Pink Tiffany Magazine - Issue 4 Hope

5 More Pro-Writing Aid Tips

#5. Every writer has a "tell". 

Mark Twain said "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." He was remarking on the fact that many people will overuse words such as "very". In fact, just as every poker player has a "tell", every writer has a set of words or phrases that they tend to overuse.

Some commonly overused words are: very, it/there, have/had, knew/know, feel/felt/feeling, maybe, just/then, smell/taste, watch/notice/observe, very/nice/great and that.

Because we use these words all the time when we speak they creep into our writing and make it dull and repetitive: they become our crutch words when we haven't got anything better to say. Sometimes they're the mark of a generic description, such as "she was very pretty." If you identify which words you have a tendency to overuse then it will be much easier for you to eliminate them and your copy will improve dramatically.

#4. Vary your sentence length.

Varied sentence length is an important feature of good writing. Some sentences should be long, informative, and flowing; others, short and punchy. Passages in which all of the sentences are about the same length can appear boring. If you’ve ever sat in front of a piece of writing and wondered why it seems so boring, chances are if everything else seems right it's because all the sentences are the same length. Sentence length needs to ebb and flow like the tide. Clusters of sentences of the same length can make your writing tepid. Try counting the words in each sentence to see how they vary. If you spot a group of sentences of about the same length, try and vary them.

#3. Favour active verbs.

Using the active voice instead of the passive voice is the single best thing you can do to improve your writing. The active voice injects a sense of importance and urgency into a piece of writing. Writing full of the passive voice seems dull and lifeless. Many European languages, such as French and Spanish rarely use the passive voice. Sadly, in English, use of the passive voice is more common. This often leads to dull, lifeless writing.

Consider this sentence:

The ball was thrown over the fence by John.

This sentence is in the passive voice. The person or thing doing the action (‘John) follows the action (‘was thrown’). Using the active voice turns the sentence around and puts the ‘actor’ first. This makes the sense clearer and the sentence shorter:

John threw the ball over the fence.

Often in the passive voice the actor is completely omitted:

The ball was thrown over the fence.

Also be aware that the passive voice can sometimes be reduced, or hidden:

The ball, thrown over the fence, was later found.

Is a reduction of:

The ball (that was) thrown over the fence, was later found.

#2. Don't hide your verbs, rejoice in them.

Verbs are the engine of our writing, they excite, engage and thrust it forward. Verbs should be strong and active. Many writers end up accidentally hiding their verbs. This process (called nominalisation) turns verbs into nouns and adds a weak verb in their place. For example: "We will make an announcement," should read as "we will announce." It’s shorter and the verb is changed from the weak "make" to the much stronger "announce". If you want to find hidden verbs in your writing, look for endings such as: -ment, -tion, -sion, and –ance. Also, be mindful of use of weak verbs such as: give, have, make, achieve, reach, and take. You should be proud of your verbs, they are your tools, always use the right tool and your writing will improve.

#1. Favour strong verbs over adverbs. 

Adverbs are words that add color to a verb. In the sentence "The barrista quickly made a cup of coffee" quickly is the adverb.

Adverbs can be really useful, and sometimes indispensable, but often they are just used to prop up a weak verb. Use a strong verb instead. For example, use "stabs" instead of "pokes swiftly", or "meanders" instead of "wanders slowly". Scan your writing for adverbs and ask yourself "Is there a stronger verb I can use here instead?". Sometimes the answer will be no, but if the answer is yes then use it and your readers will thank you.

Stephen King likened adverbs to dandelions. He says, "If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day... fifty the day after that... and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then it’s — GASP!! — too late."

Mark Twain had a frozen indifference to adverbs. He said, "I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me. To misplace an adverb is a thing which I am able to do with frozen indifference; it can never give me a pang. . . . There are subtleties which I cannot master at all--they confuse me, they mean absolutely nothing to me--and this adverb plague is one of them."