8 Writing Tips You Asked For
There'll be a lot of posts about a lot of things... but this is what you came for, right?
Maybe you have come to this page looking for the magic writing tips that will make everything easy and help your writing shine. I hope you'll stay for the deeper explorations and fun stories. But if all you're looking for is a few tips and tricks… here you go.
Make Friends with the Dictionary
Mark Twain1 said: The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’Tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. Learning about words can be fun, and it gives you more tools for expressing yourself. If you don't know the difference between instance, incidence, and incident, or if you're not sure how to spell separately, don't feel bad! But do get into the habit of looking up words and their etymologies for fun.
Simplify
Henry David Thoreau said: Our lives are frittered away with detail. Simplify, simplify!
Ralph Waldo Emerson replied: One 'simplify' would have sufficed.
Write only the words you need. What that means is up to you, but I'll remind you that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said: Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
There are many ways to find things to remove. Here's one: look to the left of prepositions. You might just find an "In the case of" or a "Due to the fact that" to replace with a when or a because.
Worry Less about Rules
Yes, it's important to know the rules. Yes, you can break them. There are two strange things about the rules:
The more you know about them, the more arguments you'll get into.
If your writing is clear, the rules don't matter much anyway.
Can the passive voice be used? Is it okay to intentionally split an infinitive? And can you start a sentence with a conjunction? It turns out that some of the things people think are rules really aren't.2
Make Your Nouns and Verbs Do the Work
Adjectives are weak3. Adverbs are weaker. That doesn't mean never4 use them. It means that when you start letting your adverbs and adjectives do the heavy lifting, you might be missing the opportunity to put stronger, more specific nouns and verbs to use. When a sentence starts to get complicated, rewrite it around your most important noun and verb.
Parallel Construction Builds Trust
If you put several things in a row, make them consistent. A bullet list, a sentence with several clauses, or a poem of several stanzas creates an expectation in the reader. Break that expectation for effect if you must, but don't do it by accident. What if I had started that sentence with "A bullet list, sentences with several clauses, or when you're writing a poem?" Sounds worse, doesn't it? And then what do I do with the verb? It's a mess.
Hunt Down Ambiguity
There are many potential causes of ambiguity, from dangling dependent clauses to words that can function as either nouns or verbs. You don't have to become a grammar expert. You do have to re-read your writing and ask yourself whether any of what you wrote could have more than one meaning. Pronouns are a frequent cause of problems when it's not clear what they stand for. For a fun diversion about ambiguity, search for garden path sentence.
You Aren't Done Writing When You're Done Writing
After you write something, let it sit for a day or two until you start to forget what you wrote. Then read it and you'll see places you can improve. Let someone else read it and make suggestions. Continue to edit. Get as much feedback as you can. Take out what you can.
Don't Take It from Me.
Read advice from other writers. One of my favorites is Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing, which is easy to find on the Internet. Ursula K. Le Guin has also written some excellent tips, as have many other authors. Try typing your favorite writer's name into your favorite search engine, followed by "writing tips."
There's more to explore on all of these topics, and I'll write more about them in future posts.
Many things get mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain, but I believe this quote is his.
The answers: all of those are fine. There are legitimate uses for the passive voice; even Oxford says the split infinitive is fine; and starting a sentence with a conjunction is perfectly legal. Many misconceptions come from a certain grammar book I will make fun of in a future post.
But sometimes you have to use them.
Even your humble host must resort to an adverb occasionally.