Why to Stick to the Basics for Higher Level Writing
By: Claire Mccallick
Tags: Creative Writing, Content Creation, Creative Process, Grammar, Writing

From day one of kindergarten, we are all trained to write creatively whether it be about our puppy’s last adventure, or a tale of the garden fairy that made all the flowers grow.

Once writers step away from primary school, they often forget the foundational rules they were taught to always use when crafting their elaborate stories or persuasive pieces. The most important thing they forget is actually the reason they were given these rules: elaborate details can fog up one’s writing, making their stories muddled and their arguments unclear.

The reliable way to ensure this never happens to your own work is to keep a list of basic literary etiquette to make sure none of your stories float off into the clouds. Our article should suffice as a succinct list of checkpoints for your writing process.

1) Structure & Formatting

This could very well be referred to as the skeleton of the piece. These things include introductions, conclusions, pointed body paragraphs, and other qualities like this. Yes, these are some of the things you learn in kindergarten, but it does not mean it is not absolutely essential.

Sometimes book authors will start their novel with a dramatic scene with no context to spice things up, but a tactic like this is only used to create a sense of confusion for the readers — a very common mystery novel tactic. However, it doesn’t mean that it does not confuse readers, and if you are writing an argumentative piece or short article, this is not the right foot to start off on. Chances are, you won’t be able to solve their confusion by the end of your 3 to 4 pages.

So stick to formatting — at the very least — as a courtesy to the readers so they are able to navigate your piece with ease… having at least a little familiarity to fall back on.

2) Sentence Etiquette and Length

Sentence etiquette is a term used to describe following the general rules of sentence structure. Don’t start any sentences with words like and, but, so, however, etc. While it may be perfectly acceptable in common conversation, writing — even in the most casual of styles — should follow these rules.

Not doing so almost looks like throwing in the towel, and therefore is slightly off-putting to more educated readers, and could even lower your reputation as a writer for doing so.

Something else to discuss would be the length of sentences. While this is not a rule, it is also one of the basics of writing to always consider when crafting a work. The whole point of writing is to keep readers interested, and switching things up is a great way to do that.

On the flip side …

If there are too many groundbreaking changes, like using texts from different languages and breaking general sentence formatting, it can be too distracting for readers. You want to include changes that are subtle enough that it doesn’t stop them in their tracks, but they still enjoy the variety.

Just like sentence length! Having extremely long and descriptive sentences followed by short interjections or even rhetorical questions is a way to visually keep readers interested and their eyes on the page. See? Works like a charm. 😊

3) CTRL + F

Now this little feature is somewhat of a life saver. On any PC or Mac, if you use the keyboard shortcut Control or Command + F, a search box will pop up. This search box will find direct matches to any words you type, so you’ll be able to pinpoint any scandalous or important words you are looking for. If you type a term exactly into the search box (**emphasis** no typos allowed), then it will take you directly to the word, even if there are twenty pages of text to sort through.

While this is an absolute asset on the web, it is also outstanding for your own documents. If you are working on Microsoft Word, or Google Docs, this feature works within your own files. Any colorful descriptor used in your article can be checked for overuse in less than a second with complete reliability, as this feature also shows the number of times the word is present in the article.

For adjectives or adverbs, or even a specific title or role that requires you to repeat a phrase like “content marketing” over and over again, readers still don’t care and don’t want to see things repeated. It looks lazy, so put on your thinking cap or pop over to Thesaurus.com for some creative ways to rephrase common words.

4)The Little Things

When the common reader is absorbing a piece, their brain is looking for something different and pattern breaking enough to keep its attention, however it also needs enough familiar markers and patterns to be able to process what is different or not.

Anchors are a good way to refer to these things. Anchors can be anything we’ve discussed before with sentence structure and general piece formatting, but it also includes the little things like bookends, metaphors, alliteration, similes, and imagery.

These may be predictable, but they are the type of predictable that readers need in order to enjoy the new information you are throwing into their brain. Consider it like this: the only new information your brain can reliably process and make room for when reading is the storyline, or factual information presented.

So keep everything else familiar — with the little things. Plus, these features can be rather enjoyable, as the effort put into creating critically crafty alliterations makes them feel cared about and entertained.

Conclusion

We’re just gonna end this here abruptly without any bookends or cute phrases to show you the point. :)

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Do you have other guidelines that are a must for your process?

Share it with us in the comments!