How to Tell If Your Writing Is Improving
I pulled up a blog post from six months ago and was surprised to see how clunky, awkward and inverted it was — meaning not considerate of the reader at all.
When I wrote it I remember thinking it was a good post, well-written and informative, free from grammar issues and I was proud of it.
Then, I was not using the invaluable Grammarly add-on for chrome and it detected two obvious writing errors as well. This browser extension is not perfect but will pick up many grammar mistakes.
I’ll list the issues with the blog post in case they are useful to your own writing.
- Sentences too long for internet reading. Judging by my own habits, I tend to skim long sentences unless the writing is strong enough to draw my attention through dense paragraphs, or I’m interested in the subject matter to the point of reading word for word.
- The sentences had too many adjectives and flowery words. Save these for some forms of fiction, poetry and more expressive prose. In the case I am writing about it detracted from the issues discussed and now seems an unnecessary distraction and weakens the writing itself.
- The paragraphs were full of repetitions such “I thought that” over and over. It was as if I had been writing with blinkers on not noticing my own laziness.
- Reading outside our normal loop exposes us to many writing styles. When I wrote this blog post I was not reading many other writers, certainly not in a critical manner, thus I wasn't exposed to better writing practices. This practice and writing every other day, has made a critical difference.
Another difference since then is becoming editorial and critical (in the best sense)of my own writing and that of others. What I mean by this is when I read another’s work I can’t help but notice where it is strong and where it is weak.
I was quite surprised to see this, it’s like parallel dimension, not recognized so much in the past. Where this is most noticeable is with new writers. We all come with things to learn, even where the writers may be a long time freelancers or academic writer.
I received some useful feedback from a publication editor recently. He said I write too bare bones and need to flesh out my characters ( in semi-fiction). I asked him if he would be interested in collaborating on a story. What he did was make some minor changes to a piece submitted and it brought the story together, tightened it and made it more accessible to the reader. That’s a definite future direction.
If you care to find some of your earlier writing, even from a few months ago, do you notice a difference? It may be major or minor but it is a sure test of improvement.
