What's the difference between good writing and better writing?

How important is it for a writer to be able to discern the difference between good writing and bad writing?

Pretty important, if you ask me.

I know some writers aren’t concerned with quality. In today’s do-it-yourself and get-it-done-fast world, quality plays second fiddle to quantity. Who cares if your books are full of typos, bad grammar, and poor logic as long as you have published lots and made a bunch of money?

Readers care. Agents, publishers, and reviewers also care. And while you can still make a million with a bunch of badly written books and a stellar marketing scheme, your work won’t be taken seriously. Also (and this is critical), while it’s possible to make it big by writing badly, it’s not likely. It happens, but it doesn’t happen often. The better your writing, the better your chances for securing a readership and building a career.

The Characteristics of Good Writing

So, what constitutes good writing? Opinions will vary. There will be different traits that make good fiction versus good poetry or good nonfiction. However, we can cull together a general list of the characteristics of good writing (in no particular order):

1. Clarity and focus: in good writing, everything makes sense and readers don’t get lost or have to reread passages to figure out what’s going on. Focussed writing sticks with the plot or core idea without running off on too many tangents.
2. Organization: a well organized piece of writing is not only clear, it’s presented in a way that is logical and aesthetically pleasing. You can tell non-linear stories or place your thesis at the end of an essay and get away with it as long as your scenes or ideas are well ordered.
3. Ideas and themes: is the topic of your paper relevant? Does your story come complete with themes? Can the reader visualize your poem? For a piece of writing to be considered well crafted, it has to contain clearly identifiable ideas and themes.
4. Voice: this is what sets you apart from all other writers. It’s your unique way of stringing words together, formulating ideas, and relating scenes or images to the reader.
5. Language (word choice): we writers can never underestimate or fail to appreciate our most valuable tools — words. Good writing includes smart word choices and well crafted sentences.
6. Grammar and style: many writers would wish this one away, but for a piece of writing to be considered good (let alone great), it has to follow the rules of grammar (and break those rules only when there’s a good reason). Style is also important in ensuring that a piece of writing is clear and consistent. Make sure you keep a grammar book and style guide handy.
7. Credibility or believability: nothing says shoddy writing like getting the facts wrong or misrepresenting oneself. In fiction, the story must be believable (even if it’s impossible), and in nonfiction, accurate research can make or break a writer.
8. Thought-provoking or emotionally inspiring: perhaps the most important quality of good writing is how the reader responds to it. Does she come away with a fresh perspective and new ideas? Does he close the cover with tears in his eyes or a sense of victory? How readers react to your work will fully determine your success as a writer.

I want to add an honorable mention for originality. Everything has been done before, so originality is somewhat arbitrary. However, putting old ideas together in new ways and creating remixes of the best that literature has to offer is a skill worth noting.

Why You Need to Know the Difference Between Good and Bad Writing

To write well, a writer must be able to recognize quality in a piece of writing. How can you assess or improve your own work if you can’t tell the difference between average and better writing?

Writing is also an art form and therefore subject to personal taste. Can you read a book and dislike it but acknowledge that the writing was good? Have you ever read a book and loved the story but felt that the writing was weak?

A writer should be able to articulate why a piece of writing succeeds or fails, and a writer should also be able to recognize the qualities in a piece of writing even when it doesn’t appeal to personal taste. These skills are especially necessary when writers are reviewing or critiquing other writers’ work and when revising, editing, and proofreading their own work.

Where do you stand? Do you rate other people’s writing? Do you worry about whether your own writing is any good? Would you add or remove any characteristics of good writing from this list? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment, and keep writing.

Improve your writing by reading like a fiend!

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write;  a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”

- Samuel Johnson

To write well, there are only two things you absolutely must do: read and write. Everything else will flow from these two activities, which are essentially yin and yang. Without each other, reading and writing cannot exist. They rely on one another, inform and direct one another. They are two parts of a greater whole.

Does what we read make our writing better? Can it make our writing worse?

How Does Reading Improve Your Writing?

What you read will inevitably inform what you write. If you want to write well, you must read well, and you must read widely. If you limit your reading to weak stories and books that are not well edited, your work will suffer. But if you balance reading the amateurish writing by also reading work that is brilliant, you’ll be able to see the difference, and you’ll better understand what constitutes excellence in the craft.

Writing is a complex and complicated skill. It’s impossible to teach the art of fine writing, but it is possible to learn it. However, this can only be achieved through reading. A well-read writer has a better handle on vocabulary, understands the nuances of language, and develops an appreciation for quality.

The human brain is like a sponge. We soak up everything that we observe and experience throughout our lives, and each thing we are exposed to becomes part of the very fiber of our beings. What we read is no exception. Our reading will have a critical influence on what we write. If we read work that is poorly structured, fraught with bad grammar, unclear, and peppered with typos, then that is the type of work we will produce.

The Effects and Pleasures of Reading Widely

“Read, read, read. Read everything–trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.” - William Faulkner

It’s important to read technically adept writing so you don’t pick up bad grammar habits, but what about the rest? What about voice and style, word choice and sentence structure? What about story and organization? How does what we read influence the more subtle aspects of our writing?

The brain is like a sponge, and we are like mirrors. We reflect back into the world all that we have taken in. If you mostly read textbooks, your writing will be dry and informative. If you read torrid romance novels, your prose will tend toward lusty descriptions. Read the classics and your voice may take on an old-fashioned or mature tone. Read poetry and your work will be fluid and musical.

If you know exactly what kind of writer you want to be, you’re in luck. Your best bet is to read a lot within your favorite genre. Find authors that resonate with your sensibility and read all their books. At the same time, you don’t want to rope yourself off from experiencing a wide range of styles. Reading outside your chosen area of specialty will diversify and expand your skills, and you’ll be equipped to bring new techniques and methods into your craft. If you so choose, you’ll even be able to walk, or perhaps cross, genre lines.

The Eye of the Writer

To improve your writing, one of the most important skills that you can develop is the ability to read critically, and more specifically, to view what you read through writers’ goggles.

It’s easy to kick back and read a good novel. If you’re reading a compelling story, you’ll be intrigued, captivated, and entertained. Often, we relax so much when we’re reading that we enter a state of leisure. But to read with a writer’s eye means to read with awareness.

There are various things that a writer should observe in a written work — things that the average, non-writer might overlook. A seasoned writer should be able to catch typos, obviously. But a writer should also be able to pick up on the subtler elements of a work.

I’m always intrigued, for example, by character names. I don’t always pay close attention to them, but often I wonder how the author managed to choose such perfect monikers for the characters. Names fascinate me so deeply that I once wrote an entire essay analyzing the names of characters in a particular book and explaining the deeper meanings that the names implied.

Here are a few other aspects of writing that you might consider while you’re reading:

• As a writer, you should be able to follow the flow of a story. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Can you pinpoint the transitions between these three phases?
• There’s something about a good book that inspires emotional responses from a reader. They actually become attached to the characters. When a writer reads, he or she should look for techniques that other authors use to engage the reader’s emotions.
• A story and its characters must progress. Can you identify how the author intertwined plot and character to move the plot forward and to force the characters to change and grow over the course of the story?
• Have you ever read a piece of writing and gotten lost or confused? If you read enough, you’ll see how important it is to make sure your work is well structured and organized in a logical way.
• Some of my favorite things to look for in stories and poems are themes, symbols, and recurring elements. These are the extra flourishes that enrich a piece of writing and give it deeper meaning.

This list could go on forever. Through reading, you’ll be exposed to every aspect of the craft: tension, pacing, description, dialogue, setting, voice, point-of-view, characterization, plot, theme, symbolism, and much more. However, the most important aspect you read for is the one that’s troubling you.

Reading to Improve Your Writing

Let’s say you write nonfiction but you have a really hard time organizing your material into digestible chunks. This is not uncommon. Often, when a person becomes an expert (which hopefully has occurred prior to you writing a book about any given subject), they see the subject matter so holistically that it becomes impossible to separate the various elements.

However, by reading plenty of nonfiction books, you will see how other writers have broken down massive amounts of information for easier consumption. You will also find some who have found clever ways of tying everything together, even though it’s all been separated.

If you always read with a mind to improve your writing, and if you pay special attention to those areas of your own writing that are giving you trouble, you’ll find that the literary canon will be your best teacher and mentor.

So, why are some would-be writers so averse to reading?

There’s no good argument against reading, and there is a book for everyone. I’ve long held the philosophy that people who don’t like to read just haven’t found the right book yet. And a writer who doesn’t read is an oxymoron.

Reading has been hailed by the greatest thinkers and leaders throughout history as the noblest of pursuits. Books are gateways to the imagination, fountains of knowledge, and a way for people to connect emotionally and intellectually.

A writer who doesn’t read is disconnected from his or her audience. Such a writer cannot possibly understand the experience that he or she is creating. So read, and to improve your writing, read like a fiend.

What are you reading right now? When you’re choosing books to improve your writing, do you stick with books about the craft of writing or do you look to the authors in your genre to teach and lead you? Leave a comment to discuss how reading informs your work.

Practice writing to become a true master of the craft

By now, most of you have heard of the 10,000-hour rule, which was made famous in the book Outliers. The rule states that in order to become an expert in something, you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice.

In other words, a master writer has already spent 10,000 hours writing.

Working at it for 40 hours per week, it would take 250 weeks (or almost five years) to become an expert. If you can only spend half that time, or 20 hours per week, on your craft, it would take ten years to master. For people with busy lives and responsibilities (like full-time jobs and families to care for), it could take a couple of decades to master the craft of writing.

And why shouldn’t it? After all, an expert is someone who has put in the time to become proficient. And while some writers are born with talent, which gives them an advantage (maybe they only need 8,000 hours of practice to become an expert), even the most talented must practice writing in order to become true wizards of word-craft.

Tips to Help You Practice Writing Every Day

These days, we’re all crunched for time. You’d think technology would give us more time for leisure and personal pursuits, but it seems to have the opposite effect. The world just keeps getting busier and busier.

Finding time to practice writing might seem like an impossibility, but if you know where to look, you’ll find precious pockets of minutes and hours that you can use to your advantage.

1. Write in the morning. Many accomplished writers have done their work in the wee hours before dawn. This might cut into your beauty rest, but it’s a small sacrifice to make. Get up 30-60 minutes earlier each day and use the time to practice writing.
2. Write during breaks and meals. The ideal mealtime is spent eating, not nibbling your food between sentences. But if your schedule is jam packed, you might find that a couple of ten-minute breaks and a lunch hour each day add up quite nicely over the course of a year.
3. Make a trade: your favorite TV show, your knitting club, weekend parties. Somewhere in your leisure time, it’s quite possible you’ll find something less important than writing. And when you find it, make the trade. Scale back on your hobbies and focus on your passion.
4. Balance the necessities. There are things we all need to do: clean, exercise, prepare and eat meals. But if you’re spending ten hours a week cleaning the house, you can probably put up with a little extra dust and give two of those hours over to your writing. Make bigger meals and serve leftovers a couple nights of week. Go to the gym five days instead of seven. You’ve just carved out a few hours for your writing practice.
5. Multi-tasking. It’s impossible for most of us to write while we’re doing other things, but we can certainly plot and plan while we’re cooking, showering, and commuting. While it’s not technically writing, planning a project is an integral step in the writing process.
6. Speaking of multi-tasking, don’t forget to read. Nothing will improve your writing more quickly or thoroughly than prolific reading. And while you may not be able to ogle at a book while you’re busy with other tasks, you can certainly listen to audiobooks while your driving, bathing, cooking, and cleaning.
7. Be a night writer. I always find my best (and most sacred) writing time late at night, just before I go to sleep. If you can stay awake for an extra 30-60 minutes each night, you could get quite a bit of writing done in a week.

It’s Your Time: Use it to Practice Writing

I realize that not every writer strives to be a master writer. Some just want to get publication credit. Others just want to eke out a paycheck. But most writers strive to produce better writing over time, and the only way to do that is to practice writing as much as possible.

I think the 10,000-hour rule is a good one, although I doubt it’s 100% accurate for all of us. Some will need to put in 12,000 hours before they can produce a masterpiece. Others may only need to invest 8,000 hours before they have become true experts at the craft.

And while perfection is, as always, an impossible dream, we can certainly do our best to make our writing as close to perfect as we can, each in our own time and in the way that best suits us. Well, you know the saying: practice makes perfect. So what are you waiting for? Go practice writing!

Tips for writing better poetry

Poetry writing requires no license, no education, and no experience. All you need to get started is a pen and some paper.

In fact, lots of writers discover their calling because they are compelled at a young age to write poetry.

But there’s a big difference between poetry writing and good poetry writing.

Opinions about the art and craft of good poetry writing are many and varied. Some hold poetry to a high academic or literary standard. Others appreciate the fact that poetry writing provides a creative and healthy form of self-expression.

Many poets pursue the craft with a clear goal: they want to get published. Others write poetry because they find solace in the work. They don’t care about readers, publication, or awards. And plenty of writers fall in between; they write for the joy of it but also with a desire to continually improve their work in hopes of one day getting published.

Tips for Writing Better Poetry

When we first start writing poetry, our work is amateurish and awkward. We might make poems that are cute or silly, poems that don’t make much sense, or poems that are murky, excessive, or verbose. We express ourselves but fail to generate poems that compel readers. But with practice and by putting a little effort into our poetry writing, our poems can blossom and become riveting — for us and for our readers.

Here are five tips for writing better poetry, which, if taken seriously and practiced regularly, will help you improve your writing:

1. Read poetry. In order to grow as a writer, and especially as a poet, it’s imperative to familiarize yourself with the canon, which has already proven to resonate with readers. By seeking out established poets whose work you admire, you will build a roster of mentors. Try reading poems aloud. Keep a notebook or journal in which you can write your thoughts and responses to various works, and jot down your favorite excerpts. Bonus tip: you can also watch or listen to recorded or live poetry.
2. Write regularly and allow yourself to write badly. Beginning poets have a tendency to take up the pen only when the mood strikes. By engaging your creativity on a daily basis, the very practice of poetry writing will become habitual and ingrained as part of the routine that is your life. Allowing yourself a large margin for writing poorly or below your own standards will give you a freedom in your writing and room to explore your poetry on broader and deeper levels.
3. Study. There are many books available that will help you understand poetry intricately and will familiarize you with terms and definitions, such as alliteration, iambic pentameter, and trochee. Such books will provide detailed analyses and teach you new ways to read and write poetry. To get started, look for A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver or try The Practice of Poetry by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell.
4. Poetry writing exercises. It’s easy to sit down and just write a poem. Writing exercises present challenges and provide new ways of thinking and being creative within an established framework. Some poetry exercises will produce your best work but also teach you to approach poetry writing in an innovative and more imaginative manner.
5. Revise. Revising your work goes hand in hand with allowing yourself to write badly. You can always go back and make changes. Some new writers insist that once they write a poem, that’s it. They believe the art is in the original creation and it should never be altered in any way. While this is certainly one way of looking at poetry as art, there is another philosophy that believes revision is necessary for true creative freedom. In knowing that you can go back and make changes later, you will give yourself more liberty in your initial writing, opening creative channels to greater possibilities.

Poetry Writing is an Adventure

Poetry teaches us how to access rich language and produce vivid images in our writing. It is one of the best ways to develop comprehensive and creative writing skills, even if poetry writing isn’t really your thing. Fiction and creative nonfiction writers often work with poetry for the sole purpose of expanding their skills. They may not like poetry or have no intentions of publishing poetry. They just want to be better writers.

Poetry writing will take you on an exciting adventure through language if you let it, and the very act of working to improve your poetry is a journey that many writers find exhilarating.

Do you have any tips for writing better poetry? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

And keep on writing (poetry)!

How to improve your writing with poetry

In the world of writing, one form stands out as different from all the rest: poetry.

Poetry is not bound by the constraints of sentence and paragraph structure, context, or even grammar.

In the magical world of poetry, you can throw all the rules out the window and create a piece of art, something that is entirely unique.

That doesn’t mean writing poetry is creatively easy. It can be much more difficult to make a poem than it is to write an essay or piece of fiction. There’s so much creative space, and without any limitations whatsoever, it can be overwhelming.

Yet poetry brings a great bounty of writerly skills and tools, and many of these will spill over into other writing forms, sprinkling them with just a little of the magic that is poetry. And while poetry might not be your favorite form of writing, reading poetry, working through some poetry exercises, and engaging in poetry writing, even just a little bit, will improve your writing in any other form or genre.

Poetry Teaches You How to Improve Your Writing

What is it about poetry that actually makes your writing better?

Mindful Imagery

While other creative writing forms may use vivid imagery to create pictures in the reader’s mind, no other form comes close to what can be achieved with imagery in poetry writing.

Most writing forms attempt to explain something – a scene, a situation, an idea, a set of instructions, an experience. Poetry doesn’t bother to explain. It shows. It paints a picture, takes a snapshot, and then pulls you into it.

In a poetry workshop, you will hear this over and over: show, don’t tell. When you master the art of showing readers a scene through imagery, you can easily apply the concept to your other writing, creating work that comes alive in a reader’s mind.

Language, Word Choice, and Vocabulary

A poet’s vocabulary is paramount. Of course, language is essential to all types of writing, but in poetry, words must be selected carefully in order to generate an emotional response from the reader. In fiction, readers connect emotionally with characters and their plights. We get to know the characters, understand them, and we come to relate to them or even think of them as friends (or enemies).

Characters rarely appear in poetry, so instead of using the emotional connection forged between people, a writer must grab the reader’s heart by appealing to their senses, using words and images that make readers feel. This is achieved by learning how to use language that evokes emotions without telling readers what they should be feeling.

The meaning of each word in a poem must be weighed carefully. Connotations can mean the difference between a poem with depth and a poem that feels flat.

Finally, every single word must be necessary to the poem. Therefore, poetry teaches writers how to be economical with language.

Musicality

A poet must be constantly aware of meter and rhythm. Poems and song lyrics are often compared, confused, and intermingled, and with good reason. Both poetry and music must pay attention to cadence and melody.

Think about how you feel when you hear a particular piece of music. You tap your feet, shake your hips, bang your head. Our bodies respond physically to music.

Through poetry writing comes a natural ability to marry musicality with language. When this musicality is brought to other forms of writing, readers feel it in their bones and muscles. They will have a physical reaction.

Poetry Leads to Better Writing

Writing is about connecting with readers. And poetry writing helps you develop skills for connecting with readers mentally (language), emotionally (images), and physically (rhythm). Many young and new writers are impatient with poetry. They were forced to read archaic poems in school and came away with a bad taste for poetry. But poetry is like music; there’s something for everyone. Look around a little and you’ll find a poet whose work speaks to you.

If you’re interested in exploring poetry and using it to improve your writing, start by checking out these accessible resources:

Poem a Day (podcast) – Packed with classic and contemporary poems, each piece is only a minute or two in length. Save the ones you like and listen to them over and over again. Tip: you can subscribe via iTunes.

IndieFeed: Performance Poetry (podcast) – Today’s poets are cutting the edge with poetry that speaks to the 21st century. From humor to heartbreak, these poets write out loud. Most pieces are under ten minutes and the podcast updates a few times each week.

Poetry Foundation – Once you whet your appetite, dig in and find out what’s going on in the world of poetry. The Poetry Foundation is dedicated to the craft of poetry and includes lots of great poems, poets, and other poetry related resources.

Poetry will show you how to improve your writing by taking your craftsmanship to the next level. It forces you to whip out your magnifying glass and look at your writing up close. Whether you apply poetic concepts to fiction, blogging, or article writing, your engagement with poetry will help you produce better writing.

If your writing is good today, it can be great tomorrow.

Have you ever dabbled in poetry and noticed how it affected your fiction or creative nonfiction? Do you think studying poetry can make your writing better? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.