Being a Good Writer Does Not Make You a Good Writer

Being a good writer does not make you a good writer.

Hear me out.

Mechanics, syntax, punctuation, grammar … all of that is important when communicating with words. I initially pursued my freelance writing career because I like to write. It was that simple. I like to tell stories and leverage language to inform people, to entertain them, and to make them think differently and cultivate their own ideas. 

To survive in the writing world, you must possess a fundamental curiosity about words and what they can do.

But when I started delving deeper into my freelance career as a whole, I realized that being a good wordsmith and enjoying the writing process itself was simply a drop in the bucket of being a good writer.

To be a good writer, you have to be many, many more things.

You have to be a good thinker. 

You have to know how to distill complex topics—especially unfamiliar, not-so-fun topics—into a digestible, understandable format. You have to know how to really dive into a topic and break it down mentally before putting it back together for your readers. 

You have to be a good researcher.

You have to know how to step away from what you're writing and simply absorb new information. You have to know how to read before you can write, which is not too different than learning to crawl before you can walk. I’m talking about that uncomfortable, sometimes mundane reading that teaches you something new, something critical to your work. You have to be open to absorbing new ideas, even those that are opposing to yours.

But you can't only be a sponge. You have to know how to take that information and spit it back out coated in perspective, opinion, and original thought—something that makes your writing a little different than everybody else's. It’s no longer acceptable to regurgitate the first page of Google results. 

Moreover, you have to be confident in your opinion and possess a true one at that. You can't have an opinion for the sake of it—it has to be something you can stand behind, which requires even more research and more critical thinking. So, again, you have to be a good thinker.

You have to be a good question-asker.

You have to be a good problem-explorer and interviewer and journalist. I've been hired on so many projects for which I was hardly an expert, yet I was tasked to capture expertise to communicate on behalf of a client. The best way to capture that expertise, while still being able to weave in my talent and love of writing, was to simply ask questions. 

If you don't have the expertise, you've got to find it. In order to write truly impactful, interesting pieces, I had to seek out those genuine experts and piece together interviews and capture quotes. This allowed me to communicate that expertise where I didn’t possess it.

You have to be a good practitioner. 

It might not always be possible, but every writer should attempt to put to work the things that they write about. Do you write about email marketing? Start an email newsletter. Retail? Go walk around small businesses and consider starting a small online store, even just temporarily. Coffee? Congratulations, you have an excuse to explore as many blends as your metabolism can handle.

You’ll learn more “in the weeds” than by reading other people’s articles and even talking to other experts. Doing is usually the best way to learn.

I mainly write about business and marketing (which has since morphed into SaaS, e-commerce, DTC, and more) because I started a business in college. I didn’t realize how much that experience would come in handy, and to this day, I’m still exploring how to do all the things I write about—and how to write about the things I do. 

You have to be a good publisher. 

This is especially true if you're writing for substance and storytelling—to educate and convert. You have to think about the big picture of your content efforts and how your individual posts can create a larger story and teach a larger lesson. If you're writing for marketing, you have to think about how your posts coincide with human behavior and naturally promote your client, brand, or product.

You have to be a good communicator. 

In the world of freelance writing, those academic writing and style guide rules go out the window. It took me months to get used to writing incomplete sentences—but if that helps communicate my ideas to readers, so be it. 

More than anything, though …  

You have to be a good witness.

A good observer. A good life student. The humbling truth is, we know nothing as individuals. I've learned more in my life from watching and listening and simply soaking in the actions and knowledge of those around me than I ever have from stealing the proverbial mic and shouting into the void, hoping for acceptance and endorsement. 

As writers who tell stories, transcribe ideas, and try to change people’s minds, we carry a heavier burden to learn as much as we can. 

When I think about my life, I truly haven't done much in my short 26 years. The writers, both fiction and nonfiction, that I admire are those that know how to transcribe their own experiences as advice and lessons. 

Many young writers are hired to do this on behalf of clients and companies and simply don't have a lot of experience to use. Sure, we've learned a lot in college and soak in a lot in our everyday lives, but at the heart of it, we know nothing on our own.

In order to be a good teacher and good communicator using the very words we love, we have to be open to infusing other people's experience in our work—whether that's interviewing experts around us, reading more from those who have come before us, or simply doing life with an open mind. 

I've learned more from those who don't follow style guides, as frustrating as that can be. I've always been told I'm a good writer, but that’s an empty accolade without adopting good habits as a researcher, a thinker, a reader, a practitioner, and a witness.

This is what makes you a good writer.