This morning, I came across a great article: 3 unusual exercises to improve your writing in 2012. I am always looking for articles about how to improve my writing, since demand for it always seems to be going up.
As I was reading this article, I realized two pretty big things:
First, that whenever I’m reading tips about “improving my writing”, what I’m really looking for are ways to speed up the writing process. Because despite the fact that I spent four years of college doing nothing but writing papers (or at least it felt that way), I still feel like I can’t churn out copy fast enough.
But truly improving writing skills are about so many other things besides speed. So, following the mantra of Chris Brogan: Practice is the Reward, my new goal is to find every opportunity I can to practice writing copy, focusing mainly on improving the content, and knowing that the speed will come as a welcome side-effect.
Second, I realized that I’m pretty lucky that my job, in and of itself, helps me improve my writing. Two out of the three tips are: “write using a different style” and “write something you’ve never written before.” The fact that we serve all kinds of different industries has always meant that I’m writing about a new topic and in a different voice than the last.
I’m sure exclusively working and writing for one industry has its benefits (like having a deeper knowledge and understanding of your product/service). But being able to change and adapt your writing style to fit different needs is a skill I’m grateful to have and be improving on every day.
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