Now Novel
What is diction in writing? It is the effect that writing creates due to word choice and other elements of style such as register (formal vs casual) and connotation. It’s the choices that make a ‘posh’ voice read posh, for example. Here are simple ways to use it to create personality in your stories and vivid voice, with examples of diction from fiction:
Clarity in writing means the ease with which a reader can understand you. It means avoiding unintended ambiguity or confusing sentence structure. Read 7 tips for keeping writing clear and engaging:
Knowing how to fix passive voice and other common grammar and style issues ensures a cleaner, more impactful draft. Read 7 tips for improving weak writing style:
Tone in writing refers to a complex mix of attributes. The mood, register, attitudes and other values conveyed through details such as word choice, sentence structure and the speaker or narrator’s attitude to their subject. Read examples of tone in writing that show what creates tone in a novel or story:
Lyrical writing is writing that is song-like, poetic, or deeply evocative. Here are 5 simple tips to write in a more lyrical style:
Weak style in writing has the power to make a new reader close your book and pick up another instead. Improve style in your fiction with these 9 tasks:
Writing prose, like writing poetry, involves specific challenges. Although prose is closer to ‘ordinary’, ‘everyday’ speech than poetry, it is easy to write purple prose and make other small mistakes. Here are 5 steps to refine your prose writing style:
Sayings such as ‘the road to hell is paved with adverbs’ scare many aspiring authors off using adverbs to describe characters’ actions. Yet writers say this because there are often more descriptive, common verbs you could use instead of a duller verb-plus-adverb. Use this list of descriptive strong verbs to create stronger mood, atmosphere, and characterization.
Writing techniques make individual authors’ styles distinctive. From poetic devices (such as metaphor and simile) to narrative strategies, writers use various literary techniques and in doing so create their (often unmistakable) personal styles. Here are writing techniques you can use to elevate your own writing:
