Becoming an Effective Writer

One of my greatest passions in life is to write. I write for myself, I write for my loved ones and I write for money. On my first day as a first grader, our teacher asked us to tell something about ourselves and I remember standing in front of the whole class with a hand-made booklet. It was a fictional story I wrote, stapled together and then I tied a beautiful red ribbon to make it look more presentable. After hearing my story, my teacher said I would make a good writer someday.

I kept that in mind for as long as I can remember. When it was time for me to choose which course I wanted to take up in college, I didn't hesitate to tell my parents that I wanted to take up Journalism. Thankfully, they supported me with my choice. Now, 24 years after I wrote my very first story, I've made a firm decision to make writing my bread and butter. Some consider it a passive career. One that isn't really very lucrative. But the thing is, I love it. I love writing so much and I know that I am an effective writer and continuously working on being one because my heart is in it.

So what does it take to be an effective writer? I have discovered several factors that make one an effective writer.

1. Read. I've discovered that being a voracious reader helped build up my grammar. It's very hard to be a writer if one has a limited vocabulary. Besides, reading will help one learn different writing styles. If one is bent on writing books, reading will also help one brush up on plotting a story and setting a theme for the whole book.

2. Work on your Grammar. Yes, it's very important that a writer understands what he is writing. You can't use a word that you're not very familiar with. Otherwise, the sentence construction will be very poor and you'll lose your readers. Having a vast vocabulary will allow you to play with your words without altering the thought or idea you want to impart.

3. Draft and Outline. Lay your ideas down. Think of a particular topic you want to write about. From there, organize your ideas and start building up your article or story. Having rough drafts will allow you to brainstorm and take note of new ideas that inadvertently crop up while you're writing.