There are a lot of fancy dialogue tags here – one or two would be fine, but “clamoured” is definitely getting into the realms of the slightly silly. The sentences are perfectly grammatical, but the stretching for ever-different words quickly grates: “said” would have been absolutely
fine in most cases.
(Again, my use of this excerpt isn’t intended as any comment, positive or negative, on the book as a whole.)
#3: Grammatical, Fluent But Forgettable Writing
Another problem that can crop up, once you’re writing pretty well, is that your writing is perfectly readable, but it lacks voice. It’s essentially forgettable.
This one isn’t necessarily a problem. For some types of writing, an “invisible” writing style is a great thing. It’s a real asset for a lot of freelancing, especially technical writing. It’s also very common in fast-paced, plot-focused fiction (e.g. thrillers). Instead of
drawing attention to themselves, your words act as a conduit for your ideas, information, or plot.
If you’re writing literary fiction, though, or if you’re building a blog (where having a unique voice can be a big draw for readers), then you might want to spend some time focusing on this aspect of your craft.
In some cases, developing a strong voice and a unique style goes hand-in-hand with becoming more comfortable with your writing and being more willing to take risks or stand out.
#4: Great Writing Style, But You Struggle With the Big Picture
Some writers are fantastic at individual sentences, but struggle with the bigger picture of writing. In many ways, this is a more difficult issue to have than being poor at spelling and grammar – the details are fairly easy for an editor to fix, but if your whole plot or concept doesn’t work, that’s tougher.
I’ve known novelists who wrote beautifully – but didn’t have a strong grasp of narrative or plot, so their wonderful writing just meandered around. With bloggers, some have a fantastic way with words, but struggle to create posts that have a clear point – or find it very tough to blog consistently.
How to Get Better at Writing (However Good or Bad You Currently Are)
Ultimately, I don’t think it matters how “good” you are at writing, right now. What matters is how good you’re going to be – relative to your current position – in two years’ time.
Here’s how to improve:
#1: Make Time to Write Regularly
Between the ages of 10 and 13, I had piano lessons. I’m not naturally musical (I can’t sing in key or keep a beat) and I practised as little as possible. I progressed slowly and reluctantly before persuading my parents to let me give up.
I can’t imagine I’d ever have been great, but I could certainly now be a competent pianist if I’d practiced for 15 minutes every day since I was 10.
The same applies with writing: you can’t expect to improve as a writer without actually spending some time putting words on paper. You don’t have to write daily, but anything less than twice a week is going to make it tough to build up a sense of momentum and
progress.
If you’re struggling to make much (or any) time for your writing, you’re definitely not alone. This is the biggest writing problem I hear about … and definitely one I’ve had to struggle against myself. If you join my free newsletter, you’ll get instant access to my mini-ebook Time to Write, with lots of
practical tips for making time for your writing.
#2: Get Objective Feedback on Your Writing
It’s very difficult to judge the quality of writing that you’ve produced. Bring in an outsider (preferably not your spouse or close friend) to read your work. That might be:
- A local writers’ group that critiques members’ work-in-progress.
- An editor who can provide a developmental review / “big picture” edit of your novel.
- Beta readers who’ll give you feedback on your writing.
- Fellow freelancers or bloggers who you’ve met in a Facebook group or other online forum.
Encourage them to point out what could be better. Spend time deliberately learning more about that aspect of your craft and practicing it.
#3: Spend More Time Planning
Planning is one of the four stages of writing … and the quality of your planning can make a huge difference to the quality of your finished piece.
If you’re not naturally a planner, try to consciously make time to prepare before you write. This can really help if you’re great at putting together sentence but struggle with the bigger picture issues.
Planning ahead might mean following a process along these lines:
- Brainstorming ideas so you can pick your best one.
- Jotting down notes and thoughts about what you’re going to write.
- Collating these thoughts into a coherent, linear form.
- Expanding on this as you feel necessary (e.g. with a novel, you might start with a list of key scenes or plot points, then work out what else needs to happen around them).
I sometimes set a timer for 5 minutes when I sit down to write to help me focus on planning first, rather than leaping ahead into writing.
#4: Use Simple Editing Tricks
You’ll know better than me what problems your writing suffers with on a sentence-by-sentence or paragraph-by-paragraph level. Once you’ve identified a particular problem, figure out a good way to solve it when you edit your draft.
That might mean things like:
- Watching out for overlong sentences and aiming to break them into two or three separate sentences where possible.
- Doing a “find” for particular phrases that you tend to use too frequently.
- Reading your work aloud to help you spot clunky sentences or grammatical errors.
- Leaving a [note to self] when you draft, if there’s a particular fact, spelling, etc that you want to double-check.
- Paying particular attention to key areas of your piece – e.g. the opening and ending.
#5: Consider Studying Literature
While I don’t think this is necessary in order to be a good writer, studying literature can give you an insight into how great texts are put together. You’ll learn about how they work on a structural level down to the individual word choices the author made.
Even if you’re going to be writing something very different (e.g. advertising copy), a background in literature can help give you a richer appreciation of words.
If a formal course isn’t practical for you right now, you could simply commit to reading one piece of literature each month. You might try K.M. Weiland’s annotated edition of Jane Eyre, which is an excellent way to see story structure in action.
#6: Deliberately Study the Craft of Writing
If you’ve already got a shelf full of books on writing, you might want to set aside time each week to work through one of those – perhaps tackling a chapter at a time and trying out any exercises.
Otherwise, some great (and free!) places to start are with:
Ultimately, remember: the only way to get better at writing (and see the success you want) is to actually write.