Improve your business blog by reading more

I agree with this advice, yet I often wonder how to go about it. How does reading improve your writing? Does it happen at a subconscious level, or are special reading techniques required?

I found the answer in Daphne Gray-Grant’s book “8-1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better.” The book is an excellent primer that teaches you how to write. Gray-Grant is the publication coach who adapts journalism and time-management techniques to help clients improve their writing.

A former journalist, Gray-Grant asserts that the problem is that no one ever taught us how to write. Sure, we wrote essays at university, received grades, and feedback. However, no one ever showed us how to tackle our writing using an effective plan. Gray-Grant goes on to outline an approach every writer can use, whether you want to write a better business blog or you’re drafting a complex nonfiction book.

The keys to successful writing, Gray-Grant says, include planning, research, thinking, determining the “lede” or “angle” for your story, research, writing, revising, and editing. I learned a lot from the book and keep it by my side as I plan my weekly blog posts.