Tips Every Writer Can Use
You may not believe that poets, novelists, essayists and other world-famous scribes and literary masters have writing tips that any ordinary writer can use — even content providers like those at Ray Access. But writing is writing. While composing a stage play is a vastly different exercise than writing a blog post, both are forms of the same type of communication: the written word.
With that in mind, we present a random sampling of writing tips. You may not recognize all the masters below, but please search them out online if you aren’t familiar with their work. They are all great, in one fashion or another, and all are worthy of paying attention to. Good luck, stay motivated and keep writing.
Writing Tips for You
Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else. — C.S. Lewis
Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless! — Joyce Carol Oates
Do back exercises. Pain is distracting. — Margaret Atwood
Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than 10 or 12 words. — V.S. Naipaul
Don’t overwrite. Avoid the redundant phrases, the distracting adjectives, the unnecessary adverbs. — Sarah Waters
Don’t use big words. If your computer tells you that your average word is more than five letters long, there is something wrong. The use of small words compels you to think about what you are writing. Even difficult ideas can be broken down into small words. — V.S. Naipaul
Don’t wait for inspiration. Discipline is the key. — Esther Freud
Each sentence should make a clear statement. It should add to the statement that went before. A good paragraph is a series of clear, linked statements. — V.S. Naipaul
Editing is everything. Cut until you can cut no more. What is left often springs into life. — Esther Freud
Go easy on conjunctions such as “but,” “and,” “yet,” and “however.” The prose may feel fluid to you when you use these; but if you go back and simply remove them the prose may be even more fluid. — Anne Rice
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. —George Orwell
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. — Elmore Leonard
Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it. — P.D. James
Limit the use of the verb “to be.” There’s almost always a better verb. — Saul Stein
Never send [what you’ve written] … on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it. — David Ogilvy
Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.” — C.S. Lewis
Never use a long word where a short one will do. —George Orwell
Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass. — David Ogilvy
Never use the passive where you can use the active. —George Orwell
Never use the word “then” as a conjunction — we have “and” for this purpose. Substituting “then” is the lazy writer’s non-solution to the problem of too many “ands” on the page. — Jonathan Franzen
Never use words whose meanings you are not sure of. If you break this rule you should look for other work. — V.S. Naipaul
Prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them. — C.S. Lewis
Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. — Mark Twain
Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs. — David Ogilvy
Use the right word, not its second cousin. — Mark Twain
[Write] every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct. This is the most important rule of all and, naturally, I don’t follow it. — Geoff Dyer
Write the way you talk. Naturally. — David Ogilvy
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