Have you ever wondered why your writing skills don’t seem to improve?
You religiously follow a couple of blogs about writing. And you’re writing almost daily.
But …
You look at your work and scratch your head. It’s okay. But you’d like to do better.
Should you write more?
You might have heard about the 10,000-hour rule: to master any skill, you must practice for 10,000 hours.
But who’s got so much time? If you can dedicate 4 hours a week to writing, it’ll take you 48 years to master writing skills.
Can you improve faster?
Of course, you can.
Shall I explain?
The 10,000-hour rule is nonsense
The 10,000-hour rule is a great soundbite.
But it’s not true.
How many hours you need to practice differs from field to field. Want to become the best at memorizing strings of digits? 200 hours of practice may be enough. Want to become one of the best violinists in the world? Aim for 10,000 hours before your twentieth birthday.
What do you want to achieve with your writing?
Winning a Nobel prize for literature is a different aim from becoming a confident business writer.
Moreover, not all practice improves your skills. You need to practice with purpose.
Imagine wanting to become a pro tennis player. You have to learn a lot, right? From forehand to backhand, from service to returning, from footwork to holding your racket, and from top spin to volley.
You don’t become an accomplished tennis player by playing games. You practice each skill deliberately.
With writing it’s the same. Typing more words doesn’t make you a better writer. You have to practice your writing with purpose.
What is purposeful writing practice?
Professor Anders Ericsson spent thirty years studying what makes ordinary people achieve the extraordinary.
In his book “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise,” he argues purposeful practice is the most effective method to build new skills and abilities—no matter whether you want to become a little better or a top performer.
Ericsson recommends 4 principles of purposeful practice to improve any skill faster.
1. Well-defined, specific goals
Improving your business writing skills isn’t a specific goal. Instead, consider specific goals like:
- Write shorter and more persuasive emails
- Eliminate gobbledygook and weak phrases from your writing
- Use more powerful words to write attention-grabbing headlines
- Structure content to achieve a logical flow
In his book, Ericsson describes how Gabriele Imreh, an internationally known pianist, prepares to practice a new piece of music:
The first thing Imreh did when she sightread the piece was to develop (…) an “artistic image”—a representation of what the piece should sound like when she performed it.
Later on she gets into the details:
She began by going through the entire piece and deciding exactly what fingering she would use.
She identified (…) “expressive turning points”—for instance, a point where her playing would turn from light and lively to more measured and serious.
Imreh’s practice covers the big picture—how the piece should sound—and the details—finger placing and turning points.
Your writing practice should also cover the big picture, such as building a persuasive argument, and the details, such as choosing the right words.
2. Be focused
In our distracted world, focus is precious.
Focus means we don’t get distracted by social media, noisy neighbors, and grocery lists while writing. Focus also means we stay committed to improving a specific task at hand—we can’t practice structure and word choice and rhythm all at the same time.
Ericsson describes how Benjamin Franklin created his own writing exercises to improve specific skills. For instance, to improve the structure and logic of his writing, he chose articles in The Spectator as a reference and designed the following exercise:
[H]e worked with articles from The Spectator and wrote hints for each sentence. (…) he wrote the hints on separate pieces of paper and then jumbled them so that they were completely out of order. Then he waited long enough that not only had he forgotten the wording of the sentences in the original articles, but he had also forgotten their order, and he tried once again to reproduce the articles. He would take the jumbled hints from one article and arrange them in what he thought was the most logical order, then write sentences from each hint and compare the result with the original article. The exercise forced him to think carefully about how to order the thoughts in a piece of writing. If he found places where he’d failed to order his thoughts as well as the original writer, he would correct his work and try to learn from his mistakes.
To improve your writing skills faster, focus on one specific writing skill at a time.
3. Get feedback
To improve your writing and correct mistakes, you must know what the standard is you’re trying to achieve and evaluate your writing against that standard.
The easiest way to get feedback is, of course, to hire a coach. But as Franklin’s exercise above shows, you can also design your own exercises and evaluate your own writing.
To practice my own web writing, for instance, I took Apple’s website as my standard and compared my own writing against them. Did I translate features into benefits as well as they did? How did my word choice compare? How did the rhythm of my writing compare?
And, to practice my blog writing skills, I took Copyblogger as my standard. I figured out why their opening paragraphs were so captivating, and then tried to emulate that. I analyzed Jon Morrow’s inspirational final paragraphs, and tried to emulate those.
If you can’t hire a tutor, learn how to benchmark your own writing. Find a good writing example, and compare specific aspects of your own writing to that example.
4. Get out of your comfort zone
When we write on automatic pilot, we can produce content faster.
But our skills stagnate.
As Ericsson writes:
Research (…) shows that doctors who have been in practice for twenty or thirty years do worse on certain objective measures of performance than those who are just two or three years out of medical school. It turns out that most of what doctors do in their day-to-day practice does nothing to improve or even maintain their abilities; little of it challenges them or pushes them out of their comfort zones.
How can you challenge yourself to write better? A few ideas:
- Scared of storytelling? Try integrating a mini-story into a blog post
- Lack of personality? Try these creative writing exercises for business writers
- Rambling writing? Try this process for turning a tiny idea into a valuable blog post
When I started writing, I didn’t believe I had any creative talent. I didn’t consider myself a writer.
But as creating content became an essential marketing skill, I knew I had to learn how to write.
So, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I studied what makes writing good. I joined a course. I practiced step by step. I gained feedback, and eventually I mustered the courage to publish my work.
Learning how to write well changed my life
I started my own business.
I met people from all over the world. I found my voice, and learned how to express ideas.
Writing kindled my curiosity, helped me face my fears, and widened my horizons. I became more confident as a writer, as a communicator, as a human being.
And I discovered the pleasure of writing well.
Recommended reading on writing practice:
Learn how to spot (and fix) the weaknesses in your writing
The art of noticing: 3 practices to become a better writer
How to improve your writing skills
Hey!!!! Thank you so much for this piece. I have always admired people who are able to articulate their thoughts properly on paper that it could paint a vivid picture in the mind of a reader. You have just encouraged me to take on this challenge. If you have any course recommendations for beginners please kindly oblige me. Bless
I’m glad you feel inspired, Jennifer. If you’d like to write better blog posts, you may want to start with my Kindle book: https://www.enchantingmarketing.com/blog-to-win-business/ I’ll be launching a course later this year.
Dear Henneke,
I believe everybody should read your posts. They’re amazing! It’s like I have a problem and you just have the answer.
I’ve been struggling with how to improve and this. Changes. EVERYTHING.
Thank you for what you do.
Yay! I’m so glad you found this helpful. Thank you for letting me know, Folarin. You put a smile on my face 🙂
I agree with stepping out of your zone to gather new knowledge to improve your skills
Thank you, Ibidun. Go for it! 🙂
Hi Henneke thank you for your very informative post! I am starting my job as a writer at work and I have been feeling a little nervous about my writing skills. Your tips relieved my anxiety and helped me set the right mindset. I am not a native English speaker, so I always felt insecure about my skills. But I have a passion and drive for writing, and I know I am good at defining my purpose of writing and I am laser-focused. Your article boosted my confidence and gave me a sense of direction. So thank you! Please keep writing more great articles to help me stay motivated.
I’m a non-native English speaker, too, so don’t let that stop you. Happy writing!
Hello dear,
I am not lost, I am on my way into this world, a new challenge in my life, I hope to break the barrier and begin to eat from the knowledge that has been offered me in the light of writing.
I hope to put ten hours daily into this learning skill, and I hope to acquire the required education in writing a book that people would love to read.
Thank you for the supply of a very rich library .
Now let me bury my head into the books.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to know more about the subject.
…. Paula.
10 hours sounds like a lot. Don’t burn yourself out!
I really like that you tell your readers that it only takes about 200 hours to get good at writing and I think that combining the other tips you put in the post it would be right 🙂
Its about improving having that goal and getting feedback from others. For many years I had a fear of writing and now the more I write the better I get : )
Uhm, I don’t think I said that. I wrote that 200 hours of practice may be enough to become the best at memorizing strings of digits.
I do think 200 hours of deliberate writing practice can get you quite far. But the result depends on your starting level. Also, different people have different ideas about what it means to be good at writing. Business writing is easier than writing a novel!
Thank you for stopping by, Dave. I appreciate it.
After reading your article once more, you are right. I may have heard what I wanted to hear 🙂
That being said it was still very informative 🙂 Thanks you for the insightful reply
That sounds familiar … we all like to hear what we want to hear 🙂
And the 200 hours might still be right!
Thank you very much, Henneke!
I am starting purposeful practice today.
Great! Thank you for stopping by, Lynn. 🙂
Believing that you are a writer is the hardest part. We never believe until someone tell us
I still don’t quite believe I’m a writer. But, to me, believing I’m a writer doesn’t matter so much. I know it’s Jeff Goins’ big thing, but for me … I just believe I can write blog posts and sales copy. 🙂
Now that’s something I needed
Yes. It really boils down to having faith in your own skills. Then everything else follows.
Yep, having faith in your own skills makes a big difference!
Your work is often the best I come across on any topic, I’ve often learned directly from your single blog post.
However, being a blogger myself, I have certain pet peeves and that is too much interlinking of your pages. It disturbs the flow, and the styling is like that the user will quick on it just to check it out. It ultimately creates a web of tabs, most of which don’t see the light of the day (if you know what I mean!)
To put it bluntly, it reeks of desperation. However, I may be wrong in judging them. It may seem like that to me, but the writer might find it useful for the readers to integrate the same.
That’s an interesting point that I was thinking about recently as I do agree that links can interrupt a smooth reading experience.
Most of my blog posts have 5 to 8 internal links which is relatively low compared to many other blogs. However, some posts are like “content collections” – for instance, this post describes the principles of practicing your writing, but for people who want to start practicing their writing, I have many useful posts on my blogs to provide further guidance, so this posts has a lot more links than usually. The same is true for posts about with my top copywriting tips (more details for each tip are described elsewhere) or checklists for website content or blog writing.
I certainly don’t add links out of desperation – I’m trying to be helpful to people who want to dive deeper into a topic. I’m certainly not desperate for more page views—they’re growing already quite well and time on site is good.
I’ve also wondered whether the problem is not so much the number of links, but more the color of the links. The orange stands out perhaps a little too much. When a more neutral link color (like blue) is used on other blogs, links seem to interrupt the reading experience less (even if there are more links).
Thank you for your comment, Navin. I appreciate it. Food for thought.
Exact location is point 3 of your post, it has a tad too many links (for my taste, personally!)
If it was me, it would be 5 or less internal links in 1000 words (unless absolutely essential!)
But you know, some US websites like NewYorker and NyTIMES , they do the styling of the link so beautifully, it is barely noticeable. Just about enough, just visible, but not so bright
Hey Henneke,
One of the things I like to do personally is “Mentally Re-Write” ads I see. I originally started doing this with SkyMall in all the airplanes, and continuously do it on billboards and street advertisements I see!
Yes, that’s a great idea, too!
Great article…. In school I viewed myself as a poor writer hence I wrote very little and I did everything I could to avoid it… It was first when I was pushed outside my comfort zone… Pushed to write… that I really learned it:-) Today I write faster and better than most people which leads me to my point. It is all about habits and perception, so getting out of your comfort zone is essential as we never will challenge or change or habits while we are within our comfort zone…
Good point, Jakob – self-belief is so important when we’re trying to learn a new skill. If we start with thinking we can’t do it, then we will fail.
Happy writing! And thank you for stopping by.
Yes, we are often so limited by our self-beliefs… You should never let them win…
I love tip #1 – set specific targets
Getting “better” is difficult…however achieving a specific goal builds momentum and has a holistic effect on all of our writing
Clever!
Thanks Henneke
Yes, that’s such a good point. When you make your goals more specific, it’s much easier to be motivated and build momentum.
Thank you for adding your thoughts, Neil. I appreciate it!
Henneke,
When it comes to writing, I’ve also noticed how not everything you craft will improve your skills. As a blogger, I write religiously everyday. While it has become a part of my life… to be honest, it gets dull sometimes.
What you mentioned about getting out of your comfort zone woke me up. I need some new challenges, big or small to keep this “relationship” up. 😛
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Anh
Strangely enough, I’ve rarely been able to write religiously every day. For me, it works better to take a break now and then. We’re all different, and we all have to find the rhythm and process that works for us personally!
Thank you for stopping by again, Anh. I hope you’ll find yourself a nice writing challenge 🙂
Henneke, what works best for me is to write for 1 hour per day. During hard times in my life, focusing on this kind of routines surprisingly helps ease the struggle and keep me productive.
As you said though, it’s best to not be rigid in the search for a process that works for you. Being flexible is something that’s rarely mentioned in writing guides, though, unfortunately.
And yes, thanks to your recommendations, I’ve tried my hands with more storytelling, I am excited to try to incorporate them to my future posts. 😀
Keep rocking,
Anh
Hi Henneke!
I’m re-reading a book right now, that teaches the same idea about learning improved writing by copying others’ strong suits. It’s titled Write Like the Masters. William Cane authored it. Best of all, he disassembles various famous writers’ works and analyzes them for you, so you may merely read the book and soar. It’s a fun read, too.
Sometimes I think writer’s block originates in simple boredom with one’s own writing. If that is so, then writing different media should help. I have had success both with improving style, and also with breaking a block, by reverting to pencil and lined paper. No distractions, there, which increases the value. I also sometimes revisit an old laptop that no longer is connectable to Internet, but still types well. No distractions, again. And locating either of those media into an empty bedroom can create all the getaway I need for sharpening focus.
That sounds like a great book. Thank you for the tip, Katharine. I’ve added it to my reading list 🙂
And I agree with you on writer’s block – sometimes it can originate from boredom. If this is the case, I find it quite helpful to write off topic… or I start with drawing instead of writing 😉
Happy writing!
Hi Henneke,
It’s always said that the practice makes a man perfect. The more you write, the more you learn. No one can be a great writer within few days.
People have to devote their time to practice writing. It’s very important to focus when you write something.
Thanks for providing these tips.
Enjoy the day.
~Ravi
Yep, so true. And as writers, we’re never finished practicing. We can always improve our skills.
Thank you for stopping by, Ravi!
Great advice to break up each individual part and practice mastering that part. I have done that many times to learn other skills. Baseball comes to mind.
Maybe I need to shut off my auto pilot and enjoy the process instead of being in a constant writing hurry.
I start a post with the big boy bloggers, and girls too, in my head that I want to emulate but then BAM. I am through and I can’t see the big boys or girls in the finished product anywhere.
I am going to do some purposeful practicing. I think I will start with metaphors.
Great advice as always. Thanks.
Barry
I’ve found being in a writing hurry quite unproductive. When I’m in a hurry, I don’t enjoy writing anymore and I’m also more prone to procrastination. I try to focus on “doing the work.”
What has also worked for me is aiming at 90% – not trying to give it my best effort often improves my productivity and makes the process more relaxed and more fun, too.
Have fun with metaphors!
Hi Henneke,
great article, and great topic. For me there is a point missing before “well-defined, specific goals”.
I keep chasing my own tail trying to decide whether what I’m trying to do or improve is really the best use of my time. I wish some genie would appear and instead of granting me three wishes would tell me the three things to work on that would really change my life.
Yep, that’s a good point. Learning multiple skills at the same time can be tricky (especially if you have to run a business and be a mother, too).
I would choose which skill to improve based on a mix of business requirements and what my heart tells me. Learning a skill just for business requirements may make it difficult to stay motivated. Which skill would you love to learn most?
And if you find that genie, please let me know! 🙂
Hi Henneke,
Well, with regards to this article, I like the fact you’ve mentioned about the 10000 hours rule. In today’s world, we simply cannot wait for 10000 hours for anything. If someone does, it’ll take years before the skill is mastered and by that time the skill might not be very useful. With time, I find the writing style changing as well, so we better be quick.
I find the benchmarks part impressive. I think I should follow the blogs in my niche closely and set a few benchmarks for myself which will help me improve my style of writing.
Thanks! I am new to your blog, but post reading this article, I will make it a point to come back here often.
Welcome, Saksham 🙂
10,000 hours may be relevant to master certain skills, but to become a successful blogger you certainly don’t need to blog for 10,000 hours!
Hey Henneke,
Gabriel Imreh use a similar approach to playing piano as I do, although I’m not a great music reader.
But I never thought of using the same tactic to writing. But it does make sense!
I also think the benchmark idea is a great. I would use your writing as well as others to measure up my skill level. By doing this I have seen a great improvement .
Thanks for sharing Henneke! Have a good one!
I find it quite interesting how many ideas are transferable from learning to play a musical instrument or sports and learning how to draw and write.
Thank you for stopping by again, Sherman. I appreciate it 🙂
Hey Henneke,
Great post. What I really found interesting was the finding a benchmark part. I think that’s bloody brilliant.
When I made the transition from writing about data to actually writing in a conversational tone, Jon’s post (all of them) helped me to achieve that.
I steered away from that for other aspects and I think I need to definitely put more focus on those. Thanks so much for that.
– Andrew
P.S. Really great job you did on the content promotion summit. You were one of the very few reasons I signed up to check it out.
Yep, that’s a great point – you can find different benchmarks for different aspects of your writing. That’s a great way to create your own style.
I’m glad you enjoyed my interview for the content promotion summit!
Thank you for adding your thoughts, Andrew. I appreciate it – as always 🙂
How to become a better writer:
Learn from Henneke. 😀
I swear…every since I started reading your stuff, I’ve become a much, much better writer.
So thank you (again). 🙂
Julian
That’s so lovely to read. Thank you for your generous compliment, Julian!
Hi Henneke,
I read your blogs on a regular basis. They are inspiring as well as comforting
to me.
One time I responded to one of your emails by telling you I loved the way your
mind works.
I still agree with myself.
Thanks for your great blog and everything else,
Liz Karr
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Liz. I appreciate it. When I can inspire or comfort people with my words, I’m happy.
Happy writing!
Hello Henneke,
When it comes to writing blog post opening that captivates, I often take inspiration from your blog, Jon Morrows and then, copy blogger. I believe the 3 of you have the most enchanting opening I’ve ever encountered on the internet.
Therefore, I strongly believe that getting ideas from other blog posts that are very good at what you want to achieve with your writing is a dope. But if you have the money, the best way is to hire a coach as you also mentioned.
I enjoyed this one as usual Henneke, thanks for sharing.
Theodore.
I feel honored to be mentioned alongside Copyblogger and Jon Morrow. Thank you!
When I started learning how to blog, out of those three blogs only Copyblogger existed 🙂
Glad you enjoyed this article, Theodore. Thank you for stopping by.
Hey Henneke
Your words have the power to make complex things look simple. I used to pen down my feelings on a piece of paper before stepping in the digital world. Writing helps in easing off all burdens. It has the power to dissolve all the mental clutter.
Yep, I agree. Writing can bring clarity and dissolve clutter.
Thank you for adding your thoughts, Yatin. I appreciate it!
Hear, hear to numbers three and four especially!
Best move I ever made as a writer was hiring Demian Farnworth as a one-on-one coach three years ago when I was starting out (even though my endorsement of his coaching skills still has the word “rootless” instead of “ruthless” in it http://thecopybot.com/about-2/).
And there simply is NO GROWTH in any area of life without getting out of your comfort zone.
My favorite writing instructor back in college — I won’t say just how far “back” that was (somehow it keeps getting further and further away) — used to say, “You have to let yourself suck.” That sort of ethos has paid off huge (even though it hurts in the moment thanks to my perfectionism).
Another great post!
Haha! A rootless coach … I like it 🙂
I like the idea of giving yourself permission to suck. And then, of course, also accept that “sucking” isn’t a permanent state – we can all learn how to improve and stretch our abilities.
Thank you for adding your thoughts, Aaron. I appreciate it!
Hi Henneke,
Thanks for these tips. Writing has always been close to my heart. I was the most envied boy on the class for writing awesome essays and now I make a living for writing.
One thing that never changes is, writing is never done, you constantly need to practice existing skills and learn new ones to stay in the game.
Thanks for the post!
-Swadhin
You’re lucky to have discovered the joy of writing at a young age!
At school, I was pretty crap at writing. It’s a miracle how I turned into a blogger, copywriter and even a writing tutor.
What I love about writing is that it’s never finished. There’s always more to explore and to learn.
Happy writing, Swadhin!
Hey Henneke – Love Ericsson’s work on deliberative practice. Fabulous to see how you apply the ideas to build writing skills.
I was thinking of you when reading the book – I assumed you knew his work already.
Thank you for stopping by, Winston.
Because I’ve been around the block a time or two (how’s that for a cliché for old?), 😉 I have to guard against the automatic pilot you describe. The good news is I usually pick up I’m doing that when I do a face plant on my keyboard. 😉
I’ve also started working word puzzles where you find the hidden words to help with my focus. Our online scanning can become bad habits (at least for me) so I use the puzzles to try to keep the brain zeroed in.
I have to thank you, Henneke. Since I discovered your blog, you have helped me refocus my efforts, especially on editing.
Thank you for your generous compliment, Cathy 🙂
I quickly get bored, so the automatic pilot doesn’t work so well for me. I keep looking for new challenges.
I like your idea of doing word puzzles to improve focus.
This post is meant to change lives, Henneke.
Writing, I must say is a difficult task. Unless you prove to me that it’s not.
And to really enjoy doing it, one must humbly follow the tips provided in here.
I did a similar post few weeks ago. So, your post today has greased my elbow to keep doing what I’ve learned from pros like you.
I even mentioned you in that post.
Now
Focusing has been my major challenge. I didn’t really know how to approach it. But I have an idea now.
This is my second comment here. But I follow and learn a lot from you, Henneke.
Keep sharing.
You’ll surely reap good from what you’re sowing.
Francis
You can practice focus. If you find it hard to focus for a long time, use timer and start with 10-minute intervals. Make sure you switch off any notifications so you’re not distracted.
And you’re right – good writing isn’t easy, but when you know what to look for to improve your writing and when you accept writing is a process, then it becomes a lot easier.
Thank you for you comment, Francis. I appreciate it.
Typo alert: “But who’s got so much time? If you can dedicate 4 hours a week to writing, it’ll take you 48 years before (YOUR) master writing skills.”
I love your point on purposeful practice. How about purposeful focus — focus with a purpose in mind.
Great article.
Well spotted! Thank you, I appreciate it.
It’s now corrected.
Fantastic post, Henneke. You can do something for 10 years, but the question is have you improved every year or have you done year 1 over and over 10 times. And I think being willing to take ownership of that work and not have to be spoon-fed everything really impacts how much you learn and how well you learn it.
This is one for my archives! (Well, they all are really.) 😉
Yes, I agree with you – once you take ownership of your own learning process (and get used to pushing yourself outside your comfort zone), you can go far.
Thank you for stopping by again!
Kathy, I love how you wrote – “willing to take ownership of that work..”, very profound
Thanks so much Joan! I believe it’s the key to making your work unique, rather than “me too”, because when you own it, you put your personal spin on it.?
“the question is have you improved every year or have you done year 1 over and over 10 times. ”
? – there are definitely things I have done over and over without improving, so thanks for that sentence as a wake up call, Kathy!
Henneke’s comment about writing on autopilot leading to stagnation is right on point for me.
I’m with you on that Alison. I’m quite sure Henneke is a mind-reader.?
I’ve been there and done that. And I’ll do it again, too. Don’t we all get stuck in a rut from time to time?
Definitely. Nothing to beat ourselves up over. And a reminder to step out of the comfort zone and get going again is always appreciated. 🙂
Thank you Henneke for your timely post.
I’m not kidding, I just sat down to draft an article when my phone chimed notifying me of your email, maybe that is one reason I struggle with ‘being focused. 😉
But I was wondering how to be a better storyteller. Your story of entering the hotel was a perfect for me of how to practice with short small stories.
Now all I need is to remember to stay focused (mute distractions!),
Thanks,
Chuck
I even have to hide the email tab in my browser because when I see I have received another email (I have email notifications switched off, but can see the count go up), I get distracted.
Focus sounds easy but is quite hard to achieve. I usually write in chunks of 25 minutes to stay focused. When I really struggle, I have sometimes reduced that to 10 or 15 minutes. In my experience, it’s better to really focus for 10 minutes than to stay half-focused for 25 minutes.
Happy writing!
Namaste Henneke,
I am nodding my head in agreement with this “10 minutes focus” tip!
I cannot stop reading your blog posts and I mean it as a compliment.
Regards
Namaste Ashok
Thank you so much for your lovely comment. You put a smile on my face 🙂
Happy writing (and happy reading)!