Finding beginner writing tips itself is vast in its entirety with so many forms of writing out there. And I believe with the times of the internet, writing has evolved much ahead – thus more forms.
Yet when we speak of writing in general, here are all the best beginner writing tips to put out there.
This article goes out to the general audience – be it someone looking to simply write a story, plotting out a novel, or thinking of freelance writing as a career. I’ve always believed that writing is an art form and expresses one’s creativity. But when it comes to writing professionally, publishing your words, submitting a post, there’s some rigidity to the work.
Based on how you go about your words and how long they go, they fall into their own forms. Focusing on the creative form of writing, here are the 7 types of creative writing I categorized:
Beginner Writing Tips – 7 Types of Creative Writing
From literature’s perspective, we have the basic writing styles namely persuasive, narrative, expository and descriptive. Each of them has a different intent for its reader and they further can be developed into different forms of works. But when speaking of writing for a publisher in today’s content industry, here are the 7 types of creative writing:
- Short Stories and Novellas – Short stories give a good practice ground to writers starting out. Especially for fiction writing, short stories are a great start with their low word count compared to traditional novels. Writing a novella can be the next step after short stories and before a long novel – considering the moderate length of a novella for a beginner writer.
- Blog Writing – This falls into one of the recent forms. To define, blogs tend to be less formal snd shorter compared to writing essays. A blog post provides its readers with an answer to their question in the simplest way. Its excerpt/abstract summarizes the post in a few words.
- Essays – Writing essays is a great start for short non-fiction works. While stories are about flow and plot, essays are introspective works on specific topics, personal opinions on it – a shorter version of a research paper. Another reason is they’re easier to publish on multiple platforms – blogs, various magazines, newspapers, and even as a part of a book of essays.
- Poem Writing – Poems stand apart from the creativity of other forms of writing. It has more to do with form, structures, voice, and rhymes rather than edits on its grammar.
- Scriptwriting/Play Writing – Scriptwriting is writing stories keeping a screenplay medium in mind. Stories and novels have the luxury of elaborating on emotions, but scriptwriting emphasis on the descriptions of actions, dialogues, expressions, and appearance of its characters. Play writing is similar to scriptwriting, but it has more constraints with actions and effects. It also emphasizes more on dialogues.
- Novels – Novels are the lengthier works of fiction and often prove as a benchmark when a writer succeeds in publishing one. To keep a fiction reader engaged, they involve work on a variety of aspects when in development such as structure, character development, plot twists, and emotion.
- Non-fiction books – Works of non-fiction include travel memoirs and guides, how-to guidebooks, self-help books, history, and biographies. These focus more on real-world facts than its structure and sequence.
How to Choose a Writing Form as a Beginner
Now you’re aware of the types of writing – now which do you pick? What’s the best writing form for your story?
It’s not possible to say what works best for everyone. Writers good at crafting a short story may suck at writing a song. But most successful writers tap into many different forms before sticking to theirs – they’re all-rounders. So it’s best to give them all a shot.
The ones passionate about writing are bound to come across more than one of these forms. With a piece of my heart for it, I’ve written short stories as a kid, maintained tiny diaries, written a couple of fiction books in school, plays, essays on numerous competitions, and even solo songs. I never planned on practicing all of it. It just happened. So my best advice for a beginner is to keep your mind open to ideas. If there’s an opportunity, be hesitant to say no.
Short stories or Poems , Get your Feet Wet with Writing!
Beginner Writing tips: It’s best to sink into multiple writing styles when you’re starting out. It’ll help you explore the industry while getting extra financial support. Even popular writers today don’t sit all day slaving on their next bestseller. They engage in blogging, guiding young writers, writing poems on the side as well.
But to begin from scratch, I’d recommend starting with a short story. Make an outline of its structure, plot, and go for it. Edit it. Ask for feedback. Learn from it for that’s the only way.
For more emotionally driven writers who wish to stay from the terrifying grammar correctness, go for poetry or songwriting.
How much do Beginner Writers Make?
This is something a lot of beginner writers ask before even trying. It’s hard to make a clear-cut answer on it as it depends on what, where, and who do you work for. It also depends on how you get paid.
For content writing, some beginner writers start off with $15-30 per article (500-1000 words) and other $10-20 per hour. Some intern for free and others open up their own blogs like me. When I began writing, I made around $15 per 500-word article.
Later on, I shifted to blogging where the whole scenario changed. Now as a writer, how much I make vastly depends on how many people come to read my articles today – it’s basically a business. But to beginner writers out there, I’d encourage focusing less on the financial aspect initially and more on the learning and exposure. I didn’t make a single penny in my first year of blogging. One whole year of just learning the strings in the industry. Today, my efforts are finally paying off.
Prioritize focusing on your skills first. Work for interesting gigs rather than boring high-paying ones. With experience, they’ll come to you.
Stick to your passion. Money shall follow eventually.
8 Best Writing Tips for Beginners
Though I’ve plenty of experience with blogging, freelancing, submitting essays and stories on site publications, I made more research on the best tips a writer can give to beginners. Some of these tips were really good and brought them to my conscience even though I’d followed them unconsciously over time.
With some of my own experiences with writing and my favorite tips by other writers, here’s the beginner’s guide to writing – the best writing tips in a nutshell:
1. Develop a passion for Reading
Most people who have a natural flair for writing also turn out to be avid readers. Read a variety of books. Fiction is written very differently from non-fiction memoirs, biographies, and so on – give them all a read. This enhances your vocabulary and brings in more ideas.
Be it fantasy stories by Stephen King or JK Rowling, a business motivation book. Have a look at children’s books where the vocabulary and sentence formations are brought down to their simplest forms. Read magazine and news articles by different authors. Professional emails from a company, technical article guides on blogs, all of them can help you enrich your vocabulary and idea pool.
2. Keep a Story in your Mind
People read for the story, not for its writing style. No matter how good your writing is, it’s useless without a great story.
The story itself is the most important element of any writing work. As Lisa Cron says, your story doesn’t begin on the first page, it begins much before it. Be it tons of drama or great writing, nothing gets the reader like the story itself.
3. Find Writing Prompts
Don’t be afraid to dive in – regret it later. Find writing prompts for exercising your writing. The more you write, the more you know where you stand. A reader can tell when a great writer hasn’t given his hundred percent.
You’re just starting out, but whenever you’re writing – make sure to devote yourself completely to it. Let the words flow from you. Whether you’re writing a book summary, passing a memo, a Wattpad story, an academic report, or even a letter to someone, give it your best.
That said, writing a prompt isn’t about taking feedback or attempting to make the best of everything. It’s about practicing for yourself.
4. Schedule a Time for Writing
There’s no fruit without persistence. Find the best time to write in the day and stick to it. Make it a routine to write daily. It can seem demanding at first, but it helps get over writer’s block.
For a fact, authors do face burnout. But that doesn’t mean they’ve run out of ideas, there’s always something to pen down. Sticking to a routine makes you conscious about writing and helps keep that idea flicker on.
5. Approach Other Writers
Over time, you’ll realize the writing industry is endless. There are considerable types of writers out there – some into copywriting, screenwriting, some who write on Tumblr, others who work on thesis or dissertation. All of them are writers with their own skillsets.
Get to know other writers out there. Ask them to edit your work or help them with their pieces. Learn about their methods and routine. Build your network. If you’re an introvert, it’s time you push yourself out. Join writers groups, mail a writer you look up to with a bio of yourself. It’s best to start this early on in your writing career.
6. Edit Your Work
How many times have you edited your assignment as a student, resume before applying for a job that you really wanted? How many times have you felt it couldn’t get better and then found a bug in one of your paragraphs the next time you glanced?
Editing is the biggest part of writing. Period. And it’s a lengthy process too. You can write an article fast in 30 minutes and still edit hours getting all your composition and phrases right.
When writing as a content writer online, make use of free writing tools. Some of them like Grammarly or Hemingway to weed out grammatical and spelling mistakes.
Tool Reviews and Guides for Editing your Story
7. Ask for Feedback from a Stranger
Any piece completed and edited by you inevitably looks good to you. But to someone who hasn’t taken time to edit it multiple times, a passerby, that’s your reader. Don’t ask your loved ones for feedback for they’re bound to call you a pro. Ask a stranger.
Preferably another writer who genuinely points out. This isn’t only to help improve your writing skills. It’s a part of the writing process. Whether you’re a beginner or a famous author, taking feedback is one of the most fundamental parts before proceeding to publish.
8. Take a Break
Like I said, writing is an art. It needs to flow from you. It’s better to take breaks and work on producing the best of your creativity than push yourself only to finish a lousy piece.
Even as you finish your piece, don’t jump straight into editing. Take some time apart from that specific article – even a day if it helps. Edit it when your mind is free and far from clutters of the work. Look at your own work as a reader. Writing takes time and patience.
Be it your favorite fan fiction, a scientific-based essay, or a personal statement for your scholarship, you’ll need breaks when writing. Time eventually gets you better ideas the next time you sit down to write.
Beginner Writing Tips: Conclusion
To conclude this post on beginner writing tips, these are all the basics to keep in mind before drafting your first story. While these tips for any beginner in writing, still emphasizes writing for someone, writing on your laptop with the main objective of making money.
There’s more when it comes to writing a book, a novel. A beginner author tips are about making getting a writer’s work published. A writer is any Tom, Dick, and Harry who writes. But publishing a book with a traditional publication house makes the writer an author.
In addition to these beginner writing tips, there are a few more that go with publishing a novel. One of them is building your newsletter list when you publish your first book. This helps a long way in case your book tracts a lot of attention. With the newsletter list, you can update your dedicated readers on your next book release.