If you're not sure you're ready
for a critique yet, or you just want to have your manuscript in the best shape
possible before getting one, here are some quick tips to improve your writing:
-
Search for and destroy passive voice.
Occasionally passive voice will be the best choice, but usually it is simply
imprecise writing. Find your passive sentences and rewrite them in active voice.
-
Search for and remove "little qualifiers"
as Zinsser calls them in On Writing Well. Get rid of things like "a
bit," "a little," "sort of," "very," and "in a sense" among others.
-
Pay attention to other imprecise writing,
including overuse of "it," and phrases like "there were,"
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Review your punctuation. While different
styles can vary on specifics, learn the basic use of the comma, the colon, and
the semicolon.
-
Avoid commonly misused words. If you don't
know the difference between "lie" and "lay," including the conjugation of
both, look them up and learn them immediately. Other commonly misused pairs
include: wretched/retched; slinked/slunk; bare/bear; shrunk/shrank;
baited/bated; reign/rein; stunk/stank; and sunk/sank.
-
Please
use "its" and "it's" correctly.
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If
you're writing fiction, study and apply point of view.
-
For
both fiction and non-fiction, apply the often quoted "show, don't tell"
rule.