Ten Steps to Becoming a Better Writer
June 22, 2012 by Lillie
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Excellent advice from Brian Clark. Thank you, Copyblogger!
I have heard that an individual needs to write a million words before they are a really good writer. I’m sure that number varies for different people—some may have more natural talent and can achieve greatness with less practice and others may need to write more. But regardless of whether it’s a million, half a million, two million, or some other number of words, it takes a lot of writing to become a good writer!
Just for fun, I estimated how many words I’ve written.
Published works (total of 314,000 words) include the following:
- Look Beyond Tomorrow, nonfiction, 25,000 words.
- How to Get Started in Network Marketing, nonfiction, 9,000 words.
- Six short how-to ebooks for Your Information Center, average length 7,000 = 42,000.(Three of these ebooks are available from Smashwords.)
- Stroke of Luck, contemporary romance, 73,000 words.
- Trapped by Love, romance novelette, 7,000 words.
- Dream or Destiny, romantic mystery, 86,000 words.
- Self-Publishing Primer, 10,000 words.
- Editing Primer, 5,000 words
- Creating Fictional Characters, 9,000 words
- Fern’s Fancies, contemporary romance, 48,000 words.
Other writing I have done includes the following (total of 165,000 words):
- Research and other papers in high school and college, estimated 40,000 words.
- Employee manual, policy and procedures manuals, and training program for my interior landscape business, estimated 50,000 words.
- Articles for interior landscape industry journals, estimated 5,000 words.
- Articles for newsletters, estimated 20,000 words.
- Manuals, brochures, and other materials for clients, estimated 25,000 words.
- Unfinished manuscripts/works-in-progress, 25,000 words.
So outside of blogging, I’ve written nearly half a million words—only halfway to becoming a great writer. Since my blog posts vary in length and some are videos, guest posts, or thanks to commenters, it’s hard to estimate the total number of words I’ve blogged. However, I think it’s reasonable to guess that I’ve written close to 1000 of the 1223 posts on this blog and that the average length is 500 words. That’s 500,000 words, which added to the other things I’ve written puts me close to a million words. So I should be a great writer by now!
Okay, I did say above that the number of words required to achieve greatness varies. 
So I may need to write two million words or three million … I’m continuing to write!
How many words have you written?
Yes I am agree with all these tips. A writer can also polish his qualities by acting upon on these tips
Maja,
As the tips say, the best way to become a better writer is to write.
Bottom line? A writer writes!
I am one of those writers who just started writing and didn’t stop to look back. I have no idea how many words I have written so far! But that is okay. And that is a big word count, Lillie. I think we can safely say that all that writing you have done has been enough to make you a great writer! 
Dawn,
Thank you for the compliment! Although I don’t consider myself a great writer, I believe that my best skill is to express ideas simply and understandably. When I started out, as most writers, I thought I needed to use flowery language and big words. Now I believe in using simple language and the simplest word that expresses the meaning. The purpose of writing is to be understood, not to impress readers.
I’m sure you have written more words than I have, Dawn. You have so many publications!
Great tips. I need to follow some of them though. I have to write even when I don’t wan’t to and write when I don’t have something to say. I only tend to write whenever I feel like writing, then makes me cram for deadlines. Thanks for sharing these tips!
Mary,
Those two are common to a lot of writers–they want to be inspired before they write, but inspiration doesn’t always just appear. Sometimes the very act of writing something is what generates inspiration.
Lillie,
I can’t believe how much you have written. Wow!
I don’t know about the million words thing. I do recall reading that somebody figured out that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to really master something. Supposedly that applies to playing a musical instrument or learning a profession.
Ted,
10,000 hours! That’s five straight years of full-time practice. It probably takes about that much time to write 1,000,000 words.
Most often the thought I always imagine of being a great writer. But there are times that it is so difficult to come up with a good output.
Jane,
There’s a famous quote–unfortunately I can’t remember who said it!: A writer is someone for whom writing is harder than most people.
[...] week I posted Copyblogger’s advice on how to become a better writer. That advice all involved actually writing—no matter what else you do, you will never become a [...]
To become a good writer it is very necessary to read and write a lot. A day will come in life when you will be a professional writer.
Azam,
We certainly agree on the need to read and write a lot.
You really can’t hire someone to practice for you. Practice is the only way you can be good at something. You have to keep writing, that’s how you will learn how to write interesting things. When you keep writing you come to know what mistakes you have been doing and how you can avoid them in future. It is a way for you to grow and become a better writer.
Gerald,
I love your opening sentence: You can’t hire someone to practice for you. So true!
You’re right .Nonstop writing to become better writer. Your list of works really makes me admire, that’s so amazing.
Thank you, Aileen.
We’ll said. Of course a writer also reads, reads more, reads more than that as he reads what he has written. Becoming a good writer does not limit just to write and write what’s new, you could also look back to old write-ups to get some ideas and inspiration as you go back and read it. Thanks!
You’re right, Elaine. That’s why there is post not long after this about the need for writers to read.
That’s funny Lillie. The code keeps getting bumped up every time we think we’re knocking on the door. You do a great job compiling words!
Thank you, Sally. I love to write, whether anyone else ever reads it or not.
Thank you, Sally. I didn’t include my journals in the number of words I’ve written. There might be a million words or more in my journals.
But those are written for myself alone and without attention to writing well.