Woodstock Writers Guild

The Drinking Guild with a Writing Problem

J.D.'s Writing Tips

The following is from an email J.D. sent to his various writing friends 16 Feb 2006:

Here are a couple of personal writing tips I've developed over the course of the past few years. (These are not unique to me, of course, though they are two tips that I use frequently.)

1. Read your work aloud.
2. When you find something that you love by somebody else, read it aloud. After you have read it aloud, copy it by hand into a notebook or into a text file.

When you read your own work aloud, you notice all sorts of things that otherwise might seem obscure. You notice the rhythms and textures of your language. You notice words and phrases that you overuse. You notice cadences that might be improved. You notice poor parallel structure, you notice poor dialogue, you notice passages that are just a tad too twee.

Similarly, when you find a favorite passage by some other author, read it aloud. Try to discover what it is you love about this passage. Break it apart. How does it sound? What is it about the passage that seems so marvelous? What can you learn to help improve your own writing?

After you've read the other author's passage aloud, copy it by hand into a notebook or type it into a text file. Save it. When you copy somebody else's passage, you discover certain atomic aspects of that person's writing. "Aha! She uses copious semicolons. Look here, his dialogue relies heavily upon the colloquial." Copying a favorite passage helps you see beneath the surface of the text, helps you discern the underlying skeleton, gives you knowledge that you can use again later in your own writing. (As an added bonus, if you copy certain passages into a text editor, you can then edit them yourself! Think J.K. Rowling needs an editor? Copy in a couple of pages and go wild. It's amazing how satisfying this can be.)