10 Writing Rules to Write More & Better

Sagrika Oberoi
3 min readSep 12, 2022

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Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Writing is a skill that comes with practice. The more you write the better you get at it. Nonetheless, It doesn’t matter at what stage of the writing journey you’re in there is always room for improvement and learning.

10 writing rules that I learned in my writing journey

  1. Write for your readers, not for yourself. Understand your audience and know what they expect from you and write every piece centered around your readers.
  2. Make your writing skimmable- Most readers read from their mobile phones. avoid writing in long paras. break them into more digestible pieces. in this age of short attention span, in order to retain readers' interest, it’s essential to divide paras and use more white space in your article. use short sentences as much as possible.
  3. Fixing your grammar- It can be easily corrected use the free version of Grammarly to get rid of punctuation errors and more. grammatical errors distract the readers.
  4. Be specific- Don’t write for everybody, if you write for everybody you are writing for nobody. write for one person solving one problem.
  5. Write like you talk- If you can write the way you talk on a daily basis, people can easily relate. and your voice is your uniqueness. use it.
  6. Write and edit on different devices- Try to write and edit on different devices. and give yourself a few hours to edit what you have written. ideally a gap of 8-10 hours. It gives you a fresh perspective.
  7. Avoid using complicated jargon the simple the better- until and unless you’re targetting a specific audience where they understand the subject in depth. Avoid using jargon. It creates confusion and a confused reader= gone.
  8. Read everything aloud before hitting publish. This has helped me immensely. Try reading your text aloud before hitting publish. It helps you to easily detect the flaw and get rid of those clunky paras and unwanted words.
  9. Use active voice over passive voice to hook the reader.
  10. Make sure to get your headlines correct. A ship will sink or sail depends on what headlines you choose for your article. You already know how important this is. Your article has to swim in the ocean competing with other potential articles. The only way to get your reader's attention is by crafting a simple clear and catchy headline.

Final thoughts

In order to hone your craft. Remember Consistency is the key. writing consistently every single day, and showing up daily is far better than aiming for perfection. practice, practice, and practice, one day it will pay off. Make sure to set aside a writing goal and make sure to write x number of words each day. Don’t underestimate the power of showing up daily. even if you’re a mediocre writer. This habit alone can help you outperform others who publish when they feel good or motivated.

Till then keep writing and keep learning

Thanks for Reading! :)

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Sagrika Oberoi
Sagrika Oberoi

Written by Sagrika Oberoi

Researcher and writer, passionate about improving my life, Talks about personal growth, health, lifestyle and spirituality.🌸 connect- bysagrikaoberoi@gmail.com

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