Here are my top ten most important writing tips to help make you a better writer:
1) Always start your story with a strong opening. You want an opening that will grab your reader’s attention and keep them reading from line to line, paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter. I love stories that end each chapter with a “what’s-going-to-happen-next” hanger. I must turn the page and read more.
2) Try to “show” as much detail in the story as possible as opposed to just telling us. Always try to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Instead of telling: “It was a sunny day,” or “The sun was shining.” Show us by writing: “The glare from the mid-day sun bounced off the hot asphalt.”
3) Keep your writing in the present tense. Narration is good, but any time you use [ed] at the end of a word, you are taking your reader to the past. Especially when the [ed] word is surrounded by a had or have been or was.Your story should be happening now and your writing should reflect that. It doesn’t matter if your story is set in 2008, 1942, or the 16th century, talk to us as if we are there now. Pull us into the story and take us along for the ride.
4) Go easy on the ellipses (. . .). The ellipsis should be used mainly when trailing off a thought or if dialogue is broken. Otherwise use a comma, semi-colon, or the em dash. Also, the ellipsis is always three dots with a space before, after, and between the words. (Example: Oh . . . hey . . . what are you doing?).
5) Go easy on the exclamation point!!!! A good writer uses stronger words so the exclamation point is a given. And, please, never use more than one exclamation point. And please, please, never with a question mark?!
6) I can’t state this tip enough. Cut out the passive voice. Drop words like was, will be, were and boring verbs like walk, drove, run. You want to write with action and movement, and propel the story forward with vivid descriptions.
7) On that note, use adverbs like you would use the passive voice. In other words, don’t. Adverbs, you’ll remember, modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They usually end in [ly]. If you cut out the passive voice, you can cut out adverbs. Instead of: “He closed the door firmly as he left the room.” How about: “He slammed the door and stormed out.”
8) Using dialogue in your story is a great way to bring your characters to life using speech. Just make sure your dialogue makes sense to the story. Random conversations that have nothing to do with moving the story forward confuse your reader. And to backtrack to adverbs for a moment, it’s not necessary to write adverb-filled dialogue. For example: “Halt or I’ll shoot!” he shouted menacingly. “Try to catch me!” she yelled angrily. Okay, we get the idea. A simple he shouted, she yelled works better.
9) Give your reader lots of metaphors (or comparisons). Instead of: “We could hear the gravel hitting the undercarriage of the car.” Say: “Gravel hit the undercarriage like popcorn bursting in hot oil,” or “Gravel hit the undercarriage like firecrackers on the 4th of July.”
10) Buy a good thesaurus and use it until it’s worn out. Whenever you feel stuck on a word, or just can’t seem to find the right word, open your thesaurus and have fun!
Copyright 2007 Karen L. Reddick
