As an editor by trade and a writer by passion, I know how hard it can be to get your thoughts on paper. Your inner editor constantly detours your writing flow by criticizing your grammar, word choice, and punctuation. You can stop your inner editor by putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and letting the words flow. Even if you consciously know you should be more specific or know you’ve added extra words, forgive yourself and move on. Nobody ever writes a perfect first draft. Once your work is on the computer, run it through the grammar and spell check, and then use these 7 tips to help make your writing better.

1) Persuade and motivate your reader. It’s your #1 goal when writing. Provide your readers with smartly expressed thoughts by choosing words that drive your sentences from one to the next and create a seamless reading experience. Think of the horse-before-the-cart analogy. That cart’s not going anywhere until the horse pulls it into action.

2) Paint a picture. Would you rather eat a chocolate dessert or a creamy, chocolate layer cake? A piece of fruit or a crisp, juicy apple? Drive a car or drive a luxury Jaguar with soft, leather seats and new-car aroma? Your readers won’t see what you’re talking about unless you paint a vivid picture.

3) Clear the clutter. Words like “that, so, very, and much.” Look at your sentences closely—how many times do you use these words in your writing?  Are they necessary? If extra words are not adding to the sentence, leave them out.

4) Pick a style—and stick with it. Whether you prefer formal or informal writing, use the same tone throughout your piece to create fluidity and keep your readers focused. Formal writing is used in professional writing, technical writing, and most business writing. Informal writing creates a more casual tone and uses contractions liberally (i.e., you’re vs. you are; won’t vs. would not, and so on).

5) Walk away. Put your draft down and walk away for an hour, a day or a week. After a short break, you’ll view your draft in a different light and be able to pick up what you missed earlier. Sometimes all it takes is a new perspective.

6) Get another set of eyes. Don’t be embarrassed (or too proud) to let someone read your work. Step back from your writing and let an objective set of eyes view your work from a reader’s point of view. Remember: feedback is your friend.

7) Edit, edit, edit. Editing and proofreading will make the difference between mediocre and magnificent. It’s important to rework your writing, but it’s even better to hand your work over to a professional editor. An editor’s job is not to criticize, judge or take away your voice; their job is to make your writing better.

Web Content That Works!

Statistics show you have only 6 seconds to hook a visitor into staying at your Web site or clicking away.

You may think all the flash and bells and whistles are captivating your visitors; and that may be true, but by the time they’ve looked at all your cool stuff, 4 or 5 seconds have been wasted.

If you haven’t lost them already, and most likely you have, they may take one more second to actually start reading your content. You’re now at the critical 6-second mark.

Your Web site is your company’s online brochure. Your content has to be engaging. You have to show your reader how they can benefit from your products or services right now or they’re gone!

Here are 8 tips guaranteed to make your web content sizzle and have your visitors wanting more:

Start with a question - Take a look at any successful ad campaign. (Got Milk?) Most of them start with a question.  That’s because a question compels your reader to read on.  You’ve set an action to continue because you’ve asked a question and now your reader feels compelled to answer.

Who’s your target audience - Treat each reader as your only reader and talk directly to them.  Break down your target audience by age, income, business and location.  Then write out a detailed description of just one person in that audience.  When writing your content, speak only to that person.

In web content, “white space” is good - Cut down your content for clarity and brevity.  People are busy.  Don’t make them click all over the place to find what they want.  Use shorter words when possible.  Instead of “corresponded with” use “wrote.”  And keep your paragraphs short.  Three to four sentences per paragraph are enough.  You want to create a clean, uncluttered look.

Choose action words over passive words - The passive verb is blah.  It’s true; a passive verb makes for a weak, roundabout way of saying something.  Great writing consists of using more action verbs than adjectives. Instead of, “I have been working for 15 years…” say, “I worked 15 years for….”

Explain simply and clearly what you will do for them - A long explanation of facts is boring.  On a separate sheet of paper, write down what you can offer in five words.  Now take those five words and put them into benefit-oriented sentences.  Use words like, I can, I will and Let me!  Be truthful though.  Don’t try to sound grandiose or guarantee what you can’t deliver.

Choose words and phrases that sell - Your #1 goal in writing web content is to persuade and motivate your customer to act.  End each sentence with a strong word persuading your reader to act or read on.  “Best of all…” “And that’s not all…” “Win” and “Free” are all persuasive words or phrases.

Tell your reader what to do - Very important.  Don’t just assume your reader will buy — tell them what to do and where to do it.  “Click Here” and “Buy it Now!” “Don’t Wait - Buy Today!” will influence your reader to take action.

Sprinkle your copy with keywords for maximum SEO (search engine optimization) - Not only is it important to put keywords in your HTML title, you’ll want to sprinkle them throughout your copy as well.  Search Engine robots not only search key words in your title, they’ll look for matching words throughout your copy, which will in turn rank your web site higher in the search engines.

Want to become a better writer? There are literally thousands of books you can buy on “how to” become a better writer or “what not” to do.

When editing fiction manuscripts, I find myself repeating the same suggestions over and over, so I thought I would share them with you. Many of these tips can also be used for non-fiction as well.

Here are my top ten writing tips to help make you a better writer:

1. Always start your story with a strong opening. You want an opening that will grab your reader’s attention and keep them reading from line to line, paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter. I love stories that end each chapter with a “what’s-going-to-happen-next” hanger. I must turn the page and read more.

2. Try to show as much detail in the story as possible as opposed to just telling us. Involve the reader in the details by painting a picture in their mind. What can they see, hear, smell, taste, what can they touch? Instead of telling us: “It was a sunny day,” or “The sun was shining.” Show us by writing: “The glare from the midday sun bounced off the hot asphalt.”

3. Keep your writing in the present tense. Narration is good, but any time you use [ed] at the end of a word, you are taking your reader to the past. Especially when the [ed] word is surrounded by a had or have been, or was. Your story should be happening now and your writing should reflect that. It doesn’t matter if your story is set in 2008, 1942, or the 16th century, talk to us as if we are there now. Pull us into the story and take us along for the ride.

4. Go easy on the ellipses [ . . . ]. The ellipsis should be used mainly when trailing off a thought or if dialogue is broken. Otherwise use a comma, semi-colon, or the em dash. Also, the ellipsis is always three dots with a space before, after, and between the words. For example: Oh . . . hey . . . what are you doing?

5. Go easy on the exclamation point!!!! A good writer uses stronger words so the exclamation point is a given. And, please, never use more than one exclamation point!! And please, please, never with a question mark?!

6. I can’t state this tip enough. Cut out the passive voice. Drop words like was, will be, were and boring verbs like walk, drove, run. You want to write with action and movement, and propel the story forward with vivid descriptions.

7. On that note, use adverbs like you would use the passive voice. In other words, don’t. Adverbs, you’ll remember, modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They usually end in [ly]. If you cut out the passive voice, you can cut out adverbs. Instead of: “He closed the door firmly as he left the room.” Try: “He slammed the door and stormed out.”

8. Using dialogue in your story is a great way to bring your characters to life. Just make sure your dialogue makes sense to the story. Random conversations that have nothing to do with moving the story forward confuse your reader. And to backtrack to adverbs for a moment, it’s not necessary to write adverb-filled dialogue. For example: “Halt or I’ll shoot!” he shouted menacingly. “Try to catch me!” she yelled angrily. Okay, we get the idea. A simple: he shouted and she yelled, works better.

9. Give your reader lots of similes (or comparisons). Instead of: “We could hear the gravel hitting the undercarriage of the car.” Say: “Gravel hit the undercarriage like popcorn bursting in hot oil.” Or, “Gravel hit the undercarriage like firecrackers on the 4th of July.”

10. Buy a good thesaurus and use it until it’s worn out. Whenever you feel stuck on a word, or just can’t seem to find the right word, open your thesaurus and have fun!