are all skills that benefit any writer.
There’s a lot to learn, and in order to establish the skills that every successful writer needs, we must develop lifelong writing habits. We must live the writing life.
It won't happen overnight, and you might have to make some sacrifices, but by managing your time wisely and investing in yourself and your writing, you'll develop good habits and core practices that lead to better writing.
What This Book Does and Does Not Do
This book is for people who are ready to commit to producing better writing.
This is not a learn-how-to-write-overnight or write-a-best-selling-novel-in-thirty-days book. It won’t fill your head with story ideas. It won’t drill down into the nitty-gritty of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This book won't tell you how to land an agent or get a publishing deal, nor will it walk you through the steps of self-publishing or marketing your writing. It's not a book about getting rich or famous.
This is the book you read before doing all that. It's for becoming the best writer you can be.
It’s also not an all-encompassing book on better writing. There are thousands of things you can do to improve your writing—methods, practices, techniques, and styles that you can adopt. As you progress with your writing, you’ll find some techniques and methods that work for you and some that don’t.
The concepts covered in this book are beneficial for all writers. These are the core practices upon which you can build to make your writing good, then great. Think of the practices contained in this book as seeds; if you plant them, water them, and nourish them, they will flourish and you will continually grow as a writer. If you make the time and put in the effort to adopt these practices, your writing will blossom.
The core practices described in this book are habits that any serious writer who becomes adept at the craft develops over time. They're not exercises you can do once and be done with. These are habits that will be with you for as long as you write, which will hopefully be for the rest of your life.
How to Use This Book
It would be an impossible challenge to try and work all of these habits into your daily life immediately. You would become overwhelmed within a few days. Instead, work each practice into your schedule slowly.
I recommend reading through the entire book once. It’s not a long book; you can probably get through it in a few days. Then go back and revisit chapter one. Each month, revisit another chapter. Focus that month on adopting the chapter’s practice and making it a regular habit. Within a year, you’ll have adopted a writer’s lifestyle.
And that's exactly what this book is meant to do: help you live a writing life. It includes a comprehensive supply of information, tools, and resources that will allow you to continually and consistently develop your skills and talent.
Before you know it, your writing habits will be ingrained and you will be on a steady path to better writing.
Why I Wrote This Book
When I started my blog, Writing Forward, in 2007, I chose writing as the topic because I was passionate about writing and it’s the thing I’m best at doing. I had no idea that the site would help so many writers, that teachers would use it in their classrooms, or that I’d end up coaching other writers. Other than writing something I’m personally proud of, helping other writers has been the most rewarding aspect of my career.
I wrote this book because I love working with other writers and helping them be the best writers they can be. I especially love helping young, new, and beginning writers. To see writers develop, to see their work improve with time and effort, and to contribute to their development is incredibly fulfilling.
What separates the great writers from the mediocre ones is not luck or talent. It’s grit and determination and a lot of hard work. If you want to write well, put in the time, and eventually you’ll become a master.
If you love to write, then the work will oftentimes be enjoyable. But there will also be times when the work is hard or frustrating. Sometimes it might even seem impossible.
I encourage you to push through those times when writing doesn’t come easily, when ideas aren’t readily available, and when words and sentences refuse to flow and the whole process becomes maddening.
Always remember that the ends make the means worthwhile.
I hope this book will inspire you to make a conscious commitment to strive for better writing every day.
Keep writing!
Sincerely,
Melissa Donovan
Founder and Editor of Writing Forward
