Learning to write is a never-ending process. Improving your writing skill can be challenging and difficult even if you love writing -- and incredibly daunting if you hate it. My students and readers ask me all the time how they can become better writers. So what can you do improve your writing skill? Three simple steps can help you find the writing help you need -- reading, writing, and critiquing.

You cannot learn to write or improve your writing skill in a vacuum. You must expose yourself to other writers' work. There is a wealth of writing tips available from every writer no matter their level of experience or expertise. Some writers offer ideas and fodder for your writing as well as expand your vocabulary. Other writers can provide examples of good writing, interesting style, and intriguing vocabulary or word usage. Still other writers can help you learn more about what mistakes you should strive to eliminate from your own writing.

And of course, you can seek all the writing help you can find, but without practice your writing will never improve. I always tell my students that I can only talk about writing for so long before I simply need to get out of the way so they can create and experiment to uncover their own personal writing process and writing style and discover how to work through their personal writing challenges. Writing is a very individual process and cannot be taught with a one-size-fits-all process. The more you write then the more you will learn about your own writing -- warts and all. You will discover your strengths and uncover your weaknesses -- then struggle to build on the former and diminish the latter.

Critiquing other writers and opening up your own writing to critique is one of the most effective ways to learn more about writing. Critiquing the writing of others can help you compare various solutions - and their effectiveness - to a variety of writing problems. It is often easier to find a solution to another writer's problem or challenge than it is your own -- and you may well find that today's solution for another writer is a solution to your own future writing issue. You can gain exposure to a variety of writing styles. In addition, the advice of an informed reader can offer a window into your own work. We usually know what goal we set for our writing but cannot truly judge how effectively we achieved that goal. An informed reader can help us identify problem areas as well as find potential solutions.

If you really want writing help and you truly desire to increase your writing skill then you must read more, write more, and critique more. The more you read of varied genres, authors, and styles then the better writer you will become. The more writing practice you give yourself then the stronger and more confident you will become. The more you truly evaluate and investigate writing -- and what works and why -- then the more effective your own writing will become.

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