writingadvice – Page 7 – Patricia J. Parsons

Nonfiction Writing, Writing, Writing craft, Writing Nonfiction

5 Tips for Writing Nonfiction Leads

Posted on 18 May 2021 by Patricia J. Parsons

Thirty years ago, I began my career as a nonfiction writer. The first time I pitched the story to the weekend features editor of a local newspaper, I realized that although I’d done a ton of academic writing at that point, had written lots of unpublished essays and had a passion for writing that went back to my pre-teen years, I didn’t know that much about the fine points of magazine writing.

My background was in health science, so what did I know about writing magazine articles?

What I had was a passion for writing, a knowledge base in the content area I had proposed, a willingness to learn, lots of research experience. The first thing I had to learn was how to write a solid lead. Three decades later and that knowledge has had a chance to be practised over and over, and now I’m sharing my five favourite approaches to a lead―a bit of help for nonfiction authors, magazine writers, bloggers and copywriters.

As I reviewed these tips for leads, it also occurred to me that fiction writers might find inspiration here for opening paragraphs for short stories or even book chapters. I’m a great believer in cross-genre learning.

Here’s today’s episode of WRITE. FIX. REPEAT. with the five approaches to leads.

Writing, Writing craft

5 tips to avoid writing errors that drive editors crazy

Posted on 27 Apr 2021 by Patricia J. Parsons

Why is writing correctly so important? It doesn’t matter whether you write ad copy, corporate blog posts or novels; it’s important because it provides us with a set of shared understandings of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. And those are the building blocks of writing.

A proper grasp of grammar, punctuation, syntax (all the elements of style) makes you appear more professional and more knowledgeable. On another level, it’s important because poor grammar pegs you as an amateur in the eyes of editors, agents and, yes, readers.

Can you ever break the rules? But you do it consciously, for a reason, and only after you’ve learned what those rules are.

Some errors are broken so often that they drive editors (and many readers) crazy. I’ve identified five errors that editors (and agents and often readers) hate so much. Are you making any of these errors?

Can you figure out the correct answer? For answers and explanations, the video is live.

I versus Me
- Which one of these is correct?
  - The coach asked Jim and I to stay late.
  - The coach asked Jim and me to stay late.
Dangling Modifiers
- Which of these is correct?
  - *After declining for three months, book sales began to revive after Susan’s new marketing approach.
  - *After declining for three months, Susan’s marketing approach started to revive book sales.
That versus Who
- Which of these is correct?
  - *She’s a woman who knows what she wants.
  - * She’s a woman that knows what she wants.
Parallelism
- Which of these is correct?
  - *We went skiing in the mountains, swam in the ocean, and drove in the desert.
  - * We went skiing in the mountains, swimming in the ocean, and driving in the desert.
That versus Which
- Which of these is correct?
  - *The sweater that has a moth hole is in the drawer.
  - *The sweater, which has a moth hole, is in the drawer.

Writing craft, Writing Nonfiction

5 Tips for Tightening Your Writing

Posted on 13 Apr 2021 by Patricia J. Parsons

Seventeenth-century philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote the following:

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”

Clearly, he had an innate sense that tight writing takes time―and is preferable in many ways. The concept of “writing tightly” is one that all writers have to come to terms with at some point in a writing career. The reason this is so important is simple: tight writing is more likely to be published.

When an editor tells you that you need to tighten your writing, what does that mean? If you think it means to trim your narrative of all unnecessary words and phrases, then you’d be right.

Tight writing is important because it compels the reader through your copy, whether it’s your book, feature article, blog post, or advertising copy. Loose, wordy writing slows the forward motion of the story and bores readers.

In this week’s video, I explain my five tips.

Tips summarized:

Use fewer prepositional phrases.
Eliminate filler words.
Use strong stand-alone words instead of weak words padded by adverbs.
Remove redundancies.
Read everything you write out loud and listen to it carefully.

Some extra resources for you:

Common Redundancies in the English Language. https://www.thoughtco.com/common-redundancies-in-english-1692776

Linda Alley. Why Tight Writing is Not Just for Journalists. https://medium.com/@linda_44105/why-tight-writing-is-not-just-for-journalists-bd037d907447