	Bob Hostetler > Writing

10 Simple Exercises to Improve Your Writing

by Bob Hostetler

I used to think that writers were magic. Mysterious. Special. A breed apart. Then I became one.

The aura I had always associated with writers and writing couldn’t survive the realities of the writing life. I learned that the writing craft involves a lot of hard work. And, while the muse is always welcome, the line that separates good writers from hacks is not the line between human and superhuman. It is the line between writing…and rewriting.

Most working writers I know are not artistes, but craftsmen. They have learned that, just as a woodworker can become more craftsman-like by not merely hewing but also honing (shaving, sanding, polishing, buffing), so can the aspiring writer profit from working over every page and paragraph, sentence and syllable. For most of us, as few as ten simple exercises like the following can immensely improve our craftsmanship.

1. Ask, “Who cares?”

I tell my writing students that there are two kinds of writers: hobbyists and professionals. Hobbyists write whatever they want to write. Professionals write what others will want to read. Professionals ask themselves, “Will anyone want to read what I’m about to write? And, if so, why?” This question must be asked before sitting down to write, and we must not cheat when answering it. Put another way, every reader wants to know “what’s in it for me?” If as a writer I don’t answer that question for the reader, I may still write something magnificent, but it probably won’t get published.

2. Learn to edit for personal weaknesses.

Every writer has a few glaring weaknesses—glaring, that is, to everyone but herself. For example, I have on ongoing love affair with semicolons. I can’t explain it, I don’t know where it comes from, and if it weren’t for an early critique from a friend, I would probably still be unaware of that particular weakness. By the way, that underlines one of many good reasons to find one or two people who can give you capable, honest, and regular critique; they will help you discover your weaknesses, if you let them. (And, in case you were wondering, I eliminated two of three semicolons from the original draft of just this paragraph!).

3. Do the onscreen exercises.

Sure, spell-check and grammar software won’t catch all your mistakes, but they’ll catch some. As a magazine editor, I was constantly flabbergasted by the number of queries and submissions I received that had not even been spell-checked. I couldn’t trust a writer who was that lazy or careless. Don’t make that mistake. You can customize your spell-check or grammar program to make each less clunky, but don’t neglect these rudimentary tools.

4. Read it aloud.

Every writing teacher I know sings the praises of reading one’s work aloud. Very few writers actually do it. But the few who do will help themselves immensely, for reading aloud will uncover a multitude of sins.

5. Proofread your work at least three days later.

You should proofread everything you write, of course, even when you have already spell-checked and grammar-checked it. But set it aside until three days later before doing so. If you try to proofread it too soon, while the writing is fresh in your mind, you’ll read what you meant to write, not what you actually wrote. Yes, it’s tempting to print out your masterpiece and immediately submit it to a publisher, but you’ll save yourself repeated embarrassment by letting the world wait just a few days more.

6. Delete all unnecessary words.

“The secret of good writing,” says William Zinsser, “is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.” So print your manuscript and delete as many words as possible. Make a game of it. But be ruthless.

7. Highlight all verbs.

In hard copy, highlight every verb in your manuscript. How many are active? How many can be made active? How many can be strengthened? You can’t (nor do you want to) make every verb active or vibrant, but you may improve half or more.

8. Highlight all adjectives and adverbs.

Let your nouns and verbs do the heavy lifting. “In general,” write Strunk and White in The Elements of Style, “it is nouns and verbs, not their assistants, that give to good writing its toughness and color.” Even the best writers can often eliminate 50% or more of their adjectives and adverbs—some because they’re redundant (“smiling happily”) and others because they’re propping up weak nouns and verbs.

9. Eliminate or replace all clichés, platitudes, qualifiers, jargon, and overdone words.

Like “white as snow.” And “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Like rather, very, pretty, and little. Or widows, orphans, and stringers. And if I hear about someone being “impacted” or “downsized” again, I’m going to scream like a banshee until the cows come home.

10. Scan for sentence length and structure.

Again in hard copy, scan your manuscript with an eye on the length and structure of your sentences. There should be a musical pace and rhythm to the length of your sentences, like the varied notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or Chopin’s Funeral March. Strive for variety in structure as well, sprinkling the simple among the complex. Keep verbs as close to the beginning of your sentences as possible and your reader will gallop happily from one sentence to the next. If you want to slow the reader’s pace, move your verbs deeper into the sentence. But beware of dependent clauses at the beginning of sentences (“Strolling down the quaint, tree-lined street, he whistled carelessly”); too many of those and your reader will long for the sweet release of death—yours.

Not rocket science, is it? It doesn’t take a genius. But then, a Norman Mailer comes along only once in a generation. For the rest of us, great writing begins with hard work…and a few simple exercises.