How to Improve Writing Skills

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How to Improve Writing Skills?

First, be active instead of passive.

One of the most common manifestations of bad writing is overuse of the passive voice. The passive voice makes the object of an action into the subject of the sentence with verb forms like "X had been attacked by Y" instead of simply "Y attacked X." Learn to avoid these constructions as much as you can.

"The novel had been written by Frank while he was in college" is passive. "Frank wrote the novel while he was in college" is active.

Using the passive voice isn't always bad. Sometimes there is no clear way to make a statement active, or sometimes you want the lighter touch a passive construction allows. But learn to follow this rule before you start making exceptions.

Second, use strong words.

Good writing is precise, evocative and spiced with the unexpected. Finding the right verb or adjective can turn an uninspired sentence into one people will remember and quote for years to come. Look for words that are as specific as possible. Try not to repeat the same word over and over unless you are trying to build a rhythm with it.

One exception to this is the words used to describe dialogue. Bad writing is filled with "he commented" and "she responded." A well-placed "sputtered" can work wonders, but most of the time a simple "said" will do. It may feel awkward to use the word "said" over and over, but changing it up unnecessarily makes it harder for your readers to get into the back-and-forth flow of the conversation. When writing dialogue, you want readers to hear your characters' voices, not your own.

Strong doesn't mean obscure, or more complicated. Don't say "utilize" when you could say "use." "He sprinted" is not necessarily better than "he ran." If you have a really good opportunity to use "ameliorate," go for it—unless "ease" is just as good there.

Third, cut the chaff.

Good writing is simple, clear and direct. You don't get points for saying in 50 words what could be said in 20. Good writing is about using the right words, not filling up the page. It might feel good at first to pack a lot of ideas and details into a single sentence, but chances are that sentence is just going to be hard to read. If a phrase doesn't add anything valuable, just cut it.

Adverbs are the classic crutch of mediocre writing. A well-placed adverb can be delightful, but much of the time the adverbs we use are already implied by the verb or adjective—or would be if we had chosen a more evocative word. Don't write "screamed fearfully";"scream" already suggests fear. If you notice that your writing is filled with "-ly" words, it might be time to take a deep breath and give your writing more focus.

Sometimes cutting the chaff is best done at the editing stage. You don't have to obsess about finding the most concise way to phrase every sentence; get your ideas down on paper however you can and then go through to edit out unnecessary verbiage.

Your writing doesn't just exist in a vacuum—it's experienced in conjunction with the reader's imagination. You don't need to describe every detail if a few good ones can spur the reader's mind to fill in the rest. Lay down well-placed dots and let the reader connect them.

Fourth, show don't tell.

Instead of just sitting your readers down for a long exposition explaining a character's background or a plot-point's significance, try to let the readers discover the same ideas through the words, feelings and actions of your characters. Especially in fiction, putting this classic piece of writing advice into practice is one of the most powerful lessons a writer can learn.

Fifth, avoid clichés.

Clichés are phrases, ideas or situations which are patently unoriginal. They may have been powerful at one point, but now they have been overused to the point of having little value unless re-imagined in some creative way. It's hard to say exactly what makes a cliché, other than that, as with pornography, you'll know it when you see it.

"It was a dark and stormy night" is a classic example of a clichéd phrase—even now a clichéd concept. Compare these similar weather-related opening lines:

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”—1984, by George Orwell. It's not dark, nor stormy, nor night. But you can tell right from the start something's not quite right in 1984.

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”—Neuromancer, by William Gibson, in the same book that gave us the word "cyberspace." This not only gives you the weather report, it does so in such a way that you are immediately placed into his dystopian world.

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”— The Crow Road, by Iain Banks.

"“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”—A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. Weather, emotion, damnation, and despair—Dickens covered it all with an opening line that leaves the reader ready for anything.

Sixth, break the rules.

The best writers don't just follow the rules—they know when and how to break them. Everything from traditional grammar to the writing advice above is up for grabs if you know a transgression will improve your piece. The key is that you have to write well enough the rest of the time that it's clear you are breaking the rule knowingly and on purpose.

Seventh, edit, edit, edit.

Don't believe your English teachers: there is no such thing as a "perfect" masterpiece in writing. Every author could have found something to change in even their greatest works if they had given it another once over. Editing is one of the most essential parts of writing. Once you finish a piece of writing, let it sit for a day and then read it over with fresh eyes, catching typos or scrapping whole paragraphs—anything to make your piece better. Then when you are done, give it another read, and another.

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