If you’re a freelance or nonfiction writer, you write…a lot. While it’s easy to fall into the routine of getting an assignment or brief and jumping right in, writing is a skill that is refined over years of practice. So even if you’re making a living as a writer, there are still times when you may want to learn how to improve writing skills.
Follow these tips to become a better writer, one word at a time.
7 Tips on How to Improve Your Writing as a Freelancer or Professional Writer
Learning how to become a better writer will take practice but you’ll see the results pay off in dividends from freelance clients and being able to charge a higher freelance rate. (BTW, how do freelancers get paid?)
1. Use Resources
Writers don’t create in a vacuum. Using available resources can help generate ideas, refine the finished product, and improve your efficiency. Doing this can also help you become a better writer as you continually learn and refine your process.
Here are some tools to explore:
- Grammarly: Catch typos, improve clarity, and make your writing more concise.
- Hemingway Editor: Highlight difficult-to-read sentences, passive voice, and more.
- AI Tools: AI LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini can offer answers to complex questions. But they can also generate outlines and ideas and check for grammatical errors. I have an issue with using passive voice too often in my writing, so I’ll upload the text of the article and ask ChatGPT to identify passive voice, so I can fix it. It can also help with brainstorming and outline creation (I used it to create the outline for this article, in fact!).
- Coggle: Create mind maps and diagrams to brainstorm and organize ideas.
Each of these resources can be instrumental in sharpening your skills. Some of these are on our top productivity apps for freelancers, too.
2. Take a Course
If you want to dig deeper into how to improve writing skills, consider taking a writing course. Platforms like MasterClass and Skillshare offer lessons from top writers.
For example:
- MasterClass features lessons from Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, and others.
- Skillshare has specialized writing tips for freelancers and insights into freelance writing as a craft.
This website’s founder, Diana Kelly Levey, has freelance writing online courses on Teachable that provide lessons on how to get started freelance writing as well as how to write a freelance article.
3. Write for Fun and Self-Reflection
I know that when you write for your job, sometimes writing for fun isn’t the most appealing way to spend your time…but on the other hand, we’re writers, and it’s what we do! As you explore how to improve your writing, it’s important to explore different styles of writing. Whether you work on a novel, short story, poems, journaling prompts or another form of non-work writing, writing for fun can help you sharpen your skills.
Not sure where to start?
You can alsoseek out websites that provide prompts or ask an AI LLM to create a list of prompts. The beauty of this is that you can get as specific or broad as you want. For instance, I just asked Perplexity for the following:
- Can you create a series of writing prompts that will expand my imagination and writing skills?
- Please generate a list of 10 self-reflective journaling prompts.
- Can you suggest prompts that focus on overcoming challenges and setbacks.
- Create a list of 5 writing prompts that could expand into ideas for a novel (these were actually really good!).
4. Walk away from your writing
This seems counterintuitive if you’re working on being a better writer, but walking away from your writing for a few hours or days can help you see it with new eyes. This is especially important if it’s a project you’ve spent a lot of time with or felt bogged down by. Taking breaks from your work is some of the top pro advice for beginner freelance writers.
When you return to it you’ll be better able to spot errors or rework sections that need some tweaking. It’s one of the secrets of how to improve writing skills.
Learning how to become a stronger writer in the 5 high-paying freelance writing skills will net you a higher income this year.
5. Read Actively
You may have heard the phrase “read like a writer.” Basically, it means reading with an eye for what the writer does with their words and structure. While reading for fun is great (seriously, it’s the best), you can also read different styles of writing and work from different writers to see how they craft their work. This can include reading short fiction and nonfiction, novels, magazine articles and newspaper articles, print and online newsletters, business blogs, and even poetry and lyrics to see what literary and style devices others use.
When you find something that you really like, you can bookmark it or save it in a designated folder to come back to later when you need some inspiration.Understanding the techniques and devices that make other people’s writing engaging can, in turn, make your writing more engaging as you implement them into your process.
Knowing how to write better will help you land more work in the types of freelance writing that pays freelancers well.
6. Accept feedback
This may be the hardest one on the list, but accepting and implementing feedback is pretty much a surefire way to improve your writing. But, that said, a cold chill still runs through my body when an editor sends feedback my way. It can be difficult to swallow your pride, especially if it’s a project that you’re close to, but feedback can reveal any shortcomings and help you remedy them.
You can also reach out to other writers if you have an assignment that needs a second set of eyes. I had a writer friend send me some of her writing to look over the other day, and I really enjoyed the chance to help out!
7. Create an Idea Bank
You know how ideas hit at the strangest times — driving in traffic, doing the dishes, and (of course) in the shower? That’s when it’s important to write them down, so you don’t spend the next day wracking your brain trying to remember the great idea you had right before you went to sleep last night (which I am definitely not doing at this exact second…that’s a lie, I am.)
You can keep your idea bank anywhere and having it written down to refer back to will help you become a better writer. I personally have Google Keep lists for LinkedIn post ideas and freelance article pitches, but people also use Trello, Notion, Google Docs, or a good old fashioned notebook. This is especially helpful when you sit down to write and, well, nothing happens. You can go to your idea bank and pull from there!
Make it worth it
While all of these ideas can help you improve your writing, they may not all work for you. And let’s face it, we’re all busy, so improving your writing doesn’t have to take up a bunch of time. You can choose one or two activities to focus on and maybe only do it once or twice a week. Other ideas, like incorporating AI tools into your writing can actually help you improve your writing and potentially make you more efficient. You can test out a few and see what works for you!
