Writers are constantly searching for better techniques, better routines, and better strategies to improve their work. But most writing improvement comes back to two simple habits: writing consistently and reading intentionally. No shortcut replaces either one. If you want to become a stronger writer over time, these are the two skills that matter most.

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The Two Most Important Writing Skills

• Writing consistently
• Reading like a writer

Your craft as a writer is exactly that. It doesn’t matter if you write children’s books, MG, YA, adult literature, poetry, magazine articles, or blog posts.

No matter what you write — novels, blog posts, poetry, or picture books — the same principle applies: improvement comes through practice.

Working on your craft as a writer boils down to two foundational pillars. The first is writing. The second is reading.

Why Writing Consistently Improves Your Skills

If you want to develop your skills and abilities as a writer, you must write, write, write!

Knowing more doesn’t make you any better than knowing less. It’s applying what you know and practicing that application over and over that makes you better.

If you were a publisher choosing between two writers, who would you bet on? The writer arguing about literary theory, or the writer relentlessly revising until the work genuinely improves?

If you want to be a worthwhile author generating incredible content you must write.

You must write a lot.

And you must, most importantly, re-write what you’ve written until you are at the end of your mental rope.

Then you receive feedback, critique, or criticism. Instead of rejecting it immediately, you consider it carefully and use it to improve your work.

At some point, a manuscript must be shared with the world. The challenge is finding the balance between endless perfectionism and thoughtful revision.

People want to purchase high quality and entertaining or educational material.

A first draft is rarely the finished product. Strong writing emerges through revision. Every rewrite improves the odds your work connects with readers, agents, editors, or publishers. Revision is often where good ideas become publishable ones.

Every manuscript starts rough. Through revision, feedback, and persistence, strong ideas slowly become publishable work. The more seriously you treat revision, the more likely your writing is to eventually connect with readers.

First drafts capture ideas.

Revision transforms ideas into something readers want to experience.

Most successful books are rewritten many times before publication.

Every revision is an opportunity to improve clarity, pacing, characterization, or emotional impact.

Writing More Isn’t Enough

Repetition alone doesn’t create improvement.

Deliberate practice does.

Focus on improving one skill at a time:

• dialogue
• pacing
• scene construction
• characterization
• tension

How to Read Like a Writer

Reading this way transforms books from entertainment into education. Every story becomes an opportunity to learn from another writer’s choices.

Ask questions such as:

• What makes this character memorable?
• How does the author open the story?
• How is tension created?
• What makes the dialogue effective?
• How does the chapter end?

Why Reading Makes You a Better Writer

It’s said you can have the nicest ship in the world, but if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.

The same is true in writing.

A writer cannot exist by themselves in isolation. Work must be compared against other work. Your manuscript, book, or digital content must be compared against what is already available in the market.

Why? Because that is what the reader is going to do. To be a great writer you must be a great reader.

I absolutely love listening to audio books during my commutes. It’s transformed me over many years. I have listened to so many books I have forgotten all that I’ve listened to!

But you know what I don’t forget? How other writers use their writing to impact me.

One of my favorite examples is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Beyond being a great story, it’s a masterclass in suspense, pacing, and long-form storytelling.

Reading that book alone will give you so much to ponder you can’t help but improve your own writing. There are countless others but here’s the big idea. When you read, you must read like a writer.

When you read or listen to books as if you are the author writing them, you’ll notice when they raise the stakes with tension, when they hold back details, or blindside you with an unexpected outcome.

You’ll be amazed how beautiful the scenes are painted and how effortlessly you find yourself being pulled through the story so naturally you barely notice the pages disappearing. You’ll better realize what you enjoy and what comes off stale or flat. This is an even bigger deal with rhyme and poetry.

It’s a natural feeling to think we individuals know everything. But the reality is, within a few minutes of humbly looking at someone else’s work, you’ll learn something new.

And here’s where it gets exciting. In writing, an improved skill is not a linear improvement. It’s exponential!

If you improve your understanding of style, structure, dialogue, or perspective, that will magnify the success potential of every single current and future literary work.

It also magnifies the likelihood of a reader, agent, editor, or publisher wanting more of your work (that’s cross-selling).

To be a successful writer, you must maintain focus on a single actionable task – working on your craft.

Becoming a better writer is not complicated.

It is difficult, but it is not complicated.

• Write consistently.
• Read intentionally.
• Revise relentlessly.

Over time, those habits compound into something powerful.

Most successful writers aren’t necessarily the most talented.

They’re often the ones who continue practicing long after others stop.

If you’re serious about improving as a writer, pick one habit to focus on this week. Write an extra page each day, revise an old manuscript, or study a favorite book like a writer rather than a reader.

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