How To Tell If Your Writing Is Good

12 Aug How To Tell If Your Writing Is Good

How to Tell If Your Writing is Good will provide you some litmus test for your writing.

Today’s article will focus mainly on the clarity of your writings. How do you write? 

How can you tell that you have written a good word?

Do you believe your work is worth reading to the hearing of professionals?

There are lessons to be noted while going through this piece.

When you try to search the internet about how to become a good writer, you will most certainly find answers, but not a good one to this personal question – are you good at writing?

What are you writing exactly? 

Writing is a tool used in almost every platform on earth. There are different forms of writing – blogs, thesis, articles (like what you’re reading now), journals, novels, poetry, resumes, etc. These writing forms have different languages (tone) associated with them. Each is distinct and represents its niche differently. 

A good way to tell if your writing is good is to find out what your niche is and what tone you have employed.

To know if your writing is good: some questions to consider include-

The unattended question above – “are you good at writing?” always attracts an affirmative reply. The question is somehow more of a personal one. 

What do you think of your writing skills? 

How can you tell you have written good stuff? 

To know if you can pronounce yourself a good writer, you have to:

1. Be a good grammarian – This is funny because almost everyone who studied the English Language in school calls themselves grammarians (they kind of personalize it).

 Being a grammarian is not limited to a set of people; it is a title for the people who adhere strictly to the rules of grammar and apply them in every single piece of writing. This is the first step to knowing if you can call yourself a good writer or not. 

Can others comprehend everything you’ve written? Can they decipher the figurative expressions you used? Do they get confused on the way? Getting this information right is surely the first step to your realization. 

You have to be proficient in grammar and diction – get your message passed and its content deciphered. That makes communication complete.

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2. Be stylistic – Do you know Kevin Hart and what he is? Probably a movie star cum comedian. 

Have you seen him star in a very sad or tragic movie? There is a very tiny possibility that he’s acted one. 

This is because he is a ‘comedian’. This is his style. 

Therefore, as a writer, you must have a style – your writing style that spells out your name if it’s read to an audience; a voice in your work that will always be recognized when read. This makes you and your work outstanding.

3. Be critical – Criticism is not (as we know it) to condemn your work. It is to strategically review your work and point out where you are flawed, what is to be, and what is not to be. Therefore, if you get reviews and criticisms, it means that you are a good writer. 

Some critics may also not like your work, but do not fret. This is also one of the attributes of good work – as everyone out there will not like your work; some will by the way.

4. Be confident in your writing skills – Sometimes, when I write, I ask myself a few questions. The questions make me damn all the other consequences. This may not be the best approach to knowing if you are a great writer, yet it resuscitates my sapping energy, makes me write more, and confidently show friends what I have done and wait for their reviews.

There are questions I ask myself whenever I feel fulfilled after writing a piece:

Am I satisfied with my writing?

Have I checked for errors?

Will people love to read this when they find it out there?

Is this the best way to present this piece?

When I have asked these questions, and their answers are all in the affirmative, then, I can confidently say – “I am a good writer”. I hoard the conclusion until after reviews from friends.

5. Find stories in your surrounding – this is an apt device for recognizing a good writer. Good writers see stories from unfolding events. They creatively carve them out and bring them to life in their books. In other words, this means you know a good scenario that would make a good story when you see one – be it in a written work, movie, or reality.

6. Write more than speaking it – You can also tell how good a writer you are when you figure out your unique features. Writing may have become a part of your hobbies, but you are yet to realize it. You know that you are a good writer when you eventually want to pen things down and present a good picture always.

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Conclusion

There are several other ways to know that you are a good writer. You just have to calm down, take a deep breath, then ask yourself what your qualities are. If you are one good writer, you can tell yourself the truth. Just keep at it. 

A good writer can have his work rejected sometimes. This has happened to many good writers and counting, but it does not say – you are not good enough. 

Again, always wanting to do better than you did before, to impress yourself and your readers, is a sign that you are a great writer. Another instance is when you always value written words over fancy wristwatches and golden necklaces – you’ve made it clear that you are a reader and a good writer.

Author: Izuchukwu Ugwu            

Reviewer & Editor: Chinyere Nwosu