For those of you aspiring to be writers and writers you have never tried before, I have one piece of advice that I believe will improve your writing significantly: write poetry. I believe poetry provides the writer a unique opportunity for expression. Because poetry is not marketable (okay, barely marketable), you will not be tempted to think of writing the poetry to sell it and be able to focus solely on the writing. Why would this be important? It allows you to experiment, and as a person who desires a unique voice that others want to read, experimentation allows you to dredge the depths of what you are capable, rather than sticking to what you know and to what you think is marketable. Though it may make you less marketable, it is highly likely to make your writing better, especially if you are very critical about going about the process of writing poetry and seek perfection in what you write.
“Why would it make me less marketable,” you ask. It will change how you go about thinking and writing, giving you a different way to do it that may differ than the mainstream. Those who sell books look at what makes books sell, but just because certain books sell does not make them good books. By experimenting with poetry, you may stumble upon a way of writing that has not been done before, and, because it has never been done, it has never been marketed. Since it has never been marketed, it is a higher risk to try to sell it. But if you are writing better, isn’t the snub from a hundred publishers worth a better result (For the sake of the art! For the sake of the art!).
If you think this advice is crap, there is an easy way you can see: test it. Seriously, and with a critical eye toward your own work, write poetry for a year, six months, or even a month. If it has no effect, feel free to tell me I’m full of it. Happy writing.