Reddit to Get Better at Writing Don't Read
Writers of Reddit, what are exceptionally simple tips that make a huge difference in other people's writing?
edit 2: oh my god, a lot of people answered.
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level 1
College writing tutor here: Read your work out loud. You will find mistakes that your eyes don't catch.
level 2
I edit with voice over. I catch SO much more stuff that way.
level 2
Read it out loud without just saying words. Like, record yourself reading it out loud, then play it back & listen to yourself. Sounds like crazy talk, I know. I've only done it about 4 times because I usually have my hombre read it while I listen to him.
level 2
Not advisable if you write erotic stories.
level 2
Another tutor here. Also have other people read it out loud. Sometimes what you want to see/hear is so ingrained in your mind that you still miss some of the smaller mistakes.
level 2
I got this same tip from a man who's won Pulitzers. So simple, but so important.
Edit: It's not just that you catch grammar mistakes either. It's that you hear the flow and syntax. You figure out when that complicated sentence will become too cumbersome if you interject another aside. Your ear picks up on how one sentence relates to what is around it. Writing should have rhythm, and this lets you hear it.
level 1
Kurt Vonnegut's no-bullshit tips are great:
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Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
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Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
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Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
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Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
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Start as close to the end as possible.
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Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
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Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
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Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
level 2
Interesting. I've never read this list before. I do kind of disagree with number 8 though. I think some stories need suspense and don't need everything spelled out for the reader. Sometimes I like to write things that lets the reader decide what is going on.
level 2
1-6 is true. 7 I'm not sure of. 8 is entirely wrong, as I found out the hard way in Methods of Rationality. My God, the protests if the story reveals something the readers would rather be kept in suspense about. Thankfully I only made that mistake once, accepted that the readers were right, and quickly corrected it.
level 2
4
So no descriptions of anything?
level 2
I think Twain said, replace every very with damn, and when your editor does an edit, he'll remove the profanity, and your story will have improved each time
level 2
"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
-Mark Twain
level 2
As well stated by Robin Williams:
So avoid using the word 'very' because it's lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don't use very sad, use morose.
Very good movie!
level 2
Your statement, it is doubleplusgood.
level 2
I review grants for scientific writing and the use of very is irksome even there. While we tend to avoid confusing/poetic language, the word is simply useless. I dislike "qualitative quantifiers" when the author could use specific numbers to illustrate a point. For instance, "Many papers have addressed this point." How many papers? How many journals? How many academics have published in this field?
level 1
"When writing dialogue, avoid using an adverb after he/she said," he said wisely.
You shouldn't need the adverb to convey the meaning or intent of the dialogue.
level 2
"The road to hell is paved with adverbs." - Stephen King
Reddit to Get Better at Writing Don't Read
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1jltqn/writers_of_reddit_what_are_exceptionally_simple/
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