Photo courtesy of Seedling-Chaos

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” - Jack London

No matter how much you love writing, there will always be days when you need inspiration from one muse or another.

In fact, I would argue that inspiration is not just a desirable thing, it’s an integral part of the writing process.

Every writer needs inspiration to produce inspired writing. And sometimes, it can come from the unlikeliest sources.

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Editor’s note: This guest post is from FekketCantenel, dreaded she-raptor moderator from the Zen Habits forums.

I have yet to read an all-dialog novel. In fiction, narration is critical for establishing many elements, including scenery, character appearance, and action.

Despite (or perhaps because of) its importance, smooth narration is one of the hardest skills for an aspiring writer to master. It’s easy to get lost in long, flowery paragraphs of clever prose stuffed with adjectives, adverbs, undecipherable in-jokes, and repetition.

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Editor’s note: This guest post is from Mary Jaksch of the blog Goodlife Zen.

I love reading. But not just anything. Some writers arrest me on the spot and shackle me to their page. But others fail to keep my attention: I soon start playing with the cat or surf off to other sites.

Our readers are exactly like that. Their attention is fickle and they will wander off if we don’t grab them with our words.

That’s why it’s important to seize them from the moment they hit the page and get them to read our stuff in one gulp. In the following five steps I’ll show you how to glue readers to your page, whether you’re writing a blog post, an article, or a book.

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Photo courtesy of Claudia Castro

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” - Victor Hugo

There are two ways to become a better writer, in general: write a lot, and read a lot.

There are no other steps.

Of course, within those two general directives, there are lots of more specific advice I can give you, and that other professional writers would offer. Let’s take a look at the second general directive: read a lot.

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Photo courtesy of Djenan.

“Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.” - Bernard Malamud

Sometimes it’s just good to know when to shut up.

The problem with a lot of amateur writers is that they can be long-winded, writing in a few paragraphs what could be said in a few sentences. They might think they’re impressing people with their flowery prose or thought-out arguments … but really they’re losing the reader.

Most people don’t have time to wade through long paragraphs for a few nuggets of information. Do the reader a favor by getting to the point.

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