When writing for a general audience, we want to ensure that the language we use is clear—the opposite of the kind of bafflegab we looked at earlier. ☐ Language is clear and vocabulary is appropriate to the audience. The key to keeping your language clear is ensuring that everything can …
Author: Kristen Stieffel
Kristen Stieffel is a writer and freelance editor specializing in speculative fiction. She's a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, Christian Editor Connection, and American Christian Fiction Writers.
Engaging Prose is Active and Varied
To keep readers engaged with the text, use strong nouns and verbs to construct active sentences. Which isn’t to say every sentence must be in the active voice. ☐ The passive voice is used only when appropriate. Writers are forever being told to avoid the passive voice. You see the …
Write Brightly, but with Restraint
As writers, we want to create strong mental pictures and evoke powerful emotions. Even if your writing is prescriptive rather than narrative, you want to give readers a clear idea of your concepts. ☐ The writing is illuminating and vivid. The foundation of vivid writing is strong nouns and verbs. …
Keep Your Writing Voice Informal
The best journalism, business, and academic writing is as eloquent and enjoyable as the best writing in other genres. Unfortunately, most people do not produce the best writing. Most people produce adequate writing. Since you aspire to be a writer, I trust that regardless of the field in which you …
Use an Authentic Writing Voice
Write the way you speak, only with more polish. You may need to unlearn a lot that you learned in college about writing. Teachers teach academic writing, which tends to be dry, fact-focused, and concerned more with making a point than crafting elegant sentences. ☐ The narrative voice draws the …
Get Front and Back Matter in Order
Not every book will have front and back matter, but if yours does, understand that there is a customary order in which these things usually appear. This information isn’t on the checklist because it may not apply to your book. If it does, you can download the Front and Back …
Lists Are Not Just for Web Writing
Those of us writing for the web are forever being told to use lists. But they have their place in books, too. Web readers aren’t the only ones with a tendency to skim. Pretty much any time you have a bunch of concepts to discuss, a list is useful. ☐ …
How to Use Sidebars, Charts, and Images
Sidebars are a good way to include information that complements your text but that doesn’t aid the flow of your main text. Sidebars are not a good place to house information you discovered that was interesting, but unrelated to the main text. ☐ Images, charts, and sidebars are relevant and …
Use Sensory Details to Capture Imagination
Like a novelist, a nonfiction writer can engage the reader’s imagination through the use of the five senses. ☐ Vivid details enhance the reader’s understanding and highlight key points. We usually think of this kind of detail as being visual. The shape of someone’s eyeglasses, the colors of the flowers …
Use Story to Make Your Ideas Stick
Folks like Copyblogger who teach copywriting often emphasize the importance of story. That’s because a story gives our hearts and minds something to hold on to. Stories make ideas sticky. But the thing is, the story has to be in your work for the right reasons. ☐ Anecdotes are engaging …