For the last eight months, I've honed my writing skills and learned everything I could about how to improve my writing. How can I take my writing to the next level? While I've still got a lot to learn, I've gathered my top five tips that have helped me escalate my writing from "meh" to "WOW!"
5. Write.
Okay, this one is obvious. Don’t throw tomatoes at me. But it's true. The only way to write remarkable stories is to write bad ones first. Practice, practice, practice. Write for fun, write for an outlet, just write. Write about your day, or what you had for dinner. Get in the practice of describing things and places and people. Look at your children or your spouse or a friend, imagine them as a character in your story. How would you describe them in the most detail possible to someone who was unable to see them in a photo?
Write a silly blog post, who cares? Just write.
4. Lose the idea that you have to be original.
I think the pressure to come up with the next great idea can be daunting for a new writer. You don't have to be the next Shakespeare. There's been millions of books, poems, and stories that have been written, they've covered all the good stuff, trust me. Just write your story, whatever you're inspired by. I'm not saying go watch a movie and write it down as a rip off, but I am saying if you watch a movie about hot vampires and want to write about hot vampires, DO IT. I can't tell you how many times I've finished a book and wished for another one just like it, only slightly different. People love what they love. You're sure to find an audience for whatever genre you want to write about somewhere.
3. Describe, don't explain.
We hear it all the time as writers, "Show, don't tell." Recently, I had it told to me as, "Describe, don't explain," and for some reason, that clicked a lot better in my mind. Describe the scene and be specific. "The cup fell." How did it fall? Did the cup fall and shatter into a million tiny fragments, or did the cup fall and roll under the couch? Get in the practice of asking yourself, "how?" Describe your scenes in detail, but every detail should be significant to moving the story forward.
2. Identify the "why" in your story.
What is the central theme, or takeaway, you want your readers to feel after reading your piece of writing? If you've ever read a story and were left feeling like it was incomplete, unfinished, or it left you questioning why you spent time reading it in the first place, you understand the frustration of being a reader. As a writer, you have complete control over the theme of your book. Make it memorable, make it worthwhile, make it unforgettable.
1. Focus on the verbs.
The verbs please the word Gods. Verbs tickle the feet and placate the angry grammar agents. Focusing on the verbs of your story will strengthen your sentences. What's the action in your story? If you must "tell" the reader something, do so by action or while an action is being done. Sometimes, this is unavoidable, but knowing the rules will help you know when you can break them. For example, take these two paragraphs from a short story I'm working on. In the first, the paragraph relies on the telling to get the reader to picture the setting. After feedback and editing, I changed it to the second one. Notice the differences in the verbs, the actions, the image it conjures in your mind.
"Sunshine Trailer Park fell quiet, except for the neighborhood cicadas that always screamed their summer songs at the top of their lungs. On any given night, as you entered atop a gravel road and under the park’s massive welcome sign— a bright yellow sun wearing sunglasses and the words “WELCOME TO THE SUNNIEST PLACE IN TEXAS!”— you’d typically hear much more noise, like sirens coming from the city, or the scuffle of some kids fighting over a basketball. Tonight, all that noise seemed drowned out by the muttering convictions of a man deafened by his own truths."
"The sound of Frank Langston’s old, rattling Chevy truck echoed through the winding dirt road and sent all the critters that may have ended up under his tires running for cover. A single headlight illuminated the path in front of him. In his rear-view mirror, he saw the long trail of dust that kicked up behind him as he sped. He made this drive every day, but this time he wasn’t just racing to the safety of his home, he was running to escape his own demons.
When he turned into the entrance, Sunshine Trailer Park fell quiet, except for the neighborhood cicadas that screamed their summer songs at him from the top of their lungs...."
There are things to be said for each paragraph, but when done the second way, you can see the images much clearer, and they're centered around the main character. The sounds of the truck, the sight of the dust, the critters scurrying out of the way of the tires. These images cement the reader into your world.
Try using these five tips and let me know if they helped you!
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