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So, you want to write?

A Step -by- Step guide by chief editor and owner Marie Montgomery
 

Straight To The Point


I'm going to be direct and get straight to the point. The writing industry is hard to successfully break into.
There are millions of people who share your dream and desire to be seen and published.
​
There are 10,000 writers for every 1 chance of becoming successful.
In order to succeed you must stand out above the others and be unique.

Statistics are not in your favor, this is going to take hard work, time and dedication,
and quite possibly even a piece of your soul.

To become successful you must prepare for endless days and sleepless nights.
You must become one with your characters and breathe the very air that you write into their bodies.

Any publisher who tells you that this will be easy, is straight up lying to you.
This is a hard reality, and the first step is to accept it before you even begin.

Don't expect to get rich fast!

Begin your journey as a hobby, and not a career!

Write for the enjoyment of it and not for the profit.

Becoming a well-paid author takes time (lots of time) and dedication!

Writing For Montgomery Coleman


Unfortunately, we do not (or rarely) accept manuscripts or requests to be published. We prefer to hand select our clients.


We currently work with over 30,000 writers and almost each one of them were hand selected.

As with many other publishers, for us to notice your work, you need to have your writing published on the internet.
We tend to survey the VOCAL network (and similar platforms) often for new additions to our growing family. 

In other words, if we like what I see, we will be contacting you. With this said, you may send us links to your work for review, but we make no promises or guarantees.

Recognize Why You Want to Become a Writer

There are a nearly limitless number of good reasons to become a writer. Maybe you want to get into the first stages of freelance writing, maybe you want to up your game and become a B2B content writer, or maybe you want to self-publish lots of books.
But you have to know which of those reasons are the reasons that you want to become a better writer.
As with anything, you can only hone your craft and get better at skills if you have the proper motivation behind it.

 

So what is your motivation?

 

Is it to write more compelling Facebook posts to prove to your friends how great your life really is? Is it to get the attention of influencers with your cheeky and cleverly crafted emails? Or is it more than that? Whatever the reason is that you’re trying to learn how to become a writer, know the reason, and focus on it during your quest to improve your skills.

- Self publish on Vocal for $10 a month.
You can also earn compensation through the Vocal network.
I have recruited 1000's of amazing, talented writers from VOCAL, and similar platforms.
You can build a fan base, an online following and learn valuable techniques.
This is a wonderful place to start! 

Become a Better Reader


All of the best writers I know are also voracious readers. The more you read, and specifically the more books you read, the more you’re exposed to high-quality writing.

Without realizing this, you are internalizing the elements of the text, and you’ll slowly find yourself beginning to implement them in your own writing.

Not only this, reading gives you ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. And the more ideas you have, the easier it becomes to put them down on paper.

Resources for Becoming a Better Reader:

  • Try These Books – Want to get started reading today? Check out this post where you’ll find 12 books to help you jumpstart a love of reading (and prepare you to be a lifestyle entrepreneur).

  • Goodreads – This is a social network dedicated to reading. Use it to find books and see reviews, and check out what your friends are reading. You can find quite a few great books on here you might have never thought about before.

  • Your Local Library – Yes, libraries are filled with great resources, all for free. And, most libraries now also feature online books and audio resources in addition to all the traditional stuff.

Write Every Day


As with anything in life, practice makes perfect.
If you limit your writing to 3 tweets a month, you’re probably not going to improve much.
But if you write every day, you’ll begin to notice the process becoming easier.
Thoughts becoming clearer. And most importantly, you’ll begin to enjoy it more.
It’s always more fun to do things we’re good at. Writing is no different.
A great way to do this is by committing to a certain number of words every day.

Start a Blog
Speaking of blogs, one of the best ways to become a writer, is quite simply to become a writer!
The fastest way to do this is to start a blog.
This is also the very first step that we recommend people take no matter what online business they’re starting.

Read “Everybody Writes” by Ann Handley
When people ask me for steps on how to become a better writer – I always tell them to read Everybody Writes.
It fully recognizes the concept that we’re always writing, marketing, and promoting – even if we don’t realize it.
It helps you specifically focus on writing engaging and interesting content that will do well online.
Other books I recommend on the topic are:

Enroll in an Online Writing Course


We just talked about my favorite book for aspiring writers, but what about people that really want to go all in and truly start honing their crafts?
There are a lot of different courses online for people who want to become writers.
My favorite is CopyHour.
This focuses specifically on how to become a better copywriter, or how to be more persuasive with your words. It takes a fairly unconventional approach, but it works.  This is also how I improved my own skills.
If you’re looking for a good starting point, grab our free freelance writing guide to help you get on the right track.

Do your own research!

The internet is your best friend.
Soak in all of the research that you can possibly find.

Don't rely too much on other authors for help and advice.

Pave your own way!

Start Journaling


This is a common thread I’ve seen among many of my most successful entrepreneur friends – they journal.
Sometimes just for 5 minutes a day, some for an hour.
Journaling will not only help you organize your thoughts and prioritize tasks or initiatives but by writing in it on a regular basis, you’re writing will begin to improve.
As we mentioned earlier, the most important thing you can do to become a writer is to write. Journaling can be an easy way to start doing that, without the pressure of having to publicize any of it.

Here are three journals I’ve used:

  • Moleskine – This is the best one you can get for writing, hands down. No prompts, just empty pages for you to write out your thoughts.

  • Productivity Planner – This was given to me by a friend of mine, and I think it’s great. If the idea of writing in a journal every day is intimidating, start with this. It helps you focus on your daily and weekly tasks. By writing in it daily, you start to build that habit, which you can, in turn, translate into more freeform journal writing.

  • Self Journal – Very similar to the Productivity Planner above, but taking a focus on gratitude and tracking small actions every day.​

Find a Place to Get Real Critiques


This is a problem, not just with writers, but with creatives or business people as a whole.
Often times it can be difficult to get real feedback from people because those closest to you want you to feel good.
They would rather be nice and polite than tell you what you really need to hear.
When you’re trying to improve your writing skills, this is horrible. The last thing you want is to keep repeating bad habits, or spending hours crafting work that isn’t interesting.
Your mom is probably not the best person to critique your work. Neither is your significant other.
Find either a business peer or mentor you trust, or you can find communities online to get real feedback.
Forums for writing critiques:

  • Location Rebel Academy – We’re constantly giving our members feedback on their content writing, their websites, and their approach to finding clients. We’re friendly, but firm, and while we’ll always complement the things you’re doing well, we’ll never just tell you what you want to hear.

  • Writing Forums – These forums tend to focus on fiction writing, but can be a great place to get feedback on the style of your writing, and to get ideas as well.

  • Legend Fire – This is a forum specifically for writing critiques. Again it generally focuses on creative writing but is an excellent starting point.

Practice Becoming More Conversational


This might be the best piece of writing advice I’ve ever received. One of the first guest posts I’d ever written was for the personal finance site Get Rich Slowly.
The guy behind the site JD Roth, told me numerous times during revisions, “be more conversational and relaxed, use more contractions!”
Online the more conversational you are, the easier your writing is to read, the more relatable and trustworthy you become, and the better your flow of writing becomes.
Comparing my writing in 2009 to now, you’ll notice many more contractions and a very conversational tone.
I have JD to thank for that.

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