Hey there. And welcome to Nothing but the Words. I’m your author coach, Candice L Davis.

In episode 15, I gave you 5 ways to improve your writing. And in this episode, I’ll give you 5 more.  These are all simple changes you can make to improve your writing, but I encourage you not to focus on these ideas when you’re writing a first draft. Instead, apply them when you’re revising your first draft. Over time, they’ll become habit, and you’ll have much less rewriting to do.

These aren’t fundamentals of good storytelling, which I shared in Episode 12. These are writing focused on the level of language. This is about the mechanics of writing. But improving your writing skills will make you a better storyteller because your writing will be improved across the board—from emails to blog posts, from social media posts to your book.

Let me also add this. If you hire a good copy editor to edit your book, which you absolutely should before you publish your book, your editor should catch a lot of this for you. But don’t depend on that. A copy editor isn’t there to do rewrites for you. In my group coaching program, Short Books: Big Results, I coach my clients to make their writing the best they possibly can before they send it for editing. You’ll get a better end result

And these best practices apply to more than writing your book. If you’re writing an important email, a newsletter

However, if you’re writing something that won’t be professionally edited by someone else, you can apply all of this yourself. And honestly, you’ll get a better end result if you catch as much of this as possible.

Are there exceptions to the rules I’m going to share? Yep! Of course, there are. But breaking rules before you master them is a rookie mistake.

So less dive in.

#.1 Cut phrases like I believe, I think, and I feel when expressing your ideas. “I believe we should stop shopping in big box stores and shop small business” just isn’t as strong as “We should stop shopping in big box stores and shop small business.” If you believe it, then it’s a fact to you, so state as a fact. 

Imagine reading a book written by a scientist who writes, “I think the climate is changing.” Would that sound convincing to you? To most readers, it would across like an opinion and the author would lose credibility.

“I feel we need a new president,” is an iffy use of the verb feel, but it also lacks authority.  When you say, “We need a new president,” you’re taking a stand. You’re offering your opinion as one you’re willing to stand behind. And nobody wants to read a book filled with wishy-washy ideas and opinions, so stand behind yours. 

#2. Eliminate double words (had had)

The most common instance I see of unnecessary double words is the use of had. For example: She had had the dog for ten years when it ran away. If you find that kind of word repetition in your writing, just rewrite the sentence. She had owned the dog for ten years, She had cared for the dog for ten years, Ten years had passed since she brought the dog home. There are nearly infinite ways to rewrite the sentence.

It’s not that “had had” is grammatically incorrect, but it reads awkwardly. And when readers stumble in your work, they

#3. Avoid fancy punctuation unless you know how to use it and you need it. There’s nothing wrong with using semicolons, colons, em dashes, and en dashes. But there are rules, my friends. A semicolon, for example, isn’t just a replacement for any old comma. 

Many of my clients are already great writers and know how to use those punctuation marks just as well as I do. But some of my clients are newer to the art and craft of writing. They have a choice. They can avoid not use them or learn how to use them correctly. 

Fortunately, plenty of great books have been written without using one semicolon, em dash, en dash, or other less common punctuation. If you’re not sure when to use them, you’ll be just fine without them,

#4. Speaking of punctuation marks, unless you’re writing dialogue in your book, you rarely need to use exclamation marks. One of my coaching clients sent me a chapter from her memoir. It was packed with drama. And it was packed with exclamation marks. But when you’ve written the content well—which she absolutely had—you don’t need to slap us in the face with the exclamation marks to make sure we get that there was drama. 

In dialogue, exclamation marks can work well when someone is shouting or showing excitement. But outside of dialogue, they can make your work seem juvenile. And even if you’re writing a children’s book, you don’t want your writing to seem like the work of child. And yes, children’s books can get away with more exclamation marks

#5. Vary sentence structure. Read for rhythm. If all your sentences are super short for 100 pages or more, your writing will seem choppy and will probably lack flow. If all of your sentences are four lines long, you’ll exhaust your readers.

When you’re revising your work, notice if it reads better if you break up some of the longer sentences or combine some of the shorter ones. One of the best way to do this is to read your writing out loud. You’ll be able to hear the rhythm of your sentences and make those kinds of decisions much more easily.

#6. Go easy on the massive paragraphs. I read books on paper and on my Kindle. But when I see huge blocks of text in ebooks, I tend to check out. It’s just a lot for my eyes to consume. Last week, I downloaded a novel, and I was reading it, and enjoying, and then I hit a page of solid text. I swiped forward a few pages, and they were all like that. I just stopped reading. 

I’ll pick it up later. I’m sure the author had some artistic reason for the lack of paragraph breaks, but I’m also sure I wasn’t the only reader who checked out. Remember that people will be reading your book in various formats. That doesn’t mean you have to break things into 1 and 2 sentence paragraphs either. That often works well online, for blog posts and social media, but it’s generally too choppy for books.

So those are my tips for how to improve your grasp of the mechanics of good writing.

#1. Get rid of phrases like I think, I believe, and I feel when you’re communicating your ideas.

#2. Eliminate double words, like had had. She had had fun. Take the time to rewrite that kind of sentence.

#3. Avoid unusual punctuation unless you know how to use it and actually need it.

#4. Minimize the use of exclamation marks outside of dialogue.

#5. Vary your sentence structure. Reading your writing aloud can help you get a sense of the rhythm of your work and when sentences might be too long or too short.

#6. Be aware of paragraph length and keep your readers and they’ll be reading your book in mind.

If you find this episode helpful, I’d really appreciate a great review wherever you listen to podcasts. Reviews help more people find the show.

That’s all for today. If you’re listening to this while we’re still in stay-at-home mode, I hope you and yours are well and stay that way.

Thanks for listening to Nothing but the Words. I’m your author coach, Candice L Davis. And I’ll see you next time.