Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

Writing long sentences means going against the grain. But isn’t that what the best writers do? In his novel The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald uses the long sentence to explain—and mirror—the antique prose style of English essayist Sir Thomas Browne: In common with other English writers of the seventeenth century, Browne wrote out of the fullness of

To understand the difference between a good adverb and a bad adverb, consider these two sentences: “She smiled happily” and “She smiled sadly.” Which one works best? The first seems weak because “smiled” contains the meaning of “happily.” On the other hand, “sadly” changes the meaning.

1. Read through the New York Times or your local newspaper with a pencil in hand. Mark the locations of subjects and verbs. 2. Do the same with examples of your writing. 3. Do the same with a draft you are working on now. 4. The next time you struggle with a sentence, rewrite it by placing subject and verb at the beginning. 5. For dramatic variation,

Amy Tan’s verbs capture internal action and emotion.

If the subject performs the action of the verb, we call the verb active. • If the subject receives the action of the verb, we call the verb passive. • A verb that is neither active nor passive is a linking verb, a form of the verb to be.

the act of writing less as a special talent and more as a purposeful craft.

Tense defines action within time—when the verb happens—the present, past, or future. Voice defines the relationship between subject and verb—who does what. • If the subject performs the action of the verb, we call the verb active. • If the subject receives the action of the verb, we call the verb passive. • A verb that is neither active nor passive

Active verbs move the action and reveal the actors. • Passive verbs emphasize the receiver, the victim. • The verb to be links word and ideas. These choices are not merely aesthetic.

I once learned that only three behaviors set literate people apart. The first two are obvious: reading and writing; but the third surprised me: talking about how reading and writing work. Many of the tools came from great talk about the construction of stories and the distillation of meaning.