5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Creative Writing

Please know, if you’re a writer, most of what you first write could be rubbish, but you really can improve it.

But yep! Accept it, it’ll be absolutely pants, but it’s OK. You’re writing, that’s what counts, at first.

You need to get that story told, get it committed to words on a page or a computer screen. Once it’s down, mistakes included, you start the rewarding, repetitive often heartbreaking process of editing.

You’ll start to recognise silly mistakes you need to remove from your writing.

Sadly you may even have to kill your darlings, yep kill off a character you love. Start getting familiar with your delete key, your characters will thank you or at least your editor / publisher will.

You can check yourself as you write, and as you gain experience will do a lot of this as you go along but at the start you may need to look at these in your edit process.

Here are my 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Creative Writing…

1. Take out everything that is surplus, if it isn’t adding value or moving story forward cut it out

Yes, I know you’ve put hours in to those words, you chose each one with care, right? Wrong! You’re not perfect, you’ve probably made some simple mistakes, or your auto correct function may have done it for you.

TIP: Read aloud and it’ll highlight simple errors you can’t see by reading alone.

You love your characters and all they do. Now is the time to be honest. Do you really like them? Are all your characters adding value for your reader? If you have a couple you like however on reflection they probably are a little bit too much, how about merging them? Or you could just take them out altogether.

TIP: Cut and paste them into a document, save them for another time or place, a short story maybe. Fans may even like these as bonus content later on.

Tighten up your plot, I use Scrivener which is really helpful for this, I can move things around, look at who is dominating the story and if my scenes are evenly spread throughout.

2. Remove triviality, we know what people do in a bathroom

This is where you need to credit your reader with common sense. They know everyone goes to the loo.

Everyone, well most people, clean their teeth. Unless they are shot whilst sat on the toilet or see something in the steamed up mirror whilst brushing their teeth, delete it, it’s not needed.

This is why people on TV never say goodbye on the telephone, it goes without saying, literally, so don’t say it.

Sorry I know you can see your word count withering away before your eyes, but trust me, you can do this!

3. Consider speech tags – he said, she said

This one is open to discussion. Some experts will tell you never use the word ‘said’ they’ll tell you to use other words like whispered, shouted, screamed etc.

Well I disagree. We don’t all speak in exaggerated ways, some of us just talk. A good way to decide which side of the fence your writing will sit is to read, a lot. Read many stories in your chosen genre, what is the pre-dominant style? Will you conform to that?

Go and pick up your favourite novel, glance across the dialogue. I’m fairly sure when you last read that book you didn’t even notice if the writer put said or not. That is because you are a reader and as such your brain concentrates on the conversation, your writer has got the balance right.

TIP: It’s always a good idea to stick with the chosen form as fans like what they like. If you want to sell to those readers, than why make it hard for yourself, give them what they like!

I use ‘said’ however I don’t use it on every line, I realise it can become intrusive and distracting.

If you build your characters effectively they will have individual traits and syntax that the reader can recognise. If it’s a minor conversation, just put a reminder in at each 5 – 6 lines to make it easy for the reader to keep up.

4. Repetition of facts isn’t necessary, it’s not, really it’s not

You need to weed out unnecessary repetition e.g. the character’s hair colour, the noise the doorbell makes, the description of the interior of the house, anything you have already told your reader.

There are some things you need to remind them of, fair enough, but if so do it in a subtle way and not as a direct reference. Again this is just giving credit to your reader. They will build up a picture in their heads, they don’t need you to constantly remind them.

This is one you often can’t fix until you edit, as you may move scenes around as you write. Once you are happy the scenes sit in the right order you need to read it all, yes all of it.

TIP: Get beta readers in, they are people you trust to read your work and give you honest feedback (scary huh!)

This edit is also a good time to ensure you tell them something early on, if it’s important. If it’s vital to the plot that your protagonist lives on a riverboat, don’t drop this in half way through the book. If you have moved scenes around it is easy to forget this. You know your story so well, this can be where beta readers really add value as it’s all new to them.

5. Cliche and Melodrama, it’s been done before

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages” Mark Twain

Formula is not the same as cliche. A formula is the skeleton, the framework you build your story around, read more about planning here: Hero’s Journey.

Your story is written by you, a unique individual with a unique voice. Your voice will develop over time, so allow growth and embrace learning and change.

Please do your ‘version of new’ well. Don’t cheat, copy or revert back to cliche.

Cliche is when something has basically been done to death, you know the type of thing, awoke from a dream, describing the character’s face as they look in a mirror, ‘Once Upon a Time’, ‘dead as a doornail’ ‘think outside the box’ ARGH! If it annoys you it’ll annoy your reader.

Don’t undervalue your skill, be imaginative. Unless you are using cliche to make your character appear predictable, within their conversation, avoid it.

Melodrama is something I associate with the silent movie, you know those over dramatic, exaggerated expressions and actions. It worked well then because there were no words but you’re a wordsmith, use your words wisely.

Christie Adams

Books and Midlife Adventures