What better writing doesn’t start with

There are all kinds of misunderstandings out there about what you must do to become a better writer. Get an English degree, become a morning person, write 500 words every day. Sound familiar? They’re all prevalent (and untrue) assertions about what you need to do if you ever want to join the elite ranks of Writers You Admire. You won’t find any of those rules in this course.

Better writing also doesn’t start with knowing all the rules of grammar, spelling, and sentence structure (more on that in Modules 3 and 4). Yes, there are correct and incorrect ways to use a comma, but take it from an editor, even those rules come much, much later in the process. Often, you can become so successful without ever learning them that you can just hire an editor to deal with them for you.

Finally, better writing doesn’t start with reading every book and blog post ever written about other writers’ routines, habits, wool-to-cotton sock blend, and brew preferences. Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that using Hemingway’s favorite Blackwing pencil will make you a better novelist. Or that keeping the same hours as Gladwell will up your productivity. Or that you need apps, tools, an artisan keyboard, or Japanese paper to get your subscriber newsletter out the door every week. Those things are all fun to read about (and we’ve even included a bonus module in this course to talk about our favorite gear), but they’re complete asides to the first thing you need to do.

Coincidentally, this is also the thing that most new writers skip...to their own detriment.

How to become a better writer instantly

Yes, becoming a better writer takes practice and dedication. It’s not as easy as making the declaration we’re about to give you, but it does START here.

Your declaration: To become a better writer, I must first embrace my weird.

What’s your weird, you ask? It’s the thing that makes you you. The way you approach the world that no one else does. The strange things you do that set you apart and keep you motivated. The ways in which you are unlike anyone else, even if you write about the same topics. In internet marketing terms, your weird is your personal brand.

In 2014, all I’d ever written were tweets and embarrassingly bad blog posts (that were the length of 2-3 tweets). When I decided to jump on the weekly newsletter train and start writing actual articles about my experience as an entrepreneur, I had no interest in trying to learn how to write like anyone else. I’d realized through other experiences in business that the more you try to copy or emulate what works for other people, the less you actually enjoy doing that thing because it doesn’t feel your own. As I started writing and publishing, I found myself adding parenthesis a bunch, overusing the word “awesome,” and doing whatever else came naturally as I typed words on a screen. Very quickly I started hearing from my modest group of readers that they loved my “conversational writing style.” Cool! I had no idea that’s what I was doing, but it’s paid off for me ever since and I’ll keep writing in my own style, embracing my own weird.

Chantel here: For my part, my weird (as an editor) is that I don’t particularly care about typos and grammatical errors in your writing. Sure, I will fix them by default, and yes, I spent four years in university trying to memorize the 1,000-page Chicago Manual of Style. Once, in my indignant youth, I even wrote a letter to the CEO of Quiznos asking why some of their locations used an apostrophe while others did not. (“Are you actually two different companies?”) I can list and explain every rhetorical device known to Cicero, and I can parse the hell out of even the most complicated of English sentences, but gahhhh…who cares, you know? A typo is just proof of a human being behind the screen, not to mention evidence that the writer shipped instead of sitting on an otherwise finished piece of writing because they feared it wasn’t perfect. When I’m wearing my editor’s hat, I would much rather help you refine your message than perfect your semi-colons. Does that mean proofreading doesn’t matter? No, not at all. It totally matters, and proofreaders are brilliant. We’ll talk more about them in Module 4. I just realized about myself that it’s not the kind of editing *I* want to do, and so I had to carve out a niche and business for myself to suit what I was actually interested in.

An editor who doesn’t “edit” in the traditional sense? Weird.

Do you see now why knowing that Stephen King writes every day, even on Christmas, or that Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita on index cards, doesn’t make a lick of difference to your own writing? Even knowing Jason’s weird and my weird doesn’t directly impact your own writing practice. Sure, John Steinbeck discarded his pencils the second the barrel of the pencil got to the part of his hand that connected his index finger and thumb (true story), but guys, that doesn’t mean you should do the same. That’s John’s weird, the thing he embraced about himself that helped him become better, more prolific, and just interesting enough to be included in that round-up of writers’ quirks you stumbled across when you were procrastinating on your own writing. Let him own that. You have your own habits, so dig into those and use them to your advantage.

Why your weird is your biggest advantage as a writer

After generations of being told that business writing must be “professional,” “objective,” and “other boring words like that,” we have finally entered a golden age for writers everywhere: your readers now want to know more about you than they do about your area of expertise. Seriously. You might even say that teaching your readers is a byproduct of them getting to know you. This is the magic of the personal brand.

Readers want to feel connected to the writers whose work they enjoy. They want to trust you, and they want to identify with you and your weird. Why? Because they’re sick of feeling isolated in their own weirdness. Ye olde objective business writing makes a reader feel like they’re alone in “not having it all figured out,” or that they’re doing something wrong in their life or business. Today’s writing, full of the weird and wonderful personality quirks that writers are embracing and sharing, facilitates relationships and trust.

But what if your weird is harder to find than everyone else’s?

Good news: it’s not.

Weird places to find your weird

We all kind of lack perspective about our own weird. With little to compare ourselves to, we all tend to think we’re the normal ones, and that everyone around us is a little off-center.

Cases in point: James Altucher’s weird is easy to spot because despite being a millionaire, he owns nothing and lives nowhere—more or less permanently. Seth Godin’s weird is pretty obvious because he continues to blog seven days a week, on Typepad, at completely unpredictable length.

But what’s your weird? At what fork in the road does your story become something people will blog about one day (or do whatever it is people will do in the future when we’re all microchipped and speaking to each other with brain waves)?

If you’re struggling to identify precisely what makes you weird in a world of weirdos, here are three unexpected places to look:

Your daily writing practice.

Whether you’re an established writer and you want to challenge yourself to get over “writer’s block” for 30 days, or you’re just getting started and feel overwhelmed by what you should be writing, a daily practice can help you find out who you are, what you want to say, and what your weird is.

Three rules of thumb for building a daily writing practice:

1. Establish a set time, make it realistic, and stick to it daily (ex: 9am, 30 mins of writing, for 14 days)
2. Sit in the chair and write based on your schedule
3. Don’t stop writing! If you don’t have a topic or idea, just write stream of conscious. (Remember, you can throw away all of your writing.)

Trust in your daily writing practice. Not only will you surprise yourself with writing you can keep and use, but you’ll also overcome the fear of writing, and GASP, blank page syndrome.

One great app that can help you keep writing during your daily practice is the (free!) Most Dangerous Writing App. You can set the length of time the app will start erasing your writing if you stop. Pretty rad and motivating!

Further reading about writing practices: jasondoesstuff.com/writing and jasondoesstuff.com/overcome-fear-writing

The things you already write.

Scroll through your emails, text messages, and social media feeds. Notice any patterns in the way you write, any jokes you tend to repeat, or any stances you assume in casual conversation. Look carefully at your writing/texts/Tweets alongside a friend’s or colleague’s writing, and highlight (with Ryan Holiday’s favorite tool, the Post-it Flag Highlighter, natch) the things that could have only been said by you. On social, pay special attention to the things you said and shared that got high engagement. Engagement is your audience’s way of saying they see, resonate with, and appreciate the way you’ve shown up there.

The things people always ask you about.

In Jason’s case, he gets emails all. the. time. about how to take more action in life and business. I’m pretty sure he answers them all individually (because that’s how you take more action), but he’s also built an entire personal brand around the weirdness of HOW he takes more action every day. From scheduling actual time to “WRITE DAMMIT” to cautioning against sprinkles in your business, Jason’s weird is very much his own, but it’s also consistent with his vision and writing voice. Guaranteed, there’s something you do that people ask you about occasionally or all the time. Why do they ask? Because it’s weird. Because you’re weird. Jackpot!

The network you already have.

Open up a new email and type this two-sentence email to at least three people (preferably 5-10) in your contacts list. You can also send it over text:

Hi [name],

I’m taking a course to learn more about using my personality in my writing, and I’m curious about how you would describe me based on what you know of me so far. Can you tell me 3 words you would use to describe the way I write and communicate?

Thanks!

This sounds so simple, but it’s very likely going to blow your mind. Your friends, colleagues, and social network WILL surprise you with the way they describe your writing—either they’ll reveal something you never realized consciously about yourself, which is awesome, or they’ll use words like “reserved,” which is your cue to start injecting more personality into your work. In helping clients through experiments exactly like this, I’ve helped writers discover that they are far more sarcastic than they thought, funnier or less funny than they imaged, inspirational, confrontational, introspective, and more.

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And now for the seamless segue into your practical assignment…

Your homework for this module is to send the email or text above, and then compile the list you receive in return. Have a few different people used the same or similar words to describe you? Do those words jive with how you see yourself? Distill the huge list into 3 words max, and print them in big letters on three separate pieces of paper. Do this manually if you can, with an actual pen. There’s something about the act of physically writing these words down that helps us to absorb them and all they represent.

Then tape those 3 words above your writing station, repeat them aloud to yourself on a daily basis, and keep them in mind for the rest of this course. You, my friend, have just identified personal brand, your writing voice...your weird.

Will those words change in the future? Maybe, and that’d be totally fine if they did. But let’s stick with them for now and see where they take you.