Everybody and your illiterate uncle will give you writing advice. They’ll tell you that you’ve got to use metaphors and anecdotes from your own life. They’ll talk about how you’ve got to use the secret sauce that is your personality.
It’s all great advice. The problem, though, is that it isn’t so easy to apply. It can take months, sometimes years, to master these techniques.
Who’s got time for that? You want people to read your posts today, not six months from now!
I hear you. For that reason, here’s a list of things you can start doing today. They will immediately impact how readable and engaging your writing is.
So let’s jump straight in.
1. White space
Do you know the biggest difference between writing on the printed page and online? On the printed page, every character and every space costs money as it takes up paper. Online, that's not the case.
This has fundamentally changed the written word. The thing is, most people – particularly those who've written mainly for school – haven’t quite caught onto that yet.
When you do, an entirely new world opens up.
You see, you can convey a lot of meaning with white space. For example, when you use short paragraphs you can cover one idea per paragraph like I’ do here. This will boost your text’s readability and make your audience stick around.
2. Enters for emphasis
There is another clever thing that you can do with white space, namely use it to emphasize points. Visual artists do this all the time. For white space draws the eye and adds weight to what it surrounds.
Giving it that extra bit of punch.
In effect, it’s a little bit like an exclamation mark! Except that using too many exclamation marks makes you sound like an overenthusiastic teenager who is excited by pocket lint! So don’t do that!
Instead use the far more subtle white space.
3. Short sentences
A lot of people think that writing long sentences makes for better writing. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve got horrible short-term memories. In fact, researchers claim our attention span is now shorter than a goldfish!
The longer your sentences, the more you’re taxing your reader’s memory. That makes your text harder to read. As a guideline, when your sentences stretch beyond one line you should hear warning bells.
That sound hard? I hear ya. Fortunately, there are tools to help you. My favorite is The Hemingway App. You cut and paste in whatever text your work on into this free app. Then it will point out sentences that are too long, among other things. It will even approximate the English grade level people will need to read your text.
4. Spelling and grammar
Grammar and spelling mistakes are like potholes. They upset an otherwise smooth ride and jolt you right out of the near-trance that good writing provokes.
And you know what? You can avoid the vast majority with yet another simple tool. Grammarly at its basic level is free and will point out many of your writing errors. In fact, it works better than Word’s spell checker!
As an added bonus, it will scan any text you write into your browser and point out mistake (wait, that should be mistakes) you make.
5. The power of the question mark
You know what else works well? That’s right, asking questions. Why ? Because by using them your reader feels personally addressed. Normally, when you write texts it reads a bit like a monolog, with your audience just passive observers.
The question mark changes that.
It draws the reader into your text and creates the illusion of a dialogue. Some readers might even puzzle over the answer before they read on. Even if they don’t, they will still feel like they’ve been personally addressed. Yes, that even holds when you then go on to answer the question that you’ve posed.
6. Simplify!
Many people believe that using big words and jargon will make them sound smart. It doesn’t. There is even some research out there that shows the opposite with wordy writers are perceived as less intelligent.
Even if that weren’t the case, you close the door on those readers who don’t understand those words. So, when you find yourself using a three-syllable word ask yourself ‘Will my readers actually know this word?’ and ‘Is there a simpler synonym?’
Similarly, if you want to use professional jargon in your text, go ahead. But, the first time that you do define it! Just throw up some brackets, or provide a link.
It doesn’t matter that 90% of your readers will know the word. For why alienate 10% of your reader when just a few more words will keep them involved?
7. Edit and Shorten
And finally, when you’ve written your text, don’t stop there. Instead, sit down and edit it. This is where you take strange sentences and make them more readable and where you try to cut out the fluff.
What is fluff? These are words that don’t add any character or meaning to your text. They’re just there, occupying space.
Why remove them? Because the less of that crap you have in your text, the quicker people will get to the next important point you’re making. And the quicker they get to the next tasty morsel, the more punchy and memorable your text will be.
That’s vital. Because that’s how they'll decide if they’ll share or upvote your text!
Final thoughts
So there you go! Seven tips that you can start applying immediately. As promised, they're all straightforward. And, as the links prove, they'll make you a better writer.
My suggestion is to take the tip that you like best and start applying it. Then, when you’ve got it internalized (it shouldn’t take long) move on to the next one. By the time you’ve got them all, you’ll find your words and stories will be far more engaging and, by extension, your writing more profitable.
And that I’m sure you’ll agree is a tiny investment for a big reward!
Several years ago Jelte ten Holt left behind his sedentary life in academia. Since then he’s traveled the world, experienced the sights, sounds and ideas she shared with him, and written from her many corners. He’s written two books and hundreds of articles, seen four continents, lived in six countries, travelled through dozens more and never owned more than can fit into two bags.
Find out more at Vagabondwriters.com. You can also connect or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.