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"This article originally appeared on the Buffer blog.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI\u2019ve been reading some advice from successful writers lately and exploring what their\u00A0routines are like to see what I can learn about.\r\n\r\nHere are six of the most common\u00A0pieces of advice\u00A0I came across that have helped me a lot improving my writing here at\u00A0Buffer.\r\n\r\nIt also features actionable tips for you on how to implement them in\u00A0your own writing.\r\n1. The best ways to get over the \u201Cblank page hurdle\u201D\r\nI write because it comes out \u2014 and then to get paid for it afterwards? I told somebody, at some time, that writing is like going to bed with a beautiful woman and afterwards she gets up, goes to her purse and gives me a handful of money. I\u2019ll take it. \u2014\u00A0Charles Bukowski\r\nUnlike Charles Bukowski, writing well doesn\u2019t come so easily for a lot of us (including me). It takes a lot of mental energy, strains your\u00A0working memory\u00A0and often makes you feel vulnerable if you try to be open and honest in your work.\r\n\r\nThe pure effort of writing is hard enough, but coupled with the pain of putting your work out into the world and\u00A0letting others judge it, this can be enough to stop you from getting started at all.\r\n\r\nThe trick to overcoming this isn\u2019t easy, but it\u2019s surprisingly effective:\u00A0give yourself permission to write badly, and\u00A0just start.\r\n\r\nAnne Lamott, author of\u00A0Bird by Bird\u00A0wrote an\u00A0excellent essay\u00A0on why writers must start with horrible drafts:\r\nI know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much.\r\nAnne\u2019s essay makes me feel much better about the hard work of writing great content, as she makes it clear that all great writers struggle with their first drafts:\r\nWe all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid.\r\nSo\u00A0to get over the biggest hurdle\u2014the blank page\u2014just get writing. Don\u2019t be afraid that your draft might be bad (it probably will be, but that\u2019s okay.)\r\nAlmost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something \u2013 anything \u2013 down on paper.\r\n\r\n(Great infographic from\u00A0Copyblogger)\r\n\r\n2. Discard clich\u00E9s: How to stop writing like \u201Cyou\u2019re meant to write\u201D\r\nDown with the clich\u00E9! If only it were that easy. Clich\u00E9s surround us, and it\u2019s surprisingly hard to avoid using them.\r\nPut simply, in writing, clich\u00E9s are bland and overused phrases that fail to excite, motivate, and impress your readers or prospective buyers. (6)\r\nClich\u00E9s dominate our language both in speaking and writing. This is because we hear them all the time, so they become the first phrases that come to mind when we want to\u00A0express ourselves. Which is exactly why they\u2019re a problem:\r\nGiven that clich\u00E9s are the phrases that have struck our eardrums uncountable times, we either don\u2019t associate them with particular ideas and products, or we associate many products and ideas with a particular clich\u00E9.\r\n\r\nThe fact that clich\u00E9s are so generic you can attach them to any idea makes them ineffective. (6)\r\nThis actually has a lot to do with how we take in words and phrases when we read.\u00A0The more familiar a term or phrase becomes, the more often we start skipping over it as we read, rendering it ineffective.\r\n\r\nThe best way to avoid this problem is to use different language to explain familiar concepts.\u00A0It\u2019s a careful balancing act between being so different that your readers are turned off by the effort of understanding your content and being so familiar that your work becomes trite.\r\nIn other words, your audience has to feel your content is new, but also credible. (7)\r\n3. Don\u2019t make it sound like writing, instead \u201CWrite like you speak\u201D\r\nIt is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style. \u2014\u00A0P.D. James\r\nNovelist and screenwriter\u00A0Elmore Leonard\u00A0knew how important the reader was. More important than his English Composition teachers, that\u2019s for sure.\u00A0He never let \u201Cproper\u201D writing get in the way of telling a great story and making it engaging for the reader.\r\nIf it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. \u2014\u00A0Elmore Leonard\r\nWriting like you speak is harder than it might sound. For some reason, it\u2019s easy to \u201Cput on\u201D a tone when you start writing, without even realising it. This is something I\u2019m still working on, and it takes a lot of practice.\r\n\r\nIn Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s list of\u00A0rules for writing with style, he explains how much better his writing is when it sounds the way he talks:\r\nI myself find that I trust my own writing most, and others seem to trust it most, too, when I sound most like a person from Indianapolis, which is what I am.\r\nOne thing that\u2019s really helped me to improve in this area is a trick that Leo taught me:\u00A0imagine someone sitting in front of you as you type, and write as if you\u2019re talking to them.\r\n4.\u00A0Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.\r\nWhen I write like I talk, I tend to write long sentences. I can write a sentence that fills an entire paragraph sometimes. Although this might be how the words flow out of my mouth, one of the benefits of writing is that you have a chance to edit your work before the reader gets hold of it.\r\n\r\nAdvertising legend\u00A0David Ogilvy\u00A0was a fan of getting to the point without wasting words:\r\nUse short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.\r\n\r\nNever write more than two pages on any subject.\r\nThis tip is less about editing (which we\u2019ll get to next) and more about keeping things simple. As much as you can,\u00A0get to your point quickly\u00A0and use the most simple language you can.\r\nAs for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. \u2018To be or not to be?\u2019 asks Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. \u2014\u00A0Kurt Vonnegut\r\n5. Over time, try to write less, not more\r\nAnd now we come to editing. Perhaps the most important thing I\u2019ve learned about writing, ever, is how core editing is to the process of great writing.\r\nThe bottom line is this: Write less, not more. \u2014\u00A0Jeff Goins\r\nOnce you get more comfortable with just getting started and writing a rubbish first draft, you will find that\u00A0at least as much of the writing process is in the editing, if not more:\r\nIt actually takes more work to write a short post. You may find you spend twice as much time editing as you do writing. (11)\r\nHaving someone else to look over your work can help immensely in this stage, as can reading your work aloud and letting it sit in-between edits.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, you\u2019ll need to learn to step back from the process of\u00A0writing\u00A0and put on your editor\u2019s hat.\u00A0View your draft as objectively as you can, while asking whether it makes a clear point and whether you\u2019ve used the shortest, most simple words and sentences you can.\r\n\r\nKurt Vonnegut\u00A0has an excellent rule we can all use when editing:\r\n\r\nYour rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.\r\n6. Keep writing, even when it already hurts\r\nLastly, the most important tip there is. I know\u00A0Leo\u00A0would agree with me here that\u00A0the more we\u2019ve both written, the more we\u2019ve improved. We\u2019ve also come to understand more about the process of writing and sharing content over time.\r\n\r\nWhen we recently launched\u00A0Buffer for Business, I remember discussing how the launch post might look like. And at moments like this, even when you\u2019re almost out of ideas, to simply keep writing and see what comes is often one of the best ways to come up with a great story, at least,that\u2019s how it turned out here.\r\n\r\nAs\u00A0Jeff Goins\u00A0says,\u00A0the secret to prolific writing is practice:\r\nDon\u2019t write a lot. Just write often.\r\nIf you want to\u00A0get better at anything, you have to practice.\u00A0You have to be\u00A0disciplined\u00A0enough to show up\u00A0when you don\u2019t want to, and to\u00A0keep at it\u00A0when\u00A0you\u2019ve had enough.\r\n\r\nI think this image says it all:\r\n\r\n\r\n(Another great infographic from\u00A0Copyblogger)\r\nWhat other tips do you have for bloggers, copywriters and content marketers? What have you learned from your own writing experience? Let us know in the comments.\r\n\r\nRelated:\u00A0How to cure stage fright: The science behind public speaking\r\n\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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