Do you always feel like putting down your feelings and ideas on a piece of paper? Do you know the appropriate usage of words and phrases while writing down your thoughts? Do you have the art of conveying complex ideas and intriguing your reader with the help of soothing words? If your answer is ‘yes’, then here are some tips on how you can make a scintillating career in the field of writing.
Required Skills to become a writer
Writers work across different genres, from news to fiction, prose to poetry as writing offers an extremely diverse multi-faceted career. Moreover, to become a writer, you must be creative enough to shape up your abstract imagination in the form of concrete and conveyable language. Apart from being crisp and brief, you require a passion for writing, command over language and a capacity to put down the opposite words artistically to capture the attention of your readers. The flair for writing is not always God-gifted but can be easily inculcated and developed with the help of certain habits and techniques. If you want to know the most effective technique to become a writer, it is nothing but to be a voracious reader.
To write a news copy you need to start with the most important ‘W’ that simply refers to what, when, where, who and why which may be followed by a ‘how’. While writing a feature or an article it is mandatory to understand the overall context of the topic along with the ultimate purpose of writing that piece. While introducing any topic it is expected from a writer to have a proper understanding of the theme of which the topic is just a part.
The writer is supposed to stick to logic and examples to move forward while writing. Deciding the tone is also an essential step in giving your write-up the desired flavour. Each paragraph of your write-up must be based on different aspects of your topic where all these facts, examples and logic are woven together to give the required structure to your story. Some other important points are the ‘throws’ and the ‘concerns’ of your write-up. The write-up must be concluded with the right throw showing the right concern. Apart from writing skills, writers are also expected to know different research methodologies because research is the foundation for original and authentic writing.
Eligibility to become a writer
Apart from the skills discussed above there are few courses which can be pursued to make writing a career. Some universities like IGNOU provide certificate and diploma programs in creative writing. Even Bachelor’s and Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism enable students to opt writing as a full-fledged career. To write fiction, literature is the best option at graduation and post-graduation level.
The author is an academician at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi.
