This Is How To Improve Your Writing: 6 Expert Insights
By Eric Barker from Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Most of us walk around under the merciful illusion that our thoughts are orderly. They are not. Our brains are junk drawers filled with impressions, suspicions, slogans, half-remembered facts, emotional reflexes, borrowed opinions, and movie lines. We call this “having a point of view.”
Writing calls it “a problem.”
Writing is the business of turning mental clutter into public architecture. The materials are unstable. The workers are lazy. The blueprints keep changing. And the building inspector is a reader with limited patience.
Good writing is hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling a course on Substack.
So how do we improve? We get help from experts who’ve figured out how to make this cursed process work. The tips below are drawn from the insights of Harvard professor Steven Pinker, “Seven” screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, playwright and filmmaker David Mamet, novelist Stephen King, and author Steven Pressfield.
Let’s get to it…
Here’s how to improve your writing…
Read Read Read: Essential. No discussion.
– The Most Important Question: “Why should anyone care?” That’s your golden ticket, right there. Because if you don’t know, your reader sure as heck won’t.
– Don’t Bury The Lede: Burying the lede is like playing hide-and-seek with someone who didn’t agree to play in the first place. You know what happens? They stop looking. They walk away and find something else to do.
– Beware “The Curse Of Knowledge”: Start where they’re at, not where you’re at. If your reader is pausing to Google three times per paragraph, you’re not a genius; you’re supremely annoying. If they wanted a headache, they’d go read Ulysses.
– Structure: Look, I know “structure” sounds like a boring high school English lesson, like grammar quizzes and diagramming sentences. But structure is the unsung hero of writing. Readers may not notice it when it’s working, but they’ll definitely notice when it’s not.
– Be Clear And Conversational: Talk like a human. Stop trying to sound like you’re addressing the UN.
Read the whole article here.
Reading Kingdom is an online K-3 reading program that uses a new “phonics-plus” model to teach students to read and write at a 3rd grade level with comprehension. Sign up for a complimentary Reading Kingdom trial (or any of our other products) here.
We also have a program for students on the autism spectrum and others who face unique learning challenges called ASD Reading. Sign up for a complimentary trial of ASD Reading.
State & Charter school funding is available! Look for your program and begin using your education funds today!
Want to help a child in need learn to read? Try shopping at our Amazon affiliate store where a portion of every sale goes towards teaching kids the life-changing skill of reading.
