I started writing online in Spring 2013. In the five years since then, I’ve published a few hundred thousand words of content across this blog and my other projects, but I haven’t published an article about writing. There’s a certain self-consciousness about writing about writing. Writers suffer perpetual insecurity about the quality of their work, and I’m no exception.
While I still feel unqualified to tell you how to write better, I decided it could be helpful if I shared the advice that’s helped me improve. Some of this is personal. Not all of it will work for you, and none of it is true 100% of the time. But by reading through my notes, you might find a few bits of knowledge you can bring back to your own craft.
I’ve broken this out into sections focused on different aspects of writing, and plan on adding to it over time. The last update was on March 19, 2018. If you have found or heard any other useful advice I could add to this list, feel free to let me know on Twitter.
The best way to improve your word choice is to focus on what to remove, not what to add. These are the words we use in casual conversation that clutter our writing and impede its flow. Some of them are common (just, that, actually, pretty), some will be more personal (I use the words “great” too much). I’ve gotten better at spotting them over time, but I also keep a list of “banned words” to search my writing for once a draft is finished.
Sometimes, removing a word is difficult. “That” is particularly challenging to cut out in some cases, but I find if I take a moment to restructure the sentence to not need it, the sentence always sounds better. Others are easier. You can safely CMD+F for all instances of “pretty” and delete them unless you’re writing about your significant other.
This list is ever-lengthening, but here are my current “banned words”: