Writing

When you write like you speak, it’s much easier to develop your unique writing voice. But don’t take this too literally because when speaking, we repeat ourselves, use filler words and sounds, hesitate, utter unfinished sentences, and change direction without thinking. Good writing is rarely exactly like our natural speech patterns. But when you construct…

Many writing apps need an internet connection to work. But offline writing apps give you much more freedom and choice about where, when, and how you write. While it’s almost natural now to be online, having the option to write offline means you can take your work to a cafe, a park, or a river…

Every writer uses empty sentence starters, often without even noticing. The reason they are so common is that they are easy to use. Very often, these few empty words set up a sentence before getting to the main point. One of the most common is “there is” or “there are” because it tells us that…

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…