Q&A for How to Be a Good Writer

The best way to become an effective writer is to work at your craft every day. As with most skills, you best sharpen writing skills with repetition and persistence.

Imagination, creativity, adaptivity, self-motivation, and professionalism are hallmark characteristics of good writers.

A good writer loves language, is imaginative, and writes every day. Becoming a good writer is largely a function of practice.

Find motivation (family,religion, or anything) that could help drive you to keep on writing. Build your chapters with a clear vision. However, try not to trap yourself by creating your own plot twist as you go along. Jot down the plot twist secret somewhere else if an idea comes to you, and then let the story flow. Don't try to write toward that twist. If it works, it works; if it doesn't, it doesn't.

Try to get an app that corrects grammar (like Grammarly or Microsoft Word). After a while, you will catch on to how the editor makes improvements to your writing and you can learn from those corrections. There are sometimes even classes for grammar.

For writing effectively, the basic thing is to increase your writing speed, so your thoughts don't out-run your words. The best way to do this is to keep running notes at all times, like on your phone, tablet, notebook, computer, etc. That way, whenever an idea comes to you, you will have somewhere to write it down. You can also use apps with plain interface like Jotterpad, Monospace, and Writer Plus. Evernote is also one such app that offers syncing between phone, laptop, and other devices.

In order to turn your story into a movie, you could turn it into a script, then move on to set, costumes, director, and the actors. Or you could try to sell the rights using an agent and let someone else do the rest.

Write a ton and show others your writing. Start to build a tolerance to constructive criticism through participation in writer's groups. There's always someone who's going to like your writing -- and plenty of people who won't.

The internet! Search, search, and search through social media, articles, even online biographies and blogs. Even a Wikipedia article can be a start. For example, if you're looking for someone who experienced the Holocaust, look around the internet for Jewish organizations in your area and see if any of them are willing to find/give you information.

I would go to WattPad and look through its books. Do not plagiarize; just read over them and ask yourself, "What would I do in the book" or "How would I do the book?"

Sure. It makes no difference what your handwriting is like, as long as you can read it. You can always type it on a computer as well.

No, you do not need any degrees to have a book published. You only need to write a good book. However, a degree or taking some classes might help you to become a better writer.

No. Writing can be a hobby, and you don't need a degree to become proficient.

It is best to see yourself as a portal, or a servant to the story. Your role is to tell the story, whether it has told itself to you a thousand times or not. Your duty is to tell it, and tell it right, no matter what you feel. Make it a responsibility, not a mere hobby. You'll be surprised what smiles and happiness your tiring story will give you even as you write it, though it may sometimes seem burdensome.

I would recommend this exercise: look at a photo and practice describing it in as much detail as possible. Don't skip a single piece of the photo; touch on every single aspect of it, every object that's shown, every reflection, etc. This will help you learn to focus on the details, describe them, and learn which ones are probably the most interesting/important to the reader.

If I were you, I would write what comes to my mind. It will make your stories stand out and seem unique and creative.

You could take a writing course in your community.

Try taking a break and get some fresh air. One of the first steps of writing is inspiration, and you can get inspired by almost anything.

It's entirely up to you. You could write one draft or twenty! Just focus on improving your writing until you feel like you've finally hit the perfect spot.

Pretend like you're the character talking. What would you say in that conversation? Remember that you can always go back and edit later to improve it. You could even show the dialogue to some friends and ask them if it seems natural/realistic to them.

Write out a scene, paragraph, or section of your work with all the words that come to you first. Then, go back and pick out the words you want to change so you can edit them later. Writing takes a lot of work and revision, so if you don't know which words to choose, just play around with a bunch of different ones until you find the right combination.

Practice because the more you practice, the better you should get.

If you think it's a good idea, that's all that matters. If it's unique, you express it well and do a good job marketing it, it will interest others. Even if it doesn't, you'll have plenty of other good ideas (as well as the experience you've gained) - the great thing about writing is that you're not locked into any specific project for long. Once it's complete, you can move on to different subject matter entirely.

Sure. But if you're writing a book about your best friend and you're going to use their real name, you should ask their permission first.

You should still write about. You never know what someone might want to read about, especially in the future. Take Little House on the Prairie, for example. Laura probably thought her life was boring at some point, but I love reading through her books, they amaze me.

No, probably not. That doesn't mean you don't need to do any research at all, but you probably don't need to do any research related to this creature in particular.

Try to forget your involvement with your project and forget all the details of your work, you must look upon this with "new eyes". This can be helped by putting it down and not looking at it for a few weeks. Do other things, write other things. Then come back to it and you'll have fresh eyes and a new perspective, allowing you to edit objectively.

Everyone writes differently. Your friend, or whoever you're jealous of, probably writes in a different style than you, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just write how you want to write, and don't let outside things bring you down. You've got this!