CREATIVE WRITING SERIES-LESSON 1:How to make your writing interesting?

How to make your writing interesting?

The ideal English text is clear, concise and easy to understand. Even advanced level academic textbooks are written in plain English words. So when you write, try to keep your sentences clear and well structured so that your readers will have no difficulty understanding them.

Don’t try to use complex sentence patterns with the sole objective of impressing the reader. Chances are they wouldn’t. Worse still, they might abandon your text before finishing it. 

When writing in English, keep the following rules in mind:

Use simple language. That doesn’t mean that you should only write short, simple sentences. Instead, use a variety of sentence patterns – some complex, some simple and some compound. Just make sure that your sentences are not ridiculously long. 

Make your text interesting by using a wide variety of sentence patterns. For example, use participle clauses, relative clauses, prepositional clauses, infinitive constructions and if-clauses. 

Keep subordinate clauses short

Participles and infinitives are useful for shortening lengthy subordinate clauses. It is also a good idea to restrict their number to a maximum of three. Not that you can’t have more than three subordinate clauses in a sentence. You certainly can, but the more clauses you have in a sentence, the more complex it gets. What’s more, when your sentences are extremely long, you are invariably going to make mistakes. 

Use verbs instead of nouns. It is not always possible, but if it is then do it. For example, instead of writing ‘The meaning of this is that…’, you can write ‘This means that …’

Active verb forms

Use active verb forms instead of passive verb forms. You don’t have to completely eliminate passive forms from your writing: sometimes they are more appropriate than active forms. But as a general rule, your text should have more active verbs than passive ones. 

Avoid slang and technical jargon

Slang is not considered appropriate in writing. Of course, you can use it while chatting, but avoid it in all other forms of formal or academic communication. You must also avoid technical jargon. These are words and expressions that only industry experts can understand. Avoid them, because a good piece of writing is easy to read and understand. 

Try to put the subject close to the beginning of a sentence. Of course, you can use introductory clauses, but keep them short. 

Discuss just one main idea in a paragraph. Summarize this point in the first sentence. Use the next few sentences to support this idea. The last sentence in a paragraph should make a smooth transition to the next paragraph.