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This article was co-written by Grant Faulkner, MA. Grant Faulkner is executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and co-founder of the literary magazine 100 Word Story. Grant has published two books on writing and has been featured in The New York Times and Writer’s Digest. He co-hosts the Write-Mind Program in Writing and Publishing and holds a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
There are 14 references cited in this article that you can view at the bottom of the page.
This article has been viewed 33,585 times.
Do you dream of becoming a great novelist or just want to express better thoughts and ideas. Whether you want to improve your writing to become a creative writer or just sharpen your skills for school assignments, follow these steps. To become a writer you need to practice and hone your knowledge, work hard and one day someone will want to follow your example!
Steps
Basic Improvement
- It is not good to use passive sentences. Sometimes there is no way to express it in an active sentence, or you want to emphasize the action being performed. However, please follow the following rule before applying with exceptions.
- The exception is scientific writing, where you use the passive voice to emphasize the results of your research (although this is subject to change, so see the instructions before writing). For example, “research shows that eating spicy foods causes stomach upset in puppies” emphasizes the conclusion, not the person who made the conclusion. [2] X Trusted Source University of North Carpina Writing Center Go to source
- Another exception is words in dialogue. Bad posts often contain lots of “he commented” and “she said”. If you put these words in the right place, it will bring unexpected effects. Repeated use of the word “speak” makes sentences awkward, but changes can also lose the flow of conversation. “He speaks/she speaks” is almost invisible to readers and they focus only on the character’s words. [3] X Research Sources
- Powerful doesn’t have to be obscure or complicated. Don’t overuse complex or specialized words when you can use common words.
- Use caution when using dictionary language. When using dictionary language, you should include comments so that people can understand the meaning. [4] X Research Resources If you intend to use dictionary language to refresh your vocabulary, look up new words to determine their correct definition.
- Adverbs are the heart of the article, they often determine the consistency of sentences. If you put the adverb in the right place, the sentence will become airy, but usually adverbs are only used to modify adjectives. Don’t write “screaming in fear” — “screaming” is already showing fear. If you notice that you use too many adverbs, you need to review the article. [6] X Research Sources
- Sometimes cutting out cumbersome sentences is the most effective part of the editing process. You don’t have to look for the shortest way to group each sentence; Write your ideas down on paper and you can edit and remove unnecessary parts.
- Your writing does not exist in isolation, it is associated with the imagination of readers. You don’t need to describe every detail if a few hints are enough to help the reader think for themselves. Let readers connect them themselves.
- For example, “Sydney is extremely angry after reading the letter” tells readers that Sydney feels angry, but they do not feel it themselves. This makes readers lazy and unconvincing. In contrast, the sentence “Sydney rolled up the letter and threw it in the fireplace before leaving the room” still shows that Sydney is angry without saying it directly. This is much more efficient. Readers believe what they see, not what they hear.
- “It was a dark and stormy night” is a prime example of cliché—even a cliché. Compare with the following weather sentences: [10] X Research Source
- “It was a bright and cold April day, and the clock struck thirteen.”— 1984 , by George Orwell. Not dark, stormy, or dark. But you can tell right from the start that something was amiss in 1984.
- “The sky is as colorful as a TV screen switching to a death channel.”— Neuromancer , author William Gibson, in the same book uses the word “cyberspace”. Not only does it talk about the weather, but it also immediately plunges the reader into the dark world of the story.
- “This is the best time, and also the worst time, this is the age of wisdom, also the age of ignorance, the age of faith, also the age of doubt, this is the age of light, it’s also the age of darkness, this is the spring of hope, it’s also the winter of disappointment, we used to have it all, now there’s nothing left, we’ll go to heaven, all we’re going straight to a place, a time far from the present, where some rowdy bureaucrats insist they distinguish between good and evil, or only in comparison.”— A Tale of Two Cities , author Charles Dickens Weather, emotions, curses, and despair—Dickens wraps it all up in the opening sentence to get the reader ready for the next part.
- You should avoid clichés when writing about yourself. Writing that you are a “public figure” also gives no information about yourself. Writing that you communicate well with many people because you grew up in a family with many siblings and live in 6 countries also helps readers understand that you are a “person of the public” without relying on words.
- This also applies to creative writing. Don’t assume anything until you’ve tested it. For example, if you’re writing a story about a female character, don’t assume that she’s more sensitive than men or gentle and kind. This subjective way of thinking will keep you stuck in the way of thinking and unable to explore many other aspects of reality.
- The “combined” metaphor is a mixture of two metaphors. For example, “We’ll burn the bridge when we get there” combined with the common metaphors “We’ll cross the bridge when we get there” and “Don’t burn the bridge.” If you’re not sure how to use metaphors, look them up or don’t use them.
- Moderation is key. Using rhetorical questions to create a persuasive opening can be effective. Using a sequence of six rhetorical questions reduces effectiveness. Choose wisely when and why you should break the rules.
- Some people confuse “editing” with “proofing”. Both are important, but editing focuses on the content. Don’t pay too much attention to a particular word or idea when you have no intention of changing it, when you find that the idea would be clearer or more effective if expressed differently. Proofreading is more technical and finds mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting.
Read to Write
- Find a variety of ways to organize a passage or present a story.
- Try comparing different authors’ approaches to the same problem. For example, Tpstoy ‘s Death of Ivan Ilych and Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro .
- Remember that even if you write casual stories or scholarly articles, referencing good works improves your tone of voice. The more you familiarize yourself with the many ways to connect ideas, the more varied and personal your expressions will become.
- This rule also applies to normal writing and academic writing. Check out some of the works of famous authors in your field. What makes them famous? How do they work? What can you learn from them?
- The plays are like bringing words to real life, only with the director’s interpretation and the actor’s transmission that you can imagine the author’s words.
Skill Training
- If you’re not inspired to create, practice writing case notes. Rewrite how people work at the coffee shop. Write down how the sun shines on your desk at dusk. Attention to specifics will help you write better, whether as a poet or a journalist.
- Workshops aren’t just for creative writers! You can improve your academic writing by having a friend or colleague read it over. Working with others also encourages sharing ideas.
Outline Story
- Once you have an outline, you just need to use a few more words to create a side outline for each subsection.
- Don’t let yourself get bogged down. When writing a manuscript, there is no need to focus too much on using perfect sentences. More importantly, you need to focus all of your ideas so you can edit them.
- You find that if you’ve given enough thought to the character, what they want, and why they want it, then that character will lead you to continue writing.
Advice
- Don’t get distracted by the first draft. They are usually not perfect. When reading, keep it in mind and edit!
- If you didn’t like the idea at first, you should try it, maybe it could turn into a good story.
- Writing is fun or torture. This completely depends on who you ask the question. It can leave you euphoric or exhausted. There is no one correct answer about how it feels to write. Find your own style.
- Try to have a natural flow. But if you overdo it, the details of feeling or thinking get heavy. Always keep in mind how you feel when you read the article and avoid things that upset you.
Warning
- Be careful when using words. There is nothing worse than using words out of context. If you’re not sure how to use a word, look it up in a dictionary to make sure you understand what it means.
- Do not steal! Expressing someone else’s words or ideas as your own is a serious offense in academics, journalism, fiction. If caught, you could be deported, fired, sued, or banned from publishing in the future. Therefore do not steal from others!
This article was co-written by Grant Faulkner, MA. Grant Faulkner is executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and co-founder of the literary magazine 100 Word Story. Grant has published two books on writing and has been featured in The New York Times and Writer’s Digest. He co-hosts the Write-Mind Program in Writing and Publishing and holds a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
There are 14 references cited in this article that you can view at the bottom of the page.
This article has been viewed 33,585 times.
Do you dream of becoming a great novelist or just want to express better thoughts and ideas. Whether you want to improve your writing skills to become a creative writer or just sharpen your skills for school assignments, follow these steps. To become a writer you need to practice and hone your knowledge, work hard and one day someone will want to follow your example!
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