Good writing is a fairly subjective concept. What I think is good writing, you might think is total crap. But subjective opinions aside, there are some ways you can make your writing better. The following 7 tips are things I’ve picked up over the years that have helped to improve my own writing. By no means is this a complete list, and heck, you might even disagree with some of the tips I offer here. With that in mind I tried to make these as general as possible, so they can apply to the essayist as easily as they can apply to the short story writer or even the novelist. Hopefully, you can at least find one of these useful.

1. What is the purpose of writing? This question seems so basic, it’s almost not worth asking. But I think a lot of people forget the purpose of writing by focusing too much on the technical and creative part of the job. But all writing boils down to is to communicate an idea or concept. That’s it. That is the broadest way I can think to word it. This definition can apply to anything you write. Stay focused on the answer to this question and your writing will be tighter, and with much more purpose.

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Do you only write in one place? Perhaps your writing area is a desk in a spare bedroom, or even the basement. If you’re lucky, you might have an entire room to yourself to indulge in your creative fantasies.

But while writers might feel secure and comfortable in their "usual" writing spot, it might also be stifling their creativity! Think about it: there’s nothing really new or fresh about your writing space. It’s the same old thing day after day.

Take yours truly, for example. I usually do my writing in my spare bedroom. But lately, I’ve been dragging my laptop around with me. A good spot, I’ve found, is on the couch in front of the television (note: writing in front of the television is not a good idea and I really discourage it). But sometimes I’ll even carry my laptop to the local coffee shop (ie. Starbucks) and get some work done there.

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After the completion of a story/novel, or just about any other manuscript for that matter, you need to let it sit. No, this doesn’t mean giving up your favorite easy chair so your manuscript can watch television (ouch! that was bad, sorry!).

What are you talking about?
You spent a lot of time writing your novel (for example) and thinking about it. Now that you have a completed draft, you need to get it out of your mind for a while. This doesn’t mean forgetting about your work altogether, rather, you should set it aside and work on another project. Place the manuscript in a safe place, where you’ll remember it. I put mine in a file folder and tuck it away in my filing cabinet. Make a note on your calendar so you remember to come back to it.

Why?
By letting your manuscript sit, it will seem more fresh to you when you come back to start making revisions. This will make it easier to catch mistakes (grammatical, spelling, etc), and you’ll see "holes" in your plot with more clarity than if you were to start editing right away.

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How much time do you spend actually writing? How much time do you spend doing writing-related activities? For me, the latter seems to take up more time than actual writing, which can suck the fun and creativity out of any project. So I compiled a short list of things you can do to maximize your writing time.

1. Take care of details first. By details I mean the names of characters, setting, maybe a short plot summary (if not a full-blown outline). Getting this stuff out of the way means you can work on your fiction without stopping to think of a character name, or even worse, trying to figure out how your story/novel ends (been there, done that many, many times)

2. A little bit goes a long way. If you’re pressed for time, just write a little each day. If you can spare an hour to work on your fiction, you’ll be surprised how fast things get done. Don’t have an hour? No problem. Use whatever chunk of time works for you (even 15 minutes is better than nothing). The key is to be consistent.

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One of the hardest parts about writing is the fact that most people don’t (or can’t) make a living from their writing. This means that many of us are forced into other jobs to make ends meet. This is bad news, right? It doesn’t have to be.

The biggest hurdle having another job presents to the writer is, of course, time management. Chances are, your life does not consist of simply getting up and working eight hours, spending another eight hours writing and spending the last eight hours of the day asleep (come on, who actually gets eight hours of sleep every night?).

Life never works out this perfectly. Aside from your writing and "day job" you probably have other obligations and commitments, such as spending time with family, running errands, entertainment (going to movies, television, internet, etc), housework, eating…you get the idea.

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How much time do you spend thinking about the words you use in your writing? Do you use large words, forcing many readers to dust off the ‘ol family dictionary? Or do you prefer "everyday" language that even the common folk can understand?

If you’re a writer, or you want to be one, and you don’t give much thought to the words you use, then you should start now. Hopefully this post can at least get you started thinking about such things. And by employing a few simple strategies, your writing will become that much more appreciated by your readers.

Know your audience
This is perhaps the most important rule in writing. Are you writing for a scraggly old professor, or for science fiction addicts with a penchant for techno-babble? By knowing who your audience is (your primary reader), you can adjust your diction accordingly. Writing for business is much different than fiction. And writing fiction is much different than writing essays, which is also different than business. You see where I’m going with this?

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Earlier today I sat down and wrote out a nice post about "trimming the fat" off your writing. Well, just as I finished the post and read it over, I clicked on the wrong button with the mouse and…WHAM…the post disappeared forever into some cyber black hole. All that hard work is gone.

Am I looking for sympathy? No. Okay, maybe I am, but I just wanted to share my experience so none of you make the same mistake I did. Always save your work. Save it often. If I had done that, you’d be reading a post about "trimming the fat" off your writing right now instead of this "fluff" about my absent-minded mistake.

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A drabble a day keeps writer’s block away, or at least at bay. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. So what is a drabble, you ask? Well, a drabble is simply a very, very short story that, traditionally, is exactly 100 words long. I wrote about drabbles in my old Brad’s Reader blog and thought they are worth discussing again. Check out my old post here: Drabbles: Short Fiction with a Twist.

Aside from being really short, drabbles contain all the usual elements of fiction: setting, plot, characters, etc. But the challenge is to combine all these elements into a concise form. And the genius of drabbles is that they are so short, it’s very easy and realistic to write one, from start to finish, in a single day. In fact, with a little bit of hard work and a lot of free time on your hands, you could crank out several drabbles in a day.

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(Brad’s note: I’m still without internet access, hence the posting delay. I think we have the entire SBC tech support team working on our problem. It sounds like it has something to do with the hardware we use because they’ve tested just about everything else. They say we should be online today or tomorrow. If not, someone at SBC is going to die (totally kidding, please don’t call the police). Soooo, until I have regular internet access again, my postings will continue to be sporadic and the June newsletter will be delayed. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and if you want to call SBC and complain on my behalf, please do so)

Ever since I have finished up with school a couple of weeks
ago, I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands (when not looking for a job). To
fill a lot of that time, I started reading even more than I usually do.

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In literature, there are no rules set in stone. This is good and bad. It’s good because it gives the writer the ability to experiment and be creative. It’s bad because with no rules, it’s hard for a writer to tell if his/her fiction will make sense, or just be a bunch of gibberish.

However, despite the lack of hard "rules" in literature, there are patterns. These patterns can be traced throughout the history of literature and are generally accepted among the literary community (I say "generally" because not everyone will agree on everything).

For example, take the book Dracula, for instance. The basic pattern of Dracula is an older man preying on younger women. Thus, any work of literature where an older man is preying on a younger woman follows this "vampire"-type pattern. That means that Dracula can be compared rather easily with the book Lolita, for example, even though the latter has nothing to do with vampires.

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