Three Ways to Energize Your Writing
Readers become bored easily. Unless our writing is energized, we are likely to lose their attention.
In my creative nonfiction writing classes, I conduct workshops in which students read and provide feedback on their classmates’ first drafts of writing assignments. The writers then use the feedback they receive to plan and write revisions of their work.
In these workshops, I prompt my students to look for the “hot spot” in a piece of writing. Where in the writing does the energy level rise? Where does the intensity of the message increase? Where do they as readers get caught up in the story? If readers make writers aware of the hot spots, then writers can focus on them as they revise, making sure to take advantage of those high-energy points to make their message more engaging.
Readers become bored easily. Unless our writing is energized, we are likely to lose their attention. Energy gives our writing vitality. It creates for readers a sense of movement or progress as they read. It lends urgency to our message.
To increase energy in our creative nonfiction, we can consider three elements of our writing.
1. Our Subject
