Trafford Publishing offers 6 Tips to improve your Writing

Trafford Publishing gives advice on how to improve your writing, including tips on doing research, organizing your work, writing with style, creating a comfortable work space and editing your work.
In order to write anything, whether it’s a book, a story or an article, you should develop certain skills that will help you do it well. That is to say, you must be able to organize your writing, write with a certain style and edit your work effectively. The following Trafford Publishing tips will help you improve your writing and editing skills.
Tip #1 - Write what you know What are you interested in? What is it makes you curious? What are you passionate about? What ever it is, you should write about it. When you write about something you know, you present an air of expertise, and your writing becomes more interesting when you write about something you are interested in.
Tip #2 - Do research No matter how much you already know about your subject, you can always learn more. Researching something you are interested in is fun. You learn more about it, and knowing more about it lends an air of authority to your writing.
Tip #3 - Organize your writing Some writers like to use an outline, while others like to brainstorm or make a spider graphs to organize their ideas. Some like to freewrite and organize their work later. Whatever your preferred style is, good writing requires organization.
Tip #4 - Write with style Use stronger verbs. The verb to be is kind of weak. Try to substitute it with other verbs whenever possible. Instead of saying John is a preacher, say John preaches at the Methodist Church on Sunday.
Try not to use adverbs in your writing. Most of them are not necessary. When you say She gulped the water down quickly or He gobbled up the food hungrily…, it is redundant. How else would you gulp liquids but quickly? Why would you gobble up food unless you were hungry?
Make sure your grammar, punctuation and spelling are error free. There are many books that can help you do this. We recommend The Brief English Handbook by Edward A. Dornan and Robert Dees, The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White and Stephen King’s On Writing.
Don’t use passive voice. Passive voice is mostly for spoken English. Use active voice. It’s more direct and to the point. It uses fewer words than passive voice, and it makes your writing easier to read.
Don’t forget to use parallel structure or parallelism. When listing items in a series, especially when you say someone did several things in one sentence, use the same verb tense and form through the whole sentence. The mind responds to patterns. Saying things in the same way creates a pattern that the brain can follow.
Tip #5 - Create a relaxed atmosphere for writing Your writing space should be a comfortable, colorful and quiet place. It should have no distractions, such as telephones, Televisions or outside noises. Place your desk away from the windows, so no sights or sounds will distract you. Many authors like to listen to their favorite music to relax when they write.
1. Edit your work Don’t edit your writing as soon as you finish. It’s a good idea to postpone it for a day or two. When you edit your work right away, your mind will miss a lot of mistakes. Taking a break for a day or two gives your mind a rest and makes it easier to catch mistakes which you might have missed otherwise.
Read your writing aloud. When you do this, you can tell which passages are awkward or clumsy and which references might be unclear. Some writers correct their mistakes immediately. Others like to fix the errors later.
Eliminate any unnecessary words and delete unnecessary repetitions. Read what you have written out loud, leaving out the parts you think are excessive. If it sounds all right when you do this, omit the excess.
When you are finished, take another break. Then, do it again in a few days.