If you’ve declared that 2018 is the year that you’ll finally write the book of your dreams, you’ve landed on the right blog.

Why? Because we want to start the New Year off by giving you four quick tips that’ll improve your writing.

After all, one of the biggest pieces of the book-writing puzzle is cultivating your writing skills.

So, without further ado, let’s jump right in.

Four Quick Tips to Improve Your Writing

1. Remove the fluff – Fillers just add noise to the message that you’re trying to articulate. Rather than writing wordy sentences, do your best to pare them down. Here are a couple examples to show you what we’re talking about:
   1. It’s fun to ride a bike. – Riding a bike is fun.
   2. There are a lot of people who sing. – Many people sing.
2. Switch it up – Vary the lengths of your sentences when writing. Short sentences help with the flow of your story while long sentences can help you define and explain ideas that keep the plot moving forward.
3. Don’t go comma crazy – It’s no secret when we say that there are a lot of rules associated with comma usage. However, when writing, you don’t want to abuse this form of punctuation. Here are some comma quick tips:
   1. Use a comma after an introductory clause, phrase, or words that come before the main clause. (Ex: While I was sleeping, the dog barked at the door.)
   2. Use commas to separate items in a series. (Ex: I packed a bathing suit, sunblock, and sunglasses.)
4. Revise – We’ve mentioned this tip countless times before but we still feel that it’s important to share again. When revising your writing, make sure to read your work out loud. Sometimes, our eyes skip mistakes and grammar issues, but, when we read something out loud, we’re more apt to hear the errors.

Whether it’s a journal entry, quick email, or a chapter of your book, you always want to put your best foot forward. Keep these tips in the back of your mind the next time you sit down to write to help refine and sharpen your writing skills.

Copyright Dorrance Publishing, 2018