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Do you ever worry that your writing is bland, monotonous or overly simple? Many writers feel this way, especially if they are producing a lot of content on a daily basis. But how do you make those big projects really shine? How can you dazzle readers with your words and breathe some artistry back into your writing? Here are three ways to help:
You’ve heard this a thousand times, but I truly believe one of the best ways to become a better writer is to become a better reader. You learn so much just following the patterns and styles of other writers. You learn what sort of writing suits you and what you’d like to implement into your own work. Read fiction and nonfiction and poetry. Read anything that sparks your interest, and consume as much of it as possible. Find phrases, analogies and storytelling techniques that you like, and figure out how to craft them yourself. Try listening to audiobooks every now and then to really hear the rhythm of the words spoken aloud. Take inspiration from the great work of others. I mean, we all do it. Even Mark Twain said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”
Now that you’ve found your inspiration, it’s time to get to business—or get to art, I guess. Flex your literary muscles, and pull out all the stops. Be sure you’re telling every story in a way that’s effective and will connect with readers. Call in the emotion, and make great use of diction. Don’t forget: figurative language is your best friend! This is what makes people pause after reading a sentence and think, “Wow!” Don’t overwhelm your readers with creative writing, but rather have fun with your descriptions, patterns and rhythm. Make sure your voice is coming through, and write something that you’d love to read.
Once you’ve written your masterpiece, don’t be so quick to rush it off to be published. Don’t even be quick to edit and revise it. One of the best things I’ve learned about writing is that it needs time to rest. It’s like when you watch a cooking show and the chef finishes cooking a piece of meat. What do they always say? Let it rest before you cut into it. I’m no chef, but I do know a thing or two about writing and that’s a pretty solid rule to follow. Cut back into a piece of writing too soon, and you’ll lose all the good stuff—or worse, you’ll miss all the bad stuff. As soon as I’m done with a piece of writing, I’ll save it on my computer, close the document and leave it closed for at least 24 hours. Then, when I come back to it, I have fresh eyes to edit and make any necessary changes. I can shave down my filler words and make it more concise. I can make sure my writing packs a punch every time.
Great, effective writing is not always easy to do. A lot of times, we have to put great thought and work into making our writing sound effortless. We have to keep molding it to make something that will touch people—because that’s the point, right? Maya Angelou said, “Write so that people can hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” How do you bring more artistry to your work?
By far, the most commonly misused punctuation is the comma—the most disputed, too. Have you ever witnessed a heated debate over the Oxford comma? Just me? Nevertheless, commas come in handy when used correctly, but they have a lot of various uses. So are there staunch rules for commas or just parameters? The answer is a little of both, actually. Here are five top comma tips:
Commas are necessary when you have info that isn’t in a sentence. For example:
Daniel’s dog, a Jack Russell terrier, is three years old.
“A Jack Russel terrier” isn’t essential to the sentence, so it must be offset with commas.
My friend, Lily, will join us for lunch.
“Lily” is also addition information and should be separated with commas before and after.
Most of us were taught in elementary school to place commas anywhere you’d naturally pause in a sentence. However, this doesn’t always work. Sometimes we can pause and don’t need a comma at all, like between a subject and verb.
For example:
Megan’s graduation, will be Friday at 7 p.m.
In this case, you would never put a comma between “graduation” and “will” unless you were trying to offset some kind of additional information like in the previous tip. This sentence should read:
Megan’s graduation will be Friday at 7 p.m.
We talked about this in the previous Weekly Pointers post, so you can always refer to it for additional help. Basically, if you are separating two independent clauses in a compound sentence, you can use a comma with a coordinating conjunction:
We stayed at the beach for five days, and we drove home.
You can also use a comma to separate a dependent clause from an independent clause in a complex sentence:
If you enjoyed your stay, we can always come back next year.
If you have multiple adjectives before a noun, you can separate them with a comma.
I shopped all day for the long, blue dress.
The hairy, menacing tarantula crept toward the door.
This is one of those tips that’s more of a guideline than an actual rule—but there’s a lot of discussion out there about that. Basically the Oxford comma, sometimes called a serial comma, is used before a conjunction in a series:
I played Mozart, Bach, and Chopin. —The comma before “and” is the Oxford comma.
However, a lot of people are divided on whether this comma is necessary. Would it group “Bach” and “Chopin” together ambiguously? If there are compound objects in a series, I would say definitely use the Oxford comma for clarity:
I love mint chocolate chip, butter pecan, and cookies and cream.
Since there is a conjunction in one of the items in the series, you need a comma to clarify. You might also need a comma for clarity in other specific cases. For example:
My parents, Beth and Mark attended my presentation.
Are Beth and Mark the parents or additional attendees? In this case, an Oxford comma is necessary.
With a topic such as the Oxford comma, be sure to pay attention to the style in which you’re writing. MLA and Chicago commonly use it, while AP does not. Follow the guidelines you’ve been given, and you should avoid most of the comma confusion. Best of luck!
Lots of people talk about writing books, but most of those people never do. How do you become one of those writers who breaks through and gets stuff done? Here are a few tips to help:
If you really want to crank out some writing, you should be prepared to make a routine of it. Start by setting yourself a goal. How much do you want to accomplish in a day? Do you want to write for one hour each day? Or do you want to write 500 words per day? Pick something that works for you and stick to it like it’s your job. Also, decide on a place where you’ll do this writing without distractions. Don’t try to work on your living room couch if Netflix or your kids in the next room are going to distract you. Go to that coffee shop you love, sit at your kitchen bar or board yourself up in your office even if it’s only for 15 minutes a day. As writer Jeff Goins says, “Don’t set out to write a book. Set out to become a regular writer.”
Set deadlines big and small to remind yourself that you’re working toward something. Writing (or most projects, really) never gets done without a deadline. So mark those calendars, and work toward those deadlines with diligence.
Find the methods and systems that work best for you when it comes to writing. What way do you like to research? Do you brainstorm before you start to write? How do you go about revising? Where do you collect all your ideas and thoughts about future writing? Find the things that work best for you and stick with them!
If you’re stuck in a writing rut, don’t be too hard on yourself. Instead of getting flustered, try going outside and getting some air, and then perhaps read something that isn’t your own writing. Okay, so maybe I stole this tip from author Virginia Woolf, but I think it’s great. She said, “The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature. It is a mistake to think that literature can be produced from the raw.”
With just these few tips, you can become a more productive writer. It’s not always easy, but the end result is always worth it!
One of the most common mistakes editors encounter in writing is the use of run-on sentences. Now, you may be thinking this was weeded out in basic English, but many of us still struggle with it. Why? Because sometimes we write just like we speak, and sometimes there isn’t a clear distinction in our speech for the end of a sentence. Just to refresh, a run-on sentence is a one that incorrectly joins two or more independent clauses. Independent clauses are just that—independent—and can’t be a part of a larger sentence without a proper link.
There are the two common types of run-ons:
A comma splice is created when two or more independent clauses are simply joined by a comma.
I went to the store, Jenna met me there.
A fused sentence occurs when independent clauses are joined with no conjunction or punctuation.
Mark looked out the window he saw it was cloudy.
In speech, one might be able to clarify that the examples above contain two separate clauses. However, reading them is a bit trickier. In order to avoid confusing readers, here are four ways you can revise run-on sentences:
Use a comma with a coordinating conjunction
This is perhaps the most common fix for a run-on sentence. Adding a coordinating conjunction—and, but, or, so, yet, nor, for—after a comma separates the clauses while keeping them in the same sentence. Let’s use the example run-ons above to show how this works:
Semicolons can be a bit more finicky, but I promise they’re useful. Semicolons are typically used to join two independent clauses that are somehow linked in idea or thought. Semicolons give these clauses given equal position or rank, a nuance that simply adding a comma and conjunction doesn’t provide.
You can also follow a semicolon with a transitional expression (for example, however, similarly, in contrast, then, as a result, etc.).
Never underestimate the power of short sentences. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in trying to create long, eloquent sentences that we create run-ons. Try to separate some of these with a period.
Another way you can fix a run-on is to subordinate one of the clauses, taking it from independent to dependent. Try these examples:
Here, “Because we’d see each other tomorrow” is a dependent clause and cannot stand alone.
Here, “If the weather looked better tomorrow” has been altered slightly to become a dependent clause. This way, you can keep both clauses in the same sentence.
Hopefully, this week’s pointer has been helpful in ridding your writing of run-on sentences. Of course, it’s important to note that a lot of writers break these rules in creative ways. However, you must know the rules in order to break them effectively. What other grammatical errors trip you up? Comment below!
Whatever we’re writing, we all know the ultimate goal is to engage our readers in a way that keeps them turning the pages. The best way to do this? Powerful description.
But how do we keep our descriptions dynamic and compelling, instead of weighing down the story with wordiness? Here are a few tips to help:
We’ve all heard this tip at some point, but let’s think about this in relation to writing. I find this to be particularly important when including emotion in a story. As yourself what your character feels as she or he experiences something. What are the emotions the narrative brings out in your character? And don’t just hand those emotions to your audience; wrap them up in a description, and let readers find them on their own. Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite writers when it comes to description. In her novel “The Poisonwood Bible,” she describes grief like this:
“As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer’s long hair in water. I knew the weight was there but it didn’t touch me. Only when I stopped did the slick, dark stuff of it come floating around my face, catching my arms and throat till I began to drown. So I just didn’t stop.”
This is a beautiful and haunting description of an emotion that almost everyone can relate to. However, Kingsolver doesn’t just say, “I was grieving.” She shows the audience instead of telling them, and what an effect that has!
This is where most description goes wrong. We get all wrapped up in having these long, winding sentences that we create paragraphs impossible to get through. So, I urge you to keep it simple. You have to find the happy medium between the polar bores, as I call them: the bore with no description and the bore with too many words. Please, don’t bore your readers. One way to do this is to simply focus on one emotion for a descriptive sentence or paragraph.
Here, Tolstoy uses sight as a compelling depiction of love at first sight in “Anna Karenina”:
“In that brief glance Vronsky had time to notice the restrained animation that played over her face and fluttered between her shining eyes and the barely noticeable smile that curved her red lips. It was as if a surplus of something so overflowed her being that it expressed itself beyond her will, now in the brightness of her glance, now in her smile.”
And here, John Keats uses the sound imagery to appeal to audiences in “To Autumn”:
“Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”
Another way to limit wordiness in description is to focus on doing. When we place too many modifiers around nouns, our descriptions can become clogged and stagnant. Instead, try to focus on the verbs driving your story along. Are they exciting? Do they make the description more dynamic?
Jack London masters the use of descriptive action in this passage from “The Call of the Wild”:
“A pause seemed to fall. Every animal was motionless as though turned to stone. Only Spitz quivered and bristled as he staggered back and forth, snarling with horrible menace, as though to frighten off impending death.”
London doesn’t use half a dozen adjectives to back up his nouns, but strong, active verbs to portray the scene.
Perhaps more than any other tool, figurative language is key to powerful descriptions. Why? Because it allows writers to take a specific object, character, place or event and recast it into something with which the readers are familiar. Use it sparingly, of course, as to not tire out your audience—you don’t want every other sentence to include metaphor. Figurative language packs a punch and is essential if you want readers to remember your stellar descriptions.
In “Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Brontë makes great use of figurative language to describe prejudice in this way:
“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.”
As you can see, description brings a story to life. Don’t let your story go without it! What are some of your favorite descriptive passages in literature? Comment below!
Before we get into the dangling participle conversation, we first need to refresh our minds on participles. So, what are they?
Participles do a few different things, and we use them all the time. Participles of verbs are typically used as adjectives, most often with subordinate clauses that tell readers more about the main clause of the sentence.
If you used “walk” as a verb, you might say:
She walks to school.
If you used “walking” as a participle, you might say:
I set out on the walking trail.
Here, the participle “walking” is used as an adjective, describing the noun “trail.”
Now, let’s talk about participial phrases.
To use the participle “walking” again, you might say:
Walking out of school, Lily remembered she left her homework in her locker.
“Walking out of school” is the participial phrase that modifies the subject, “Lily.” “Walking” is the participle that describes what Lily is doing.
Let’s look at another example:
Driving to the store, Christopher made a mental list of the items he needed to buy.
“Driving to the store” is the participial phrase that modifies the subject, “Christopher.” “Driving” is the participle that describes what Christopher is doing.
In the examples above, the subject came right after the participial phrase, ensuring that the reader wouldn’t misunderstand the modifier. If we were to alter these sentences, moving the clear subject, the modifying participle would be left dangling. For example:
Walking out of school, the homework was still in Lily’s locker.
“The homework” cannot walk out of school. Clearly, the intended subject for this participial phrase is misplaced.
Here’s another:
Driving to the store, the mental list grew longer and longer.
Since “the mental list” cannot drive to the store, we are left to believe that the participle is dangling.
You can fix this problem by double-checking that your participial phrase has a clear subject to be modified. If not, add one in! Don’t leave those participles hanging out to fend for themselves!
As writers, either professional or amateur, we all want to improve at our skill. But if you’re no longer studying writing in school, how will you keep learning? How can you start on your path to becoming a better writer? Here are 5 easy tips that will take your writing to the next level:
No one enjoys being critiqued, and definitely, no one enjoys their work being critiqued. But, if you want to become a better writer, this step can’t be avoided. If no one else ever sees your work, how will you get honest feedback? Find people you trust, and ask them to review your work. Maybe you could review theirs too. We do our best learning and maturing when we’re forced to be a bit vulnerable, when we put our work out there for others to see. Don’t go your entire life holed up in your home writing manuscripts that no one ever reads—that worked for Emily Dickinson, but that doesn’t mean it should work for you.
There are about 5 trillion podcasts out there to which you can subscribe and listen—podcasts of history, horror, memoir, comedy, crime, art and yes, even writing! This resource is literally right at your fingertips, and it’s free! Listen on your way to work, blast it over the speakers while you’re cleaning or plug it into your headphones while you’re working out or getting ready for the day. This is such an easy and fun way to learn more about writing (and it doesn’t cost you anything). A few of my favorites are:
The Writer Files—This podcast examines the methods and patterns used by great writers. It’s fascinating for any lit-lover.
NPR’s A Way with Words—Here you’ll dive into language and the cultural, historical and emotional meanings behind it. I honestly learn something new every time I listen.
Writing Excuses—This podcast is quick, easy and accessible at only 15 minutes per episode. Each one provides simple, yet effective tips on writing theory and technique.
Did you really think you were done with school and writing courses? Well, you don’t have to be! Do some research about writing classes available in your community. Sometimes they cost a little, but sometimes they don’t! They could be through your local library or nearby university. A lot of times, they will be a group of adults who meet once a week to discuss and share writing. This is a great way to find inspiration, get motivated, keep learning and make some writer friends (because I believe it’s important to have some friends who love to do what you love to do). And if you can’t find any in your area, check online! There are plenty of courses there to keep learning and perfecting your writing.
This is maybe my favorite step, simply because it’s fun. I’m sure if you love to write, then you also love to read. And perhaps nothing makes us stronger writers than taking in as much writing as we can. Read the classics, and read contemporary. Read fiction and nonfiction. Find what truly interests you, and take hold of it. Fill your repertoire with as much as you can, and observe the craft of others. What do you like about their work? What do you not like? What would you do differently? Reading helps us analyze others’ work while simultaneously analyzing our own. This step can also be free! Go get your library card, and get to work!
“Start writing no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on,” said novelist Louis L’Amour. You’ll never improve and actually implement all these skills you’ve learned if you don’t make time to sit down and write. Do it like it’s your job. Force yourself to write something, anything, even if you don’t feel like it. In a year, five years, ten years, you will have practiced and sharpened your skill. You will have worked out some kinks that troubled you before. And most likely, you will have created something (or a few somethings) that are truly great. When I was going through my Ernest Hemingway phase—like so many do—I found this quote I now cling to when I lack all inspiration to write:
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
Start there, and others will come.
Ah, double negatives. You’ve most likely been told not to use them with no further explanation. But what exactly are double negatives, and how do you avoid them?
Double negatives are two negative words used in one sentence. The rules of English grammar determine that two negative words in a sentence cancel each other out, changing the sentiment to a positive one. Therefore, one or both negatives should be deleted in order to concisely convey the intended message.
Double negatives can completely ruin the way readers understand your writing, so here are four tips to remember when dealing with negatives:
Thus, there should only be one negative form per subject-predicate phrase.
I will go to the store. I will not go to the store.
We have started piano lessons. We have not started piano lessons.
Here are some common examples of double negatives skewing the meaning of a sentence:
I didn't see nothing.
Here is the literal translation:
I did see something.
But most likely the intended meaning was:
I saw nothing.
Let’s try one more:
We never eat with nobody.
Literal translation:
We always eat with somebody.
Likely intended meaning:
We didn't eat with anybody.
For those learning English as a second language, it may be difficult to understand how and why double negatives are considered incorrect grammar. They even were common in English until after the 16th century! But somewhere along the way, we ditched that second negative and decided only one is necessary.
There are certain cases in which double negatives are considered grammatically correct. Let’s look at this example:
I am not unconvinced that he’s telling the truth.
The use of “not” with “unconvinced” makes the statement more subtle. It implies that that the author has reservations about the person telling the truth but is still convinced. There is a nuance in this type of double negation that makes it the exception to the rule.
Hopefully these tips have been helpful in learning what you need to do to delete double negatives!
🎉🎉We welcome Sarah Denise Holloway of St. Louis, Missouri to the J. Kenkade Publishing Family!
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We are excited to be publishing her upcoming book, a fiction novel based on the growth of a young woman who, after a tragedy, is forced to cope with her pain and search for peace in God’s grace.
Sarah is a diligent writer and has earned a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing.
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Help us welcome her to our Publishing family!
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