Fundamentals 

• It's more precise and nearly always more powerful to say what something is rather than what it isn't. Strong: Most people thought of him as pond scum. Weak: Most people didn't exactly warm to him.
• Keep things that go together, together. At the sentence level, keep modifiers close to the words they modify, keep objects close to their prepositions or verbs. At the paragraph or piece level, stick to the subject. In fiction and in dramatic nonfiction, don't break up a dramatic scene with background.
• Everything you write has a specific audience. The more you know about your audience, the more likely you are to communicate. It takes little critical thinking to realize that nothing you write is for "everybody" or "anybody."
• Active voice energizes writing. The quick definition of active voice is "strong verbs." For example, this tip could have opened, active voice makes your writing better, or there are good reasons to use active voice. Either would be an acceptable sentence, but neither has as much punch as active voice energizes writing. The verb makes the difference. Here's a good way to start using more active voice: Look for sentences that begin, "There is (are, were, will, would, etc.) ..." You can improve most of them with a different structure wrapped around a stronger verb.
• It's no secret that a business letter should get to the point fast. If you find that your letters are too long, this may help: Pretend the person you're writing to is sitting across from you. Tell him or her what you want to say -- just keep talking until you find the heart of the matter. Write that. Obviously, this is a technique best done quietly and with the door shut, but it is an effective way to cut through extraneous thoughts, especially if writing is uncomfortable for you.
• All of us, rookies and pros, overwrite once in awhile. Overwriting happens when sound and feel become more important than communication. Good writing is not a goal, it's a natural result of clarity and precision. No matter what you're writing, first be clear, then be precise. When you've done both to the best of your ability, just stop. That's as good as it gets. It sounds obvious and easy. In fact, it's much tougher than writing to impress. Sounding good is pretty easy. Communicating is hard.
• Call it thesaurus fever. Its victims tend to believe that all synonyms are created equal and that variety is the spice of good writing. If you, or someone you know, suffer from this malady, here's the cure: Use the best word -- the one that does the best job of conveying meaning and clarity. Often, the best words are also the most common.
• When experienced writers and editors talk about "style books," they're talking about books that set standards for punctuation and other mechanics. The two most popular are the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual and The Chicago Manual of Style. AP style is used primarily in periodicals; Chicago in books. Of the two, AP tends to be easier to follow because it has fewer special cases. Adhering to a style manual is an important part of a professional presentation.

Writing Stuff on Amazon 

On Writing

by Stephen King

Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/07/2008)

Techniques 

• Let the tone or mood of the piece guide you in when and how to use contractions. A very formal presentation or a very correct character may dictate no contractions. A conversational tone usually requires them.
• Keep time sequential within sentences, within paragraphs and scenes, and within chapters. At the sentence level: "He got the gun from the desk and rushed to the library" works better than "he rushed to the library, the gun he had taken from the desk in his hand." At the scene or "meanwhile" level, craft shifts in scene and place so that the reader can assume that scene 2 begins in time where scene 1 ended. In other words, avoid forcing a reader to go back a few hours. This is not the same as a true flashback, which dramatizes important historical background. A flashback always disrupts the flow of the current story. That's no problem if the flashback is as entertaining as the current thread. If it isn't, either energize it or dump it and summarize.
• Repetition can be an effective technique for emphasis, a technique with unusual power. But think of repetition as a spice, a spice best added by the pinch. Repetition used too often becomes a caricature of itself, a caricature that leaves readers annoyed.
• "Grab the reader!" You've heard it more times than you can count, but what does it really mean in practice? A car wreck grabs attention because it sends a universally understood emotional message -- bam! Fenders are mashed. People may be hurt. Only after getting that message does a spectator have any reason to want to know how it happened or to whom. In exactly the same way, your opening must give the reader a universally compelling reason to want to read on. In the opening, car wreck first, details second.
• The problem is called "one voice." It means that your characters sound alike -- the cadence, syntax and feel of their dialogue sound too similar. More often than not, they sound a lot like the author. Two techniques will help you avoid that problem. Use them both. First, know your major characters well. If they're real to you, they'll have their own "voice" precisely because they're real to you. Second, give each of them something distinctive -- a favorite expression, a habit, perhaps one of them never uses contractions. The combination will give you characters real enough to hear in your imagination.
• Attribution should tell your readers who is talking, not how. It's tempting to have your characters/speakers snapping, exclaiming and sighing all over the place, but your writing will be stronger if what the speaker says (and does while she's saying it) delivers the emotional context.
• It's a fact that the more a writer likes the sound and feel of a sentence or phrase just penned, the less clear and precise it's likely to be.
• When is it completely safe and effective to use a word that is a sound -- bam, bop, thsssspt? (Okay, fine. You spell thsssspt correctly.) It's always safe in dialogue, but proceed with extreme caution anywhere else. The line between effective and silly can be hard to spot.

Happy Editors 

• Criticism hurts every writer, every time. The trick is to make best use of it. Assume that for every person who criticizes your writing, there are twenty others who would agree with him. If all twenty-one of them were in the room with you, you would listen. You might not agree, but you would listen.
• An excellent way to keep editors happy is to regularly reread Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White.
• A rule to build a solid reputation by: Never let your work leave your house until it's as "clean" (free from typographical, spelling and style errors) as you can make it. Find out what style guide is appropriate to your work and learn it. Generally, The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual is the standard for articles, The Chicago Manual of Style is the standard for books. The dictionary both these manuals find acceptable is Webster's New World College Dictionary, or if you've got the money, Webster's Third New International Dictionary.
• One of the more effective ways to make an editor wince is to make up an adverb by adding ly to an adjective. Look it up. If it isn't in a standard dictionary, don't use it. If it is, but it sounds awkward, don't use it. If it's in the dictionary and doesn't sound awkward, use it only if you can't find a better verb.
• Don't try to help or impress an editor by formatting your text. Formatting means setting type in a different face, font or point-size for effect; using your tab key or a hanging indent to suggest a way of presenting information (beyond simple clarity); fully justifying your type (ends of lines are flush on the left and right margins). Any formatting you do may have to be undone by an editor. That's extra work and expense. If you're asked to do some formatting, do it. If not, don't.
• An ellipsis ... signals a significant pause (dialogue) or something skipped (quotation). An ellipsis is always three dots, no more or less. A period and an ellipsis often appear together and can seem to be one thing with four dots. Whether an ellipsis has spaces fore and aft (and what kind of spaces) depends on the style being used, but you won't go wrong if you treat an ellipsis like a word.

Writing Stuff on Amazon 

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (Shambhala Pocket Classics)

by Natalie Goldberg

Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)

Super Tip 

• Perhaps the most powerful tool available for polishing and proofreading is reading aloud -- with feeling if your work is meant to have an emotional impact. Saying a word many times tends to make it lose meaning to the sayer. Rereading many times does the same thing. The result is that the writer tends to scan rather than addressing each word and sentence the way a new reader would. Reading aloud puts some distance and freshness back into the process by encouraging the writer to say and hear every word (and error). Reading aloud with feeling allows the writer to feel the emotion in the words (and more importantly, to miss it if it's not there). Reading aloud is tedious, but exceptionally powerful.

Writing Stuff on Amazon 

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

by Roy Peter Clark

Amazon Price: $13.59 (as of 10/07/2008)

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