Start Writing – Quick Tips!
Writing, even the thought of it, can be overwhelming. If you have a passion for story-telling, or if you know something others may be interested in, you can start writing today!.
The readers want to read short paragraphs about topics that are interesting, instructive, not too wordy, and reader-friendly.
Here are some quick tips to get started writing:
- Include white space. Think 4 – 5 sentences per paragraph.
- Avoid beginning sentences with “And.” “but”, Therefore, however, and furthermore.” Frequent use of these words are boring.
- Show your passion, but avoid expletives like “Wow! shazammm! Boom, Bang, Yippee!”
- Keep punctuation simple, but don’t even worry about it during your first draft. In fact, don’t concern yourself with any of the above instructions until you get to the edit stage, but DO edit.
- Edit more than once. First, take out the “wordiness” that just fills up the page with clutter. Second edit should be checking for grammar and sentence structure. Last edit should check for spelling and all of the above, “one more time.”
- Write down short words to trigger your memory. If the story or procedure is difficult, write the order of how you want to tell it. Keep it simple. An outline should not be more complicated than the actual writing, though many times it is. Unless you’re writing the great novel, keep it all simple and interesting.
- Make sure you have quiet. If you’re rocking the baby and chopping vegetables, and doing laundry, the writing will be choppy and unfocused. Believe me, people can tell if you’ve even read what you wrote and you should, maybe 50 times before you publish it.
- Have someone else read it to see if they understand the story and don’t get mad if they don’t. Taking criticism is hard, but if you think strangers won’t rip what you said apart, think again.
- Writing is talking, but requires much more structure than a one on one conversation with others.
- Don’t over due structure to the point of losing the punch line, or the joy of the story.
- Bonus tip: Have a point, build up to it, and once you’ve summarized briefly or said a closing statement, which can often be just a few words, stop. The baby is born. Don’t oversell it.
See? (There are a few punctuation and spelling errors in this writing, can you find them?)
-MarisueWrites
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