Hopefully, the 10 most useful writing tips you’ll ever read

Journalism, copywriting, UX writing... It doesn’t matter. If you do these things, you will be better at it than most writers.

There are many books about how to write. There will be many more. Most of them are longer —way longer! — than they should be. Most of them could be synthesised into 10 very short, very useful tips. So here they are.

1. Start strong.

Your very first words should create instant drama or interest.

2. Mix up long, medium and short sentences.

This will give your writing a compelling rhythm and flow.

3. Break long sentences into shorter ones.

Try a full stop before “and”. No more than two ideas in a sentence.

4. Never use semicolons.

Try a full stop (or maybe a dash) instead.

5. Use everyday language.

Avoid technical words or jargon.

6. Look out for clichés.

Kill them or (better) transform them.

7. Avoid overcooking.

Hyperbole, alliteration, staccato sentences, somethingly somethings... Too much spice always becomes mush.

8. Use fewer words.

Look for words that aren’t needed, words that just slow things down.

9. Read it aloud.

You’ll hear repetitions, clunky words, overlong sentences and missing commas.

10. Ignore these rules.

Whenever you think it makes your piece better.

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And that’s it.

Obviously there’s more. There’s much more. Stuff about your audience and your tone and your goals and your platform and your formatting.

But when it comes to the mechanics – using words to create sentences and paragraphs that communicate ideas – these are the things.

These are the simple, actionable, fundamental things that will make your writing good. If you do these things, you will be better than most writers.

Feel free to go read something else now. Unless you want to know a bit more.

If you do, we can go a little deeper into each one of these ideas and how to put them into practice. But let’s still keep it short.

1. Start strong.

Your very first words should create instant drama or interest.

Your opening sentence needs to work incredibly hard. You need a great opener. It should have energy and a promise. It should create curiosity. It should earn your reader’s attention. Give them a reason to care.

It doesn’t take much to do this. Just give them something — anything — to care about immediately, before giving them more. Try not to start your opening sentence with a date or a name (place or person). It’s boring. You can get away with a name, sometimes. Usually when it’s the name of a famous person. But if you do decide to open with a name, keep the sentence short.

It’s worth remembering advertising godhead David Ogilvy’s famous belief that “five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” And that science clocks our attention span at eight seconds (one second less than a goldfish).

Figuring out how to open your piece of writing can be the very hardest bit. You’ll try 50 different ways before striking gold. It’s always worth the dig. Often you’ll find your opener buried somewhere in the middle of your piece. A great line that deserves to lead. Drag it out, stick it up front and see what happens when you do. Whatever it is, your opening few words should have something — an insight, some humour, suspense or colour — that makes a reader feel compelled to read the next sentence.

Assume that if you don’t give them a reason to keep reading, they will bounce.

Here are some ways to do this.

1) Compelling question

• How many Bond girls have written a letter to Lars von Trier? Just one, it seems.

2) Withheld information

• No one asked her to do it. She was paid little for her world-changing creation. And for many years, few gave her credit for it either.

3) Strong fact (or statement)

• Space is just 80 miles away from every one of us. That’s closer than most people are to their own national capitals.

4) Three things

• Health. Education. Diet. They’re three of the most important factors that shape our lives.

5) One thing

• Chickens. Jack Nicholson was thinking about chickens.

6) Shoutout / interrupt

• Okay, first things first.

7) Story time

• Just after he finished making True Lies, James Cameron picked up the phone and called Stanley Kubrick.

These are some ways. Not the only ways. And as you can see, they often blur: the ‘story time’ route usually involves withholding information, dropping a compelling fact or posing a question.

2. Mix up long, medium, short sentences.

This gives your writing rhythm and flow.

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals — sounds that say listen to this, it is important. So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.” — Gary Provost, 100 Ways To Improve Your Writing

What we’re talking about here is rhythm. The secret heartbeat that drives every form of great creative expression. You need to develop a sense of it in your writing. Mix it up with short, medium and long sentences. You’ll find that it instantly makes your writing more compelling.

Oh, and while we’re talking about flow, always be looking to make each sentence tee up the next one. How do you do this? Dropping in questions is the easiest way. See? But don’t keep doing it or it gets annoying. Right?

(Btw: 100 Ways To Improve Your Writing might be the best book about writing. And, praise be, the shortest. All killer, no filler. This piece owes it a debt. You should read it.)

3. Break long sentences into shorter ones.

Try a full stop before “and”. No more than two ideas in a sentence.

Avoid loooong sentences. They are a big problem. The longer a sentence runs, the more it sags under its own weight, the more steam it loses on the journey. After about 25 words, your reader is begging for a full stop. For example:

Before: “It was only a moment, sliding past the eyes like the sudden shifting of light and shadow, but long years from now it will remain a pure and moving glimpse of hard reality, and if Muhammad Ali could have turned his eyes upon himself, what first and final truth would he have seen?”

After: “It was only a moment, sliding past the eyes like the sudden shifting of light and shadow. But long years from now it will remain a pure and moving glimpse of hard reality. And if Muhammad Ali could have turned his eyes upon himself, what first and final truth would he have seen?”

(Btw: this sentence is from a great article.)

4. Never use semicolons

Try a full stop (or maybe a dash) instead.

“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” — Kurt Vonnegut

Well, here’s another way to put it. Semicolons are the most elegant piece of punctuation in the English language. And you almost never need to use them. Because, almost as much as typos, semicolons break the spell.

They make the reader unexpectedly pause for a micro-second to ask themselves what a semicolon is supposed to make them do, except make them feel a little inferior that they are even asking this question.

You don’t need that. Use a full stop or (possibly) a dash instead, depending on how you want that pause to feel.

5. Look out for clichés

Kill them or (better) transform them.

Clichés are words or phrases that have been used and reused until they’ve been pounded into meaninglessness.

They are the mould of writing. Old and bad-smelling, they can grow anywhere, spawning suddenly to ruin their host sentences. Keep an eye peeled for them and cut them out. Or better still, see if you can ‘re-mould’ them into something fresh.

Don’t feel bad when you notice them appear in your own writing. No one’s writing is immune. Clichés are a completely natural part of the writing process. In fact, the more frequently you write, the harder it may be to stop your hands from typing them.

Your favourite writer types clichés all the time. You just never see them, because the best writers will have killed them or transformed them as part of the writing process.

6. Use everyday language

Avoid technical words or jargon.

Often, this means means swapping out a robotic/technical/long word for a human/simple/short word. For example:

Utilise → Use

Discontinue → Stop

Commence → Start

7. Avoid overcooking.

Hyperbole, alliteration, staccato sentences, somethingly somethings…

When you use too much of it, spice becomes mush. Overcooking can happen in four ways.

Alliteration is okay. It’s good. Just sprinkle that stuff like very expensive truffle dust. Because alliteration is what you’ll use to try to cheat some style into your writing. When you can’t (or can’t be bothered to) think of a way to bring an idea to life with a lovely image, a surprising turn of phrase or an emotive comparison.

Hyperbole is pronounced “hi-PER-buh-lee”. The modern culture of hyperbole is transforming our language. It has literally changed the meaning of the word literally.

We now live in a world where everything is “awesome”. So what do you call something when it actually is awesome?

I know. We want our writing to be exciting. We want to write gorgeous, blazing sentences. But hyperbole isn’t healthy.

It leads to inflated expectations and erodes trust. It leaves you nowhere to go when you really do want to praise something. And it also leaves you with that nagging sense that you just didn’t quite tell the truth. Perhaps worst of all, it rots the meaning and power of words themselves.

This is about choosing the right words. You’re trying to find words that exactly capture a performance or a scene or a feeling. I hear you. It’s easier not to. Come on, you can do this.

Short, staccato sentences are great. But if that’s all you use, it’s like someone on their first driving lesson. A herky-jerky, surge-and-stall journey that’s just not very enjoyable.

Somethingly somethings are two words jammed together, often in a weak attempt to jack up the second word. Worst case, those two words are antithetical (“brilliantly dark”) or tautological (“hilariously funny”).

PR and marketing people, for example, love to use somethingly somethings on film posters. You’re going to want to emphasise stuff. Just be precise about it. This is about choosing the right words rather trying to bail out an imprecise word by putting “stunningly” in front of it.

8. Use fewer words

Look for words that aren’t needed, words that just slow things down.

Again, what we’re probably talking about are precise words. Here are three things to look out for.

1) Many words vs One word

for the purpose of → for

prior to → before

are able to → can

2) Vague words vs Specific words

Large house → Mansion

Kind treatment → Kindness

Sexual assault → Rape

3) Tautology vs Er, not tautology

Massive disaster → Disaster

Added bonus → Bonus

Brief summary → Summary

9. Read it aloud.

You’ll hear repetitions, clunky words, overlong sentences and where to put commas.

Yes, writing is a musical art. We don’t say that words ‘read’ badly, we say they ‘sound’ bad. To know if your writing sounds good, read it aloud. You’ll hear if words chime or clunk. You’ll run out of breath on sentences that are too long. You’ll expose two words that might not look weird together but do sound weird. You’ll hear repeated words that you maybe couldn’t see when reading. You’ll also hear where you need to put commas.

Keep an eye/ear out for:

• Repetitions
• Long sentences
• Clunky words
• Boring bits

Oh, and do a spellcheck. Just do it.

10. Ignore these rules

Whenever you think it makes the piece better.

Writing is an art not a science. No one will ever be able to reduce writing to a logical step-by-step system. The best we can manage are principles and tips to guide us in finding our own way.

This is just a guide. Suggestions not rules. Nothing here is really True. So ignore these principles whenever you think it makes the piece better.

As ever in life and learning, follow Bruce Lee’s mantra: “Take what is useful, discard what is not, add that which is your own.”

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About the author

Jonathan Crocker (@JonathanCrocker) is a writer, journalist, film critic and editorial director, who has worked in media and the creative industry for the past two decades. He is the author of How to write a good film review, a three-part guide to… well, you know.

If you did, in fact, find these words useful, give them a clap below!