11 of the Best Writing Techniques that Only Legends Know
Any writer, be it on any platform, has their own style of writing which develops based on their practice and field of debut in the writing arena. Stating this, these writers have their own tips and tricks for writing (hereafter called writing techniques). Hence, a variety of myths and perspectives exist when you wish to take inspiration for starting a career in writing.
The Best Writing Techniques that every expert knows but doesn't tell
Through years of reading various kinds of writings and understanding the methods of numerous known writers, we have listed below some techniques that a writer should compulsorily keep in mind to kick start their journey in writing.
Know what you are going to write
Having an idea about what you have to write up on makes the process easier and more efficient. Writers often write long sentences or paragraphs which do sound meaningful but do not convey much information. This makes the efforts go in vain with the reader feeling unsatisfied even after going through to the end of it all.
Read before you write! Make notes for yourself, shortlist what to write and what to filter out, then share your work with the readers. This is one of the best writing techniques on the planet. If you don't what to write, you can use writing suggestion & keyword planner tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Google Keyword Planner Tool etc.
Be particular in your writing
Observe these two sentences:
- The nursery contains a wide variety of flowers.
- The nursery contains 23 kinds of flowers, including purple asters, african lilies, yellow buttercups, bluebells, red camellias, climbing clematis and pink coneflowers.
Which one is more absorbing? Which describes the nursery better? Obviously the second. Detailed writing is the best way to present your content. So, instead of being vague – go in details. Other writing techniques will come secondary if you follow the first two.
Be simple in your words
Prefer using simple words unless you need some specific meaning which requires use of longer words. Writers often use complex words for simpler meanings to add a touch of sophistication, which is fine until you overdo it.
For example, write distant instead of far flung, use instead of exploit, end instead of culmination, long instead of stretched out.
Remember, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!
Write in active voice
Sentences in active voice are relatively easier to understand and often liked by the readers over passive voice. For instance:
Readers like active sentences.
This sentence is in order of: Subject, Verb then Object. Hence, it is active voice, but if you reverse the order i.e. Object, Verb, Subject then it becomes passive voice.
Active sentences are liked by readers.
Passive sentences are definitely necessary in some situations but writers should try to stay in active voice until the need arises.
Keep the sentences short and crisp
Try to write short sentences, for the same reason you write short paragraphs. It makes them easy to read and more understandable. Also, ensure that a single meaning is conveyed in one single sentence which conveys the meaning directly and leaves a better impression in the reader’s mind.
On the other hand, longer sentences with more than one thought often creates confusion with complexity which reduces the overall understanding of the sentence.
Write short paragraphs
Consider any newspaper or magazine and observe the short paragraphs.
Paragraphs are kept short to make reading and understanding easier, because just like food for our body, our brain intakes information better when broken into smaller bits and chunks.
In fact, in professional and academic writing, one paragraph generally contains one idea and elaborates in several sentences. But, in regular use, casual writing is put in action and paragraphs are less formal and often contain one or two sentences only.
Avoid the use of fuzz words
Words such as little, pretty, very or rather are qualifying words which are used before adverb and adjective to magnify or diminish the meaning being conveyed by the word it modifies. Though, in practical use, they rarely add any meaning to your sentences and might even decrease the impact of your sentences. For instance,
Situations might arise when you can’t do without these but other than that you should avoid using fuzz words.
Avoid redundancy and repetition
Try not to write the same thing again and again and again i.e. writing one thing once is enough, avoid repeating it several times. It not only elongates the write-up, but the readers often get bored.
Though repetition is generally used to emphasize a particular thing and to create a sense of casual talk, it does create redundancy for a quality reader looking for solid information. So, avoiding repetition by itself reduces redundancy.
Do not ramble
Writers regularly face the problem of rambling getting lost or deviating from the original meaning while writing long sentences, not like you get lost in a jungle like amazon, though we do have some identified roads in there too now.
Yeah, avoid that and stay focused.
Over writing is big NO, NO!
Writing lengthy articles or writing too much be it any writing piece, shows lack of proper content or too high self-worth. Always remember to keep your readers before you, stay in the background and focus on the message being conveyed. For instance:
Your experience with website designing will be nothing like before. This seamlessly ultimate technique will help boost your website's performance to reach unseen skies. Just go through till the end and find the key to an amazingly fantastic design methodology.
That, should not be done.
Edit consistently and systematically
Edit ruthlessly until you’ve got it right. Cut down, delete or rewrite the whole thing if the meaning doesn’t add up to the mark. Casual writing is not an issue, just try not to lengthen (or use extra words) unnecessarily.
One way to do this is to write and edit simultaneously, sentence by sentence. In this case you’ll need to edit the complete thing at the end again. The other way is to complete the write-up and keep it aside for some time, few hours or days (depending upon your limits and time availability) then edit the whole thing in one go. This one is often more efficient.
Conclusion
There are no fixed set of rules or writing techniques as to how to excel in writing. No one can be a perfect writer, but we can always improve our writing style by following these basic tips and tricks. For beginners, incorporating these writing techniques will definitely give them a lead on others.
Though this is not an exhaustive set, there can be many more, but these few points will definitely be a part of it. So, keep writing and keep improving upon yourself. If we have missed anything of importance, do let us know in the comments.