What Are The Most Useful “Other-Skills” A Writer Can Have?
I had a conversation the other day with some writers about what other skills they could pick up that would be useful for their writing. Now, a huge amount of people seem to think that writers should have design skills or coding skills. I don’t think either of those are hugely necessary beyond the basics. Or, design skills at least are useful as a basic skill. Coding… not so much.
Here is my list of skills which I think are most useful for a writer to build/develop on the side, and I’ve written why I’ve picked those.
(Please note: These aren’t directly related to your writing work. I’ve written about other skills you need as a freelance writer before.)
General Knowledge
Building general knowledge is the key place to start if you want your writing to be awesome. As a freelance writer or copywriter, you’re going to need to know a lot about different industries and business. General knowledge strength means that you don’t have to research everything from the “I-know-nothing” starting point that a lot of writers will have to. This means your service will be quicker, more valuable and higher quality.
Research Skills
You’re not going to know everything about any hypothetical business before you get the call to start writing for them. So whilst having general knowledge is fantastic, you’re probably going to have to do subject specific research.
Luckily, I’ve already written an article on getting a lot of subject-specific research done quickly. You can read that and then come back to the other things!
How Websites Work (Not Coding)
When people talk about making money on the internet, it blows my mind that people think that you need to be a programming wizard. I remember back in the day when websites were new, I spent nearly all of my pocket money on computer books so I could learn HTML and CSS, then later Java (what a waste of time!) PHP and later MySQL.
I wouldn’t learn them again if I were a thirteen year old today, that’s for sure.
You should learn how websites work. That doesn’t require coding knowledge. As a writer, you’re not ever going to be asked to do the programming: There are tech nerds for that and they’ll do a better job than you. Instead, learn your way around common Content Management Systems (a.k.a. WordPress.) Learn a bit of SEO (Hint: Use popular words and don’t overcomplicate SEO.) Learn how social media works. You’ll be all set.
Photography and Other Content Making Skills
As a writer, your business is in producing content that people want to consume. There’s no reason that you can’t add to your bag of tricks by taking up a hobby like photography. You wouldn’t be able to tell from this site, but I did exactly that. Check out my first ever posts on this website, where I went into detail about how photography is useful for writers.
You could also look into video making for Youtube and VSL’s, and you could look into podcasting if you’re interested as well. These skills, if you can write scripts, won’t take long to learn.
Sales (If that counts?)
Sales is something you need to learn if you’re a writer; preferably yesterday. I wasn’t sure whether I should include it because writing is sales. If, however, you’re writing novels or writing for your own websites and you’ve never tried to explicitly sell things, then you should learn how to do that.
There are two great places to start: The first is my “How to make great copywriting gains” article, and the second is my “Sales letter a day” challenge. You’ll get pretty good, pretty quick if you challenge yourself to sell something every day.
Final Thoughts: It’s All The Wrong Way Round
The thing with using other skills to become a better writer is that I think it’s the other way round.
Writing is something you can apply to any skill or interest you might have. Want to learn how to surf? You will become a better writer and surfer (as well as make some pocket money) if you take notes and start a website or write a book.
Want to learn about food criticism? Reading and writing are skills which will get you there quickly.
We get better at writing when we write publishable material. We write better publishable material by gaining experience. No matter what hobby or skill you pick up, write about it. That’s how your writing will get better. (And your portfolio will get bigger too as an added bonus.)