3 Quick Tricks to Instantly Improve Your Writing

Writers look for shortcuts to improve their writing. By reading books and blog posts on the subject, attending workshops and conferences on writing, and evening listening to podcasts devoted to the topic, they hope to take their writing to a higher level. Whether you’re crafting a blog post, writing a story, or drafting an email, writing effectively can sometimes feel like a daunting task. The good news is that such shortcuts exist! Here are three quick tricks you can use right now to instantly elevate your writing:

1. Trim the Fat: Cut Unnecessary Words

One of the quickest ways to make your writing more impactful is to cut unnecessary words. Overly verbose writing can dilute your message and cost you your reader’s interest.

• Identify Wordy Phrases: Look for phrases that can be streamlined. For example, instead of saying "due to the fact that," simply say "because."
• Eliminate Redundancies: Avoid repeating the same idea in different words. If you’ve already mentioned something, there's no need to reiterate it unless you’re adding new information or emphasis.

A good exercise is to review your writing and ask yourself if each sentence serves a clear purpose. If it doesn’t, consider cutting it or rephrasing it more concisely.

2. Use Active Voice

Active voice makes your writing more direct and engaging. In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action, while in passive voice, the subject receives the action.

• Spot the Passive Voice: Passive constructions often include forms of the verb "to be" followed by a past participle (e.g., "The teacher was tested by Todd"). Look for these in your text.
• Convert to Active Voice: Revise sentences to place the subject first and make it the doer of the action (e.g., "Todd tested his teacher").

Active voice not only clarifies who is doing what but also makes your writing more dynamic and easier to read.

3. Read Aloud

Reading your writing aloud is a simple yet powerful technique to catch errors and improve flow. This method allows you to hear how your words sound and spot awkward phrasing or unclear passages.

• Listen for Flow: Pay attention to the rhythm and pace of your sentences. If you stumble over a phrase while reading, consider revising it.
• Identify Mistakes: Hearing your text out loud draws your attention to errors or typos that you tend to overlook when reading silently.

Make a habit of reading your drafts aloud. It can help you refine your writing and ensure it communicates your ideas clearly and effectively.

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When you start using these quick tricks, you can enhance the quality of your writing almost immediately. These strategies not only make your text more engaging but also ensure that your message is conveyed with clarity and precision. So, give them a try and see how much of a difference they make!

Tips from an Editor and an Editor’s Authors

The following notes are from a talk I gave to a writers’ group in 2016 about the editing process for those writers who have never worked with an editor before.

What you need to know about...

Manuscripts: The rules for writing manuscripts for publication are the same as the rules for writing a resume. Don’t use flashy fonts, multiple fonts, varying sizes of fonts, or an alarming amount of bolds and italics. If you feel you need visual acrobatics to draw attention to your story, you probably have a weak story.

Formatting: All an editor wants is a double-spaced 12-pt font document for easy reading. Don’t format your manuscript. The publishing house has a formatting team to handle that. Paragraphs are nice, of course, but putting in your own style is a waste of time. Adding page numbers to a manuscript created in a word processing program is unnecessary and may cause problems if your page numbers differ from the word processing system’s automatic page numbers. Your table of contents doesn’t need page numbers yet, but if you want to hold their places with XX, you can do that.

NOTE: If you are self-publishing, you may have to do your own formatting. However, this should occur *after* editing rather than before.

Punctuation: If you aren’t sure you know the rules for using colons and semi-colons, don’t use them. It’s easier for an editor to insert them than it is for that same editor to have to keep moving, deleting, or correcting them.

There is rarely a reason to use single quotation marks. Don’t use them unless you have dialogue that includes a quote within a quote.

If you struggle with comma usage, it may be because there are 50 comma rules, according to the Pocket Guide to Punctuation by Merriam-Webster! Brush up on the main rules, but otherwise don’t sweat it. Your editor should be able to correct any comma or missing-comma mistakes you make. Just don’t sprinkle them liberally like pepper on a salad!

Never use more than one exclamation point at the end of a sentence. I mean it!

Public Domain: Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s free. Just because you credit the author of, for example, a poem, doesn’t mean it’s okay to use. You must have permission to publish anything that you can’t confirm is in the public domain, and if it is in the public domain, you still need to credit the author if the author is known. Works published before 1923 are in the public domain. Many authors want to quote popular lyrics in their novels but still need permission, even to quote just one short verse, and it will likely come with a fee.

Editing Help: Before submitting your manuscript to an editor, run it through spellcheck, and consider each change carefully. Don’t assume the editing program is correct in all instances! For more advanced editing help, I recommend PerfectIt’s proofreading software. They are based out of the UK, but they have a variety of styles, including American English, within the program. PerfectIt checks for inconsistencies, which is different from Spellcheck.

Misc. Notes: If you can’t handle anyone criticizing or making changes to your work, you aren’t ready to be published. A publishing house editor can have the power to stop you from being considered for future publication. Your reputation for being difficult will hurt you.

While there are obnoxious editors out there, most consider your working relationship as teamwork, not as adversaries.

Tips from Some of My Authors on Working with an Editor

Carrie Daws:  The one thing that I think helps me the most is this: before I even open the edited file, I remind myself that my editor and I are on the same team. She (or the occasional he) wants my book to succeed, wants it to be its best. Once that is firmly planted in my heart and mind, it’s much easier to open the file and read all the changes and comments without it hurting my feelings.

Daphne Self (DM Webb): Editors help make the book stronger, help catch things you miss (such as a complete scene that was forgotten), and are honest about your work and only want the best for the author. Finally and most importantly, an editor can be your friend.

Joanie Bruce: I would also add that editors are usually right about changes they think might make the book better. What I like about having Brenda edit my work, is that she is totally impartial....She sees the mistakes and doesn’t mind having me correct them, because she is unbiased and only wants what’s best for the book.

Lindon and Sherry Gareis: Okay, of course I agree with all of the lovely ladies who have commented, but I'll add another twist. Don't be afraid to speak up. If your editor is all he/she is supposed to be, your concern(s)/question(s) will be respectfully considered. If the editor overrides, of course best to deflect to their expertise, but don't hesitate to at least open a discussion. Take a respectful, no regrets approach.

Kathy Miller Howard: Since I have the experience of working with only one professional editor, my well of knowledge on the subject is limited. However, if it’s up to me, she’d be a keeper! Brenda taught me to trust her expertise, to ask questions, and to view her and her comments as allies. 

Blast from the Past: My Experience at the first Southern Mystery Gathering Conference, or “What I Learned at Camp”

It was the summer of 1998, the summer before I suddenly became a single parent of two young children and stopped chasing the book-deal dream, but just for fun, let’s pretend it was this past weekend since I found my old notes and the info is still worthwhile. (I’ve updated any agent info included.)

I went to the first ever Southern Mystery Gathering, put on by the southeast chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and I have the oversized t-shirt and tote bag to prove it. It was held at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville on the hottest weekend of the summer. As I frantically searched for a place to cool off, I discovered that those people do not believe in air-conditioning. In fact, they swore that it had never been that hot before. That was why the cabins, the lodge, the meeting rooms, and the dining room were all saunas. The person responsible for sending us to a place that was not heaven went into hiding in Florida, and thus there was no murder committed that weekend.

Me and author Teri Holbrook

There were eight of us in my cabin, and two just happened to be authors participating in the workshops. I really expected the big deal people to be hidden away somewhere, but there was Teri Holbrook, author of three thrilling mysteries, poking her head into the bathroom to visit with me! Or maybe to hurry me up ... Anyway, I discovered that published authors are regular people, as those I met were friendly and happy to talk shop and answer questions.

While I spent most of my time trying not to succumb to heat stroke, I did learn some tips that I can share with you. For instance, there are pros and cons in attending the first-ever conference. The cons are that the amenities may be less than you imagined, half of the scheduled agents may not show up (and your submitted manuscript may disappear with one of them), and some of the workshops may be somewhat disorganized and not what you expected. However, the pros are that fewer people attend or even know about that first conference, and therefore the buffet line at lunch isn’t long at all. Also, when you meet agents or authors, there aren’t many people vying for their attention, allowing you the time to talk at leisure with them and glean valuable insights.

Now, having finished writing a mystery novel, I was most interested in how to attract an agent or an editor, and that’s the kind of information I collected and recorded. Thus, what follows is that information.

Before you start looking for an agent, you need to WRITE THE BOOK. That idea was emphasized repeatedly. Agents don’t like to be dazzled by an eye-popping query only to discover that the writer doesn’t have so much as a chapter to send them. Author Evelyn Coleman learned that the hard way. She jotted down an idea, queried six agents, and quickly got six positive responses. She had assumed that nobody would ask to see the book before she actually got around to researching and writing it. [As of that day in 1998] this children’s writer and author of What a Woman’s Gotta Do hasn’t gotten around to writing that book. Without a doubt, she didn’t make a good impression on those six agents.

So, write the book first, but don’t stop there. You’ll need to edit it, polish it, and finally categorize it. An agent will want to know whether your book fits his interests. For instance, Jeff Gerecke of the JCA Literary Agency in NYC [currently dba the G Agency] looks at hard-boiled crime and women-in-jeopardy novels in the mystery genre, as well as books on pop culture, history, and business. You wouldn’t want to waste time sending him a mystery of the cozy type, or anything in another genre such as romance or science fiction.

Do your agent research. Agents really appreciate that. You can check the library for books listing literary agents and also look to see if any authors whose writing style is similar to yours have mentioned agents in the acknowledgments at the front of their books.

Next, present yourself as professional by following the standard format for manuscripts. You can easily find information on format in any writer’s market book or website. Agents listed two things that you should never use as attention-getters because it just annoys the phooey out of agents: brightly colored paper, and weird fonts. The agent will assume that you are trying to prop up a weak story and won’t give it a second glance.

Now, as a way of telling you what agents are looking for, I’m going to tell you what they don’t want. This information came from Susan Graham of the Graham Literary Agency [now dba About Words Agency] in Atlanta. She called it: The Top Ten Reasons agents Reject Manuscripts.

10.       Wimpy or unpleasant protagonist

9.         No point of conflict / just a slice-of-life story

8.         Disjointed flow, hard to understand

7.         No sense of place, or bad setting

6.         Story starts in wrong place, often too far in advance of the conflict *

5.         Mechanics: grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors

4.         Use of stereotypes or clichés

3.         Been done before and done better

2.         Problems with premise, plausibility, motivation, originality

1.         Telling instead of showing — the #1 problem!

Susan went on to say that multiple submission queries are fine, but when an agent asks to see your manuscript, you need to put in writing when you send it how long the agent will have an exclusive look before you pass it on to someone else. It can be anywhere from 2–6 weeks, your choice. The important thing to remember is that you are in control. That was a new idea to most of us at the conference.

When you query an agent, your letter should grab their interest. That won’t happen if you take several paragraphs to describe your book. What you need to do—but is excruciatingly painful—is to write what your book is about using only two sentences. To give yourself a better idea of how to tackle that assignment, you might try choosing your favorite book in your genre and in two sentences write what that book is about. Then go to the bookstore, pick a book by its cover, and then in two sentences write what you think that book is about. Then read the flap. (Tip: use active language rather than passive.)

Here, I'm sandwiched between
authors Gwen Hunter and Tamar Myers.

Finally, we were given a suggested reading list that included Stein on Writing, by Sol Stein, Bird by Bird, by Ann Lamont, and The Courage to Write (which, if it is the one by Ralph Keyes, wasn’t published before 1998, as far as I can tell, but it's all I could find).

All in all, it was a positive experience, and the negatives just make the story more fun to tell! I recommend that every serious writer, when presented with the opportunity, attend at least one writers’ conference.

*Tamar Myers’ habit was to write four books a year. She advised me to start my book the way she starts all of hers: with a dead body. After that attention-getter, she backpedals to hours or days earlier and works her way up to the beginning point and then forward to solving the crime.