How to Become A Skilled Writer: A Complete Writing Guide

Finding it hard to come up with new ideas for your blog post? One of the key challenges that bloggers and content writers face constantly is coming up with unique content on an ongoing basis. 

Many people think that with years of experience and expertise, you will be able to create that finest content. But that is not the reality! Even writers and bloggers who have years and years of expertise often find it difficult to come up with new ideas every time daily. 

So, What Matters? 

With millions and millions of blogs out there, you may feel that every worthwhile topic on the internet had already been covered. 

What matters are the quality and original content—these two prime factors determine the success of a blog. You might want to look at those blogs that you read or come across daily. Most likely you choose to read some of them again and again because you love these articles. 

At the same time, all the articles that are published are not groundbreaking. However, you need to keep your fan base engaged. So how to make it possible? 

How do they do it? 

Here is an interesting rather complete writing guide that would help you to become a skilled writer. 

A Guide to Becoming a Pro Writer 

Most of the influential writers started with no experience and then became influential by creating consistent and authoritative content. 

Before you start your career as a writer, you may think/find it easy to write. But once you become a writer, reality hits hard. As a writer, you may struggle to come up with new ideas over and over again. Fret not, you are not alone. 

Well, here are few tips that would help you craft content like a pro.

• Be open to your thoughts 
• Brainstorm for Creative Ideas 
• Add Validity to Your Content with a “Good Research” 
• Get a Catchy Title for Your Blog 
• Write a Strong and Captivating Opening Line 
• Optimize the Right Target Keywords 
• Creative Visuals for Better Audience Engagement 
• Give Your Blog a Professional Touch 
• The Power of a Strong Conclusion 

Let’s have those tips interpreted. 

1. Be open to your thoughts 

If you are planning to write a blog, get ready to unleash the ideas within you. It need not be a revolutionary one but must focus on something specific. 

Whatever idea you get, regardless of the essence, it is truly unique. Mainly because you have unique experiences and a distinct voice. The next thing on the line is you have to choose the blog niche. If you are choosing a particular niche, ask yourself 2 question 

     a) Do I enjoy reading about this particular topic? 

     b) Is there anyone else who is interested in the same topic? 

a) Reading is Fun When You Enjoy 

If you don’t like the topic, your blog would be a complete disaster. It will eventually show up in your writing. Whatever topic you pick, make sure you love the niche and naturally curious to know about it.

If you are not curious to learn about it, you will run out of ideas and won’t be able to create the content consistently. Therefore, make sure you choose a topic that you would love to explore and write. 

b) Know People Who Are on the Same Page 

In this digital era, blogging has quickly become one of the most common and popular ways of communication and sharing information. It is a great way to express yourself and at the same time, share the information with others. 

So, before you start writing, check on discussion forums and other blogging sites for the same topic. Get to know the people who are interested in the same topics as you are. This will help you to find more interesting and essential data related to your topic. 

2. Brainstorm for Creative Ideas 

Stuck for content ideas? Can’t get started with your blog or still looking for a suitable title? Or hit with a creative block? 

Kick your brain in gear with an effective brainstorming session. When it comes to generating a topic for your blog, you will come up with a lot of options. 

Before you come with a writing topic, ask few questions to yourself: 

• What should I write about? 
• What are all the topics should I cover? 
• Should I start blogging now? 
• Is this a trending topic? 
• Does it add unique value to the readers? 

Asking these questions to yourself would help you to come up with one-of-a-kind blog topic ideas. 

Doing this doesn’t take much time. An in-depth brainstorming session would help you to come up with 50 working topics within an hour. Pull out a pen or open up a notepad and write down all the topics that you would come up with. 

“Creativity is not just that one idea!” 

This activity would help you to look through the lens of your readers. Try to answer these ‘Whats’: 

• What excites the passion in readers? 
• What are the challenges they go through? 
• What are the traits of the readers? 
• What do they love/hate the most about your niche? 

This would make your task easy and interesting. With these questions, you would have about 50+ blog post ideas. 

3. Add Validity to Your Content with a “Good Research” 

By now, you must have come up with a thought-provoking idea…Next, is how to proceed further? Of course, it’s RESEARCH! 

Every step in your content marketing strategy requires extensive research. The entire foundation of your content is defined by the extensive research that you perform. 

Good in-depth research could provide you with definitive answers to the following questions: 

• Will my target audience respond to my content? 
• Which platform does my audience use to find my content? 
• In general, how does my audience engage with brands and businesses online? 
• What are the specific topics that resonate well with my audience? 

The role of good research doesn’t stop here. 

“Research is a distance between an idea and its realization” 

It adds validity and authenticity to your content. When creating content, you need to include statistics, facts, and even opinions to back up your point. Though research steals your valuable time, proper research adds more value to your content. 

But now, a question must have popped out for you. Where can I find the authentic information or the inputs for the blog? What are the valid sources and where to find it? 

Research Sources 

The first and foremost thing when you start creating your blog is to perform extensive research to learn anything and everything under that topic. Here are a few ways to get valid inputs for your blog: 

• Know your client better
  • Get valid inputs from your client
  • Visit the client website and give a thorough need
  • Get to know their business model
• Google Research
  • Check Google Alerts to get the latest news
  • Save all your findings then and there
  • Optimize your Google Search with SEO related keywords
  • Check Wikipedia
  • Check for Case Studies
• Link to Original Sources

Include reference links then and there in your blog, but then do not stuff all the links. 

To sum it up, no reader wants to consume content that was created out of speculation or some random thought. You need to do thorough research and provide credit to the sources of information. This will show your readers that your information is authentic and relevant. 

4. Get a Catchy Title for Your Blog 

You may wonder what’s in a name? 

Quite a lot, especially a lot more when it comes to blogging. Because a title tells people what your blog is all about. Without a compelling title, your blog will fall flat, and you won’t have a proper audience base. 

Your headline should include 

• Wit and useful information 
• An interactive and entertaining tone 

But then, a few blogs still go unnoticed. Therefore, make sure you take that ‘extra few minutes’ to craft the right title for your blog post. 

Think of blogs that you read sometime back. You will start remembering all the titles you have come across so far. You will eventually come up with a catchy headline that grabs the readers’ attention.

Here are a few things to consider before you come up with the right title: 

• Use catchy words that create curiosity 
• Focus on the “who” and not the “why” 
• Keep it short 
• Character count: 60–70 char length 
• Word count: 8–12 words long 
• Optimize it for SEO and all social media channels 
• Include keywords in the title to top the search results 

The right title would not only engage your readers in the right way but also build a strong fandom. But, ensure that you don’t deviate from the topic. 

5. How to Write a Strong and Captivating Opening Line? 

Do you know the power of a strong and powerful opening line? 

Remember blockbuster movies? They always have a dramatic opening where something big happens. The same rule applies to writing as well. There is plenty of copywriting advice flooding on the internet on how to write a captivating opening line that hooks up the audience. 

Creating curiosity will be a great move. Ensure that you keep in mind these rules when you write an opening line: 

• Keep it specific to your target audience 
• Challenge their beliefs and perspectives 

Your blog’s first two lines speak a lot and it must be so convincing for the readers that it is worth their time. 

Begin by setting the mood. Take advantage of people’s curiosity – this would do wonders! 

You can try one of these for creating an opening line: 

• A captivating or a narrative dialogue 
• A powerful action statement – in the form of a question 
• A strong statement – registering a powerful message 
• A quote – highlighting the overall message of the blog 

Figure that out and you will end up with a fitting title! 

6. Optimize the Right Target Keywords 

Your choice of keywords is important when it comes to writing. Right keywords would result in driving quality traffic back to your website. 

Keyword optimization plays a predominant role in all the aspects of Internet Marketing ranging from content marketing to link building and grouping keywords for your ad campaigns. 

“Not every word is a keyword” 

When it comes to SEO, the success of your organic search effort rests greatly on how effective you are at choosing the right keywords for your website. Making your content unique alone is not sufficient. Driving more traffic to your blog matters too. 

So, are you looking for ways to drive more organic traffic to your blog? 

You are not the only one! As a blogger or a content writer, everyone wants to get their blog ranked high on Google and top the results for every relevant search that happens. 

But then, it can be a bit tricky. Wondering why? With the ever-changing Google’s algorithm, your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can become a bit tough.

Here are some quick tips on how to optimize the right keywords for your blog: 

• Choose and target the right set of keywords 
• Focus on low difficulty keywords as well 
• Concentrate on long-tail keywords 
• Include keywords in the Title and Subheadings 
• Create compelling Titles and Meta Tags 
• Make your write-up responsive to all devices 
• Optimize the blog content for featured snippets – include bulletins 
• Include creative visuals for driving more traffic 
• Use user-friendly URLs 
• Boost your site’s page loading speed 
• Organize your content in a proper hierarchy 
• Include long-form content 

Implementing these tips won’t guarantee you first position overnight but would boost your performance in the long run. 

7. Creative Visuals for Better Audience Engagement 

Visuals play a crucial role in grabbing your audience’s attention. Without proper visuals, your blog posts aren’t driving anywhere near the engagement. 

This is because, without attractive and colorful visuals, words alone may not pull the weight. Because no one wants to read those long tiring blog posts. 

Everyone knows the power of written content, but there comes great visual. You would have to accept the truth that including visuals would result in better audience engagement. 

Words are responsible for building narrative content, whereas the visual content plays a predominant role in making the blog more compelling and engaging for your audience. 

“Create something worth sharing” 

So, you may wonder what type of visual content needs to be included in your blog. If blog writing is your passion, then here is your to-do list: 

• Embed a visual for every 400-500 words 
• For longer posts include mix up of visuals such as: 
• Images – include high-quality relevant images based on your content 
• Screenshots – relevant screenshots provide a transparent look for the readers 
• Infographic – use supreme data visualizations for highlighting complex processes or important statistics 
• Illustrations – create custom illustrations to highlight certain key points throughout the blog 
• Quotes – highlight key takeaways and strong points from your blog with the help of visual content 

Maintain a uniquely distinctive style in your visuals that reflect your brand voice strongly.

Finally, you’re done with your blog. Right? You must be feeling relaxed that you’ve finally come up with a masterpiece content that is worth sharing in social media channels. 

Well… It does not stop here. For some of you, writing might be a hobby but sooner or later you would definitely want to put a professional tag on your work. Adding a professional touch to your blog will encourage you to come up with more deserving content. 

8. Give Your Blog a Professional Touch 

You have put on so much effort in bringing out that masterpiece content. Now that you have a blog, you need to spice up your content. Right? 

Want to make your blog look professional? Implementing these below steps in every blog ritually will give that professional touch to it. 

• Optimize your content for voice search 
• Concentrate on your content flow 
• Include descriptive subtitles 
• Place quotes wherever necessary 
• Use bulletins and points 
•  Ensure that your content is 100% unique 
• Check for spelling and grammatical errors 
• Use formatting styles to highlight key points 
• Use proper punctuations to emphasize the right meaning 
• Adapt proofreading practices to fine-tune the blog 
• Avoid marketing tones and boasting pitches 
• Avoid usage of repeated phrases and sentences as it dilutes the blog 

Writing is similar to that of a wordplay. The more you understand the basics, the more you can express your writing eloquently. 

9. The Power of a Strong Conclusion 

A conclusion to a blog/article plays a crucial role in a blog. Because like an intro, it provides a complete glimpse, a final takeaway, or brings out the complete essence to the readers. 

Writing a conclusion is more of an art than just a writeup. Try to include innovative or informative quotes relating to the article. Ending with call-to-action will make much more impact on your blog and website. Encourage readers to come up with something similar to what your blog was talking about; this always does the trick! 

Make your conclusion sharp and brief and keep it as short as possible. At the same time, maintain a compelling tone. 

Takeaway 

Writing allows you to let out your heart and at the same time, brings people into your life. Make sure you project your voice strongly and make it unique. Be consistent with your writing so that it is highly engaging and reputable. 

Perform in-depth research before you start with your blog. Remember, people not only respond to a good blog but also share it on social media platforms. 

Hope we have covered everything that constitutes the steps to become a skilled writer. It is now time for you to start imprinting your content on the reader’s emotions. 

Good luck on your quest to becoming a pro writer!