Writing

When you read your draft and it sounds a bit flat, you might need to vary your sentence beginnings to make your writing more interesting and lively. While you can choose from many different phrases and clauses to do this, you don’t need to memorize dozens of sentence starters. Most sentences naturally begin with a…

Let’s face it, many writers now use AI to brainstorm ideas, create outlines, check grammar, or improve awkward sentences. Even researching a topic has changed, with AI-powered search tools becoming part of the way many writers find information and explore ideas. Whether writers like it or not, AI is now part of the writing process.…

You don’t need to learn complex writing techniques to improve your work. Often, the biggest improvements come from making simple writing choices as you draft. Small decisions as you write can make your sentences stronger, clearer, and easier to read. You can always improve a first draft during editing, but developing a few good writing…

Some writing terms can be confusing, and the term weak verbs is a good example. The truth is that no verb is inherently weak or strong. Every verb has a purpose. However, some verbs are less descriptive than others, and choosing a more precise verb can often make your writing more engaging. A good example…

Should you edit while writing a first draft, or keep pushing forward through errors until the draft is finished? It’s a question many new writers ask, but it doesn’t come with a simple yes or no answer. What is certain is that if you’re hitting the backspace key more often than letter keys, you are…

When is a writing draft finished? You might be writing an article, a blog post, a short story, or even a novel. Your first draft was rough around the edges, but after revisions, rewrites, corrections, edits, and proofreading, it’s now in much better shape. Is it finished now? That’s a question every writer asks. The…

It’s easy to ignore weak sentences because they’re usually grammatically correct. They don’t get flagged by grammar checkers, and they’re easy to skim past while you’re writing. But during editing, certain sentences start to stand out because something feels slightly off. Maybe it’s too wordy, the idea feels flat, or it’s harder to read than…

If you use AI editing tools to correct your writing, does it mean it could be flagged as AI-generated? That’s a question many writers are now asking as AI becomes part of everyday correcting, editing, and proofreading. The answer isn’t straightforward because correcting writing, rewriting text, and generating content are three different processes. In practice,…

If you want to make your writing sound more human, avoid over-correcting. With so many AI grammar and writing tools available, it’s easy to think that more corrections automatically means better writing. But your writing voice doesn’t work like that. Writing isn’t only about correctness. It’s about rhythm, tone, and the small vocabulary choices that…

You might wonder whether writing software and apps can actually make you a better writer. With so many tools available today for drafting, editing, organising, and even generating ideas and text, it’s easy to assume the right software could improve your writing skills. I’ve used many writing tools over the years, and they can certainly…