A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I were talking about some writing tips we’d picked up – almost by luck or by accident – on our way to becoming professional writers. We both came up with a list of “I wish someone had told me sooner” pointers. Today I’m going to talk about four of them.

1.   Break up long paragraphs.

Somewhere along the way both my writer friend and I started breaking long paragraphs in half (in defiance of what English teachers always tell you about unifying a paragraph). Nobody – as far as we can remember – ever told us that it’s ok to just split a paragraph into two shorter ones. Any writing task is much more readable that way. What we find really funny is that nobody – not even the most sharp-eyed editor – has ever caught on to what we were doing.

 2. Use dashes to enliven your sentences.

This was another practice we were surprised to discover that we had in common: dashes. We use lots of them. (Confession: sometimes I overuse them.) Alas, I’ve never been able to work out a system for teaching writers how to use dashes. But I can tell you this: if you do a lot of reading, you’ll figure it out. Give yourself permission to use dashes – they’re wonderful!

3.  State ideas strongly.

There’s nothing new about this gem of advice, which you’ll find in most books that teach writing. But it’s easily overlooked. Avoid writing “This was not easy” or “I didn’t like to do those tasks.” State what you DID feel: “This was difficult” or “I disliked doing those tasks.”

4.  Beware of joining sentences with and.

I wish I could thank the professor who urged me to break my and habit – and I wish I hadn’t had to wait for graduate school to be told that it was a problem. Joining sentences with and is easy, and most beginning writers overdo it. (There’s an example for you.)

Here’s the problem: It’s juvenile. If you listen to small children talk, you’ll hear strings of sentences – one after another – joined with and. Strive to use more sophisticated joiners: if, when, because, although, and so on. Show relationships between ideas rather than just gluing them together:

Clouds were rolling in, and I grabbed my umbrella.  JUVENILE

Because clouds were rolling in, I grabbed my umbrella.  SOPHISTICATED

I just reread this post, and I was struck by the simplicity of these bits of writerly wisdom. Try them – you’ll quickly see a big improvement in your writing!