Naomi the Wordsmith

Starting a blog? Passionate about your niche? Haunted by an inside voice that writing’s not your thing?

Tell your inside voice to shut up. Writing is a skill you can become better at.

Follow these top tips and soon you’ll outclass most people’s writing abilities.

Keep a writer’s notebook

The notebook is optional. Keep it if it’s your thing. My inked-up fingers are evidence that it’s mine.

But I also use the note app on whatever device I happen to be using.

Why?

Because sometimes inspiration strikes randomly. In fact, it usually strikes when you least expect it.

Notebooks and apps are excellent for:

• Interesting words, phrases or sentences you come across when reading a book, article or scrolling your social media
• An essential plot idea for your work in progress that you’re terrified you’ll forget if you don’t write it down NOW
• Ideas you have for what to write next on your blog
• Points on which you think you can improve
• And the general minutiae that inhabits the mind of any dedicated-yet-forgetful writer

Get to the point

What types of writing benefit most from staying on message?

All of them!

With any piece of writing, you need to stay on message.

If you’re writing an article to inform your readers about something, be clear and focused on that. Make it easy for your readers to know what you’re talking about and why it matters.

The trick to this is to write your message in a way that you think seems patronising. Your readers aren’t in your head, so they’re not seeing all the connections you make in the writing process.

Write for people less experienced than you.

The bonus to this is that your experienced readers will think: “Oh yeah, I know this! Nice!”

If you’re writing to advertise your business, you need to be clear to your visitors about what you’re selling. After all, customers that don’t know what you offer aren’t going to buy.

You can learn decent copywriting tips on other sites around the internet. Compelling copy transforms interested visitors into committed customers.

Ultimately, though, this only gets you so far. To supercharge conversion rates, you need a compelling copywriter on your side.

Finally, let’s say you’re in a difficult situation and to fix the problem, you have to email someone. The best way to do it is to be clear about the situation and what you need. Problem-solving can only start when everyone knows what needs to happen.

How do I stay on message?

First off, it’s not easy even for veteran writers. I’ve been writing since I was a small child and, let me confess, I am A Waffler.

Let me walk you through the steps on staying focused:

1. Plan plan plan: Knowing what you’re writing is essential to staying on message. Set out the beginning and end points and join them up. Your plan is your guide to the journey of this piece of writing, keeping you on the right course.
2. Stay focused as you write. Rewrite your plan into a phrase or sentence that forms the essence of your message. Keep the Message Essence in mind (or better yet written in front of you) as you write. This reminds you what the point of your writing is. It’ll save you time when editing, because you’ll have much less waffle to cut out.
3. Editing effectively: Edit your writing to be as clear as possible. Spot the complex words and change them to simpler ones. Most importantly, cut the waffle. I know, sometimes you’re cutting something that hurts. You’re thinking, “No, Naomi, surely this waffle is the exception!” It’s not. But if it means a lot, or has promise, make a note of it in your writing notebook. That way you can Resuscitate the Waffle later.

Think about your audience

As well as staying on message, all writing must consider its audience. How can you move your audience if you haven’t thought about them while writing it?

If you’re writing an article to inform your readers, your audience is people who are interested in that topic. Write in a way that attracts that interest and keeps them reading.

If you’re looking to grow your blog, keep writing for your existing readers. But you also need to write for people who might become interested. The trick is figuring out what appeals to them. Tweaking your tone can often be effective.

If you’re trying to sell something to customers, you need to understand their pain points and priorities. Are they cash-strapped and hunting for a bargain? Or can they afford to spend for quality?

Know your customers and show that you know them in your writing and they will flock to you.

If you’re writing to persuade, you need to express your own position clearly and back up your points. But you also need to show that you get where they’re coming from.

You don’t have to back down and act like everything’s okay when it’s not. But empathy can really make a difference. Usually, people aren’t being deliberately unkind.

If customising your writing like this seems beyond you, rethink it.

Even when you’re texting people, you text differently in a group chat between friends compared to texting your grandmother. We tailor our messaging to audiences all the time.

You’re not starting from the beginning. You’re honing your skills.

Unleash your senses

Sensory descriptions aren’t just the reserve of ‘officially creative’ writing. You can even find creativity in the dry and mundane ordinariness of an email.

Think of the 5 main senses. Hearing, sight, touch, smell, taste.

Check out the difference sensory description makes.

Let’s say I’m writing web copy for a company that makes headphones.

I could just describe the technical specifications and features of the headphones.

Those features matter a lot and may draw in some technically oriented customers, or brand loyalists.

But for more reticent customers, there’s just nothing in “X feature is better for Y reasons” that really screams: “Our headphones will give you the best clarity of sound you have ever heard”.

Much better would be to write something like “Plug out the cacophony of crying children, barking dogs, and rumbling traffic. Let your ears rest and your mind focus.”

For best results, I would place this text next to a glossy image of the headphones.

I would then put the technical specs further down the page, once you’ve hooked the reader.

Catch their eye, then inform.

The 5 main senses will serve you well for most purposes.

For the occasions you need them, bear in mind the hidden extras.

How you feel in yourself, which can cover pain and fatigue and just your general sense of being. This is good for fiction or personal essay writing.

Closely related is proprioception, which is the sense of body perception and movement. This is going to be highly specific, but you are the best judge of when to deploy it. If you’re a physiotherapist, for example, proprioception comes into its own.

Then there’s “sixth sense” of ‘something weird is going on here’. Commonly invoked in fictional and nonfiction stories. Especially horror or thrillers.

Any other senses you can think of to use, if you think they’ll work for the situation, do it.

Unleashing your senses in your writing is a gamechanger.

Headings are your friend

You need to be careful with headings, even though, as I just said, they are your friend.

Some types of writing, like essays in some universities (others encourage headings), really don’t like headings. If you use them, you will be seen as weird and you might suffer consequences, like a lower mark.

So, as long as you know you’re not dealing with a situation like that, headings are your friend.

They’re your best friend if you’re writing something like an online article or a blog post.

They help you by organising your writing. They’re a good thing to use in the planning stage.

When I planned out this post, the first things I came up with were the headings.

Headings help your readers by making your writing easier to read. Busy readers skimread your article until they spot a relevant heading and think, “this is exactly what I need”.

To be a friend to your reader, be friendly with headings.

How to structure your paragraphs

Sometimes I see people write paragraphs that are just giant blocks of text.

It’s painful to read.

There are times where it’s done for an experimental purpose, for a specific literary effect.

One example is a section of Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners, which is written with 0 punctuation or paragraph breaks for 10 pages. It is an extraordinarily beautiful instance of what is sometimes called prose poetry.

Why does it work in that instance and not for article and blog writing?

1. Sam Selvon was a writing master. You have to know what the rules are before you know when it’s the perfect time to break them.
2. A novel, writing to readers who are devoting time to it, is very different from an article writing to readers who have other priorities in a busy day.
3. Sam Selvon only did it for 10 pages near the end, where the reader was committed to finishing the story. He still didn’t extend it longer, because he didn’t want to wear out their patience.

Why would it wear out their patience?

Because, as I said, it is painful to read. It’s easy to get lost in the text. This quickly becomes a disaster for readers.

If the writing is all one giant block of text with no paragraph breaks, how do they find where they were? For many readers, having to figure it out is going to take too much time and they’ll just shrug and decide it’s not worth it.

Now, I’m not saying never do it. Just wait until you understand why paragraphs are used the way they are and when you can diverge from the norm. And keep it short when you do.

Don’t make your readers tired of you.

And if you want to read a revolutionary story about the difficulties experienced by poverty-stricken black migrants in London in the 1950s written by a black author, The Lonely Londoners is an excellent book. It taught me a lot about writing and social justice.

Use Paragraph Breaks Engagingly

How long paragraphs should be depends on the situation and audience.

If you’re writing an article, blog post or web/social media copy, you’re selling yourself to an audience. Structure your paragraph breaks for modern readers.

Modern readers are strapped for time and spoiled for choice.

If your paragraphs make your writing hard to read, your readers have other options. Your job in your writing is to make them prefer you.

Aim for 1-3 sentences per paragraph. Keep things short and sweet and your reader will breeze through your content.

Now let’s get to the fun part.

When you’ve mastered doing paragraphs the right way, you can release your creativity!

This is best used for contrast: do a normal length or slightly longer than normal paragraph. Then follow it up with a very short paragraph and your readers will pay attention. It’s a really emphatic effect.

See?

If you choose your words well, it makes your message more memorable.

Perfect your paragraphs.

Be receptive to feedback

Feedback hurts.

Many people serious about writing know they need feedback but don’t know how to deal with criticism.

Sometimes they stubbornly insist that they’re right and the critic is wrong. Or they take the criticism to heart, lose confidence and give up.

Both cases are a tragedy.

The stubborn writer misses out on opportunities to become better at their craft. The downhearted writer can end up quitting when they had a lot of potential.

The way to respond to feedback:

• After you read it for the first time, allow yourself to feel the disappointment and hurt you’re feeling. It’s normal and okay.
• Feeling a bit less intense about it? Get a pen and paper to note down what you’ll learn.
• Start by focusing on what they liked. Sometimes our negative feelings skew our perception. Fight this by emphasising the good that was said by the critic. Note down the good comments, because they tell you what you need to keep doing.
• If there is genuinely nothing good in what the critic has said, deprioritise their negative comments. I have yet to read a piece of writing that had absolutely nothing good about it. The critic is being unfair. Find other people who can give you fairer feedback.
• Now look at what they said they didn’t like or didn’t understand. Compare the comments with your piece to see what they’re talking about. Now you know where to improve.
• Respond to the person who gave you the feedback. Thank them. They took time to help you out; that’s really generous. Give a specific example of how they helped you. Ask them questions if you’re confused about anything they said. Thank them again.
• If you want to excel at receiving feedback, keep track of all the comments you receive. You’ll see trends and patterns. If people keep saying the same things, you know to prioritise improving in that area.

Even with this process, learning from your mistakes is hard.

Feedback is key to mastery.

Proofread

You need to check spelling and grammar so your readers understand your message better. If they understand you, they’ll want to read more.

If you’re someone that struggles to see these proofreading errors for whatever reason (like me!), there are tools to help.

Word and WordPress have spellcheckers. Grammarly is also great. Reading aloud is unbeatable for spotting awkward wordings.

These tools really help.

The way to do proofreading right is to dedicate time for it when editing.

I do it when everything else is done. Not as a “last thing, quick skimread”. I plan for it at the end because I know I won’t have to proofread again.

Find your own way of streamlining the tedious process, because proofreading is worth it.

Read

A great way to up your writing game is to read.

Any type of writing is good for widening your writing knowledge and skills. You’d be surprised what comics can offer for a novelist.

Read widely, but also deeply.

If you’re a blogger, read other blogs, especially ones in your niche. If you’re a novelist, read novels in your genre. If you’re a copywriter, read copy.

You need to understand the area in which you’re writing.

Your teachers were right: reading is good.

Upping your writing game

With these tips, you can up your writing game today.

I really want to help you unlock your writing potential.

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