To Become A Better Writer, Become A Listener

“I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” — Ernest Hemingway

Writing is only 10% execution. The rest of it is strategy. And one big part of writing strategy is listening.

If you become a listener, I guarantee you will become a better writer by simply becoming more aware of your surroundings. Too many writers are focused on the wrong things.

When I started, I spent a lot of time looking at what other writers did. I looked at their websites, social media, and the stuff they wrote about. If I wasn’t doing that, I was probably looking at my stats.

As if looking at the number of weekly new subscribers will make it grow faster. If that was the case, I would have 100 million subscribers now. It’s a waste of your time. And if you keep wasting your time like that, who says you’re not wasting the reader’s time?

Writing is not about what you write

A guy once said to me: “I’m doing everything you’re doing. Why am I not getting the same results?”

It’s not what you write. It’s how you write. I can write about the same topics as Seth Godin, but I don’t have the same background. How I write is different…