Six Skills Writers Need to Avoid the Chopping Block in?2024

2023 has been a tough year for many writers, me included.

New technology brings opportunities and threats, but most of all, it means we need to adapt and learn quickly. And when we try to keep pace with the changes technology brings, we all fail, but that's part of our eventual success.

This year, I had corporate contracts fall through, I didn't work with as many clients as I wanted, and I spent six days a week trying to build the most valuable offering for multilingual writers. For some parts of my business, I've harnessed automation and technology, but for my posts, articles and course material, I remain fiercely human.

Now the dust has settled on the year of ChatGPT, I wanted to lay out what I see as the key skills for writers to develop in 2024. These are the skills you need to thrive as a writer in 2024. Remember, companies will go for the cheapest and quickest option, so of generative AI can do the job, they'll choose that.

Many of these points were discussed in detail in my October webinar with Shamila Iyer. Catch the replay on YouTube.

Top Skills For Writers in 2024

1. Understanding Your Audience - The insights you can gain from data are legion, but if you want to understand people, you need qualitative insights too. If you're a freelancer, spend time talking to prospective clients. Don't see every conversation as a sale or a loss. If you are writing for a niche audience, read popular posts and look at the comments. Forums and comment sections are where you can find the topics and language that resonate. This takes time. There are no hacks. But if you try to use quantitative data, you'll come second to a machine that can process millions of articles per second.
2. Creativity - This must be nurtured through dreaming, play, procrastination, movement, consuming art, and all the other things writers do instead of putting words on the page. Functional writing is what ChatGPT can produce. What you, as a pro writer, need is deep experience and a fearless approach to what goes into the machine.
3. Understanding of high-level language - Generative AI content is stuffed with buzzwords because it thinks the most common choices are the best. Wrong. Novel phrases and unique words trump buzzwords and cliches. They get attention and help your articles stand out. To nail creative vocabulary choices, you'll need a proficient English level. You'll need to keep learning new word and rejecting the tired phrases we see again and again.
4. Personal opinion and experience (Voice) - It's gotten to the point where unless your writing is coming from a place of opinion, expertise or experience, it's not worth much. Your writing voice is the choices you make about subject matter, phrasing, and cultural references. Readers should want to read your next article because it was written by you. Think about it: as a multilingual writer, are you more likely to win jobs by competing on Upwork, or should you pitch to companies which perfectly fit your experience and expertise?
5. Humour - Being funny in another language isn't easy. But at least you know what makes people laugh. ChatGPT doesn't. As more machine content floods the web, people crave fresh air — an escape. Laughing is the best escape from reality that humans have created (maybe apart from mind-altering drugs). Read my tips on how to be funny here.
6. Stories - I'm not talking about 'storytelling' (a.k.a. storyselling). Yes, story frameworks have a place in social media, but I implore you to avoid templates. Readers will recognise them quickly, and they don't like feeling manipulated. Instead, learn about narrative theory, and recognise the beats or turns in stories by reading the greats. The real meaning is written between the lines. That's why machines can't assess and reproduce it. Learn to get the reader to participate in the writing of the script and the value of your writing will soar.

Even if you've had a tough year, you can always reassess, reposition, and improve. Acquire 3-5 of these skills, and you'll make the cut as a human writer in 2024. We're already starting to see the harmful effects of too many machine-generated articles, so I believe 2024 will be the year of expert writers. Make sure you are among them.

In January, I'm running my first 2024 cohort for multilingual writers looking to build a solid foundation in these skills so they can compete with native writers and get better opportunities. For the next three days, you can still get a 50% discount by snaffling one of the 'early badger'?? seats.

Transform Your Writing in 2024 and join the elite.

Writer of the month - Luca Kozina

Each month, I'll be featuring one member of my community in my newsletters and posts. I want to celebrate and raise the profile of emerging writers, and I'm happy to get things started with Luca Kozina ?? . Over to you, Luca.

"Hi! I'm Luca Kozina ?? , a content writer from Split, Croatia. I've been in the content marketing biz since 2015 when I first found out making a living from writing is actually possible. Over the years I dabbled with many content formats (e-mail, blogs, social media) and industries including tech, tourism, culture and health. My experience as a published fiction writer has made me more empathetic, flexible and fluff-free.

In October 2023, I made a big leap of faith and started my one-woman business where I'm helping busy women entrepreneurs write content for their websites and social media.

As a non-native English speaker and writer I joined Philip's community. It was a relief coming into a safe space where no one is silently judging your language skills but offering advice, sharing their own mistakes and insecurities and some laughs! If you also want to improve your English skills and gain confidence and get better clients, make sure to join!"

(Phil again) That's all for this year. Thanks for being a part of this.

If you find my monthly newsletter useful, why not join the 2,157 multilingual writers who've signed up to my mailing list? No spam. No bullshirt. I'll just send you one cool writing tip per week (and you'll get my 30-page eBook How to Become a Proficient English Writer completely free). Join here.