Seven Deadly Sins of Writing
You don’t just want to be a writer. You want to be an effective writer. You want to be understood and appreciated. You want to be read! Clean living may or may not help with that. Clean writing will surely help.
So, in the spirit of keeping your nose (er, prose) clean, I share with you seven deadly sins of writing.THOU SHALT NOT…
1. Use a passive voice. Show action with your sentences.
1.1. Thumbs up: “John read the book.”
1.2. Thumbs down: “The book was read by John.”
2. Use the ambiguous “this” to summarize what you just said in a previous sentence. Use a noun with it!
3. Use “while” when what you mean is “and,” “but,” or “although.” While is a time-sensitive word and should be used that way. “He drove the truck while I slept.”
4. Divide a section by one. You do not need a subsection unless you intend to divide your subject by at least two.
4.1. See? This is just silly. With no 4.2, I don’t need a 4.1!
5. Just read what you write with your eyes. Read it aloud, instead. Your ears are more discerning than your eyes. You will find the sentences that make no sense, need tightening, or correction.
6. Fill your writing with long sentences that go on and on endlessly without taking any sort of breath or using any kind of punctuation and just wander and meander and lollygag drunkenly across the dadgum page giving the reader a migraine and causing him to swear by all that is holy he will never read another thing you write! You know, sort of like the sentence I just pummeled you with.
7. Fluff. Thou shalt not FLUFF! No fluff! Stop that. If you have something to say, then say it. And when you are done, hush!
OK. I’m done.
Write away. Write now.
D. Gene Strother @ January 26, 2008