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I am frequently asked if anyone can be a writer, and generally I say yes. Each and every person born has the capability of being a writer. The problem is that not everyone knows how to find their inner writer. I would even go as far as to say that many people are confused by the term writer. We all write every single day of our lives. Writing cannot be avoided, which means that we all know how to write.

Then what is the hang up? Why do so many people struggle with writing? The struggle comes from the viewpoint that all writers are creative and imaginative and that they are “word masters.” So how do you tap into that creative side that is hiding deep within you? How do you become a writer? Here are the simple things you can do to help you locate the writer within.

First you want to start small. For someone that has not written before and for the first time sits down and wants to write a book… well that is like trying to run a marathon without any practice. It isn’t that it isn’t possible, but it will be a painful process and chances are great that you will quit before you get to far. I recommend that you start with small projects. Keep a journal and write about your day and do that every day. Don’t just write, “I got up, did the dishes, the kids cried and I wanted to go to bed.” The goal of the journal is that you are practicing communicating with yourself. Do you want include details such as the way you were feeling, the smells of the day, the sights. “The sun was out.” Great, but did the sun hold your house in a warm embrace lighting up everything you did through the day. Or was the sun so bright that it was blinding which caused you to you shut the blinds just to make it through the day? Over time you will see improvement in your writing. The descriptions that you include, the spelling and punctuation that you use, you want to make sure that you are using complete sentences.

The next thing you are going to want to do is think about what genre you want to write in, or that you are comfortable writing in. Typically we writers chose to write in the genre we like to read. That doesn’t mean that you are stuck writing in that genre, but it is one you are going to be most comfortable in to start. The other issue I want to point out is that there are many genres of writing it isn’t just fiction and nonfiction. Here is a small list of the writing genres:

* Catalogs
* Greeting cards
* Poetry
* Short stories
* Speeches
* Magazine Articles
* Newspapers
* Books
* Business Brochures
* Sales Letters
* Technical/Manual writing
* Contracts/Legal

The list can go on and on. Once you decide which area you want to write in, you need to read in that genre as much as possible. Learn the different styles in each area, pay attention to the words used, the best authors in that genre.

Then you need to practice. Practice makes perfect. Stephen King was not born a prolific writer, he practiced. Write one blog post, write one email, and write 300 words. Give yourself a daily guideline and limit. Whether you are writing for 5 minutes or you want to write for an hour, decide and stick with it.

Finally go to your local bookstore or even the library or do a quick internet search and find a book on “How to Write.” The purpose here is that they will offer you writing exercises that will help you improve your writing. Keep this routine up for six months and you will have completely unleashed the writer within you.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of ProArticle.com. Pro Article provides writers with Tips and Techniques for improving their writing skills. To learn more and INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “10 Tips For Successful Online Writing”

Whether you’re a blogger looking to monetize your writing efforts, an advertising copywriter or an affiliate marketer looking to drive more traffic to your website, you are writing for profit. While there are different approaches which can be taken towards the craft of writing with a profit motive, there is one element common to any writing which is meant to generate sales, drive traffic or even just provide your readers with useful information: be compelling, whatever sort of writing you may be doing.

Especially if you’re writing for the web (which is what we’ll be focusing on here), you need to remember on very important thing every time you sit down to write. People have short attention spans when it comes to reading; it’s not that they’re unwilling to read, but rather that they have a nearly unlimited number of choices online, so they’re picky about what they will take the time to read. You need to get your reader’s attention and quickly or they will become someone else’s readers.

This brings us to something very important when doing any sort of commercially oriented writing: your title. This is the first thing the reader usually sees, so you need to make it count. Write an engaging, compelling title or headline which gets across the idea of the piece – or one which gets their attention. Making readers sit up and take notice on the web is notoriously challenging, so one thing which is well worth your time is to have a look at some successful websites which are in the vein of the type of writing you would like to do and study how they use their titles, headlines or the first sentence of their work to draw the reader in. If you can get the reader’s attention, they’re yours to lose.

You have to keep them reading once you get them started and there are a few important points to be made here. Not all of these will be equally applicable to what you’re writing; as a very wise man once said, your mileage may vary. The most important thing is to keep the reader moving down the page. You can accomplish this in a few different ways. One is to use formatting – short paragraphs and subheadings are one way to keep the eye scanning down the page. You can also write your pieces in a way which gets the most important points out of the way first, which is a standard technique used both in print journalism and in long form advertising copy.

The last but definitely not unimportant part of writing for profit is that you need to give yourself a knowledgeable, trustworthy “voice” through your writing. Write what you know, as the saying goes – but make sure that you sound like you know what you’re talking about. While injecting a little of your own persona into your writing, even commercial writing, can help make your writing engaging to the reader, remember that everyone would rather give their money to an expert. Write knowledgeably, grab your reader’s attention quickly and remember that brevity is the soul of both wit and of writing for profit; but above all, be compelling.