One thing successful writers all have in common

Having watched countless interviews, and studied the world’s most successful authors for years, it’s become clear that just one thing separates good writers from average ones.

Write right.

This one thing is the first and most important step for any would-be writer and almost every well-known author on the planet recommends it. Following this advice will improve your writing as it did mine. It’s the reason I run my own copywriting business and presumably the reason for my viral Medium story. For others, it might mean becoming published authors.

The most important piece of the puzzle has nothing to do with writing itself. Good writers do one thing above all else: they read.

It’s tempting to assume that writing can be ‘figured out’ via mechanical means. There are hundreds of books on punctuation, and grammar––and many spend hours fervently studying them––but those books won’t necessarily make you a ‘better’ writer, albeit a more accurate one.

You see, writing isn’t a science. Including the Oxford comma, preferring colons over the em dash, and a willingness to start sentences with ‘but’ or ‘and’ are preferences. Don’t get me wrong: these details are important but in no way the difference between good writers, and great ones.