Lots of fruit. That’s the real answer. Lots and lots of fruit. Studies suggest that blueberries enhance brain function, creativity and productivity. To my friend that hates fruit, you should really eat more fruit. It’s the main reason why I’ve developed my writing over the years.
Now for everyone else, I want to share some of the key factors behind the improvements to my writing and work over the years. With everything that we do in life, the more we do it, the better we get. Especially when it continues to feel intrinsically motivating, and play rather than work. I’ve seen this with my own writing over the years, typically having a hard time looking a 2017 article in the eye. Can’t even imagine what a 2014 article looks like. With that, here are the top four ways I’ve improved my writing over the past eight years.
1. PUBLIC SPEAKING
Fruit helps improve public speaking too.
I can vividly remember giving my first public speech. Grade four. Staring at the ground. Speaking about all the hockey players that scored over a hundred goals in NHL history. Gretzky’s one of them, I’m pretty sure. One girl sort of clapped.
By the time next year rolled around, I made it my mission to make my speech something special. I can’t remember if I won anything, but I definitely made it to the oh-so-selective speech-off. From there, I’ve always had a knack for public speaking. Much of it comes from my desire to constantly put myself in leadership roles in front of groups. I love a big group. The bigger the better, as it’s only more people that I can impact. But through every role that I’ve had – from coaching, to teaching to working with kids in recreation, I’ve constantly been thrust into the role of the storyteller. I love telling stories as a mechanism for learning, as it allows our audience something to hold onto. Something more concrete that can click in their brains. When you get good at public speaking and telling stories to groups through your voice, it naturally enhances your ability to tell stories in any form.
Sometimes writers are branded as the shy weirdos. The quiet, introverted, loner types. Sometimes, I even fall into that camp of having an affinity for aloneness, and being left alone with my thoughts. Actually, a lot of the time. But at the same time, some of the best writers I know are also some of the best public speakers I know. The two go hand and hand. If you can write better, you can put together greater masterpieces for public presentations. If you can speak better, words will just flow off the tip of your keyboard. Not your tongue. That would be weird.
But if you love to write – put your work out into the world. I strongly encourage you to get over the fears and share your talents. Everyone’s going to love it. No one’s going to be mean. In the meantime, practice public speaking. Gain confidence. Chances are, you’ll feel more comfortable sharing.
2. WRITING COURSES
Before you skip this one out of obviousness, let me share something you might not have properly considered – every writer should take writing courses. The same way that coaches take coaching courses to develop their skills, writers’ workshops and classes can be so valuable for teaching tangible skills to improve your body of work. In my constant endeavour to take courses outside of my own degree in university, I took two writing courses as electives. These were two of the best classes I’ve ever taken. For several reasons.
1) You read a ton of material, and then break down why it’s written in a way that works. This helps you develop better strategies when writing your own work. It can also give you stylistic inspiration, which is what happened when I wrote my poem Forest Disjoint. That week in class, we read a poem where the author structured their lines like a two-way conversation about racial inequality. I felt immediately inspired.
2) You’re challenged to write outside of your comfort zone with specific writing tasks. I would have never written a sonnet as beautiful as Owls at Night without my instructor asking me to write one. I would have never written this article had it not been for those courses either. How meta is that. I should say, I ate a lot of fruit before class. Really helped write those poems.
3) You develop new techniques. We had something that most writers will be familiar with called the ‘Stream of Consciousness’ at the start of every class in my second creative writing course. Basically, you put your pen to the paper and didn’t stop until the timer stopped. I wrote some impeccably weird stories and poems in those moments at the start of class, but also some of my BEST poetry – like Sleepless. I’m lucky enough not to struggle for inspiration, but it’s techniques like these that I think can allow writers to stay motivated to do the thing they love, and forget about having to be in the right environment, in the right headspace. You can simply just put pen to paper and see what happens.
3. VARIETY OF WRITING FORMS
This one I think is the real #1. In my world of writing for both myself and others, I’ve tried out all the forms. Sitcom, screenplay, poetry, short-story, fiction, non-fiction, song-writing, journalistic, satire. I think each of these paths only allowed the others to strengthen. Had it not been for editing over a thousand of my own articles on TMS, I would have written that sentence as ‘to be strengthened’. Now I know that shorter and sweeter is often better. Maybe not the best example. Maybe I should eat more fruit.
Here’s a better example! I’ve always been a fan of writing dialogue, because it allows me to fully express my creativity and humour. But sitcom and screenplay writing massively helped to enhance my tennis match dynamics of all the back-and-forth when translating dialogue into short stories and books. Even more – the way that you can more easily show, not tell, in screenplay writing. I might not have fully learned how to do this yet in book-writing, but I’m certainly more cognizant of moments when I’m telling, not showing because of the experiences I’ve had writing film.
Writing poetry also played a big part in my writing development, because the lines are typically kept oh-so short and sweet. You’re essentially trying to make an impact with just a few words at a time, without ever actually explaining yourself. It’s all about the undertones of what you’re saying in poetry, rather than the actualities of what the words say above the surface. This is incredibly valuable in other forms of writing, as you work to balance the line between cryptic imagery and actually explaining what’s happening to the reader.
Finally, writing the many, many articles on TheMastermindSite.com massively helped too. I always strived for originality and quality in my work as two underscoring principles of play. I’ve taken that with me in everything I’ve written. I don’t just write for the sake of it. I write to try and make an impact on others; and intrinsically, to learn more about how I truly feel about a situation. But writing on TMS always leaned toward having to be somewhat matter of fact, even if interjecting sporadic moments of subtle humour and personality. On this platform, I feel as though I’ve completely found my voice. I’m able to write in a way that is completely for myself, in a style truer to how I speak and exist in the zeitgeist of the world. Okay. You got me. I’d never say zeitgeist in real life.
4. RELENTLESS PLAY
I would never go rock climbing in the great outdoors. I’d be far too scared. But rock climber psychology fascinates me. Story goes – the guy who invented ‘Flow’, the guy that you definitely can’t pronounce the name of, was a rock climber. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi realized that even when completing an incredibly complex task like the death-defying things that climbers do, that he often found himself in a state of bliss.
Writing is the same for me. Nothing else matters. Even if it’s not death-defying; it’s complex and magical, and involves so much strategic thinking. Yet the words just flow off the fruit. The more you do the thing, the more the words flow off the fruit. The more you get into a ‘Flow’ state and come up with ways to make it more or less challenging for yourself depending on the moment.
I’ve written over 1,000 articles on the internet, I’ve entered and won poetry prizes, I’ve written over a thousand pages of screenplays and sitcoms, I’ve even gone through several notebooks on the old fashioned pen and paper. I just write relentlessly. I write because I enjoy it. It always feels like something that I’m doing for me, and no one else. Even if others get value out of my articles (and that is a clear goal of mine), it’s ultimately for me.
This is the difference that I described recently in How to identify where you want to go in life. Even if no one read my work, I’d still write. It’s something I do for the sake of enjoying the journey, and not for any external reward. That’s part of why TMS ultimately became something I wanted to move away from, because the extrinsic rewards started to take over from the intrinsic rewards and it started to feel like work. Not the act of writing. But everything else around the writing for the site – watching football matches, analyzing football matches, listening to podcasts, watching videos, consulting with players, coaches and clubs. It all started to feel less like play, and more like work.
But at the same time, having written about three-five times per week over an eight-year span, I’ve massively developed my writing from 2016 to 2024. You can visibly see the differences from then to now. My friends tell me the same. So I think whoever you are and whatever you’re writing about, continue writing at times where you feel inspired and motivated to write. Strike while the iron is hot, and experiment with a variety of forms and styles. The more you write, the better you get. Above all, put your work out into the world. In the process, I guarantee that you will challenge yourself to be better. Write relentlessly, make sure it always feels like play, and your writing will naturally improve over time.
In addition to eating fruit, these are the top four ways that I’ve improved my writing over the years. I’d also be curious to hear from you and how you’ve improved your writing. Be sure to reach out or join the conversation to share. Thanks for reading and see you soon.
