Eight Writing Tips
In this writing piece, I will be sharing the writing advice that has significantly influenced my writing skills. These are my favourite pieces of advice which I found to be very helpful in improving my writing. Some of them clicked with me instantly while others took some time to make sense. I understand that not all writing advice is suitable for everyone, but these tips have been very beneficial for me. They have changed the way I write, and some of them have clarified certain aspects of writing for me. So, I consider them to be my top Eight writing tips.
“If the reader can imagine something happening without needing to be told, then you don’t need to show it.”
This ought to be my first tip of writing. This advice resonated with me when I first heard it, although I can’t recall where I heard it from. As a new writer, I tended to include everything to make the story believable. For instance, if a scene involved a trip to the hospital, I felt like I had to show every detail, such as the drive, their feelings, and the technicalities of their treatment.
Use Strong Verbs
My second favorite piece of writing advice is to use strong verbs. Just recall a time in university when you became obsessed with using stronger and more unusual verbs in writing. The professor even noticed the improvement in your writing. Using strong verbs instantly improves the quality of the writing and encourages you to try it out. Although some people criticize their use of made-up verbs, I believe that it adds to the creativity of their writing.
Avoid Using “ing” verbs
The Third tip that I found useful is to avoid using “ing” verbs and any conjugation of the verb “to be”. “Ing” verbs are the past participle forms that end in “ing” while “to be” verbs are any conjugation of the verb “to be”. I learned that cutting down on these verbs helped me gain better control over language. One of my professors suggested that we minimize the use of these verbs in our writing. It was a rigorous process to go through my writing and cut as many “to be” and “ing” verbs as possible, but it helped me learn how to use language more effectively. Although some people may think that putting constraints on language is restrictive, it helped me to push myself and improve my writing. The experience taught me how to line edit and make my writing cleaner and smoother. Although I am not as meticulous about it in my current work, I still try to minimize the use of these verbs whenever possible as it helps to make my writing better.
Slow down
My fourth writing advice would be to slow down the story if it’s boring instead of speeding it up. I read this advice in the Glimmer Train Bulletin Archive, which I highly recommend as a resource for interesting craft topics and discussions. The Glimmer Train was a literary magazine that is no longer in circulation, but you can still access the bulletin archives online. They contain brief craft essays by different writers on specific and interesting topics. I don’t remember which essay it was, but one writer suggested that if a story is boring, slowing it down could increase its richness and give the reader more to invest in. This resonated with me as a reader because I find the most compelling stories to be those that are rich in detail, not those that move quickly.
I have a Tip for You
My fifth tip for you that I believe is extremely important when it comes to writing — be specific. I truly believe that vague writing is generally weak, while specific writing is much stronger. This realization was helpful for me in understanding how to write good descriptions. I don’t recall the first time I heard this, but I know it was at university. I learned that writing strong descriptions was not about using complex or obscure phrasing. Instead, it was about choosing more interesting and specific details. By doing so, the language and interest of the description would be there inherently, as it would be interesting words describing interesting things. On the other hand, using overly embellished terms to describe vague things would only lead to purple prose and tangled writing. Prioritizing specificity has had the strongest impact on my writing, more so than anything else.
Hope and Despair
The sixth tip is one that I remember from a particular professor, and it’s a unique tip that resonated with me. The advice is to find the hope and despair in every scene. The professor explained that hope and despair create tension, and the key is to find the despair in the hope and the hope in the despair. A scene that only contains despair lacks tension because there is no way forward. But if there is no despair in the hope, then the joyous moments don’t have any tension either. So, it’s essential to balance the hope and the despair and find the despair in the hope.
Never make it uninteresting
My seventh writing tip is to never let a scene or paragraph that serves a utilitarian purpose be uninteresting. I always strive to make each scene compelling from my perspective. If I find a moment in the story that is not interesting, I ask myself how I can make it more interesting. I believe that the most important quality a piece of writing can have is to be interesting. This is the guiding question that I always ask myself throughout the brainstorming, writing, and editing phases. Sometimes, making a scene more interesting can be as simple as changing the setting or giving the characters a more compelling aspect.
Final Tip
The final tip that I want to share is something that I learned over time. It’s a question that you should always ask yourself while writing — “How can I make this more interesting?” Whether it’s adding more detail in a scene, creating compelling characters, or setting up an engaging plot, you should never compromise on the entertainment value of your writing. Even when writing a scene that serves a utilitarian purpose, it should still be interesting and compelling. If it’s not, then you need to figure out how to make it so.
Never Let yourself down
If there’s a piece of advice that doesn’t resonate with you, that’s okay. Writing advice is rarely universal, and it’s up to you to curate your own set of rules and guidelines that fit your style and goals. These are just the things that work for me, and I hope they can be helpful to you too.
