‘’Whether you’re a beginner or have been at it for decades, writing well is hard work.
‘’I’ve written and published over 200 books, including 21 New York Times bestsellers, and I still work daily to improve. I’m a firm believer in and advocate for lifelong learning.
We don’t arrive at good writing. We either grow or stagnate. Maybe your writing lacks punch. Or you’ve hit a brick wall.
Don’t give up! With help, your message still has the potential to reach the masses.
I can’t turn you into a bestselling author overnight, and I urge you to suspect anyone who says they can.
But I do believe I can help improve your writing immediately.’’
These are the very words of Jerry Jenkins in one of the emails I got from him and in this very article, you’re going to be learning the same lessons he poured out in this email on how to become a better writer immediately using his 25 proven steps.
Table of Contents
Let’s dive in…
#1. How to become a better writer immediately
1. Don’t aim to write a bestseller.
We aim every day to achieve things we desire strongly, however Jenkins in his teaching said if we want to be better writers we shouldn’t aim to write a bestseller book. In his words, ‘’That’s the last thing I think about when I start a new book. To have any chance at success, my manuscript must come from my passions, the overflow of what I really care about.
I have no control over the market, sales, reviews, and all the rest. All I can control is how much of myself I’m willing to invest in a writing project.’’
So friend if you’re thinking of becoming a bestseller, you have to change the dial and write from the place of passion.
2. Always think reader-first.
According to Jenkins, ‘’Write Think Reader-First on a sticky note and place it where you can see it while you’re writing,” and I subscribe to this.
You see when we put our readers first, it helps us to create something magic for them.
Then he adds that, as writers, “Our sole job is to tell a story so compelling that gets your reader lost in it from the get-go. Then he gives this Golden Rule of Writing – ‘’Treat your readers the way you want to be treated and write what you would want to read.’’
3. Avoid throat-clearing.
Yes, we strive to become better writers but have we cared to find out what is stopping us from attaining this level it could be that we are using the wrong technique – the throat-clearing technique. Here Jerry said this is the term used in the writing business for any writing that stalls a story or chapter by beginning with anything but the good stuff.
According to him, he wants us to cut the setup, the description, the setting, and the philosophizing, and get on with the story. We can always layer the rest into the action. He advised.
My input is; don’t serve the best wine for the last serve it first and your readers will favor you with love.
4. Show, don’t tell.
For the past 8 years, I’ve been a scriptwriter, and this was one of the first rules I learned – Show don’t tell.
I’m happy that Jenkins reinstated this fact saying that “telling spoon feeds your readers rather than allowing them to deduce what’s going on.
Here are the examples he gave in his lessons:
Telling: It was late fall.
Showing: Leaves crunched beneath his feet.
Telling: It was cold.
Showing: He tightened his collar and turned his face from the biting wind.
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” — Anton Chekhov
5. Avoid telling what’s not happening.
This is getting interesting, right? Yes! Telling what’s not happening! In scriptwriting, we might call this element of surprise. Read these lines and see if you can figure out what is going on here…….
“He didn’t respond.”
“She didn’t say anything.”
“The room never got quiet.”
If you don’t say it happened, we won’t assume it did.
#2. How to Become A Better Writer immediately
6. Introduce your main character early, by name.
When writing the earlier we introduce our main characters by name the quicker our reader gets to know them and fall in love with them if they need to.
Regarding this Jenkins said “The biggest mistake new writers make is introducing their main characters too late.
As a rule, he should be the first person on stage. My question is did you introduce your main character late; please correct that once you’re done here.
7. Trigger the theater of your reader’s mind.
The mind is the greatest theatre in the world and Jerry was right to say this – “Ever wonder why the book is always better than the movie?
Not even Hollywood, with all its creativity and high-tech CGI capability, can compete with the theater of our imagination.”
Is he right or wrong? Of course, who says he is wrong?
All stories come to reality as a result of a storyteller’s imagination, but the truth is readers imagine and they only do this when we give them just enough information to engage their imagination, making them a partner in the experience, not just an audience member.
8. Cut dialogue to the bone.
As a writer, I was told that shorter dialogs are sweeter and punchy so I’m not surprised to hear this from Jenkins, “Unless revealing a character as a Brainiac or a blowhard, tighten the dialogue.
Obviously, you wouldn’t render a conversation the way a court transcript includes repetition and even um, ah, uh, etc.”
See how much you can chop while virtually communicating the same point.
This doesn’t mean your dialogue has to be choppy—just cut the dead wood.
You’ll be surprised by how much more powerfully your dialogue reads.”
You get his idea, Right?
Right!
Let’s move on!
9. Omit needless words.
This point is quite similar to the point above, while the above is asking us to talk less, this other point is asking us to trim or omit words that are not useful.
“Less is more.
Tighten, tighten, tighten.
Again, you’ll find cutting almost always adds power.” Jerry advised.
10. Choose normal words over fancy ones.
As J rightly said, “Showing off your vocabulary or flowery turns of phrase draws attention to the writing itself rather than the content.” That’s the very definition of author intrusion – You don’t want this to happen to your story so beware.
#3. How to become a better writer immediately
11. Use active voice vs. passive voice.
I want to believe that you’ve heard this from gurus, – use active voice instead of passive voice. Jerry brings this up again by saying we should “Fix passive voice by replacing state-of-being verbs.”
Here are the examples given by him.
Passive: The party was planned by Jill.
Active: Jill planned the party.
Passive: The book was read to the children by the teacher.
Active: The teacher read the book to the children.
Then he concludes by saying that, avoiding passive voice will set us apart from much of our competition. And it adds clarity.
12. Avoid mannerisms of attribution.
This is a great lesson. Avoid mannerisms of attribution. Here Jerry implores that we should – “Have people say things, not wheeze, gasp, laugh, grunt, snort, reply, retort, exclaim, or declare them.
He goes on to state that – ‘’Sometimes people whisper or shout or mumble, but let your choice of words imply whether they grumble, etc.
Then he started, ‘’If it’s important that they sigh or laugh, separate the action from the dialogue:
Example –
Jim sighed. “I just can’t take it anymore.”
13. Avoid began to…
As writers we are tempted to declare what our character ‘’began to do,’’ however, this is a wrong practice. And according to Jenkins, we don’t say began to ….. Laugh, or cry, or shout, or run.’’ ”People don’t just begin to do these things. They do them.
Just say it: He laughed, she cried, Fred shouted, Traci ran…. He advised.
14. Eliminate clichés.
We know what clichés are; they are familiar or overused actions that start stories. Starting stories with clichés makes our stories lack life.
Below are the few clichés that Jenkins mentioned:
Starting your story with the main character waking
Having a character describe himself while standing before a mirror
Having future love interests literally bump into each other when they first meet
Having a shot ring out, only to have the shooter be a surprise third party who kills the one who had the drop on the hero
Having the seemingly dead or unconscious or incapacitated villain spring back to life just when we thought the hero had finally saved the day
And of course, avoid the dream cliché.
And not to forget he also asked we should, avoid heart and breathing clichés: pounded, raced, thudded, hammered, gasped, sucked wind, etc.
He believes that if we render the scary situation compellingly enough, we need not tell readers anything about our character’s heartbeat or breath. Readers should experience those themselves.
15. Avoid on-the-nose writing.
This term according to Jerry, is a Hollywood term for writing that mirrors real life without advancing the story.
On-the-nose writing is the most common mistake I see in otherwise good writing. Eliminate small talk, banalities, etc. He advised.
#4 How to become a better writer immediately
16. Avoid the words up and down
As writers we love to say it all but here, Jenkins is saying we should avoid the words up and down —‘’ Unless they’re really needed.’’
Examples:
He rigged [up] the device.
She sat [down] on the couch.
17. Read The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
We can’t rule out reading if we want to become better writers, it improves our mental minds, it expands our vocabulary, it makes us think better and above all it helps to increase our knowledge especially if we read books written by authorities in the writing industry.
In this light, Jenkins in his lessons recommended that we read The Elements of Style by Williams Stunks Jr. and E.B. White.
According to him, ‘’every writing teacher I know recommends this short paperback, and it should be at the top of your list if you want to improve as a writer.
I’ve read it at least once a year for more than 40 years. Its simple truths cover everything you need to know about style and grammar.
18. Give your readers credit.
I love to rephrase this as – give your readers the benefit of the doubt; they know the situation, they can tell the environment so don’t slap things on their face.
Here’s a solid example of Jenkins that comes with his explanation….
“They walked through the open door and sat down across from each other in chairs.”
If they walked in and sat, we can assume the door was open, the direction was down, and—unless told otherwise—there were chairs.
So you can write: “They walked in and sat across from each other.”
19. Use powerful verbs.
What are powerful verbs? These are verbs that are more descriptive and impactful; burst, cackle, crave, marvel and surge are a few examples of powerful verbs. And this explained why Jenkins asked this, ‘’Ever wonder why an otherwise grammatically correct sentence lies there like a dead fish?
Powerful verbs give energy to your story and make it strong.
Then he makes us see that, our sentences might be full of those adjectives and adverbs our teachers and loved ones so admired in our writing when we were kids. But the sentence doesn’t work.
Sharing that what he learned, from The Elements of Style years ago changed the way he wrote and added verve to his prose: “Focus on nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs.” He advised.
#5. How to become a better writer immediately
20. Resist the urge to explain (RUE).
On this note we see our teacher mentioned two things; ‘’avoid hedging verbs like smiled slightly, almost laughed, frowned a bit, etc. The character either smiles, laughs, frowns, or doesn’t.
‘’Avoid state-of-being verbs: is, am, are, was, etc. Not: There was a man standing on the train platform. Rather: A man stood on the train platform.
21. Don’t shortchange your research.
I’m not surprised that research is part of these lessons, and just as Jenkins said, ‘’Though fiction, by definition, is made up, to succeed it must be believable. Even fantasies must make sense.’’
I do say this; – our stories should be realistic enough, cut out over assumptions, and do the research.
Jenkins went further to say this, ‘’Once the reader has accepted your premise, what follows must be logical. Effective research is key to adding the specificity necessary to make this work.’’
Then he also added that ‘’Accurate details add flavor and authenticity. Get details wrong, and your reader loses confidence—and interest—in your story.
Did he end here? Not at all, he continued by saying that we should ‘’consult Atlases and World Almanacs to confirm geography and cultural norms and find character names that align with the setting, period, and customs. If your Middle Eastern character flashes someone a thumbs up, be sure that means the same in his culture as it does in yours.
Online and hard copy Encyclopedias.
YouTube and online search engines can yield tens of thousands of results.
A Thesaurus, not to find the most exotic word, but to find that normal word on the tip of your tongue.
In-person interviews with experts. People love to talk about their work, and often such conversations lead to more story ideas.
And remember, research detail should be used as seasoning. Don’t make it the main course—that should be your story itself.’’
22. Become a ferocious self-editor.
A writer once said, edit like a nun and edit for your enemies, and here we are; Jenkins is telling us to become a ferocious self-editor. Yes, we know we are not editors, however, Jerry brings this to our notice that ‘’Agents and editors can tell within two pages whether a manuscript is worthy of further consideration.’’
That sounds unfair, and maybe it is. But it’s a reality we writers need to face.
Learn to aggressively self-edit using the tools I’ve given you here.
Never submit writing with which you’re not entirely happy. He warned.
23. Develop a thick skin.
Receiving criticism is part of growth, we can’t grow into better writers if we don’t learn to take criticism positively. And I agree with Jenkins when he said, ‘’Every piece of published writing is a duet between editor and writer, not a solo. Learn to take criticism, especially from professionals who are on your side and want you to succeed.
24. Become a voracious reader.
We become transformed and ready to pursue our career headstrong when we make reading part of us. Jenkins in this regard says that; ‘’our career as a writer can end before it starts unless you make time to read.
Then he advocates that we don’t need to find the time we have to carve it out of our busy schedule.
According to him, this might seem impossible with our busy lives, but how badly do we want to become a published author?
Writers are readers. Good writers are good readers. Great writers are great readers.
25. Don’t let fear of failure stop you.
I see failure as the road to success, I quite agree with Jenkins when he said that we should not let failure stop us.
According to his statement –‘’ Even the most successful writers fear there’s too much competition and they’re not good enough.
They’re right! So don’t try to overcome that fear. Embrace it. It’s valid!
So instead of trying to run away from failing, why don’t we embrace it like the successful writers are doing and let it motivate us to do our best work? And in the end we would become better writers.
Hey fellow writer, these are the 25 lessons I learned from Jerry Jenkins and I hope you’ve learned something from them. I would like to conclude this piece by saying ‘’C’est un forgeant qu’on deviant forgeron.’’ It’s by forging that one becomes a blacksmith. I implore you to keep practicing and one day you’ll see yourself listed as one of the successful writers. Above all I wish you all the best.
