7 Quick Writing Tips (and Editing Advice) to Bring Your Words to Life

January 4, 2017/Lisa Tener/14 Comments

Writing Tips from Real Life

Writing tips can help you transform ho-hum writing into a big Hallelujah! After I sent some feedback and writing tips to a client, I spent this morning editing her revised manuscript. I was thrilled to see the author’s writing improve so dramatically from one draft to the next.

writing coach Lisa Tener — Your Book Writing Coach

Eureka! Whatever I told her, I realized I should share with you today. Every writer loves to know what she (or he) can do better to improve her writing and make it sing. These writing tips can make a world of difference in your own revisions.

Today’s writing tips all focus on making the words leap out from the page and form a picture for your readers. Whether you are writing a how-to book, memoir or even a novel, you will truly draw your readers in if you paint a scene and share stories.

Sure, your book may have its abstract moments, but here we will focus on 7 writing tips that make your stories come to life—whether you are writing brief anecdotes that support your self-help tools or part of a larger narrative, such as a memoir.

[bctt tweet=”7 Quick Writing Tips To Polish Your Work ” username=”LisaTener”]

writing desk — Paint a scene from the get go, so your reader isn’t playing “catch up.”

Paint the scene at the beginning. Have you ever had the experience of reading a story and imagining the character in one place, only to find three paragraphs later that the room was dark, not light; the character was surrounded by people, not alone as you had thought; and that it took place in the car, not the office? Not only does such construction confuse your readers, it frustrates them and takes them out of the magical world you are creating (yes, even in a brief self-help anecdote!). Instead, picture the scene in your mind and make the essential details clear up front.

Be specific about placement: Don’t make your readers have to guess whether your sister stood above you, sat next to you or put her head in your lap as you spoke. You can clarify placement by the verbs you use (“she sat” “she stood”). You can also clarify it by picturing the scene in your mind very clearly and then writing. Don’t overdo this (“She used her right hand to reach for the object on her right.”). Keep it simple and sparse, yet clear.

Use specific verbs to imbue actions with emotion and motivational cues: “She went to the store.” – WEAK! “She walked to the store.” – BETTER. “She sprinted to the store.” – GOOD. “She dragged herself to the store.” EVEN CLEARER.

Let your readers draw the conclusions. Don’t you go telling me that he was nervous and she was nuts. Instead, have him do something that shows he’s nervous—a tic, a stutter, wiping the sweat from his hands. Have the dialogue show how nutty she can be. As a reader, I get to draw the conclusion of what the action means and now I’m engaged, rather than hearing some ho-hum account with the life sucked out of it.

Avoid overuse of adverbs. Swiftly, slowly, angrily—these are shorthand ways of conveying information without much life. Instead, tell me she sprinted or ran; that he shuffled; that she threw a vase.

Take the time to find the perfect word. In a first draft, feel free to be lazy and allow the words to flow quickly without weighing them. However, in your next draft, look for the places where you used a word more than once, or used a word that doesn’t feel as precise as you might like. Use a thesaurus and see if you can get at “le mot juste.”

Read aloud. Reading aloud always helps you hear what works and what needs work.

Writing vs. Editing

In an initial writing phase, it’s fine to keep this information in mind, but you can also let it go and just focus on getting your words on the page. Once you have a draft, use these 7 tips to edit that draft and make the writing more powerful, specifically painting a picture your readers can see, hear, smell, taste, feel and sense!

Here is more advice on how to tighten your writing. You may also hit a point when you’ve done what self-editing you can and it’s time to find an editor to take you further along that path. This post will help you hire an editor, know what to look for and what to ask them.

Your Bonus Writing Tip

Enjoy yourself. When you have fun writing and editing, your readers get to share in that fun. Write or edit outside (if it’s warm enough). Or write and revise somewhere cozy and inspiring. All the things you do to bring yourself into a light and happy space will bring light into the writing and reading experience—without your having to try. Your writing just naturally picks up your state of being.

One thing I do to get myself into a state of flow before working on my blog posts, articles and books is to journal. The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day can help you get into a state where writing flows with ease. Check it out!

Do you have any writing tips or anything you recently did that improved your writing? Please share. Feel free to ask your questions below as well.

Posted in More..., Writing Secrets

Lisa Tener

Lisa Tener is an award-winning book writing coach who assists writers in all aspects of the writing process—from writing a book proposal and getting published to finding one’s creative voice. Her clients have appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS Early Show, The Montel Williams Show, CNN, Fox News, New Morning and much more. They blog on sites like The Huffington Post, Psychology Today and WebMD.

Comments

Miriam says

January 5, 2017 at 8:02 am

I love all your tips but especially the bonus tip – how I’m feeling – comfortable, at ease, cosy – is reflected in the words I put on paper, this makes so much sense, thank you for sharing!
- Lisa Tener says
  
  January 5, 2017 at 8:58 am
  
  Thanks Miriam. It’s really fun when you start to see the connection between the writing mood and reading mood! As authors we have more influence than we realize. And with that comes great responsibility, to paraphrase Voltaire. I had to look that one up, but apparently, before Uncle Ben said this in Spiderman, Voltaire said it!
Christine says

January 5, 2017 at 8:03 am

I love these tips, Lisa. Thank you!
- Lisa Tener says
  
  January 5, 2017 at 8:55 am
  
  Thanks, Christine, How is your book coming?
Nora Hall says

January 5, 2017 at 9:23 am

A great piece, Lisa. Thanks for these great ideas that I then felt eager to share with the four Facebook writing groups I belong to.

Your “Thanks for Sharing” comment at the end is a nice touch that I want to figure out how to.
- Lisa Tener says
  
  January 5, 2017 at 10:06 am
  
  Thanks, Nora. I am going to ask my web designer, Rachel Vane, how you can do that. It may be a wordpress sharing plugin. Do you use wordpress for your blog? And when you mention the “Thanks for Sharing” do you mean the “Sharing is caring” comment along with the social sharing buttons?
  - Rachel says
    
    January 5, 2017 at 10:52 am
    
    Hey ladies! Thanks for the shout out, Lisa. 🙂 It is a plugin, called “Shareaholic”: https://wordpress.org/plugins/shareaholic/. Be sure to read thoroughly about all the settings and how to turn off their ads. It’s a decent plugin, but can be a little tricky to figure out how to turn off all the bells and whistles.
    - Lisa Tener says
      
      January 5, 2017 at 10:56 am
      
      Thanks, Rachel, for weighing in and the additional advice.
Swen Frueh says

February 1, 2017 at 2:46 am

Amazing blog! I was browsing the web, when I saw your blog. The last part made an impact on me. Do not forget to cherish the things that make you happy. I agree! Being a writer, I love what I am doing. I’m very excited to share this. Cheers!
Amy Patsy says

February 4, 2017 at 3:41 am

Hey Lisa,

Such a useful information to the writers who are new In writing field.

Thanks for sharing this info.