Today’s post is a guest post from David Gurevich. David contacted me with this post idea a while back. I think it’s a good addition to my 178 Ways to Improve Your Internet Writing post. Enjoy!

When we write, we leave the clutter and junk of our lives behind, and enter a world of possibility, where anything can happen.  Yet our words are ultimately for other people.

Now matter how beautiful the dream, the original vision, it must be clearly communicated for other people to experience it.

Here are 50 tips to improve your writing. If followed, your writing will drastically improve.

1) Have a trusted editor.

This is number one on the list because it’s that important. An editor takes the decent stuff you throw at them, cuts out the words that aren’t 100% effective, and adds their perspective.

It’s like taking a diamond to a specialist for cutting.

2) Use the active voice.

For the most part, say what people do. Don’t say what is done. John plowed the field, not, the field was plowed by John. Active phrasing keeps your prose alive and interesting.

3) Know grammar – that way, you’ll know exactly what rule you’re breaking.

Read one of the books that make grammar fun like Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. It’ll make you laugh and teach you something, too. If you want to break the rules, just first make sure you know what they.

4) Always think twice when you use a big word.

It doesn’t matter if you know what eschew means, and it doesn’t matter if your audience might. Use the simplest words you can. It is easier to read and it’s more interesting.

5) Know your audience. Coal miners are very different from astrophysicists who’re different from High Schoolers.

Writing is meant to be read. Make sure you know who your readers are, how they think, and what they like. Write to meet their needs.

6) Keep paragraphs short and to the point.

Simplicity.

It’s effective.

7) Don’t use colloquialisms needlessly.

It’s tempting to include slang or new phrases to make your work sound hip and relevant.

But you risk a lot. First, you stand to alienate those who don’t understand. Second, it can lower the quality of your writing. And finally, with the rapid pace of change, a phrase everyone knows now may be archaic in a few years.

8.) Edit. Always edit.

Write something, then edit it, then edit it some more.

9) Focus on writing. Turn off the cellphone – no multitasking.

If you want to produce great writing, then dedicate time to doing just that – writing.

A little distraction is OK. Some people, after all, work better with music playing or other stimuli. What you need to avoid are things that require a significant amount of your attention, and so distract you.

Music, OK. Instant messaging? Not so good.

10) Adverbs are OK, but like fatty food, cut back on them.

Don’t substitute adverbs for effective description. Things can be done quickly, furiously, happily, whatever. The problem arises when you rely on those adverbs to describe things that are better shown.

For instance, you might write, “He furiously shut the door.” That gets you a B. It’s decent writing. But if you want to make it A level writing, you might want to describe with verbs and nouns what happened.

Adverbs are also a problem when they become too excessive in and of themselves.

11) Use imagery and central metaphors to build emotional impact.

Have themes to your work. Use powerful images and metaphors to build a lasting emotional impact.

12) Break up long sentences with short ones. And vice versa.

13) Write in a natural tone. Nothing stilted that would make your friends give you a questioning look.

If anything you write would make a close friend break out laughing – and not at your wit – then there’s a problem. Think of your poor reader. Now go, make your writing simpler. Use as few words as possible to say as much as possible.

14) Join a writing group. Group pressure means results.

15) Hold yourself accountable. Make goals and meet them.

Start small. Promise yourself that you’ll work at least 10 minutes a day on that big project you’re passionate about but never do. Then meet that goal. Before you know it, 10 minutes – which you can easily do – becomes 20, then 45. And at that point you’re making real progress on your dream of writing.

16) Know when you’re done.

Orwell thought his book 1984 wasn’t edited well enough. If he had listened to himself, he’d have kept working on it, and we wouldn’t have a classic. Now, you absolutely need to edit your ass off and make sure everything is great.

But there also needs to be an ending.

17) The vast majority of writing doesn’t use swearwords.

18) Cut out any unnecessary words.

Read a paragraph you’re not happy with. Find every single word that doesn’t need to be there and delete it. Readability will skyrocket.

19) Feel free to disregard your first draft. It’s just paper or kilobytes.

You don’t need to stick to your first draft. Feel free to start all over again.

20) Using “I” is OK if done correctly.

You’re taught as a kid that “I” shouldn’t be in your papers. That’s not always true. When you have a relevant opinion, it’s not a sin to put yourself in the paper. You’re the one writing it after all.

21) The more you write, the better you become.

I swear that I used to suck at writing. Teachers told me I had to redo work. I might still suck – that’s your call – but hours and hours of practice writing have improved my ability a lot.

Even if you’re not happy with your writing as it is, it will get better. Just work at it.

22) Read great literature.

23) Give yourself a writing space.

24) The best way to succeed is the Butt in Chair method. You sit, you work. No questions.

25) Realize that a critic may be wrong.

26) Have a consistent writing schedule.

27) Favor the most concise style, but you don’t have to be Hemmingway.

28) Don’t betray the readers trust with something absurd.

29) In writing, you first create a world – then have to follow its rules.

If casting a spell requires an animal sacrifice in chapter 1, then requires herbal potions in chapter 4, and finally in chapter 10 doesn’t require anything (George, our beloved protagonist, just starts slinging fireballs with no explanation), you’re letting your readers down.

Follow the rules that exist in your world. Consistency!

30) Have a writing ritual. Myself, I always have a cup of tea first.

31) Avoid cliches.

Cliches are best avoided. The problem with them is that they are too easy, and that they don’t necessarily add a lot to your writing. You want to be original.

32) Avoid excessively witty, self-serving in-jokes.

A witty self-serving in-joke would have been to write “avoid cliches like the plague.” There is, as always, a fine line, and err on the side of respecting your readers.

33) When being creative, suspend your inner critic.

You want to try something new? Cut off the electricity to the inner critic center in your mind, and start writing! Magic is happening.

34) Listen to your inner critic after being creative.

After you have a creative breakthrough, you then have to take the hard road of editing and revision.

35) Know the difference between British and American style.

36) Whatever you write about, do your research first. Know what you write about.

If you want to convincingly write about a car salesman, learn how they think. What phrases they use, what makes them happy. Knowing those details will shine through your writing and give it authenticity.

37) Show don’t tell for the most part.

38) Tell, don’t show, when doing otherwise would be boring or plain stupid.

39) Make your writing have an exciting, forward pace.

40) Don’t overuse ellipses or dashes.

Some authors liter their writing with… way too… often. Or – they uses dashes far too often – making things that don’t deserve it have it. Ellipses and dashes can be very effective. Just don’t abuse ‘em.

41) You start writing to please yourself, but succeed by pleasing others.

42) Don’t be afraid to describe something that has to be described.

43) Fancy fonts, underlining and bolding work – in business writing. Not fiction.

Different genres have different stylistic rules. Always write stuff that works without highlighting, italicizing, or whatever. But remember to take advantage of the presentation options you have.

44) Always prefer the word “said.” Grunting, snorting and chortling gets old fast.

45) Believe in yourself.

46) Be dramatic by being subtle.

47) Write for your readers.

Mentioned several times, but explicitly said here. Don’t write for yourself. Write to help your reader out, to entertain them, or to inform them. Their needs must be met, and you need to meet them.

48) Use punctuation appropriately.

49) Mix long paragraphs with short paragraphs.

50) Keep things moving along.

Take pride in your hard work, and reward important landmarks. Keep working hard and having fun. You’re the most amazing person, even if only to those who love you. You owe it to them to write your best!

David Gurevich is chosen by companies to make abstruse issues simple. You can check him out at his blog, Health and Life, a Medical Blog , where he blogs – logically enough – about health and medical issues.

It takes work to become a successful copywriter. You’ve got to put in plenty of time and hard work to not only become good at it, but to get more clients and grow your business.

There are three essentials, I think, to becoming a successful copywriter. While you can get by and even make a living without following all of these things, once you really grasp them and put them in place you’re going to find success is chasing you, rather than you chasing it.

Over the past five years, as I’ve built up my copywriting business to a stable and successful enterprise, there are three basic ideas I keep coming back to, over and over again.

Hone Your Craft

Becoming a successful copywriter means being a good copywriter. By the time you’ve been in the writing business for a couple of years, a healthy percentage of your business should be repeat business. When I look at my books for last month, for example, I can see that 60% of my income came from previous clients.

You don’t get repeat business if your work is crap, if you don’t meet the client’s expectations or if what you write doesn’t give your client the desired results. Sometimes, this is as simple as taking the time to review and edit your work before you send it to a client. In other cases, you might need to spend some time learning more about the particular type of writing you’re wanting to do.

Being able to identify the areas you’re weak in is essential here. One of the best ways to do that is to take a look through your list of past clients. For example, do your blogging clients keep coming back while your sales letter gigs seem to be one-offs? Then maybe you need to spend some time getting better at writing sales letters.

Build Your Portfolio

One of the biggest assets you have in terms of getting new clients is a strong portfolio. When you’re first starting out, your portfolio is probably going to be pretty thin. It’s important, as you go through those first couple of years, that you set aside some of your best work and include it in your portfolio. Make sure, of course, that the client for whom you did the work is all right with you using the piece for your portfolio.

I don’t advise writing material solely for your portfolio, unless you really want to break into one type of copywritng and can’t seem to land any gigs in that area without a sample. The reason is simply this: it’s untested. Until you’ve given the work to a client who has said, “hey, this is exactly what I was looking for,” you can’t be sure it’s enough to entice a new client.

Learn from the Experts

One of the reasons many of my readers visit my humble little blog is because they want to learn something from someone who’s already in the field and doing well. Spending time reading writing blogs and books can only help you improve your craft and get more sales. You might even benefit from a writing coach, or a mentor of some sort.

In 2008, one of the most amazing experiences I had was going through the material from the Copywriting Success Summit. There was so much here that I could barely digest just a small percentage of it, but what I learned has been invaluable.

The 2009 Copywriting Success Summit is coming up in just a couple of months. This live event is being held in October, and is something you must not miss. I promise you that attending this summit and putting the things you learn into practice will add fuel to your copywriting fire and help you grow your business.

None of these three things are easy, and none can be done overnight. That’s why they pay off so well. In the end, a copywriting business is only as successful as the hard work you’re willing to put into it.

Something has occurred to me recently that has really changed my perspective on communicating with my freelance writing clients.

Before I tell you what it is, though, Let me start off by telling you a story.

When I was a younger man, I was horribly shy.

No, strike that. Shy isn’t the right way to say it. I had plenty of friends, and was pretty outgoing in most social situations. I was very involved in student groups, even taking leadership roles.

My problem was that I couldn’t seem to talk to a pretty girl to save my life. I’d get all nervous, tongue tied. I’d be scared to death that I’d say something stupid, embarrassing or awkward.

And then I would say something stupid, embarrassing or awkward.

It was 1994, and the Internet was still a young pup (at least, the public side of the Internet was). Everyone that was on the Internet was on AOL or, like me, Prodigy. The web was still fairly new and something of a novelty; online services were where it was at.

Now, today we take for granted the online dating services. Match.com, eHarmony and all the others hit us with TV and radio ads. Back then, however, the best you could find was a sort of “classified ad” section on your online service.

And I did find it. And I used it. You see, I discovered that I could write to pretty girls all day long. I never had to worry about getting tongue tied, or that my shirt would be buttoned wrong. To make a long story short, that’s how I met my wife. If I’d have had to meet her in person first, chances are I’d have chickened out and we would never have met.

(And, yes, I know the whole “we met online” thing is old hat today. But, in 1994 it was still a bit of a novelty. It was fun to watch, as the years went by, the changing reactions people would have to us “meeting online.” In the early days it was a confused “huh?” After a while it became “ooh, that’s interesting. How do I do that?” Eventually it was “I have a friend who met her husband that same way.” Finally, today it’s “You got lucky. She could have been an ax murderer!”)

At any rate, here’s my point: I’m much better at writing than I am speaking. When I write, I can carefully craft what I want to say into a cohesive whole. I’m much more likely to close a deal in writing than I am in person or on the phone.

What does that have to do with clients? Plenty.

You see, most of my writing clients aren’t writers themselves. I realize that’s pretty obvious in itself, but hear me out.

At times, it’s easy to become frustrated with clients. Communicating with them about specs, project details and even costs can be challenging via e-mail. So, some clients prefer to talk on the phone or meet face-to-face.

I don’t mind face-to-face meetings or phone calls, especially when they result in more business. But I also know that my strengths aren’t in those situations. My strength is in writing – which is why they’re hiring me in the first place.

So, I naturally prefer to negotiate on my terms – in writing. But I realize that this, in many cases, puts my clients at a severe disadvantage. So anytime a client requests a phone call or meeting, I try to accomodate it.

And these days, I try to be more understanding of those requests. After all, some clients probably feel about written communication the way I used to about verbal. They’re not sure what to write, and when they do write it comes out awkward. In other cases, they’re just playing to their strengths, and I can’t begrudge them that.

So, what do you think? I know freelancers on both sides of this issue. There are some who will not – under any circumstances – take calls or meetings. Others prefer it. How about you?
photo credit: Foxtongue

One of the biggest problems I had in grad school was the ethics involved in writing research papers.

Now, I’m not talking about plagiarism or anything like that. This was much more subtle.

We were expected, when writing papers, to have a thesis and support it. That’s pretty standard, I think, for most types of non-fiction writing. Build your argument, provide evidence, that sort of thing. But, there was something we weren’t allowed to do: point out potential weaknesses in our arguments. You leave that to others in the field who will, no doubt, offer up critical thought on your work. Only after they raise objections do you address potential problems with your thesis.

In other words, you can’t tell it like it really is.

To me, this seemed irresponsible. Why? For several reasons:

1. Others can completely miss a weakness that you’ve readily identified. Your argument, then, stands not on its own merit but on the lack of insight on the part of your critics.
2. Failure to point out potential problems with your argument prevents others from finding solutions to that problem. You eliminate your cheering section and defenders.
3. This approach only provides a singular view of the topic. The paper exists in a vacuum, speaking only to itself and, in many ways, only being heard by like-minded folks.
4. Leaving out important information in this context is, in my mind, akin to deception.

In some ways, copywriting is a lot like writing graduate research papers. When you’re writing copy, you write about the positive points of a product or service – its features or benefits. You don’t write about potential problems with the product or about how another product might function in a similar way. You restrict the flow of information and leave it to the consumer to discover the counter-arguments or problems on their own. If you don’t, your copy doesn’t convert.

Is this good or bad? Do the ethics of academic research apply to the ethics of copywriting? Should academic research take the same approach as copywriting? Is it possible to tell it like it really is when writing copy and still make sales?

photo credit: Symic