Four Steps to Improve Your Writing

As writers, we spend a significant portion of our time attempting to become better at our craft. We read, write, rewrite, read more, edit, write, and continue to edit until we capture the most effective combination of words we can. Because there are no right answers, no formulas to follow, and no shortcuts, it can take years or even a lifetime of personal reflection and practice in order to master your own aesthetic and capitalize on personal style. Even then, “good” is subjective. So what is a writer to do who wants to capitalize on a method for nearly immediate results? Here’s a short list to get ourselves acquainted and start us on the journey to improving your writing.

Utilize critiques and feedback!

Feedback is the greatest tool writers have at their disposal, period. It not only assists in catching small spelling or grammar mistakes we may have skimmed over, but it also reveals whether our intentions were effectively executed. By surrendering your work to objective eyes, we permit an endless number eclectic tastes to suggest changes we may have never considered, allowing us look at our own work through a different lense

But, like any other art form, writing has its share of participants who want nothing to do with dissenting opinion. After critiquing such writers’ work, there are some common responses that tend to show up:

“This is MY story/poem/song/etc.”
“I don’t care what you think.”
“I wrote this for me. I’m not changing anything.”

There are numerous problems with this line of thought.

A) There is no such thing as a finished piece of literature. The first draft is the first draft, the second draft is the second draft, and the sixty seventh draft is the sixty seventh draft. Even if your piece is published, there is still a lifetime of room to make it better.

B) Behind the façade of indifference, these writers do care what people think. If they didn’t, their work would not have found itself to a public forum. The real issue here is that the writer only wants praise and is taking the reader's critique as a personal attack. It’s important to realize that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Readers who take the time to critique are investing their personal time in an attempt to help you. Sure, being told that you’re amazing is a great boost to your self confidence, but it does little to help you improve.

C) By shutting out critiques, you are sabotaging your current work, your future work, and yourself. Until you realize what is effective and what isn’t, you will continue to repeat similar mistakes in the future.

Avoid adverbs of manner.

Many writers insist there is a war against adverbs. While I believe this is a faulty metaphor, I somewhat understand the sentiment. Adverbs have become a heavily contested topic because they are seen as a crutch.

However, there’s an issue even with the most reasonable of arguments: too many writers and critics fail to discuss which adverbs to love or hate. In fact, oftentimes you won’t hear writers explain that there are different types of adverbs at all. Instead, they either advise you to keep all of them because it’s your writing or remove them all and use stronger language. These points revolve around adverbs of manner.

Words like “whimsically,” “loudly,” and “angrily” are all adverbs of manner because they modify a phrase to describe how things occur. These are the adverbs that keep people like Steven King up and night, tossing and turning with headaches and tired eyes because adverbs of manner are a symptom of weak writing.

By focusing only on adverbs of manner, the issue becomes easier to understand and correct. Let’s look at some examples:

The deer walked slowly under the tree’s shadow and fell down heavily.
She said something loudly before angrily putting down her headphones.
The tree moved quickly from left to right and before violently falling to the ground

In these three examples, there ares even adverbs of manner: slowly, heavily, loudly, angrily, quickly, violently. Let’s modify these.

The deer trudged under the tree and collapsed in the shade.
She screamed and slammed her headphones onto the floor.
The tree rocked from left to right before crashing to the ground

While these are simplified examples, they offer a glimpse into the reality of these adverbs: they can be removed and they should be. A large percentage of the time, adverbs of manner can be exchanged by focusing on verb use. If you’re not sure if you’re using an adverb of manner, ask yourself a simple question: What is the adverb doing? If it’s telling you how something is, has, or will happen, choose a better verb.

But even this can be tricky. In some cases, there are no clear ways to avoid adverbs of manner at all, and that's okay! It is important to remember that your personal aesthetic is your personal aesthetic. If you want to be like Stephanie Meyers and overuse adverbs, that's your prerogative. If you want to avoid adverbs like an ex-lover, you should. Just don't be surprised when people from different schools of thought chide you for your choices. Listen to them, then keep writing.

Use Concrete Imagery.

Remember when your teachers kept writing “Show, don’t tell” on your writing assignments and parroted the phrase in front of the class? As irritating as it was and still is, this statement is a crucial lesson. To this day, there are those who refrain from using concrete imagery in lieu of abstractions like “gorgeous,” “beautiful,” and “special” to convey their message. It doesn’t work.

Her love is perfect.
The man was handsome.
My mother/father/boyfriend/girlfriend/whoever is amazing.

Looking at the examples above, a pattern emerges. The words perfect, handsome, and amazing are all descriptors, but we know nothing about the subjects. The reason abstractions don’t work as descriptions?

They don’t actually describe anything.

Since they are subjective terms, your audience must assume their vision of “insert word here” is identical to yours. Because this is impossible, the vision you’ve intended to create is lost.

Rather than using abstractions ask yourself: How is my subject perfect? What is perfect? How is my subject amazing? What is beauty? By asking yourselves these questions, you are able to choose adjectives that express what you’re trying to say.

Don’t be afraid to write crap!

One of the biggest mistakes a writer can make is holding down the backspace button or crumpling up the piece paper they’ve been writing on. I understand how frustrating it is to write for an extended period of time and realize that everything you’ve put down is terrible. I’ve been there. I'm still there. However, ignoring your urge to annihilate the brain dribble can prove to be beneficial in the future.

My advice? Hit the save button instead and put all of your drafts into a special folder or hide that piece of paper in a drawer. I cannot tell you how many times I remembered part of a line or description from an old piece, only to realize I had gotten rid of the hard copy. Hold onto your work and come back to it when it’s no longer fresh in your mind. Putting distance between yourself and your work will give you time to rethink the topic and revisit it when you’re ready. Deleting all of the evidence guarantees that the words you used will never appear the same again.

If it's still trash in the future, all you've done is postpone the execution.

This list is not all inclusive. There are an endless number of discussions we can and will have on the topic of improving your writing. For my first, my intention was to lay out a number of simple steps that will allow you to see immediate results. In the future, I will get into specific nuances of writing and techniques that will take a bit more time to take hold.

What are you thoughts on the tips? Do you agree or disagree?