Pro writers never stop learning. Even accomplished novelists and those who teach Master's students keep improving their vocabulary, their technique, their knowledge.
That’s one of the things I like about writing. The line between student and teacher is fluid; it is not defined by qualifications, awards, or book sales. Teachers must learn to collate and impart useful techniques, then give considered and honest feedback.
I began helping others online with their writing in 2019.
Back then, it was often PhD theses, university applications, and business texts.
But as I helped language students online, I honed my own knowledge of the English language. I learned how to critique texts so students would improve next time. And I developed frameworks to explain best practices for style, voice, and technique (depending on the context).
Teaching is perhaps the best base for becoming a pro writer.
You develop efficient research skills.
You can appreciate your strengths and blind spots.
You become a concise explainer.
In addition to teaching, I built profiles on sites like Substack and Medium. While I continued with my creative outlet of writing short stories, I needed to make sense of the materials and techniques I was producing for students. My columns on Substack were mostly on literature and short stories, while I wrote more about language and technique on Medium.
When you start out writing, it’s more about creating something from within; as you move forward in your writing career, you feel the need to reach more readers.
Publishing on sites where you must build an audience from the millions of readers already on the platform turns you from blogger to writer. It’s not all about algorithms and clickbait titles, though. Both sites are ‘semi-professional’ in that they are open for all to publish, but editors and readers expect a certain level of quality.
When regularly publishing on ‘semi-pro’ platforms, writers develop good habits — understanding the structures that resonate, going deeper with research and evidence, formatting for readability, and proofreading thoroughly.
The days of building your writing chops from shadowing a wizened editor at a local newspaper are over. Writers need to find their own reasons to develop and share their skills. They need a semi-pro stepping stone before launching a business. And they need to keep learning.
I suppose that’s what I did in 2019/20. More short online courses and workshops, analyzing (not just consuming) top blogs and articles, and reading the odd book on writing craft.
This was all done while I travelled in Asia, searching for possible ‘digital nomad’ bases.
And just as I found one, Covid struck, and I returned to the UK for lockdown.
#unphiltered