how to make creative writing more engaging

13 Ways to Make Your Writing More Interesting to Read

Image shows hands being raised to ask questions.

There are numerous characteristics of a good essay: original thinking, a tight structure, balanced arguments, and many more .

But one aspect often overlooked is that a good essay should be interesting . It should spark the curiosity of the reader, keep them absorbed, make them want to keep reading and learn more. A boring essay risks losing the reader’s attention; even if the points you make are excellent, a dull writing style or poor handling of a dry subject matter can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The problem is that many students think that essays should be like this: they think that a dull, dry style is suited to the purposes of academic writing, and don’t consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to find the essay interesting. Academic writing doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – boring. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to make your writing more interesting, even though you can only do so much while remaining within the formal confines of academic writing. Let’s look at what they are.

1. Be interested in what you’re writing about

Image shows a woman looking very enthusiastic on a carousel.

If there’s one thing guaranteed to inject interest into your writing, it’s actually being interested in what you’re writing about. Passion for a subject comes across naturally in your writing, typically making it more lively and engaging, and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words – in the same way that it’s easy to chat knowledgeably to someone about something you find interesting. This makes it relatively easy to write interestingly about a subject you have a real passion for. However, problems arise when you’re forced to write an essay about subjects for which you lack enthusiasm. It’s difficult to conjure up passion for your least favourite subjects, and that will come across in your writing. There are steps you can take, though: here are some tips on writing about a subject you don’t enjoy.

Adjust your mindset : convince yourself that there are no boring subjects. If the subject or essay comes across as boring, blame yourself; if you find yourself feeling negatively about it, try to find the interest in it. Think about how it relates to the real world and how important the subject is. Find interesting snippets of information about it and look at it from a new angle.
Think about your reader : consider the fact that not everyone will find the subject as boring as you do. As you write, keep the reader in mind and imagine them to be the world’s biggest fan of this subject.
Find the fans : if you find it impossible to get into the mindset of your audience, try Googling the subject to find forums, videos or blog posts in which the subject is discussed by people who do find it interesting. This will help you picture whom you’re writing for, and give you a different perspective on a subject you may not have found inspiring up to now.

2. Include fascinating details

Another factor that can make an essay boring is a dry subject matter. Some subjects or topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to make the essay more interesting through your written style (more on this later) and by trying to find fascinating snippets of information to include that will liven it up a bit and make the information easier to relate to. One way of doing this with a dry subject is to try to make what you’re talking about seem relevant to the real world, as this is easier for the reader to relate to. In a discussion of a seemingly boring piece of legislation, for instance, you could make a comment along the lines of “if it were not for this legislation, none of us would enjoy the freedom to do such and such today”, or “Legislation A ultimately paved the way for Legislation B, which transformed criminal law as we know it.” Make it seem exciting!

3. Emulate the style of writers you find interesting

When you read a lot, you subconsciously start emulating the style of the writers you read. It’s therefore beneficial to read widely, as this exposes you to a range of styles and you can start to take on the characteristics of those you find interesting to read. If you feel engaged with a piece of writing, the writer must be doing something right! As you read, think consciously about what the writer is doing to hold your interest, perhaps underlining or copying out certain phrases, techniques, sentence structures and so on. Then apply their techniques to your own writing.

4. Write in the active voice

Image shows scientists at work in the desert.

It’s the oldest trick in the book, but using the active rather than the passive voice will automatically make your writing more interesting to read. It results in more direct, energetic writing that makes the reader feel more ‘in the moment’. Unfortunately, many students employ the passive voice in the belief that it makes their writing sound more academic or intellectual; in fact, it makes their writing sound boring. Remember, the active voice is when the subject of the sentence “acts”, while the passive voice is when the subject is acted upon. Passive : It was concluded by the scientists that the methods used were… Active : The scientists concluded that the methods used were… The subject in this example is “the scientists” and the “act” they are carrying out is “concluding”. As you can see in this example, the active voice almost always results in neater and more elegant phrasing, which is more concise and enjoyable to read.

5. Borrow some creative writing techniques

There’s clearly a limit to the amount of actual ‘story-telling’ you can do when you’re writing an essay; after all, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesn’t, at first glance, feel very much like story-telling. However, you can apply some of the principles of story-telling to make your writing more interesting. For example, just as the opening sentence or paragraph of a novel is incredibly important in capturing the attention of the reader early on, so the first paragraph of your essay is essential in making your reader want to continue reading it. Start with an attention-grabbing ‘hook’ to draw them in, such as a controversial statement, a tantalising snippet of information or a rhetorical question (more on these below). Here are some more techniques you can adopt from creative writing to improve your essays .

6. Think about your own opinion

Your essay is bound to be boring if all you do is paraphrase what everyone else says about something. A good essay – in humanities subjects, at least – incorporates the writer’s intelligent responses to what others say, and this critical consideration not only shows that you’re thinking at a high academic level, but it automatically adds more interest and originality to your writing. So, think independently and don’t be afraid to demonstrate that you’re doing as much.

7. Cut the waffle

Rambling on and on is boring, and almost guaranteed to lose the interest of your reader. You’re at risk of waffling if you’re not completely clear about what you want to say, or if you haven’t thought carefully about how you’re going to structure your argument. Doing your research properly and writing an essay plan before you start will help prevent this problem. Editing is an important part of the essay-writing process, so once you’ve done a first draft, edit out the waffle. Read through your essay objectively and take out the bits that aren’t relevant to the argument or that labour the point. As well as editing out chunks of text, it’s important to be economical with words – not using ten where five will suffice, and avoiding clunky phrases. During the editing process, tighten up your phrasing by eliminating unnecessary words and reordering any sentences that read badly.

8. Using a thesaurus isn’t always a good thing

Image shows a thesaurus against a yellow background.

You may think that using a thesaurus to find more complicated words will make your writing more interesting, or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the wrong effect. It alienates the reader and makes you sound pompous, with the result that the essay is more laborious to read and the reader may quickly lose interest. Despite this, many undergraduates admit to deliberately over-complicating their language to make it sound more high-brow. If you want to keep your reader interested, keep your language clear and simple.

9. Avoid repetitive phrasing

Avoid using the same sentence structure again and again: it’s a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a range of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities as well as making your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound and complex sentences to avoid your writing becoming predictable.

10. Use some figurative language

As we’ve already seen, it’s easy to end up rambling when you’re explaining difficult concepts, – particularly when you don’t clearly understand it yourself. A way of forcing yourself to think clearly about a concept, as well as explaining it more simply and engagingly, is to make use of figurative language. This means explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. For example, you might use the analogy of water escaping from a hole in a bucket to explain the exponential decay of a radioactive substance, as the rate of depletion of both depends on how much remains, making it exponential. This gives the reader something familiar to visualise, making it easier for them to understand a new concept (obviously this will not be a new concept for the teacher who set your essay, but they will want to see that you can explain concepts clearly and that you have a thorough grasp of it yourself).

11. Avoid clichés

Clichés are overused words or phrases that make your writing predictable, and therefore less interesting. An example would be “at the end of the day”, but there are many such favourites of student essay-writers. Don’t forget that your teacher will have a stack of essays to read in one sitting; if you use the same tired expressions everyone else uses, your essay will blend in with all the others. Make it stand out by shunning the clichés you know your classmates will be using.

12. Employ rhetorical questions

One of the ways in which ancient orators held the attention of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by making use of the rhetorical question. What is a rhetorical question? It’s essentially one you ask without expecting your audience to answer – one that you will answer yourself, like the one we asked in the previous sentence. This can be an effective way of introducing a new line of enquiry, or of raising questions that you’re going to address in more detail. A good place to use a rhetorical question is at the end of a paragraph, to lead into the next one, or at the beginning of a new paragraph to introduce a new area for exploration. The rhetorical question, “But is there any evidence to support X’s claim?” could, for instance, begin a paragraph that discusses evidence for an opinion introduced in the previous paragraph. What’s more, as we’ve already seen, you could use a rhetorical question as your ‘hook’ to lure readers in right at the beginning of your essay.

13. Proofread

Finally, you could write the most interesting essay a teacher has ever read, but you’ll undermine your good work if it’s littered with errors, which distract the reader from the actual content and will probably annoy them. Before you submit your essay, proofread it thoroughly to ensure that the grammar is elegant, the punctuation is perfect and the spelling is flawless. Don’t just use a spelling and grammar checker, as these don’t always pick up on all the errors.

Do you want to take your writing to the next level? Our Creative Writing summer school will teach you how to experiment with a number of different writing techniques, plan, edit and proofread your own work and introduce you to new concepts and ideas.

Image credits: banner ; carousel ; rose ; scientists ; baby ; thesaurus ; hawk ; questions .

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Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

7 Editing Tips That Will Make Your Writing More Engaging

Published May 21, 2020 | Last Updated April 10, 2024 By Nicole Bianchi 2 Comments

A few months ago, I wrote a review of award-winning editor Jack Hart’s book Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction .

(That’s my Amazon affiliate link above — I’ll make a small comission if you buy a copy at no extra cost to you. Thanks!)

Storycraft is one of my favorite books on the craft of writing (I share several of my other favorite books in my article here ). Even though Hart aimed his book at writers of nonfiction, I believe there is much that writers of fiction can glean from its pages too.

In fact, there’s one chapter in particular that’s a goldmine of editing tips for any kind of writing. Recently, I collected my top takeaways from the chapter and arranged them as an editing checklist for myself when I work on blog posts, essays, and short stories.

I’ve found these tips incredibly helpful so, today, I wanted to share seven of them with you!

These powerful editing tips will help you breathe life into your writing, turn plodding sentences and paragraphs into fast-paced narratives, and capture the attention of your readers.

Let’s dive in.

1. Get Moving in Your Introduction

Hart emphasizes the importance of getting moving right out of the block. Make sure your opening paragraphs aren’t dry and filled with exposition. Instead, they should include a sentence or two that catches your reader’s interest and entices them to read more.

Hook your readers with action, curiosity, or intrigue.

The hook might be the very first sentence in your piece — a real attention grabber like the opening line of George Orwell’s 1984 ,

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

In my recent memoir essay “ Expecting the Unexpected in New York City ”, I followed that approach, opening with this sentence,

During the two-and-a-half years that I went to college in New York City, I witnessed a crime only once.

However, you can also bury the hook several paragraphs into your piece as I did in my essay “ The Hidden Treasure Beneath My Library ”, and as Joan Didion did in her essay “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream” when she writes, after three paragraphs,

Imagine Banyan Street first, because Banyan is where it happened.

Even if the hook appears several paragraphs into your story or essay, make sure those preceding paragraphs are fast moving. They might even hint that a twist or something else unexpected is coming.

And that leads into tip #2.

2. Push Scenes Forward with Continuous Motion

Scenes should not be stagnant. At the end of a scene, the action should move forward. The characters shouldn’t be glued to their chairs and talking to each other like robots. That will bore our readers to tears!

If you have scenes with dialogue, include descriptions of what the characters are doing while they’re talking. Often, this is more effective at revealing what they’re feeling then if you used words like “angrily.”

For example, compare these two sentences:

“I’m not talking about this,” he said angrily.

“I’m not talking about this,” he said and slammed the door behind him.

When you’re editing your piece, look to see if you’ve included motion to push scenes forward. If you’re writing an informative blog post, this might mean including a story to illustrate a point.

3. Use the Language of Action

Are your action scenes as powerful as they could be?

Hart points out that the most powerful action words describe causality.

For example, let’s say you’re describing a woman driving a car. She tries to swerve out of the way of something in the road. You could write, “The car jerked to the left.”

But Hart suggests that it would be more gripping to write, “She jerked the wheel to the left”. It puts us closer to where the action is happening.

4. Write in the Active Voice

With tip #3 in mind, when you edit your piece, make sure you’ve written your sentences in the active voice and not the passive.

If your high school grammar is a little rusty, you can read a quick review of passive sentences here . Essentially, in a passive sentence, the subject receives the action rather than performing it.

For example, politicians and business executives like to use the passive voice when they want to avoid claiming responsibility for a mistake. They might write, “Mistakes were made.”

It’s a neat little trick because this sentence avoids taking responsibility by failing to tell us who made the mistakes.

Note that you can’t fix a passive sentence by tacking the subject onto the end. “Mistakes were made by all of us” is still passive.

So how to fix it?

Just write, “We all made mistakes.” Now the sentence is active.

5. Eliminate Unnecessary Words

In his book On Writing Well (Amazon affiliate link), William Zinsser notes,

…The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what–these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.

Hart agrees and recommends eliminating the following unnecessary words in order to write strong sentences:

1. Progressive tense and auxiliary verbs. Write “The wind blows” or “The wind blew” instead of “the wind is blowing” or “the wind had blown.”

2. Empty Words. For example, eliminate “There are”, “There is”, “There was”, “It is”, “It was”. I shared more about empty words in my article here .

3. Beginning of an action. For example, don’t say “He began to race around the room.” Just write, “He raced around the room.”

6. Use Time Markers and Straight Chronology

Sometimes when you’re writing a narrative, it’s necessary to skip forward or backward in time. However, if you do, be sure you use clear time markers so your readers don’t get confused.

If your reader has to stop to try to figure out when something is happening, it will definitely slow down the pace of your narrative.

A time marker just means that you write a line explaining when the next scene is going to take place. For example, “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t received that call two days earlier …” or “Fast forward three weeks later.”

Hart points out that sometimes your time markers can be more subtle,

You might simply note the fall colors on the trees when you open a new scene that jumps ahead from summer to autumn. Or you could slip in the height of the sun in the sky when a character walks out of a building.

He also believes straight chronology is the easiest for readers to follow, so evaluate your piece to see if a flashback really is necessary. Sometimes I’ll rearrange paragraphs in my piece because I realize that jumping backward and then forward in time might be confusing to my readers.

7. Speed up, then Slow Down

Speed up during the boring parts. Slow down during the climatic scenes.

How do you speed up? Wherever you have lots of exposition, make sure you’re only communicating what’s absolutely necessary for your readers to know.

I’ll ask myself, “Is this paragraph of description necessary? Is this back-story necessary?”

When you reach a climatic moment in your piece, however, you’ll want to slow down the pace of your writing to keep your readers in suspense. It will give the writing a breathless quality.

Hart quotes Pulitzer-Prize winner Tom French,

The reason you slow down is so that the reader can really feel and process and really enter that scene…And how do you slow down?…You allow more space on the page. You allow more sentences. You literally write in shorter sentences. You get more paragraph breaks. You use space. You find pauses inside the scene that occur naturally that you would normally skip over.

I wrote more about varying sentence structure in my article here .

The Takeaway

These seven editing tips are simple and straightforward. You can start using them right away to make your writing more engaging and fast-paced.

By following these tips, you’ll better hold the attention of your readers and, thus, be more effective at sharing your message with the world.

If you’re looking to strengthen your writing and storytelling skills, I definitely recommend getting a copy of Hart’s book. It’s an in-depth read with lots of fantastic actionable advice.

Make sure to check out the other five tips I shared from his book in my previous review here .

What was your biggest takeaway from Jack Hart’s tips above? Let me know in the comments.

And If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend who you think might find it helpful too. Thanks for reading!

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Ria Sharma says

June 14, 2020 at 4:22 am

Hi Nicole Greetings

I love your blog a lot. Such meaningful and helpful posts .Keep writing and keep posting .

Thnx and cheers

Nicole Bianchi says

June 15, 2020 at 5:38 pm

Thank you so much, Ria! 🙂 I really appreciate that.

How to Make Your Writing More Interesting & Engaging

Once we grab our readers’ attention, a feat of its own, convincing them to continue reading is another challenge many writers face. This problem concerns not only novelists and marketers but also researchers like you.

You devote countless hours conducting your investigation and are eager to share your findings with the world, but you’re not alone in this endeavor. Thousands of other academics want the same goal, making it difficult for editors to sort through the overwhelming number of submissions they receive.

How, then, can you improve your chance to publish your academic papers successfully? Write better. Not only does the substantive information need to be interesting, but also your writing style should enhance readability and engagement. A monotonous and dull paper means no audience, which translates to editors rejecting your paper, even if your research findings are solidly grounded.

To help you spruce up your paper, we provide the following quick list of ways to improve your writing style.

1. Shorten Those 19th Century-Length Sentences

Academics write long-winded sentences. Add scientific terminology to the mix, and you’ve created an incredibly hard-to-read journal manuscript. To help readers digest your paper’s content, shorten your sentences. Not all conditions, modifiers, and exceptions need to be included in one sentence. Below are a few ways to achieve concise, higher-impact sentences. With these tips, you’ll reduce the chance of losing readers who feel lost in your entangling prose.

Break apart longer sentences, particularly those longer than 20 words.
Use logical transitional phrases to link ideas together instead of relying solely on conjunctions.
If you have a series of long clauses, break them up by inserting brief ones.
Save your most powerful content for concise phrases. Short sentences stand out, and the key message you want to convey won’t drown in a sea of words.

2. Avoid Repetitive Phrasing

Here’s a scenario we often encounter:

“You used the same word four times in a paragraph, particularly in consecutive sentences. You might want to diversify the vocabulary,” an editor suggests.

The author retorts, “But they’re technical terms. I have to use them to be accurate.”

Don’t you tire of reading the same words over and over? Your audience feels the same way. Constantly seeing similar patterns is dull, and even our brain disapproves of such writing. When we become accustomed to repetitive things like words on a page, our eyes gloss over them and we lose focus. Keep your readers engaged by switching up your prose. The following are a few ways to help you diversify your vocabulary.

Use synonyms when possible, but be careful that the substitution fits the context.
Don’t forget that pronouns and other demonstratives are your friends. Make sure that pronoun references are clear, however.
Organize your paragraphs so that similar ideas and topics are together. This method will help you establish more precise references for pronouns and demonstratives.
Repetition can be useful for emphasizing a certain point. Use it sparingly or the repeated phrases may lose their impact.

3. Diversify Sentence Structures Within a Paragraph

Like expanding word choice , varying grammatical compositions can help engage readers. For example, consistent use of “subject + verb+object” in consecutive sentences is tedious to read and is akin to child-like writing patterns. Our brains will gloss over the monotonous text. What can you do to correct this problem? Here are a couple of pointers.

Mix compound and complex sentences and insert simple sentences to give readers’ eyes periodic breaks.
All your sentences shouldn’t be the same length, regardless of their grammatical construction.

4. Vary Consecutive Paragraph Structures and Lengths

You can apply the advice from all three points above to paragraphs and sections.

Make sure consecutive blocks of text don’t begin with the same phrases/words.
All your paragraphs don’t need to be the same length.
Switch around structures. Use bullets and numbered lists where appropriate.
Keep your paragraphs short. No one wants to read a wall of text!

We hope this checklist of bulleted revision tips has given you some new tools for strengthening your writing skills and producing clearer drafts. As always, if you would like additional tips and advice on how to improve your drafting techniques, feel free to browse our articles on our Resources page.

And don’t forget to receive professional proofreading and editing services , including manuscript editing and other academic editing services , for your next research paper or academic document before submitting it to journals.

Additionally, if you are a business professional or independent writer, consider using one of the following services to enhance your writing and wow your audience.

Business Editing Services ( Document Editing , Report Editing , Blog Editing )

Editing services for writers ( script editing , book editing ).

24 Essential Writing Tips to Create Compelling Content

Updated: 04/30/24
Comments: 0

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In the vast sea of digital content, creating a piece that stands out, resonates with readers, and leaves a lasting impression is not an easy task.

It requires a deep understanding of your audience, a unique voice, and a deft handling of the written word.

Writing is not just an art; it is also a craft that can be honed with practice, persistence, and the right guidance.

This article is designed to be your beacon in this journey, providing you with essential writing tips to elevate your writing and create compelling content that demands attention.

Whether you are a seasoned writer looking to refine your skills or a novice hoping to make your mark, these writing tips are designed to guide you, inspire you, and ultimately help you to create content that not only engages readers but also compels them to act!

1. Understand Your Audience

Before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, take the time to truly understand your audience.

Who are they?
What motivates them?
What interests them?

When you know who you’re writing for, you can tailor your message specifically for them.

This understanding goes beyond the basic demographic information such as age, gender, and occupation.

It delves deeper into their interests, their challenges, their values, and their aspirations. This helps you to frame your ideas and information in a way that speaks directly to them, making your content more engaging and relatable.

For example, if your audience is made up of experts in a specific field, you would use industry jargon and provide in-depth analysis.

On the other hand, if your audience is non-technical, you would need to simplify complex ideas and make them more digestible.

Understanding your audience also helps shape your writing tone, style, and approach—all vital elements that impact how your message is received.

In essence, understanding your audience allows you to create content that is not just read, but felt and acted upon.

It’s not just a writing tip, but an essential strategy for effective communication.

2. Find Your Unique Voice

girl showing her unique character and voice

Your writing should be a reflection of your unique voice and personality. Don’t try to mimic other writers or conform to a particular writing style.

Your writing voice is a combination of your personality, your values, and your choice of words.

It’s how you express your thoughts and ideas, the rhythm and pace of your writing, and the emotions you evoke in your readers.

Embrace your quirks, your humor, and your experiences – they are what make you stand out from the rest.

Your voice is what makes your content relatable and authentic, so let it shine through in all its vibrant colors.

Developing your writing voice is a gradual process; it’s crafted and honed with each piece you write.

The more genuine and consistent your voice is, the more your readers will connect with your content and trust your message.

In a nutshell, finding your unique voice isn’t just about learning how to write—it’s about discovering how to communicate your ideas in a way that’s compelling, engaging, and authentically your own.

One of the best writing tips you can learn is to trust in your own voice and let it guide you!

3. Use Engaging Headlines

An often overlooked writing tip yet a critical element in compelling writing is the humble headline.

Your headline is the first impression you make on a potential reader. It’s what entices them to click and read more, so it has to be attention-grabbing.

A good headline is clear, concise, and creative. It should pique curiosity or tap into an emotion that resonates with your audience.

Use powerful words that are action-oriented and don’t shy away from making bold claims that are backed up by your content.

Avoid using clickbait headlines that promise something they can’t deliver. They might earn more clicks in the short run, but they damage your credibility in the long run.

Authenticity is key and writing a good headline must reflect the content that follows.

Additional Writing Tips for Headlines:

Use an AI tool like Jasper to come up with headline ideas for you.
Run your headline through a headline analyzer tool to check for improvements.

4. Use Powerful Imagery

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in writing, that principle holds true.

Using imagery is one of the more powerful writing tips that can drastically improve the depth and emotional resonance of your content.

Imagery can evoke emotions and paint vivid images in your reader’s mind. It engages their senses and pulls them deeper into your story.

As writers, we often focus on using the right words to convey our message, but don’t underestimate the impact of visual storytelling.

Use descriptive words and phrases to create a mental picture, and consider incorporating images, gifs, or videos to enhance your content.

Think about how you can make use of metaphors, similes, and descriptive language to paint a picture in your reader’s mind.

For example, instead of simply saying “It was a hot day,” you could say “The sun blazed down like a relentless, unyielding furnace, its searing rays wilting the leaves on the trees.”

Which of these sentences makes you feel the heat more intensely? The answer is evident.

Powerful imagery breathes life into your words, propelling your writing from mundane to magnetic.

Check out these imagery examples to understand more about how this writing tip can enrich your writing.

5. Cure Writer’s Block With AI

Writer’s block can be a formidable obstacle, but Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the best writing tricks you can use to overcome it.

Leveraging AI can stimulate your creativity, make the writing process smoother, and alleviate the stress often associated with the blank page syndrome.

AI-powered writing tools like Jasper can suggest topics, generate outlines, or even draft content based on your input.

AI technology can also analyze existing content, identify trends, and provide recommendations to enhance your writing.

For instance, AI can suggest more engaging headlines or recommend vocabulary to make your content more compelling.

AI can also create a distraction-free writing environment, helping you to maintain focus and productivity.

It can automatically correct grammar and spelling errors, enabling you to focus on the flow of your ideas without getting bogged down by minute details.

AI is not about replacing the writer but rather augmenting their abilities.

Related: 16 Best AI Writing Tools to Help You Get Started

6. Start Your Own Blog

One of the best writing tips that we can provide is simply to practice, and there’s no better platform for that than starting your own blog.

Blogging allows you to experiment with different writing styles, topics, and formats. It’s a safe space to take risks, learn from mistakes, and grow as a writer.

Moreover, having an online presence through blogging can open up numerous opportunities for you in the writing world.

It can help you build a portfolio, attract clients , establish yourself as an expert in your niche, and even generate income.

Blogging is also a great way to connect with other writers and be part of a supportive community.

You can learn from others, collaborate on projects, and receive valuable feedback to improve your writing further.

If you’re unsure where to start, check out this step-by-step guide on how to start your own blog in less than an hour.

Related: How to Write a Blog Post Your Readers Will Love in 5 Steps

7. Use Active Voice

Another one of the better tips for writing that often goes unnoticed is the use of active voice.

Active voice makes your writing more direct, engaging, and easy to understand. It places the emphasis on the subject performing the action, making the sentence clear and precise.

In contrast, passive voice can make your sentences sound clunky and vague as it emphasizes the object receiving the action instead of the subject.

Readers can easily lose interest in your content if they have to decipher convoluted sentences.

Active voice is also more powerful, as it gives a sense of movement and action to your writing.

For example, compare “The apple was eaten by the boy” (passive) with “The boy ate the apple” (active).

The second sentence is more direct and engaging, isn’t it?

Active voice also allows for a greater variety of verb usage and adds energy and momentum to your writing.

8. Write With Clarity

Some writing advice that may seem obvious but that is often overlooked is that clarity is key when it comes to writing.

Your readers should understand your message without having to reread or decipher complex sentences.

To achieve clarity, keep your language simple, concise, and specific. Use short sentences and break up long paragraphs into smaller ones.

Avoid using jargon or complicated terminology that may confuse your audience.

Instead, use language that resonates with your target audience and conveys your message clearly.

Using transition words and phrases can help create a logical flow and enhance the overall clarity of your writing.

Some commonly used transition words and phrases are “however,” “furthermore,” “in contrast,” and “therefore.”

These words act as road signs, guiding your readers through your content and ensuring they understand the connections between different ideas.

9. Get Feedback and Learn From It

Constructive criticism is an integral part of improving your writing ability.

It provides a fresh perspective, revealing potential blind spots and areas for improvement that you might have overlooked.

As writers, we are often too close to our work to analyze it objectively. Also, because we know what our work is supposed to say, it’s easier for us to miss problems that may exist.

Constructive criticism can expose issues ranging from structural problems to minor grammar errors, enabling you to refine your work and elevate your writing prowess.

Feedback can also provide you with new ideas and points of view.

Having another person read your work can open your eyes to different interpretations and understandings that you may not have considered.

This diversity of thought helps to make your writing more nuanced and well-rounded.

Just make sure to take any criticism with an open mind and use it as an opportunity to learn and grow as a writer.

Over time, this feedback process can cultivate resilience and adaptability —vital traits for any writer.

10. Don’t Be Afraid to Take Breaks

Some of the best writing tips include not writing at all…

Writing is a mentally and emotionally taxing activity, and it’s essential to take breaks to avoid burnout.

Don’t be afraid to step away from your writing when you feel stuck or overwhelmed.

Physical exercise, meditation, listening to music, or even taking a short walk can help clear your mind and reinvigorate your creativity.

Taking breaks also allows you to come back to your writing with a fresh perspective, leading to more productive and efficient writing sessions.

Remember, breaks are not a sign of laziness or lack of dedication but rather an essential part of the writing process.

11. Write Something Every Day

In the journey of writing improvement, writing daily is a simple strategy that can have profound effects.

Consistency is the backbone of mastery in any discipline, and the art of writing is no exception.

Writing something every day is a powerful method of refining your writing skills and unleashing creativity.

Daily writing fosters regularity that can be transformative. It allows you to practice your craft, experiment with styles and tone, and explore new ideas.

Each writing session is an opportunity to learn, and the more you write, the more you’ll be able to identify patterns, pitfalls, and personal st rengths within your writing.

It also helps in developing a unique voice, an essential characteristic of any successful writer.

Another advantage of daily writing is that it helps overcome the fear of the blank page, a common hurdle for many writers.

It trains your mind to view writing as a routine task rather than a daunting challenge.

Finally, writing daily boosts confidence, as each completed piece, regardless of length or topic, is a testament to your ability to communicate ideas and stories effectively.

12. Start With an Outline

Before you start writing, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of what you want to communicate.

Creating an outline is one of the most effective ways to organize your thoughts and ideas before diving into the actual writing.

An outline provides a structured framework for your piece, allowing you to better articulate your arguments and supporting points.

It also helps in identifying any gaps in your thinking and enables you to conduct further research or brainstorming if needed.

Moreover, an outline can save you time by preventing unnecessary rewrites or rambling tangents.

Overall, taking the time to create a detailed outline will result in more coherent and well-crafted writing.

13. Set Writing Goals

To continuously improve your writing, it’s essential to set realistic and achievable goals for yourself.

These goals could be in terms of word count, frequency of writing, milestones like chapters, or specific skills you want to work on.

Milestones also don’t always have to be mammoth tasks.

Small, achievable targets not only boost your confidence but also keep you motivated in your writing journey.

They act as a catalyst, pushing your boundaries and challenging you to outdo yourself, thereby facilitating constant growth and improvement.

Having a goal gives you direction and motivation to write consistently and with purpose.

It also allows for measurable progress and provides a sense of accomplishment when you reach your targets.

Set both short-term and long-term goals, as this will help you stay on track and see tangible improvement over time.

Remember, goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound to ensure you’re maximizing your results.

14. Read, Read, Read!

One of the best ways writing tips that we can provide is actually to READ more.

Reading exposes you to different styles, structures, and techniques used by other writers, allowing you to incorporate new elements into your own work.

It also helps expand your vocabulary and improve sentence structure and grammar.

Additionally, reading different genres and topics can spark inspiration for your writing and help you develop a unique perspective on a subject.

Reading critically also allows you to analyze the writing techniques used by others, helping you identify effective strategies that you can incorporate into your own writing.

Make time to read every day, whether it’s a novel, news article, or even a short blog post.

15. Schedule Time to Write

Another great writing tip is simply to make sure you’re making time for it.

Just as you would schedule time for a meeting or a workout, it’s essential to dedicate specific time slots for writing.

This not only helps in fostering consistency but also allows you to manage your time effectively.

Think of it as an appointment with your creative self, a time when you can let your thoughts flow freely onto the paper or screen.

Allocating specific hours for writing each day ensures that you don’t neglect your craft amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life.

It reinforces the habit of writing, making it a regular part of your routine.

Plus, knowing that you have dedicated time to write can help alleviate the stress of trying to squeeze in writing sessions between other tasks.

Most importantly, scheduling time to write allows you to plan your day around your most productive hours.

Are you a morning person? Schedule your writing for the early hours.
More of a night owl? Set aside time in the evening.

Remember, there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach here. What matters is creating a schedule that suits your lifestyle and sticking to it.

16. Be Consistent With Tone and Voice

It might sound like an obvious writing tip, but it’s essential to maintain a consistent tone and voice throughout your piece.

The tone refers to the overall mood or attitude conveyed through your writing, while the voice is the unique style in which you present your ideas.

Maintaining consistency in these elements helps create a cohesive piece that resonates with readers.

It also adds depth and personality to your writing, making it more engaging and relatable.

To stay consistent, keep your target audience in mind and aim to speak directly to them through your tone and voice.

Moreover, remember to be authentic and genuine in your writing. Don’t try to imitate someone else’s style or use a tone that doesn’t feel natural to you.

Be yourself, and let your unique voice shine through in your writing.

Explore tone examples to learn more about how to use the right tone in your writing.

17. Eliminate Distractions

woman working in a distraction free environment

Undoubtedly, this is one of those writing tips that you’ve heard before, but it always bears repeating.

Writing requires concentration and focus, which can easily be disrupted by distractions.

Constant disruption will disrupt your writing flow and can disrupt the quality of your work.

If you can, try to anticipate potential interruptions and distractions and do your best to eliminate them before they happen.

One of the best ways to do this is to create a conducive environment for yourself.

This could mean finding a quiet space, turning off your phone or notifications, or even setting specific hours when you won’t be disturbed.

It also helps to have all necessary materials at hand before you begin writing, such as research notes or outlines.

By eliminating distractions, you can give your undivided attention to the task at hand and produce well-crafted writing.

18. Research Fascinating Topics

Here’s one of the writing tips that you may not have expected.

Sometimes, even with a clear goal and direction in mind, it can be challenging to find inspiration for your writing.

Researching interesting and fascinating topics can help you not only get ideas for what you’re writing, but it can also help you take a deeper dive.

Embellishing your writing with facts can give you more credibility and keep your audience even more engaged.

Researching topics outside of your comfort zone can also expand your knowledge and help you develop new perspectives.

The key is to find a unique angle or perspective on a topic that excites you and incorporate it into your writing.

You could also look into current events, trends, or even personal experiences for inspiration.

Remember not to just copy and paste information from other sources – instead, use the research to inspire your own original ideas and writing style.

19. Keep a Journal

Journaling is another one of the better-known writing tips that is often understated.

Keeping a journal is an excellent way to practice writing regularly and explore your thoughts in a safe space.

Use your journal as a place to jot down ideas, free-write, or even experiment with different writing styles.

It’s your private space to let your imagination run wild.

Put your ideas to paper and test them out. See how they look and sound before you commit to them.

It can also serve as a record of your progress and development as a writer.

You can use prompts or exercises found online or create your own to challenge yourself and hone your writing skills.

Keeping a journal also provides an outlet for self-reflection and can help you gain insights into your writing habits.

20. Review and Edit Your Work

Next up on our list of writing tips is to review and edit your work.

We already went over having someone else proofread your work and provide constructive criticism, which is important.

But it’s also important to look over your own work yourself too.

Start by taking a break after completing your draft, then come back to it with fresh eyes.

Look over it once to catch any spelling or grammar errors and ensure that your writing flows smoothly.

You can also run it through a grammar checker tool to catch the easiest grammar and spelling mistakes.

We use Grammarly on our browser to correct simple mistakes while writing.

Grammarly screenshot of grammar corrections

Then, read through your work more carefully, paying attention to sentence structure, word choice, and overall coherence.

Editing is an essential step in the writing process, so don’t rush through it.

Take your time to craft your words carefully and make sure that every sentence serves a purpose in conveying your message effectively.

21. Read Your Writing Out Loud

One of the less common writing tips on this list is to read your work out loud.

It may seem (and feel) weird to read out loud, but it can actually help you catch any awkward phrasing or repetitive sentences that may have slipped through during editing.

It also allows you to hear the flow and rhythm of your writing, making it easier to identify areas that may need improvement.

It’s also yet another chance to spot any errors in punctuation or grammar that you may have missed while reading silently.

So, before submitting your work, take a few minutes to read it aloud to yourself.

You’ll be surprised at how much better your writing will sound after making a few tweaks.

22. Take a Writer’s Course

Another great writing tip is to consider taking a writer’s course to improve your practice writing better.

There are plenty of online writing courses available for all levels of writers and various types of content.

Taking a course can help you brush up on the basics if you’re just getting started or dive deeper into more advanced techniques and strategies.

You can also find courses specific to your niche, such as blogging or copywriting .

Not only will you learn valuable tips and techniques, but you’ll also gain access to a community of like-minded writers who can provide support and feedback.

Plus, having a course certificate can boost your credibility as a writer when seeking clients or applying for writing jobs.

23. Experiment and Have Fun!

Perhaps one of the simplest but also one of the most important writing tips is to experiment and have fun!

Writing doesn’t always have to be serious or rigid. It’s an art, after all, and it can be playful, creative, and enjoyable.

Don’t limit yourself by sticking to a specific format or genre – instead, give yourself room to explore and try new things.

Embrace your unique voice and style, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes or go against the norm.

Sometimes, the most unexpected ideas can produce the best results.

The more you experiment and have fun with your writing, the more comfortable and confident you’ll become in expressing yourself through words.

So, give yourself permission to let loose and have fun – it’s all part of the writing process!

24. Explore Literary Devices

For your final writing tip, let’s talk about literary devices – the tools that writers use to add depth and meaning to their work.

As a writer, it’s important to have a good understanding of literary devices and how to use them effectively in your writing.

Literary devices are techniques or tools used by writers to create vivid imagery, evoke emotions, and make your writing more memorable for your readers.

Some common literary devices include metaphors, similes , alliteration , personification , hyperbole , and symbolism .

Some of the lesson common literary devices include:

Anaphora : the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.
Onomatopoeia : words that imitate sounds in real life.
Foreshadowing : hints or clues about what will happen later in the story.
Irony : a contrast between what is said and what is meant or what is expected to happen versus what actually happens.
Synecdoche : using a part to represent the whole.
Chiasmus : a reversal in the order of words or phrases to create a certain effect.

Experiment with incorporating these into your writing to add depth and make your writing more engaging.

Remember not to overuse literary devices – use them sparingly and purposefully for maximum impact.

FAQs About Writing Tips

The five key tips for effective writing are:

Understand Your Audience : Tailor your message to the needs and interests of your reader.
Be Clear and Concise : Avoid unnecessary jargon and verbosity. Use simple, direct language whenever possible.
Use Active Voice : Active voice makes your writing more engaging and straightforward.
Edit and Proofread : Always review your work for any grammatical errors, typos, or inconsistencies.
Use Visuals : Images, infographics, and diagrams can enhance understanding and engagement. This answer applies to all types of writing, from emails and reports to novels and blogs.

To improve your writing skills, consider the following tips:

Read regularly : The more you read, the more exposure you get to various writing styles and genres.
Write frequently : Practice makes perfect. Try to write every day, even if it’s just a few paragraphs.
Revise and edit : Review your work for structure, flow, grammar, and spelling errors.
Expand your vocabulary : Learning new words can help you express your thoughts more effectively.
Get feedback : Share your work with others and be open to their suggestions.
Attend writing workshops : This can provide professional guidance to improve your skills.
Study grammar rules : A solid understanding of grammar can enhance your writing quality significantly.

To write better, focus on developing your skills through regular practice, reading extensively to expose yourself to various writing styles, and seeking constructive feedback. Additionally, understanding your audience, using clear and concise language, opting for an active voice, and including visuals can enhance your writing effectiveness. Further improvement can be obtained by attending writing workshops or courses, and by continually editing and proofreading your work to eliminate errors and enhance clarity.

The top 5 writing skills are:

Grammar and Punctuation: An understanding of grammar and punctuation rules ensures your writing is clear and professional.
Clarity and Conciseness: The ability to express ideas in a straightforward and succinct manner makes your writing easy to understand.
Research and Organization: Skilled writers can research topics effectively and organize their findings into a coherent piece.
Editing and Proofreading: This skill allows you to refine your writing by detecting and correcting errors.
Creativity and Adaptability: Good writers are creative, able to generate unique ideas, and adapt their writing style to different audiences and formats.

Writing is an art that requires continuous learning and practice.

It’s your unique voice, your way of interpreting the world and sharing your thoughts.

If you want to be a better writer, there are a variety of ways that you can beat writer’s block and improve your skills.

We hope that these common writing tips will help you start writing with a new outlook and fresh perspective.

Remember the importance of understanding your audience, using clear and concise language, adopting an active voice, and incorporating visuals for increased engagement.

Enhance your skills through regular practice, read extensively, and do not shy away from seeking feedback!

Experiment with various writing styles and literary devices to add depth and interest to your work.

Ultimately, writing should be an enjoyable process, so have fun with it, and stay true to your voice.

Never stop learning, exploring, and pushing boundaries with your writing.

Keep writing, keep experimenting, and most importantly, keep having fun.

Your writing journey is just getting started!

Inspiration and resources for aspiring writers.

Writing Advice

5 Ways to Make Your Writing More Engaging

by Sara Seitz · March 1, 2021

The idea of storytelling seems easy enough on the surface.

You explain events as they happened (or as you picture them happening) in a way that makes sense to your audience.

We engage in this kind of storytelling every single day. We tell our spouses about the drama at work by rehashing the action as it happened. We recite scenes from our favorite movies by describing each detail in order. We muse with our friends by walking through the events of our pasts.

We tell stories just as we would share our favorite recipes or writing exercises: by giving the play-by-play.

While this tactic works well for describing an experience, it is not the best approach for writing a novel.

If you want to elevate your prose beyond basic play-by-play storytelling, you need to provide your reader with more than just an explanation of what happened. You need to immerse them in the action and the emotion of your story.

In this article, we’ll show you five simple ways to make your writing more immersive. It won’t happen overnight. But with practice, these tips will help you transform boring play-by-play into engaging prose that will grab your reader and never let go.

How to Elevate Writing Beyond Simple Play-by-Play

When it comes to reciting a story about your day or sharing your favorite brownie recipe, play-by-play storytelling is exactly what you need. It is simple to follow and tells your audience everything they need to know.

But writing an entire novel using play-by-play tactics is boring. It doesn’t matter how much action or drama your plot contains, no one wants to read three hundred pages of “this happened, then this, then he did this.”

This type of writing fails to engage the reader. You can’t expect someone to be sucked into your world when all you’re doing is explaining what is happening.

Instead, you need to paint them a picture of what is happening. You need to make them feel the action and the sorrow and the joy. You need to put your reader inside your character’s mind and at the center of the scene.

Before we get into how, exactly, to accomplish this, let’s first take a look at an example of the typical play-by-play style writing used by many aspiring writers:

Alda grabbed her hat and put it on before stepping outside. She raced to the car as her mother yelled at her from the window. Ignoring the threats, she jumped into the driver’s seat and tore off in the direction of Justin’s house. Tears rolled down her cheeks as the old jeep rumbled down the empty street.

Clearly, something very emotional is happening to Alda. We get that from the description of the scene, but we don’t necessarily feel it. If this kind of “removed” writing went on, most readers would lose interest after only a few pages.

Now let’s look at a some ways to pump up this prose to make it more engaging.

1. Add Detail

Adding detail is one of the most straightforward ways to engage you reader.

In basic play-by-play writing, you are telling the reader what is happening. But you aren’t telling them much more about the world. This makes it hard for your audience to connect with the action.

Describing the scenery, objects, and your character’s actions in more detail can help pull your reader into the story.

Alda grabbed her stained baseball cap and slid it onto her head as she crashed through the front door. Her mother’s screams echoed from the open bedroom window, her voice cracking on every vowel. Alda ignored the cutting threats and slid onto the sun-warmed driver’s seat of the old jeep. She jammed the key into the ignition and spun out of the driveway. Tears poured from her eyes, blurring her vision as she drove down the deserted street.

When coming up with descriptive text, consider all five senses . Don’t just talk about what your character sees and hears; describe what they might be tasting, smelling, and feeling.

Keep in mind the mood of the scene as you choose your descriptors as well.

Describing a flower as “buoyant” or “jovial” in the middle of a funeral scene doesn’t give your audience an impression of the loss and sorrow your characters are feeling. It may help to make a list of mood-appropriate adjectives for each scene before you write it.

2. Use Varied Sentence Structure

Sucking your reader into the world you’ve created isn’t the only way to keep them engaged. Often, you can retain your audience’s interest in the text simply by breaking up the rhythm of it.

Play-by-play writing inherently takes on a repetitive and balanced rhythm. Each sentence tends to be of a similar length–kind of like a lullaby.

So if you don’t want to put your reader to sleep, you need to vary your sentence structure.

Use short sentences and fragments to increase your pacing and depict fast-moving action. Use longer sentences to slow the pacing down. Use both to break up the monotony of boring play-by-play writing.

Alda grabbed her hat and put it on as she crashed through the front door and raced to the car. Her mother’s voice echoed from an open window. Harsh threats. Alda ignored them with ease and slid behind the wheel of the old jeep. The engine rumbled to life. The tires squealed. She’d make it to Justin’s in no time. Assuming she could find her way through the veil of tears that blurred her vision.

Lean on short sentences and fragments during high-intensity scenes and those that contain a lot of action. But be sure to slow things down with longer prose as the action ceases and during scenes when your character is feeling bored, sad, or content.

3. Bypass Unnecessary Steps

One thing that makes play-by-play writing boring even with details and varied sentence structure is the inclusion of unnecessary steps.

Your reader knows what’s necessary to start a car and back out of a driveway. Unless you are writing an instruction manual for driver’s ed, you don’t need to include these steps in your scene.

If a scene sounds awkward because you’ve skipped over a time-consuming step, try changing your focus to fill that gap.

Instead of describing how Alda pulls the keys out of her pocket and starts the car, move your focus in and show the reader how her hands are shaking as she turns the key and grips the wheel.

Don’t tell the reader that the jeep backs out of the driveway and onto the street. Instead, move the focus out and describe how her mother’s screams and the roaring engine echo off the houses of the quaint suburban neighborhood as she drives away.

4. Filter the Text Through Your Character

One thing almost all play-by-play writing lacks is a strong voice.

Voice is the combination of tone, point of view, vocabulary, and context that makes each book sound different from the next.

Voice has just as much to do with you and your writing style as it does your characters.

All books should use a coherent voice throughout (that’s the part that comes from you). But voice should also be influenced by the characters themselves. Meaning, the voice of your book should shift as your character’s mood shifts and as you jump from one character to the next.

You wouldn’t expect a spoiled brat from the city to see the world the same way as a weather-worn cowboy from the plains.

These different perspectives should be apparent in the way you write scenes from each character’s point of view. This is true whether you are using first or third person.

Play-by-play writing will always contain some traces of your voice. But it lacks the stronger voice of your character. By filtering your voice through your character you will add another dimension to your writing. And, more importantly, engage your reader in your character’s plight.

Alda pulled the old ballcap on as she crashed through the front door. She ignored her mother’s weak insults and weaker threats and headed for the mudder at the end of the driveway. The scalding leather never felt so good on the backs of her thighs. The rumbling engine felt better. She drove the pedal into the floorboard and reveled in the squeal of the tires as the old jeep lurched onto the road. She had made it halfway to Justin’s before she realized she was crying like a little baby.

5. Include Internal Action

Adding your character’s voice to a scene simply means using vocabulary, syntax, and tone that makes sense given their age and world perspective. But you can go beyond this to help your reader identify and engage with your character.

You do this by adding internal action to each scene.

If you are writing from first-person point of view, this is easy and hard not to do. Your character is telling the story, so of course, they are going to add their thoughts and feelings to the narrative.

But this can also be done from third-person perspective.

By breaking up your play-by-play with insight into how your character is feeling and what is running through their mind, you help break the monotony. It also gives you a tool to explain steps without sounding like an instructional guide.

Consider not just what your character would do in reaction to some event, but how they would feel as they do it. Now use description and variable sentence structure to insert these thoughts and feelings into the text.

Alda ripped her old ballcap from the hanger next to the door and charged into the blinding afternoon light. Mom was screaming from the bedroom. She didn’t care. The old hag could spew as many threats as she wanted. Alda was done. Done for good this time. She hopped behind the wheel of the old jeep and shoved the keys into the ignition. The sunbaked leather bit into the backs of her thighs. Just more pain to add to the heaps already swelling in her chest. She set off in the direction of Justin’s, the squealing tires and rumbling engine bringing a smile to her lips despite the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Elevate Your Writing

If you frequently find yourself writing in play-by-play style, don’t expect to be able to overhaul your prose overnight.

It takes practice and patience to learn how to describe a scene you can see in your head in a literary way, rather than a logical way. This is especially true when you are penning your first draft of a story.

But once you get the bones of the scenes on paper, it is much easier to pick back through your work to add and takeaway text to make your story more interesting.

Adding detail, varying sentence structure, skipping unnecessary steps, and filtering your prose through your character while including their internal thoughts and feelings will all help your reader engage more with your story.

Have questions or other pointers to share? Drop a comment in the box below.

Tags: Description Immersive writing Show dont tell Voice

Sara Seitz is a freelance writer by day and novelist by night. In the fiction realm, she enjoys writing engaging, character-driven stories that highlight the plight of the underdog and leave the reader guessing until the very last page. Interested in hiring Sara? Visit her freelance site at penandpostwriter.com

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Thanks, Sara, for the great tips.

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Creative Writing Techniques: 39 Tips for Crafting Compelling Stories (Fully Explained)

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: June 20, 2023 - Last updated: July 10, 2023

Categories Writing

Creative writing is a form of self-expression that allows you to communicate your thoughts, emotions, and ideas uniquely and engagingly. Whether you’re writing a novel, a short story, a poem, or a screenplay, there are many techniques you can use to make your writing more exciting and impactful. These techniques can help you create vivid imagery, develop compelling characters, and convey complex ideas clearly and concisely.

One of the most popular creative writing techniques is the use of metaphors, which compare a characteristic of something unknown to something known. This technique adds fun and personality to your writing and can help you create vivid and memorable descriptions. Another technique is using similes, which make comparisons using “like” or “as.” Similes can be used to create visual images that help readers understand complex ideas or emotions.

Creative writing is a powerful tool that can help you connect with others, explore your thoughts and feelings, and share your unique perspective. By mastering these techniques and experimenting with different styles and forms of writing, you can unlock your full creative potential and create works of art that inspire and entertain others.

Key Takeaways

Creative writing is a form of self-expression that allows you to communicate your thoughts, emotions, and ideas uniquely and engagingly.
Metaphors and similes are popular creative writing techniques that can help you create vivid imagery and convey complex ideas clearly and concisely.
By mastering different styles and forms of writing, you can unlock your full creative potential and create works of art that inspire and entertain others.

1. Metaphors: Compare a Characteristic of Something Unknown to Something Known

Metaphors are a powerful tool in creative writing that can add depth and meaning to your work. They are an analogy that compares a characteristic of something unknown to something known. They help readers understand complex ideas by relating them to something familiar.

Metaphors can describe abstract concepts, emotions, and sensory experiences. For example, you might use a metaphor to describe the feeling of falling in love as “a rollercoaster ride.” This comparison helps readers understand the ups and downs of love by relating it to something they are familiar with.

When using metaphors, it’s important to choose accurate and interesting comparisons. Avoid cliches and overused comparisons, as these can make your writing stale and unoriginal. Instead, try to create unique and unexpected comparisons to surprise and delight your readers.

To create effective metaphors, it’s also important to consider the context of your writing. Think about the tone and mood you want to convey and the themes and ideas you want to explore. You can create a more cohesive and impactful piece by choosing appropriate metaphors for your writing.

2. Similes: Make Comparisons Using ‘Like’ or ‘As’

Similes are figurative language that compare two things using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. They are often used in creative writing to make descriptions more vivid and interesting. Here are some examples:

The clouds were like fluffy pillows in the sky.
Her hair was as black as coal.
The water shimmered like diamonds in the sunlight.

As you can see, similes help create a picture in the reader’s mind by comparing something familiar to something unfamiliar. This makes your writing more engaging and memorable.

It’s important to choose appropriate comparisons that make sense when using similes. Avoid using cliches or overused comparisons, as they make your writing seem unoriginal. Instead, develop unique and creative similes that capture the essence of what you’re describing.

Here are some tips for using similes effectively in your writing:

Use similes sparingly. While similes can be effective, overusing them can make your writing seem forced or contrived.
Make sure your similes are accurate. Don’t use a simile that doesn’t make sense or is factually incorrect.
Use similes to create a specific mood or tone. For example, you might use a dark or ominous simile to create foreboding in your writing.
Experiment with different types of similes. You can use similes to compare anything from emotions to objects to natural phenomena.

3. Analogies: Draw Parallels Between Two Seemingly Unrelated Things

One of the most effective creative writing techniques is the use of analogies. Analogies allow you to draw parallels between two seemingly unrelated things, which can help your readers understand complex ideas and emotions more easily.

Analogies can be used in many different ways in creative writing. For example, you can use analogies to describe a character’s personality, explain a difficult concept, or add depth and richness to your descriptions.

To create an analogy, start by identifying two things that seem unrelated but share some common qualities. For example, you might compare a person to a tree, noting that both grow and change over time. Or you might compare a difficult situation to a storm, noting that both can be unpredictable and overwhelming.

Once you have identified your two objects, think about the qualities they share and how you can use those qualities to create a comparison. For example, if you compare a person to a tree, you might write something like: “Like a tree, she stood tall and strong, weathering the storms of life with grace and resilience.”

Analogies can be a powerful tool in creative writing, but it’s important to use them sparingly and effectively. Too many analogies can make your writing feel forced or contrived, so choose your comparisons carefully and use them only when they add something meaningful to your work.

4. Imagery: Use Vivid and Descriptive Language to Create Mental Pictures for Readers

Imagery is a powerful tool writers use to create mental pictures in the minds of their readers. Using vivid and descriptive language can transport your readers to different places, times, and emotions. Here are some tips on how to use imagery effectively in your writing:

Use sensory details: Sensory details are descriptions that appeal to the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. By using sensory details, you can help your readers experience the story in a more immersive way. For example, instead of saying, “The flower looked pretty,” you could say, “The bright red petals of the rose glistened in the sun, emitting a sweet fragrance that filled the air.”
Be specific: The more specific your descriptions, the more vivid the mental picture you create in your readers’ minds. Instead of saying, “The car drove down the street,” you could say, “The sleek, silver sports car zoomed down the winding road, its engine roaring like a lion.”
Use metaphors and similes: Metaphors and similes are comparisons that help readers understand complex ideas by relating them to something familiar. For example, instead of saying, “She was sad,” you could say, “Her heart felt heavy like a stone sinking to the bottom of a lake.”
Use personification: Personification is a literary device that gives human qualities to non-human things. By using personification, you can make your descriptions more engaging and memorable. For example, instead of saying, “The wind blew through the trees,” you could say, “The wind whispered secrets to the leaves, causing them to dance and rustle in the breeze.”

5. Personification: Assign Human Qualities to Non-Human Entities

Personification is a powerful literary device that can add depth and emotion to your writing. It involves assigning human qualities to non-human entities, such as animals, objects, or abstract concepts. Doing this can create a more relatable and engaging story that resonates with your readers.

When using personification, you should carefully choose the right characteristics to assign to your non-human entities. For example, you might describe a tree as “strong and steadfast” to emphasize its resilience or a river as “wild and untamed” to highlight its power and unpredictability. The key is to choose appropriate and meaningful qualities for the story you are trying to tell.

One of the benefits of using personification in your writing is that it can help you create a more vivid and memorable image in your reader’s mind. By giving non-human entities human qualities, you can help your readers understand and connect with them on a deeper level. This can make your story more engaging and enjoyable to read.

However, it’s important to use personification sparingly and appropriately. Overusing this technique can make your writing feel forced or contrived and can distract from the story you are trying to tell. Instead, strategically use personification to enhance your storytelling and create a more powerful emotional impact.

6. Show, Don’t Tell: Describe Actions, Thoughts, and Feelings Rather Than Simply Stating Them

Creative writing is all about immersing your readers in the story and making them feel like they are a part of it. One of the best ways to achieve this is by using the “Show, Don’t Tell” technique. This technique encourages you to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings rather than simply stating them. Doing so can create a more engaging and vivid story that draws readers in and keeps them hooked.

When you “show” rather than “tell,” you allow your readers to experience the story for themselves. Instead of telling them that a character is angry, for example, you can show them by describing how the character clenches their fists, grits their teeth, and scowls. This creates a more vivid image in the reader’s mind, allowing them to empathize with the character and deeply feel their emotions.

To effectively use the “Show, Don’t Tell” technique, it’s important to use descriptive language that appeals to the senses. Use vivid imagery to describe what characters see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. This will help readers feel like they are in the story and allow them to experience it more fully.

Another key aspect of this technique is to use actions to convey emotions. Instead of telling your readers that a character is sad, for example, you can show them by describing how the character slumps their shoulders, avoids eye contact, and speaks quietly. This creates a more powerful emotional impact and makes the story more engaging and interesting.

7. Repetition: Reinforce a Point or Create Emphasis by Repeating Words or Phrases

Repetition is a powerful tool in creative writing that can reinforce a point or create emphasis. Repeating words or phrases can help to drive home a message, create a sense of rhythm, and make your writing more memorable. Here are some ways to use repetition in your writing:

1. Repetition of Words

Repeating a word can be a simple yet effective way to create emphasis. It can be used to highlight a key point or to create a sense of urgency. For example, “You must study, study, study to succeed.” The repetition of “study” emphasizes the importance of studying.

2. Repetition of Phrases

Repeating a phrase can create a sense of rhythm in your writing. It can also reinforce a point or create a memorable image. For example, “The night was dark, dark as coal, dark as the inside of a coffin.” The repetition of “dark” creates a vivid image in the reader’s mind.

3. Repetition of Structure

Repeating a structure can be used to create a sense of order or to emphasize a point. For example, “First, you must study. Then, you must practice. Finally, you must perform.” The repetition of “you must” creates a sense of order and emphasizes the importance of each step.

4. Repetition of Sound

Repeating a sound can be used to create a sense of rhythm or to emphasize a point. For example, “The rain pattered on the roof, splattered on the windows, and chattered on the pavement.” The repetition of the “at” sound creates a sense of rhythm and emphasizes the sound of the rain.

8. Alliteration: Use the Repetition of Consonant Sounds at the Beginning of Words

One creative writing technique that can add a musical quality to your writing is alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words close to each other. By using alliteration, you can create a rhythmic and memorable effect that can enhance the overall impact of your writing.

One common use of alliteration is in poetry, where it can help create a certain mood or tone. For example, consider the famous line from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.” The repetition of the “w” sound in “weak” and “weary” creates a sense of weariness and melancholy that fits the mood of the poem.

Alliteration can also be used in prose to create emphasis or to draw attention to certain words or phrases. For example, you might use alliteration to highlight the importance of a particular character or object. Consider this sentence: “The shimmering sword sliced through the darkness, sending sparks flying.” The repetition of the “s” sound in “shimmering,” “sword,” and “sparks” draws attention to the sword and its action, making it stand out in the sentence.

When using alliteration, it’s important to avoid overdoing it. Too much alliteration can become distracting or even annoying to the reader. Instead, use alliteration sparingly and strategically, focusing on the words and sounds most impacting your writing.

9. Assonance: Repeat Vowel Sounds Within Words

Assonance is a powerful tool to add rhythm and melody to your writing. It is a literary technique that involves repeating vowel sounds within words. The repetition of these sounds creates a musical effect that can add emphasis, mood, and tone to your writing.

Assonance is not the same as rhyme, which involves repeating the same sound at the end of words. Instead, assonance focuses on repeating vowel sounds within words, regardless of whether the words rhyme. For example, “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain” is an example of assonance, as the “ai” sound is repeated throughout the sentence.

Assonance can be used in a variety of ways to enhance your writing. Here are a few examples:

Create a musical effect: By repeating vowel sounds, you can create a musical effect that can add rhythm and melody to your writing. This can help your writing flow more smoothly and make it more engaging to read.
Emphasize certain words or phrases: By repeating vowel sounds in certain words or phrases, you can draw attention to them and make them stand out. This can help you emphasize important points or create a mood or tone in your writing.
Add depth and complexity: By using assonance, you can add depth and complexity to your writing. This can help you create more nuanced and layered, more satisfying writing .

10. Onomatopoeia: Use Words That Imitate the Sounds They Represent

You should consider using onomatopoeia to make your writing more vivid and engaging. Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate the sounds they represent. This literary device can help you create a more immersive experience for your readers by allowing them to hear the sounds in their minds as they read.

Onomatopoeia can be used in a variety of ways. You can use it to describe nature’s sounds, like birds chirping or leaves rustling. You can also use it to describe the sounds of objects, like the beep of a car horn or the clanging of pots and pans in the kitchen. Onomatopoeia can even be used to describe the sounds of emotions, like the thumping of a heart or the sigh of relief.

One of the advantages of using onomatopoeia is that it can help you create a more sensory experience for your readers. Using words that imitate the sounds they represent, you can help your readers hear the sounds in their minds as they read. This can make your writing more engaging and memorable.

Another advantage of using onomatopoeia is that it can help you create a more realistic and authentic experience for your readers. Using words that imitate the sounds they represent can help your readers feel like they are in the scene with your characters. This can help you create a stronger emotional connection with your readers and make your writing more impactful.

Here are a few examples of onomatopoeia that you can use in your writing:

Sizzle: This word imitates the sound of something cooking on a hot surface, like a steak on a grill.
Buzz: This word imitates the sound of a bee or other insect flying around.
Hiss: This word imitates the sound of air escaping from a tire or a snake slithering through the grass.
Thump: This word imitates the sound of something heavy hitting the ground, like a book falling off a shelf.

11. Anaphora: Repeat the Same Word or Phrase at the Beginning of Successive Clauses

Anaphora is a rhetorical device that can create a powerful effect in your writing. It involves repeating the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. This repetition can help to emphasize an idea, create a rhythm, and make your writing more memorable.

When you use anaphora, you start each sentence or clause with the same word or phrase. This repetition can help to create a sense of unity and cohesion in your writing. It can also help emphasize a particular point or idea you want to convey to your reader.

Anaphora is often used in speeches and other forms of persuasive writing. For example, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is full of examples of anaphora. In this speech, King repeatedly repeats the phrase “I have a dream” to emphasize his vision of a better future.

Using anaphora in your writing can help to create a similar effect. Repeating a word or phrase can create a sense of anticipation in your reader. They will be waiting for the next instance of that word or phrase, which can help to keep them engaged with your writing.

Here are some tips for using anaphora effectively in your writing:

Choose a word or phrase that is important to your message.
Use anaphora sparingly. Too much repetition can become tedious for your reader.
Vary the length and structure of your sentences to keep your writing interesting.
Experiment with different words and phrases to see which ones work best for your message.

12. Epistrophe: Repeat the Same Word or Phrase at the End of Successive Clauses

Epistrophe is a creative writing technique where the writer repeats the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences. This technique is also known as epiphora. Epistrophe is used in poetry, speeches, and prose to create emphasis and rhythm.

Epistrophe is similar to anaphora when the writer repeats the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. The difference between the two is that epistrophe repeats the word or phrase at the end of the sentence, while anaphora repeats it at the beginning.

One famous example of epistrophe is from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” In this example, Lincoln repeats the phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people” at the end of each clause, creating a powerful and memorable effect.

Epistrophe can be used to create a sense of finality or to emphasize a particular point. It can also create a sense of rhythm or musicality in the writing. When using epistrophe, it’s important to choose a word or phrase that is meaningful and impactful, as repetition can quickly become tedious if it’s not used effectively.

13. Anadiplosis: Repeat the Last Word of One Clause at the Beginning of the Next Clause

Anadiplosis is a powerful literary device used in creative writing to create a sense of rhythm and repetition. In Anadiplosis, you repeat the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause. This technique is often used to emphasize a particular word or phrase and to create a sense of continuity in the text.

Anadiplosis is commonly used in poetry, speeches, and other forms of creative writing. It is a versatile technique that can be used to create various effects. For example, Anadiplosis can create a sense of urgency or build momentum in a narrative.

Anadiplosis can also create a sense of symmetry or balance in a text. By repeating a word or phrase, you can create a sense of harmony and order in your writing. This technique can be especially effective with literary devices like alliteration or rhyme.

Here are some examples of Anadiplosis in action:

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda, Star Wars.
“The love of wicked men converts to fear; That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both To worthy danger and deserved death.” – William Shakespeare, Richard II.
“When I give, I give myself.” – Walt Whitman, Song of Myself.

14. Chiasmus: Reverse the Order of Words in Two Parallel Phrases

Chiasmus is a literary device that reverses word order in two parallel phrases. It is a rhetorical device commonly used in literature, speeches, and other forms of creative writing. The word “chiasmus” comes from the Greek word “Kiasmos,” which means “crossing” or “x-shaped.”

Chiasmus is a powerful tool for writers because it can create a sense of balance and symmetry in a sentence. It can also help to emphasize a particular point or idea. By reversing the order of words, writers can create a memorable and impactful phrase that sticks with the reader.

Here are a few examples of chiasmus in action:

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy
“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” – Cormac McCarthy, The Road
“It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.” – Adlai E. Stevenson

Notice how each of these examples has a similar structure. The first phrase sets up an idea, and the second phrase reverses the order of words to create a memorable and impactful statement.

When using chiasmus in your writing, it’s important to ensure that the reversed phrases make sense and flow well. It’s also important to use chiasmus sparingly, as overusing it can make your writing seem contrived or forced.

15. Adnomination: Repeat Words with the Same Root, Differing in One Sound or Letter

Adnomination is a literary device that involves repeating words with the same root but differing in one sound or letter. This technique can create a particular sound and effect in text. It can also be used to describe the repetition of a word but in a different sense. Adnomination is used frequently for emphatic contrast or punning.

Using adnomination can add emphasis and depth to your writing. It can help to create a poetic effect, making your writing more memorable and engaging for your readers. Adnomination can also help to create a sense of rhythm and flow in your writing.

Here are a few examples of adnomination:

“She was the light of his life, the fire in his soul, and the wind in his sails.”
“The city was a maze of streets, alleys, and avenues.”
“The cat sat on the mat, looking fat and happy.”

As you can see from these examples, adnomination can create a sense of repetition and rhythm in your writing. It can also create a sense of contrast or comparison between different words.

When using adnomination in your writing, it’s important to use it sparingly. Overusing this technique can make your writing feel forced and contrived. Instead, try to use adnomination naturally and organically to your writing style.

16. Flashbacks: Reveal Past Events to Provide Context or Deepen Characterization

Flashbacks are a powerful tool that can reveal past events and provide context to your story. By taking the reader back in time, you can deepen the characterization of your protagonist, reveal important backstories, and create a more complex and nuanced narrative.

When using flashbacks, it’s important to be strategic. You don’t want to disrupt the flow of your story or confuse your reader. Here are some tips to help you use flashbacks effectively:

Use flashbacks sparingly. Too many flashbacks can be disorienting and disrupt the flow of your story. Use them only when necessary to provide context or deepen characterization.
Make sure your flashbacks are relevant. Your flashbacks should directly relate to the main story and help move the plot forward.
Use clear transitions. Make it clear to your reader when moving into a flashback and returning to the present. You can use formatting, such as italics or a change in tense, to help differentiate between the two.
Don’t rely on flashbacks to provide exposition. While flashbacks can be a great way to reveal important backstories, they shouldn’t be used as a crutch to provide exposition. Make sure your story is strong enough to stand on its own.

17. Dialogue: Use Conversations Between Characters to Convey Information and Develop Relationships

Dialogue is essential for creative writers to convey information and develop relationships between characters. You can reveal their personalities, motivations, and conflicts by writing conversations between characters. Dialogue can also move the plot forward and create tension in the story.

When writing dialogue, it is important to make it sound natural and believable. People do not always speak in complete sentences and often interrupt each other. Use contractions, slang, and regional dialects to make the dialogue more authentic. However, avoid using too much jargon or technical language that may confuse the reader.

To make the dialogue more engaging, use body language and gestures to show how the characters feel. For example, if a character is nervous, they may fidget or avoid eye contact. They may clench their fists or raise their voice if they are angry. These nonverbal cues can add depth and complexity to the conversation.

When writing dialogue, it is important to remember that every character has a voice and personality. Each character should have a unique way of speaking, with their vocabulary, tone, and syntax. This can help the reader distinguish between characters and make them more memorable.

18. Monologue: Allow a Character to Express Their Thoughts or Feelings in an Extended Speech

Monologues are an effective tool in creative writing that allows characters to express their thoughts or feelings in an extended speech. This technique is often used in theater but can also be used in books, movies, and other mediums. Monologues can be addressed to other characters in the scene, or they can be one character talking to themselves or the audience.

To write a compelling monologue, you must first understand your character’s motivations, fears, and desires. This will help you create a speech that is authentic and believable. You should also consider the setting and tone of the scene. Is the character angry, sad, or happy? Is the scene serious or humorous?

A good monologue will have a clear beginning, middle, and end. It should also be concise and to the point. Avoid rambling or going off on tangents. Use descriptive language and vivid imagery to engage the reader and bring the scene to life.

When writing a monologue, it’s important to remember that it should reveal something about the character. It should provide insight into their personality, beliefs, and values. It should also advance the plot or reveal something important about the story.

19. Symbolism: Use Objects, Characters, or Events to Represent Abstract Ideas or Concepts

Symbolism is a powerful literary device that can add depth and meaning to your writing. It uses objects, characters, or events to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Doing so can create a richer and more complex narrative that engages your readers on multiple levels.

One of the most important things to remember when using symbolism is that the symbol should be closely related to what it represents. A strong symbol usually shares key characteristics with whatever it is meant to symbolize or is related to it in some other way. For example, a dove symbolizes peace because of its gentle nature and association with religious stories.

Characters can also be symbolic. They can represent specific ideas or concepts or embody broader themes or motifs. For example, in “The Great Gatsby,” the character of Jay Gatsby represents the American Dream, while the character of Daisy Buchanan represents the corruption and superficiality of the wealthy elite.

Events can also be symbolic. They can represent larger societal issues or personal struggles. For example, in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the trial of Tom Robinson represents the racial inequality and injustice prevalent in the American South during the 1930s.

When using symbolism, it’s important to remember that it should enhance your story rather than detract from it. Don’t use symbols just to use them; make sure they serve a purpose and add meaning to your narrative.

20. Irony: Create a Contrast Between What Is Expected and What Actually Occurs

Irony is a useful tool in creative writing that can help you create a contrast between what is expected and what actually occurs. Using irony, you can create a sense of surprise, humor, or even tragedy in your writing. There are three types of irony: verbal, situational, and dramatic.

Verbal Irony

Verbal irony is when a character says one thing but means the opposite. This type of irony is often used for comedic effect. For example, if a character says, “I just love being stuck in traffic for hours,” when they don’t enjoy it, that’s verbal irony.

Situational Irony

Situational irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens. This type of irony can create a sense of surprise or even tragedy. For example, if a firefighter’s house burns down, that’s situational irony.

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the characters do not. This type of irony can create tension and suspense in your writing. For example, if the audience knows that a character is about to be betrayed, but the character does not, that’s dramatic irony.

21. Hyperbole: Use Exaggeration for Emphasis or Effect

When it comes to creative writing, one technique that can be particularly effective is hyperbole. Hyperbole is a figure of speech that exaggerates something for emphasis or effect. Using hyperbole, you can create vivid images, convey strong emotions, and add humor to your writing.

Hyperbole can be used in a variety of ways. For example, you might use it to describe a character in your story. Instead of saying that your protagonist is “tall,” you might exaggerate and say they are “towering over everyone in the room.” This helps to create a stronger image in the reader’s mind and emphasizes the character’s physical presence.

Another way to use hyperbole is to add humor to your writing. For example, you might describe a character’s reaction to a situation exaggeratedly, such as saying they “nearly died of shock” when they received unexpected news. This can add a lighthearted touch to your writing and make it more engaging for readers.

When using hyperbole, it’s important to balance exaggeration and believability. While hyperbole is meant to be an exaggeration, it shouldn’t be so extreme that it becomes unbelievable or ridiculous. It’s also important to use hyperbole sparingly, as too much can make your writing feel over-the-top and tiresome.

22. Understatement: Minimize the Importance of Something for Emphasis or Humor

Understatement is a creative writing technique that involves intentionally representing something as less significant than it is. It is the opposite of hyperbole, which exaggerates the importance of something. Understatement is used to downplay the value or importance of something, often to create emphasis or humor.

Using understatement can be an effective way to make a point without being too direct or confrontational. It can also create a sense of irony or humor in your writing. For example, if you are writing a story about a character who has just won the lottery, you might use understatement to describe their reaction to the news. Instead of saying they were ecstatic, you could say they were “moderately pleased” or “mildly surprised.”

One of the benefits of using understatement is that it can create a sense of humility in your writing. It can show that you know the limitations of your knowledge or perspective. For example, if you write an opinion piece on a controversial topic, you might use understatement to acknowledge other valid viewpoints. You could say, “While it is true that some people believe X, others might argue Y.”

Another benefit of understatement is that it can create a sense of surprise or shock in your writing. By downplaying the importance of something, you can create a sudden shift in tone that catches the reader off guard. For example, if you are writing a horror story, you might use understatement to describe a gruesome scene. Instead of describing the blood and gore in graphic detail, you might say “there was a small amount of blood on the floor.”

23. Juxtaposition: Place Contrasting Elements Side by Side to Highlight Their Differences

Juxtaposition is a powerful tool in creative writing that involves placing two contrasting elements side by side to highlight their differences. This technique can create tension, irony, humor, or convey social or political commentary. By juxtaposing, you can draw attention to the differences between the two elements and create a more vivid and compelling narrative.

Juxtaposition can be used in various ways in creative writing. For example, you can use it to compare and contrast characters, settings, themes, or ideas. This technique can effectively highlight the differences between two characters or settings and create a sense of conflict or tension.

Another way to use juxtaposition is to create irony. By placing two seemingly unrelated elements, you can create a sense of irony that can be both humorous and thought-provoking.

For example, in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the pigs who lead the revolution and establish a new social order are eventually revealed to be just as corrupt and oppressive as the humans they overthrew. This juxtaposition creates a powerful irony and underscores the novel’s social and political commentary.

Juxtaposition can also be used to create mood and atmosphere. By placing two contrasting elements side by side, you can create a sense of tension or unease that can add depth and complexity to your writing.

For example, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” the opulent and decadent party that the protagonist attends is juxtaposed with the looming presence of the Red Death, creating a sense of dread and foreboding that adds to the story’s horror and suspense.

24. Parallelism: Use Similar Grammatical Structures to Create Balance and Rhythm

Parallelism is a writing technique that uses similar grammatical structures to create balance and rhythm within a sentence. Using parallelism, you repeat a specific grammatical pattern throughout a sentence or paragraph. This repetition creates a sense of rhythm and balance, making your writing more engaging and memorable.

Parallelism can be used in many different ways, including:

Creating lists: When you list items in your writing, you can use parallelism to make the list more readable and memorable. For example: “She loved to dance, sing, and act.”
Emphasizing important points: Parallelism can be used to emphasize important ideas or concepts in your writing. For example: “You must work hard, study diligently, and never give up if you want to succeed.”
Comparing and contrasting: Parallelism can also be used to compare and contrast ideas in your writing. For example: “He was both kind and cruel, generous and selfish, all at the same time.”

When using parallelism, it’s important to ensure that your repeating structures are truly parallel. This means that they should have the same grammatical form and structure. For example, if you use parallelism to create a list, each item should be structured similarly. This will make your writing more clear and compelling.

In addition to creating balance and rhythm, parallelism can help you convey your ideas more effectively. Repeating a specific grammatical pattern can draw attention to important ideas and make them more memorable. This can be especially useful when trying to persuade or convince your readers.

25. Oxymoron: Combine Contradictory Terms to Create a Striking Effect

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms to create a striking effect. This literary device is often used in creative writing to add depth and complexity to a text. Oxymorons can create a sense of irony or humor or emphasize a point.

Oxymorons consist of two words that have opposite meanings. For example, “bittersweet,” “jumbo shrimp,” and “living dead” are all examples of oxymorons. These terms may seem contradictory, but when used together, they create a unique and memorable image in the reader’s mind.

When using oxymorons in your writing, it’s important to consider the context in which they are used. An oxymoron can be used to create a sense of irony or humor, but it can also be used to emphasize a point. For example, “cruel kindness” can highlight the negative impact of well-intentioned actions.

Oxymorons can also be used to create memorable and impactful descriptions. For example, the phrase “silent scream” creates a vivid image of a person expressing intense emotion without making a sound. Similarly, the phrase “dark light” can describe a situation where light and darkness are present.

26. Paradox: Present a Seemingly Contradictory Statement That Reveals a Deeper Truth

Paradox is a literary device that involves presenting a statement that appears contradictory but, upon further examination, reveals a deeper truth or meaning. It’s a powerful technique that can add depth and complexity to your writing.

One classic example of a paradox is the statement, “Less is more.” At first glance, this statement seems to contradict itself. How can less be more? But upon closer inspection, we can see that the statement reveals a more profound truth: that sometimes, simplicity is more effective than complexity.

Another example of a paradox is the statement, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This statement appears contradictory because how can someone who is also an enemy be considered a friend? But upon closer examination, we can see that this statement reveals a deeper truth: sometimes, people with a common enemy can work together towards a common goal.

Paradoxes can be used in a variety of ways in creative writing. They can add depth and complexity to characters, reveal hidden meanings and truths, and create a sense of mystery and intrigue. When using paradoxes in your writing, it’s vital to ensure they are relevant to the story and add value to the reader’s understanding.

To create a paradox, consider the theme or message you want to convey in your writing. Think about how you can present a statement that appears contradictory but reveals a deeper truth. Consider using contrasting words or phrases, such as “love and hate” or “life and death,” to create a sense of tension and intrigue.

27. Pun: Use a Play on Words for Humor or Emphasis

Puns are a popular literary device that can add humor and emphasis to your writing. A pun is a play on words involving words with similar sounds but different meanings. Puns can be used for comedic effect, to create irony, or to add depth to your writing.

To use a pun in your writing, you need to identify words or phrases that have multiple meanings or that sound similar to other words. For example, you could use a pun by saying, “I’m reading a book on anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down!” This pun relies on the double meaning of “put down,” which can mean physically placing something down and losing interest.

Puns can also be used to create irony or to add depth to your writing. For example, you could use a pun in a serious piece of writing to draw attention to a particular point. This can be an effective way to add emphasis to your message without being too heavy-handed.

When using puns, it’s important not to overdo them. Too many puns can be distracting and can take away from the overall message of your writing. Instead, use puns sparingly and strategically to add humor or emphasis where needed.

28. Foreshadowing: Hint at Future Events in the Story

Foreshadowing is a literary technique that hints at future events in a story. It is a powerful tool that builds suspense, creates tension, and keeps readers engaged. By foreshadowing, you can prepare your readers for what’s to come and make the story more satisfying when the events finally unfold.

There are several ways to use foreshadowing in your writing. One common method is to use symbolism. For example, you might use a recurring image or object to hint at something that will happen later in the story. This can help create a sense of continuity and add depth to your writing.

Another way to use foreshadowing is through dialogue. You can use your characters’ conversations to hint at future events or big reveals. This can be a joke, an offhand comment, or even something unsaid that adds personality to your characters while planting the seed for later revelations.

Foreshadowing can also be used to create dramatic irony. This is when the reader knows something that the characters do not, which can create tension and anticipation. For example, if a character is planning a surprise party, but the reader knows that the guest of honor hates surprises, the reader will be on the edge of their seat waiting for the reveal.

When using foreshadowing, it’s essential to strike a balance. You don’t want to give away too much information too soon, but you also don’t want to be so subtle that your readers miss the hints altogether. It’s a delicate dance, but foreshadowing can be a powerful tool in your creative writing toolbox.

29. Euphemism: Use a Mild or Indirect Expression to Replace a Harsh or Blunt One

In creative writing, euphemism is a technique used to substitute a harsh or blunt expression with a mild or indirect one. It helps to convey a message without being offensive or unpleasant. Euphemism is often used in literature to add depth and subtlety to a character’s dialogue or to describe sensitive subjects.

For example, instead of saying, “he died,” a writer might use the euphemism “he passed away,” which conveys the same meaning but more gently and respectfully. Similarly, instead of saying, “She’s fat,” a writer might use the euphemism “She’s curvy” or “She’s full-figured,” which are less harsh and more positive.

Euphemism can also be used to create irony or humor. For instance, in George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm,” the pigs use euphemisms to manipulate the other animals and justify their actions. They refer to stealing food as the “readjustment of rations” and executions as “sending to the knacker.”

However, it’s important to use euphemisms carefully and appropriately. Overuse can make writing sound insincere or cliché. It’s also important to consider the context and audience. What may be an appropriate euphemism in one situation may not be in another.

30. Stream of Consciousness: Write from the Perspective of a Character’s Thoughts and Feelings

Stream of consciousness is a writing technique that captures the natural flow of a character’s extended thought process. This technique is often used to convey the character’s thoughts and feelings realistically, and it can be a powerful tool for immersing the reader in the story.

To write from the perspective of a character’s thoughts and feelings using the stream-of-consciousness technique, you need to incorporate sensory impressions, vague ideas, unusual syntax, and rough grammar. Your writing may not flow logically, but it will be more authentic and reflect the character’s inner world.

One way to get started with stream-of-consciousness writing is to imagine that you are the character and try to write down everything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation at first; focus on capturing the character’s thoughts and feelings as they come. You can always go back and edit later.

Another technique is to use a prompt or trigger to get the character’s thoughts flowing. For example, you could write about a specific event or memory important to the character or use a sensory detail like a smell or sound to evoke a particular emotion.

Remember that stream-of-consciousness writing can be challenging for readers who are used to more traditional storytelling techniques. To make your writing more accessible, you can use formatting tools like italics or bold text to indicate when the character is thinking versus speaking or paragraph breaks to signal a shift in the character’s thoughts.

31, Epistolary: Tell a Story Through Letters, Diary Entries, or Other Documents

Epistolary writing is a technique that involves telling a story through letters, diary entries, or other documents. This technique can create a sense of intimacy between the reader and the characters and provide a unique perspective on the story.

To write an epistolary story, you should first develop a narrative arc. This means you should clearly understand your story’s beginning, middle, and end before you start writing. Once you have this in mind, you can start thinking about the letters or other documents that will make up your story.

One of the advantages of epistolary writing is that it allows you to create a sense of immediacy and intimacy that is difficult to achieve with other techniques. By using letters or diary entries , you can give the reader a direct insight into the thoughts and feelings of your characters. This can be particularly effective if you write a story dealing with complex emotions or relationships.

Another advantage of epistolary writing is that it allows you to experiment with different voices and styles. Because a different character writes each letter or diary entry, you can use this technique to create a sense of diversity and variety in your story. This can be particularly effective if you are writing a story that deals with multiple perspectives or points of view.

32. Magic Realism: Blend Elements of the Fantastical with the Everyday

Magic realism is a literary genre that combines fantastical elements with the everyday. It is a unique and fascinating technique that allows writers to create a world that is both familiar and strange, where magical and supernatural events are presented as a regular part of everyday life.

In magic realism, the fantastic is not presented as something extraordinary or unknown but as a part of the world. This creates a sense of wonder, enchantment, and connection to the world around us.

To write in the magic realism genre, you need to blend the fantastical with the everyday seamlessly and believably. This can be achieved by using a variety of techniques, such as:

Subtle Magic: In magic realism, magic is often presented subtly , with small, everyday events taking on a magical quality. For example, a character might be able to see the future, or a tree might have the power to heal the sick.
Symbolism and Metaphor: Magic realism often uses symbolism and metaphor to convey its message. For example, a character might be represented by an animal, or a magical event might represent a larger theme or idea.
Mixing Genres: Magic realism often blends different genres, such as fantasy, horror, and romance, to create a unique and compelling story.
Magical Realism vs. Fantasy: It is important to note that magical realism differs from fantasy. In fantasy, the magical elements are presented as something separate from the real world, while in magic realism, they are presented as an integral part of it.

33. Anthropomorphism: Give Human Traits to Animals or Objects

Anthropomorphism is a literary device attributing human traits to non-human things, such as animals or objects. This technique can add depth and complexity to your writing, allowing you to explore human emotions and experiences through the lens of non-human characters.

When using anthropomorphism, it’s important to balance realism and fantasy. While you want your non-human characters to be relatable and engaging, you also want them to be believable within the context of your story. Consider the following tips when incorporating anthropomorphism into your writing:

Use specific details to create a vivid and realistic portrayal of your non-human characters. Think about their physical appearance, mannerisms, and behaviors and how they might differ from those of humans.
Avoid relying too heavily on stereotypes or clichés when creating your non-human characters. Instead, draw on real-life observations and experiences to create unique and nuanced personalities.
Consider the implications of giving human traits to non-human characters. How might this affect the themes and messages of your story? What commentary might you be making on human nature and society?

34. Allegory: Use a Story or Characters to Represent Abstract Ideas or Moral Lessons

Allegory is a powerful technique in creative writing that allows you to convey complex or abstract ideas through characters, events, or symbols. An allegory is a narrative in which the characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral lessons. This literary device is often used to convey political or social commentary or to explore philosophical or religious themes.

The use of symbolism is key to creating a compelling allegory. Symbols are objects, characters, or events that represent something beyond their literal meaning. When used in an allegory, symbols can represent abstract concepts or ideas in a way that is more accessible to the reader.

For example, George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory in which the animals represent different factions of society, and the story’s events represent the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism. Using animal characters and events that mirror real-world historical events allows the reader to connect with the story deeper and understand the underlying message.

Allegories can be used to explore a wide range of themes and ideas, from political and social commentary to personal growth and spiritual enlightenment. Some common themes explored through allegory include the struggle between good and evil, the nature of humanity, the search for truth and meaning, and the consequences of greed and corruption.

35. In Medias Res: Begin the Story in the Middle of the Action

One of the most effective ways to hook your readers is to start your story in media res, Latin for “in the middle of things.” This technique involves beginning your story during action rather than with exposition or background information. By plunging your readers into the middle of the story, you can immediately capture their attention and keep them engaged.

To use in media res effectively, you need to start with a scene that is both interesting and relevant to the story. This scene should raise questions in the reader’s mind and create a sense of urgency. For example, you might start a mystery novel with the detective already on the killer’s trail or a romance novel with the couple amid a heated argument.

One advantage of starting in media res is that it allows you to avoid the pitfalls of exposition. You can reveal this information through action and dialogue rather than telling your readers about the characters and their backgrounds. This not only makes your story more engaging but also helps to create a more immersive reading experience.

However, it’s important to remember that in media res is not appropriate for every story. If your story requires a lot of exposition or background information, starting in media res may confuse your readers and make it difficult for them to follow the plot. Additionally, if you start your story too far into the action, you may miss important opportunities to establish character and setting.

36. Frame Narrative: Use a Story Within a Story to Provide Context or Commentary

A frame narrative, also known as a frame story or framing device, is a literary technique that uses a story within a story to provide context or commentary. It is a powerful tool for writers who want to tell a complex story with multiple layers of meaning. Using a frame narrative, you can create a rich, immersive world that draws readers in and keeps them engaged.

In a frame narrative, the outer story serves as a frame or container for the inner story. The outer story provides context and commentary on the inner story, and the inner story provides depth and complexity to the outer story. This technique can create various effects, from suspense and mystery to humor and satire.

One of the most famous examples of a frame narrative is “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer. In this work, a group of pilgrims travels to Canterbury and decides to pass the time by telling stories. Each pilgrim tells a story, resulting in a collection of stories within a story. This technique allows Chaucer to explore various themes and ideas, from love and marriage to religion and politics.

Another example of a frame narrative is “One Thousand and One Nights,” also known as the Arabian Nights. This work is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. The frame story is about a Persian king who marries a new bride every day and executes her the next morning.

To avoid this fate, the clever Scheherazade tells the king a story every night but leaves it unfinished, promising to finish it the next night. This goes on for 1,001 nights, and by the end, the king has fallen in love with Scheherazade and spares her life.

37. Unreliable Narrator: Use a Narrator Whose Credibility Is in Question

When it comes to creative writing, one technique that can be used to add depth and complexity to a story is the use of an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is a character who tells the story but whose credibility is in question. This can be achieved through deliberate deception or unintentional misguidedness, forcing the reader to question the narrator’s reliability.

Using an unreliable narrator can add intrigue to a story, as the reader is forced to question the truthfulness of what they are being told. This can create a sense of tension and uncertainty that can keep the reader engaged throughout the story. Additionally, an unreliable narrator can explore themes of perception, truth, and memory as the reader is forced to consider what is real and imagined.

There are several ways to create an unreliable narrator in your writing. One way is to use a first-person point of view, as this allows the reader to see the story through the eyes of the narrator. This can make it easier to create a sense of intimacy with the character but also make it harder to trust their version of events.

Another way to create an unreliable narrator is to use a mentally unstable or emotionally compromised character. This can make it harder for the reader to separate truth from fiction, as the character’s perception of reality may be skewed. Villains, insane people, fools, liars, or hypocrites can all be examples of unreliable narrators.

38. Multiple Narrators: Tell the Story from the Perspectives of Different Characters

If you want to add depth and complexity to your story, consider using multiple narrators. This technique allows you to tell the story from different characters’ perspectives, providing a more nuanced view of the events and allowing the reader to see the story from different angles.

To use multiple narrators effectively, it’s important to choose characters whose perspectives are compelling and distinct. You want to avoid confusing the reader, so make sure each character has a distinct voice and point of view. Consider the following tips:

Choose characters who have different backgrounds, experiences, and goals. This will allow you to explore different aspects of the story and add complexity to the plot .
Use chapter headings or other markers to indicate when the perspective is changing. This will help the reader track who narrates the story and prevent confusion.
Be consistent with the point of view. If you use first-person narration for one character, stick with that for the entire chapter or section. This will help maintain consistency and clarity.
Use multiple narrators to reveal different aspects of the story. For example, one character might have access to information that the others do not, or they might interpret events differently based on their own experiences and biases.

39. Cliffhanger: End a Chapter or Scene with Suspense to Keep Readers Engaged

One of the most effective techniques to keep readers engaged is to end a chapter or scene with a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger is a writing device that creates suspense and leaves the reader wanting more. It can be a sudden twist in the plot, a revelation, or a question left unanswered.

You must build tension and anticipation throughout the chapter or scene to create a cliffhanger. You can do this by introducing a problem or challenge the protagonist must overcome. As tension builds, you can escalate the stakes and introduce new obstacles that complicate the situation.

When you reach the end of the chapter or scene, you should leave the reader with a sense of uncertainty or anticipation. You can do this by ending with a question, a revelation, or a sudden twist in the plot. The key is creating a sense of urgency that makes the reader want to turn the page and discover what happens next.

Here are some tips for creating effective cliffhangers:

Keep it short and sweet: A cliffhanger should be no more than a few sentences long. It should be concise and to the point, leaving the reader with a clear sense of what is at stake.
Use strong verbs: To create a sense of urgency, use strong verbs that convey action and movement. Avoid weak or passive language that slows down the pace of the story.
Leave the reader with a question: A cliffhanger should leave the reader with a question that needs to be answered. This can be a question about the plot, the characters, or the setting.
Escalate the stakes: As the tension builds, you should escalate the stakes and make the situation more difficult for the protagonist. This will create a sense of urgency and keep the reader engaged.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some common creative writing techniques used in literature.

Many creative writing techniques are used in literature, but some of the most common ones include imagery, symbolism, foreshadowing, and flashbacks.

Imagery uses vivid descriptions and sensory details to create a mental picture in the reader’s mind. Symbolism represents abstract ideas or concepts using objects, characters, or actions. Foreshadowing uses hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the story. Flashbacks are scenes that occur in the past and are used to provide background information or reveal something important about a character or event.

How can descriptive writing techniques be used to enhance storytelling?

Descriptive writing techniques can enhance storytelling by creating a vivid and immersive experience for the reader. By using sensory details such as sights, sounds, smells, and textures, you can transport your reader to the world you’ve created and make them feel like they’re a part of the story. Descriptive writing can also create mood and atmosphere, reveal character traits, and set the tone for the story.

What are some examples of persuasive writing techniques?

Persuasive writing techniques convince the reader to take a particular action or adopt a particular point of view. Some standard techniques include emotional appeals, such as fear or desire, to get the reader to act. Another technique is using logic and reasoning to present a strong argument for your point of view. You can also use rhetorical questions, repetition, and other persuasive devices to make your argument more compelling.

How can identifying different writing techniques improve my writing?

Identifying different writing techniques can improve your writing by giving you a better understanding of how to use them effectively. By studying the techniques used by other writers, you can learn how to create more engaging characters, build tension and suspense, and create a more immersive world for your readers. You can also learn different techniques to achieve different effects, such as creating a sense of mystery or building empathy for your characters.

What are some of the most important elements when using creative writing techniques?

When using creative writing techniques, it’s important to consider the audience you’re writing for, the genre you’re writing in, and the purpose of your writing. It would help if you also considered the tone and style of your writing and the pacing and structure of your story. It’s important to use techniques appropriate for your story and help you achieve your desired effect.

What are some examples of different types of creative writing beyond fiction and poetry?

Creative writing encompasses various genres and styles, including memoirs, personal essays, screenplays, and even video game scripts. Some writers also use creative writing techniques in non-fiction, such as journalism and academic writing. The key to using creative writing techniques effectively is to adapt them to the specific genre and style of writing you’re working in.

Jessie on a Journey | Solo Female Travel Blog

Improve Your Creative Storytelling Skills For More Engaging Writing [Podcast Ep. 21]

This post contains affiliate links to trusted partners. If you purchase through these links, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Want to learn how to improve your creative storytelling skills f or more engaging writing and better blog posts?

In this special feature episode, I interview podcaster and live storyteller Adrien Behn of The Strangers Abroad Podcast .

She’ll be sharing:

What a story is
Her unique creative storytelling process and practice (including how she gets into a flow state to write!)
Creative ways to tell a story, write better blog posts, and create quality travel blog content — which you can then add to your blog post planner template
How to “murder your darlings” (an important writing technique!)
How to repurpose long-form stories in a blog writing format for social media
Some powerful creative writing exercises and prompts

Basically, if you’re interested in improving your storytelling and captivating an audience, you won’t want to miss this episode!

Table of Contents

Improve Your Creative Storytelling Skills For More Engaging Writing – Podcast Episode Audio

…or click the links below to tune in on your preferred audio platform:

Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts/iTunes

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Prefer video?

Here is the livestream interview replay:

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Improve Your Storytelling Skills With These Related Episodes:

Why You Need A Drone & How It Can Help You Grow Your Blog

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How To Map Out & Crush Your Blogging Goals

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13 Clever Ways To Boost Your Travel Blogging Income

How To Enjoy Social Media – Growth Strategy Included

How To Create A Blog Content Plan – Template Included

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Improve Your Creative Storytelling Skills For More Engaging Writing – Episode Transcript

This transcript was created with the help of automation software. I’ve tried to go in and add text where the software missed words and information, so some sections may not be 100% word-for-word what was said in the video interview.

Bolded & larger heading lines are Jessie, while the typical paragraph font is Adrien.

When I think of somebody who is a storyteller, I immediately think of Adrien Behn, who I am so excited to interview for this episode of The Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast .

Q: Adrien, can you share more about yourself and your storytelling experience?

I’m excited to be here! I’m a storyteller of multiple mediums. I write for the written word, I podcast and then I do live storytelling.

Basically I take true stories from my life — typically focused on travel, but not always — and I reformat them into different mediums.

By the way, all three of those offer a really wonderful way to have a holistic understanding of storytelling. Once I choose my medium I adjust my voice for it, because the way that I would tell the same story in a blog post versus a narrative podcast episode versus a live storytelling event is completely different.

But I love all three. They’re like my children — I can’t choose which one I love more.

I really started getting into storytelling through my podcast, Strangers Abroad , where I interview strangers that I meet while traveling. And then I kind of sandwich each episode with a personal story of my own as to where I’m at and what am I experiencing.

I’m currently working on the second season of my podcast and the format is a little bit different, but it’s very, very storytelling based.

Q: Amazing! Now let’s dive into the topic of actually improving your storytelling. To start, what is a story?

It’s really interesting because storytelling is fundamentally what makes us human. And yet many people don’t know how to do it; however, when we hear stories, we’re addicted to them.

That’s why the movie industry, the book industry, podcasts and all of these storytelling platforms are massive because we are addicted to this thing that humans have created on our own basically.

Our ability to tell stories is really what separates us from animals.

In terms of what a story is, it’s a series of events where the stakes are raised. There’s a climactic point and then a moment of change after it’s all happened, so keep this in mind as you consider story writing topics.

Now there are a few different storytelling structures that different writers or teachers follow. I would say the most common one is called The Hero’s Journey, which is where an individual starts off in their regular world and then there’s a call to action.

Something has to happen. They need something or they need to rescue someone or they need to go find something.

And that journey to find this thing brings us to the climax.

Then, at the end, they return back to their world, but changed.

Now I have a lot of feelings on the does the protagonists have to be changed, but that’s the typical storytelling arc.

A storytelling isn’t just a list, but a series of events. For instance, if you say “I went to the store, I couldn’t find sauerkraut, I came back home.” That’s a series of events without feelings.

But if I said “I went to the store as I had this insane craving for sauerkraut because I was missing my grandfather. I just wanted to taste a little bit of nostalgia. And then I got to the grocery store and I was crestfallen because I couldn’t find any sauerkraut anywhere, and that’s all I really wanted.”

I just made that up on the spot, but hopefully you get my point. A story is a series of events with feelings embedded within and there’s a moment of change at the end.

Q: Touching on something you said earlier, do you feel there doesn’t need to be a big change in the protagonist for a story to take place?

I’ve argued with a fair amount of storytellers about this. I believe that there are sometimes stories we tell where you get to the end and you don’t necessarily feel different.

What I think is really interesting with this though, is if you don’t feel different, analyze why you don’t think that you are different.

Because I think that at the end of the day there is ultimately change, but it’s not always this crazy “Phoenix out of the ashes” kind of transformation.

But the person I woke up today is very different than the person I’ll be when I go to sleep because I’ve shed skin cells and grown new ones and I’ve had new conversations and I’ve read different things.

It’s more about analyzing the little changes which are much harder to see as we consider possible story writing topics.

I don’t think a story needs to be this crazy thing. It can literally be about eating salmon.

Q: I love that! Actually, in my past photography training my instructor assigned us this exercise to take a mundane object, like a water bottle, and photograph it 10 times, then 20 times, then 30 times. Do you think something like this could be used as a storytelling exercise, for instance, having to make eating salmon into a captivating story?

Totally! I focus on more memoir writing, but I read a lot of fiction books because I think that the way that fiction is written can be manipulated into memoir as well because memoir is not necessarily fact-based off of memory, which can be made dated; you know, it can be forgotten, changed, rewritten, it’s malleable.

There are a lot of writing prompts and creative writing exercises that I use that are designed for fiction that you can absolutely use for storytelling. For instance, write the story about dinner, but from the perspective of your cup. There are so many creative ways to tell a story!

Q: Where do you find writing prompts and creative writing exercises?

I usually make up my own, though one book that I found really helpful is called The 3 AM Epiphany (affiliate link) . And it’s all about this feeling. My partner, who is also a storyteller, and I talk about it all the time, how at night there is this magic creativity that kind of comes bubbling up to the surface.

And the 3am epiphany kind of touches upon that and then gives a ton of writing prompts.

I find that my best writing is when I’m just a little sleepy. Maybe I’m getting on a 6am flight somewhere and I’m sitting on the subway and there’s something about not being totally there that allows my brain to just relax and make different connections that it wouldn’t normally.

Maybe it’s also a little less judgment. You’re not thinking so much about, “Oh this is bad or this is weird.”

Going back to writing prompts, a lot of storytelling shows are based around a theme that you’re given.

So if, say, the theme is ghosts, it doesn’t have to be like “I see a woman standing in my kitchen and she’s not supposed to be there. She’s translucent.”

It could be being ghosted or something else; you can interpret it however you want.

Writing based around a theme is really interesting.

And again, because writing for the page and a podcast and the stage are all different, the voices used will be different from each other.

For instance, I can manipulate audio. I think that I can get the audience more into my thoughts and feelings in a way that I can’t do on the stage, and I can use soundscape or music as part of my podcast production workflow to really emphasize that.

Whereas with the page, it’s only words and I have to be able to convey that same powerful emotion or message with just how I’m typing, you know?

Then onstage I can use my body and movements.

Q: So if someone is writing a story, how can they tell if it’s actually a good story?

Again, a good storyteller can make eating salmon sound interesting. It’s all on how you tell it.

I find that the way to convey a really great story is to give it a structure:

introduction
rising accent
falling action
and then some type of resolution

That’s a story.

If you say just a sentence like “Oh, this one time my Grandma Danko made the salmon so terrible she buried it in the backyard”; that’s funny and it’s cute, but it’s not a story.

In my opinion, storytelling is basically a form of telepathy. I will never know what is going on in your head, but you telling me a story and you telling me what you were thinking and what you were feeling is the closest that I’m going to get.

Q: So you touched on storytelling structure quite a bit. Do you feel you have anything else to add to that kind of idea of constructing the story?

I would say that this most powerful tool that you can use with storytelling is vulnerability and just being as honest about your feelings as possible.

Because when we’re vulnerable and we’re honest about what we’re really feeling, it gives other people permission to feel the things that they’re feeling.

We don’t always feel good things and they’re really scary. But I think that storytelling is a way for you to take control of it and be like, “Yes, I feel these feelings, but they don’t own me. I am not all of the emotional baggage that I carry around every single day.”

The more vulnerable you are, the better because you never want to adjust how you were thinking and feeling based on what you want others to think about.

Honestly, I like the stories where I’m not the hero; where I’m messing up over and over again and I’m being kind of a jerk because that kind of makes other people feel better about their own experiences.

Never augment your thoughts and your feelings. Tell the truth. People want that. We’re starved for the truth.

Q: Absolutely. Now you had mentioned something to me previously about “murdering your darlings.” What is that and how do you do it?

To “murder your darlings” happens during the writing process. Sometimes I will say, “Okay, I know I want to convey this and I’ll write three different sentences,” but then I love them all.

However, you can’t put all of them in because you’re just regurgitating the same thing. And when you’re trying to convey a message, you only want to say things once if they really need to be said.

“Murdering your darlings” is killing two of the sentences and being okay with it. It’s a way for you to not get completely attached to your writing.

And I love nothing more than when I give someone a piece that I’ve worked on — either in audio or in writing — and they tear it to pieces and they show me things that I couldn’t have seen before. This whole writing tactic is all about non-attachment for the sake of the greater piece.

I don’t technically kill sentences I love. I lock them up somewhere else. Actually, I have lists of notes in Evernote that I never delete because if I’m really into a sentence, maybe it just hasn’t found its place yet.

Q: Now I’m curious. You talked about getting rid of sentences, but what about entire pieces? Do you find sometimes that you spend hours working on a whole podcast script or a blog post idea , and then you feel like it doesn’t work and you get rid of it?

I did that the other day. I was really stuck on a podcast script that had an episode quickly coming up. I wrote it last Friday and it was bad. And I knew it.

But you know what?

I think that I needed to just kind of have a morning of word vomiting and getting it out in order to have the epiphany that I had Sunday morning.

On Friday I felt super blocked and I think it was because I was writing about a story when I was in my teens, so it took me longer to get back to that place emotionally to remember all the details that the first two hours were just me, clicking along and just trying to get back there.

But then on Saturday, I gave myself a break. By the way, I don’t do work on Saturdays and that’s important; it’s part of my creative storytelling process and practice.

And then I talked it out with my partner a little bit. And then Sunday morning it just came to me. I felt a faucet that had been turned on and the story just flew out of me.

I didn’t use anything from the piece that I wrote on Friday and I’m okay with that because sometimes you just need to get it out of your system to ultimately create quality content.

Q: Do you feel like in your head you had a deadline, so you were trying to force the story to be timely? And do you feel like for your process, is it more important to sometimes forget the deadline if you need more time to write your story?

Absolutely!

That episode I was just talking about actually should have come out today, but I’m editing the whole thing right now.

By giving myself a little bit more time, I found many more insights as well as sentences that needed to be there. I’d rather it be spectacular and worth the wait then for me to put something that’s just okay out. That would be embarrassing.

As long as you don’t have people really waiting on you then, yeah, give yourself another day if you need it.

Q: Do you have any advice for improving your writing?

Write every day! This is an essential part of my creative storytelling process and practice, as it’s the only way to find your voice.

I mean, I look back at stories that I wrote a year or two ago and it is so different now because now it’s almost a workout routine that I do every day, except Saturdays. It is a muscle that you have to work at every single day.

The other thing that you should do:

You have to read a lot of other literature. Personally, I have a lot of people that I read where it’s like I love their voice. I love what they’re doing here and I feel very inspired by it.

I will try to consume and keep tabs on the people whose work I really love or I find that my work is very similar to theirs. You want to be able to kind of take the temperature.

Q: Do you feel with that have you’ve ever gotten into the sort of comparison and competition mindset where you’re following someone for inspiration but then you’re sort of getting into a more envious mindset?

I feel when I was younger doubt weighed really heavy on my podcasting process because I would criticize myself, like, “Oh, this audio quality isn’t great. I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

But the more that you practice storytelling — and I don’t know if it’s pride or just feeling more comfortable — but that doubt kind of went away. It doesn’t bother me anymore because I feel I know what my voice is and I know how my voice stands in the chorus of other people who are doing very similar things.

I mean, when it comes to the comparison thing I will sometimes dip into the sort of, “Oh, I wish I got a book deal or I want a Netflix special.” That happens. But I also know that everyone I admire was once in my position and I need to go through what I’m going through in order to get those things.

I just think of it more as part of the process and, if anything, it fuels me more. These things become goals as I get into a growth mindset for success .

Q: Now, I know from being friends with you that you have a very specific creative writing process. You’ve kind of touched on it a bit, but can you share a bit more about what this process is, what it looks like, and why it works?

Creativity is a wild wind that is very hard to domesticate, but I guess you don’t domesticate her.

I’ve found that there are certain times where I am more creative than others. Personally, I’ve found that I’m most creative in the morning.

And I’ve found a series of things that help me get into a state of flow during my creative writing process, which is when you’re kind of at your peak creativity.

For instance, the first thing I do is I wake up and I exercise. For me running is the best way to click myself into this writing mode. On days that I run I definitely have bigger writing projects.

Then I meditate, shower, make breakfast and then I do morning pages — which is just a very cathartic process of writing down all your thoughts; all your frustrations. Maybe you write down the weird dream you had last night, or a to-do list. The point is to just get all of the gunk out of your brain.

It’s like stretching, as it warms you up to get into the writing process.

A lot of times my notes start with this — all my feelings — and then it just naturally goes into the piece I have to write on that day. I start getting all my clunky notes out and then I get into full gear.

Now, I would say the number one most important thing about this entire process is that I don’t talk to anyone. I don’t check my phone, I don’t check email, I don’t talk to the people that I live with.

How diva is that?

But it’s worth it, so I don’t care. Fortunately, everybody with the exception of my father is really, really cool with it.

There is something about conserving that energy and giving it only to myself that makes my writing super. I wake up with enough bees in my brain, and I don’t need more thoughts from the outside world to interrupt me.

On an ideal day, I wouldn’t really talk to somebody until I maybe 3pm or 4pm, when I’ll get all of my menial tasks done.

But I will say there is a weird caveat. I think it goes back to the nighttime creativity thing. I actually work on my live storytelling at night because I am more social and I want to be more physical; more animated. And there’s something about, again, being a little sleepy that makes me a better joke writer.

Q: Do you have any advice for people for when they get stuck in an uncreative rut or they feel writer’s block coming on? What strategies or tips would you give someone?

Many times when I’m struggling with a sentence and I want to work on it on my own, I tend to fall into the camp of over-complicating things.

To help, I’ll just write out exactly what happened in four sentences. And from there it’s like, “Okay, I see it” and then I’m able to kind of flesh it out more and put on the bells and whistles.

Noticing when you’re over-complicating things is something that I’ve struggled with and then simplifying it to its bare bones is what I’ve done to fix that.

I’m actually a creative extrovert, although I need deep introversion to work through a larger story or I really need to talk stuff out with people. I have a handful of people that I will talk to and once I’m talking it out somehow my brain synapses shoot different ways and I can just kind of see it better.

And I have people in my life who know my voice and I respect their opinion and they’re not going to offend me honest feedback.

Also, when it comes finding creative ways to tell a story, sometimes you need to let a piece breathe and you need to know when to step away and think about something else, like I did with the podcast episode I mentioned earlier.

Q: And then what is your strategy for taking stories that you might share on in a blog writing format or a podcast episode — where you have a lot of space and time to create them, like a whole page or an hour of air time — and then paring it down for social media?

I think that when it comes to taking a piece from a blog writing format to a social media format, I whittle it down into the main storytelling steps:

What’s the information?
What’s the inciting incident?
Rising action?
Falling action?
Resolution?

I’ll often go through my script and just select what works and adjust my voice a bit, or re-write something if it helps me to better create quality content.

And by the way, having a template like the above can help you learn how to enjoy social media instead of agonizing over it! It’s also a smart strategy for growing on Instagram , a platform where thoughtful captions can help you gain traction.

Q: Storytelling is a great technique to use for selling, for instance, when a blogger might be promoting a product they’ve created or the product of an affiliate partner. Do you have any advice for bloggers or anyone who wants to pair storytelling with selling effectively?

It is still very feelings- and emotions-based and emotionally based, so consider the resolution of the product.

A good salesperson identifies their audience’s pain points and plays into them. For instance, they might say something like “Aren’t you tired of doing X, Y, and Z, and wouldn’t it be great if you had X, Y and Z? My product is the thing that can help.”

And I mean, we’ve all seen commercials that have brought us to tears. I mean, put on a Sarah McLaughlin song and I’m weeping, you know?

I think that good salespeople are actually just storytellers. They’re just selling a product at the end of it.

Honestly, I’ve even been hooked into giving somebody my email because they’ve identified my personal pain points well.

Jessie’s Bonus Note: Yes! When it comes to email marketing for bloggers I personally love writing storytelling emails when selling digital products . I’ll usually think about a benefit of a product and then create a personal story of how this strategy or the solution has helped me. Sort of a before and after story.

Alright, now I hope you enjoyed this episode on how to improve your creative writing skills for more engaging writing.

I hope you feel inspired and empowered to go work on your storytelling skills, find creative ways to tell a story, and maybe even pinpoint your own creative writing process.

Don’t forget to grab free access to my Travel Blogger Resource Library . The tools inside will really help you grow much faster and easier.

Also, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes so you get notified when future episodes publish.

Happy blogging!

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How to make your sentences more engaging

We all know the power of truly engaging writing. Here are five simple techniques that will bring some instant pizzazz to your writing – regardless of the intent.

We all know the power of truly engaging writing. Everyone has lost themselves in a book written by a talented author: in the worlds and characters seeming to leap off the page and living in our imagination instead.

However, when we try to recreate that magical prose, too often our sentences come out as dull and uninspiring—regardless of whether we’re writing creatively or for another purpose.

Writing more engaging sentences isn’t some mystic art: with just a few small tweaks — and some techniques borrowed from the greats — your writing could captivate people too. Here are five simple techniques that will bring some instant pizzazz to your writing – regardless of the intent.

1. Use figurative language

Storytelling and imagery are deeply imprinted on the human psyche, all the way back to the days of daubing red ochre on cave walls. A well-placed piece of imagery can immediately transport a reader to another world – and makes your writing more compelling.

There are many literary devices that you can use to do this, including:

A comparison of one thing with something else – especially effective if the comparison is unconventional or unexpected.

Derek was as silent as a mouse

The trees rose above the horizon, like arrows pointed at the stars

The people crowded onto the train carriage like cattle being corralled into a pen.

scrabble, scrabble pieces, lettering, letters, wood, scrabble tiles, white background, words, quote, letters, type, typography, design, layout, similes are like metaphors, simile, metaphor, similitude, like, similar, similarity, grammar, words, analogy, comparison, homology, parallel, semblance, likeness, like, correspondence,

Like a simile, a metaphor compares one thing to another. However, rather than using ‘like’ or ‘as’, a metaphor states that the thing is something else (but is not intended to be taken literally).

Steven’s words cut deeper than a knife

Isabella’s eyes turned to ice

The road ahead was a ribbon stretching across the desert.

The computer was a dinosaur compared to his smartphone.

Personification

Giving a non-human object, animal or idea a human attribute – making that thing feel more human and relatable.

The sun smiled upon Sarah’s face.

The vintage car coughed and wheezed as Robert started it up.

The stolen brooch lay on the dresser, staring at Teresa accusingly.

In addition, you can use other literary devices that can heighten imagery, such as:

Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds in a sequence of words or syllables
Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds, so that they almost rhyme
Onomatopoeia: words that mimic the sounds they describe

All three of these devices are used in the examples above – can you spot them?

2. Action stations

One of the simplest ways to make your writing more engaging is to use active voice rather than passive voice. This blog post goes into detail about the differences between active and passive voice, but the basic rule is:

Active voice = subject of the sentence performs the verb action ( Olivia purchased the car)
Passive voice = subject of the sentence receives the verb action (The car was purchased by Olivia)

how to make creative writing more engaging

In almost all circumstances, active voice is easier to understand, uses fewer words, and is more engaging than passive voice.

You can also make your sentences more active by using verbs to describe things, rather than adjectives or adverbs. For example:

“I can’t believe you saw the movie without me!” said Cynthia angrily.

Could be better phrased as:

“I can’t believe you saw the movie without me!” raged Cynthia .

The sun’s rays were warm on Alan’s skin

The sun warmed Alan’s skin

The easiest way to do this is to use Outwrite , which will suggest these changes for you. You can also use the tool to restructure any sentence you like, simply by highlighting it.

3. Appeal to the senses – hearing, smell, taste

One of the most effective techniques to make your sentences more engaging—particularly in creative writing—is to appeal to all five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch). This makes your writing more real, effectively bypassing the higher brain functions and appealing to your reader at a primal level. It’s even more effective if you can do it unexpectedly, or combine more than one sense to build a complete picture. For example:

As Ben walked through the carnival gates, the first thing that struck him was the aroma of popcorn and hot dogs drifting through the air. He could almost taste the sweetness of the fried onions and the tartness of the cheap tomato ketchup. Every colour imaginable swirled against the darkness of the night sky. A cacophony of competing sounds assaulted his ears: dodgems crashing into each other, teenage laughter rising, the music from the rides merging into a discordant symphony. He reached up instinctively, seeking his father’s hand, a lifetime of calluses rough against Ben’s own soft palms.

4. Work the rhythm

Earthen Rhythms, a local african drumming group at the Summertime in Maitland, NSW, Australia celebration.

We respond at a fundamental level to rhythm. Writing has its own rhythm, too, which we can manipulate via different sentence lengths and punctuation to make our writing more interesting.

Varying your sentence lengths is a very effective way to make your reader sit up and pay attention.

Long sentences are calming, to a point: lulling your readers into a (false) sense of security — at least, until they start to go on a little too long, which starts to create a sense of anxiety or discomfort.

Whereas short, staccato sentences have impact. They punch the reader in the face. Quick. Hard. Powerful.

Punctuation within sentences serves a similar function – a comma , a semicolon and a colon all indicate a slightly different length of pause (along with their strict grammatical functions). Using brackets, em-dashes or en-dashes instead of commas can also make a clause more or less prominent, and keeps your readers engaged.

5. Break it up

Finally, don’t underestimate the visual impact of your writing.

Big blocks of text send us to sleep, especially in the digital age. Use formatting on the page (or screen) to add interest to your writing: for example, insert relevant images to break up blocks of text.

Introduce headings at regular intervals – these can be more frequent for short, informal writing like blogs; they are generally less frequent (and may also feature two or three levels of sub-headings) for more formal writing.

Meanwhile, design features like pull-out boxes or different fonts can highlight key pieces of text. Use italics to emphasise key words (this is generally preferred to bold or CAPS nowadays). Using bullet points for lists or examples helps break up the text, and improves reader engagements.

All of these techniques are at play in this blog post – why not scroll back up and see how many you can spot?

An even easier way to make your sentences pop

There you have it. Five quick and easy ways to turn turgid prose into sparkling, witty sentences.

Of course, you can also let Outwrite’s paraphrasing tool improve your sentences for you: just double-click on or highlight a sentence, select your rewriting goal, and Outwrite will generate a list of suggestions for you.

How to Make Writing Fun: Engaging Tips for Enjoyable Composition

Written by Dan

Transforming the writing process into an engaging experience is essential for writers of all ages and stages. Finding joy in writing can dramatically improve a writer’s motivation and the quality of their work.

By incorporating playful strategies and creative exercises, the act of writing transcends routine, becoming an adventure in expression and imagination.

Emphasising the fun aspects of writing helps combat writer’s block and stirs enthusiasm, leading to a nurturing environment where ideas flourish.

Creating an enjoyable writing practice involves tapping into one’s creativity, which may include using fun activities like story maps or writing prompts that prompt laughter and thought-provoking scenarios.

It’s about constructing a space where the writer feels comfortable and inspired.

Regular writing fosters skill development, and by making it an enjoyable habit, young and seasoned writers alike can enhance their abilities while looking forward to each writing opportunity.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Embracing creativity leads to a more enjoyable writing experience.
A supportive environment is key to maintaining writing motivation.
Consistent practice is vital for skill enhancement in writing.

Igniting the Spark of Creativity

To make writing entertainment, one must stoke their creativity. This section details how to use writing prompts, engage with existing works, and try creative writing activities to ignite the imagination.

Exploring Writing Prompts and Ideas

Writing prompts are a splendid way to kick-start a creative session. They can challenge a writer to think differently and start on an unexpected journey.

For instance, someone could explore unique creative writing prompts that range from everyday scenarios to the utterly fantastical, planting the seeds for a range of stories or themes to explore.

Engaging with Literature and Poetry

Immersing oneself in literature and poetry is known to enrich one’s own creative faculties .

Reading diverse genres and styles exposes a writer to new phrases, plots, and character depths that they can then weave into their writing.

One can draw inspiration from a collection of sentence prompts that derive from poetic lines or literary excerpts, integrating the rhythms and nuances of seasoned writers into their work.

Creative Writing Activities for Inspiration

Engaging in creative writing activities often sparks inspiration and breaks through the feared writer’s block.

Writers can embrace strategies such as changing environments or engaging in collaborative storytelling, much like the guidance found in the article on overcoming the writer’s block .

Through these activities, they can solicit feedback, challenge their own norms, and unlock a treasure trove of creative ideas.

Cultivating a Fun Writing Environment

Creating a fun writing environment involves more than just a physical space; it involves incorporating elements that stimulate creativity and enjoyment.

One can transform the writing process into a delightful activity by using music and art, ensuring a comfortable setting, and integrating technology.

Using Music and Art to Enhance Writing

Music can significantly influence the atmosphere of a writing space, providing a rhythmic backdrop that can both soothe and energise the writer. For example, classical music might create a focused environment, while jazz could stimulate creative thinking.

Similarly, the presence of art , such as a colourful comic strip on the wall, can serve as a source of inspiration and a visual break from the text.

The Importance of a Comfortable Setting

A comfortable physical environment is crucial for a pleasant writing experience. This includes ergonomic furniture, such as a supportive chair and a desk at the correct height to prevent strain.

It also involves natural light and fresh air, which have been shown to improve mood and cognitive function, thereby making the process more enjoyable.

Integrating Technology in the Writing Process

The integration of technology into the writing environment can make the process more fun and efficient. Tools such as digital notebooks and writing software provide freedom to organise thoughts and ideas easily.

Moreover, writing apps with gamification elements can turn the act of writing into an engaging and rewarding experience, making it appealing even for those who may not traditionally enjoy writing.

By thoughtfully considering these aspects, one can cultivate an environment that brings joy to the writing process.

Overcoming Writing Challenges

In the journey of making writing enjoyable, addressing the challenges that hinder progress is crucial. Whether these barriers stem from fear or a lack of skill, tailored strategies can facilitate a more enjoyable writing experience.

Addressing Common Fears and Anxieties

Writers often grapple with fears such as doubt in their abilities or anxiety about the reception of their work. It’s essential to recognise that these fears are common and that overcoming them is a significant step towards enjoying the writing process.

Identifying specific fears , like writer’s block or fear of criticism, allows individuals to tackle these issues proactively with various writing activities .

Strategies for Reluctant Writers

Reluctance to write can stem from numerous factors, including a perceived lack of skill or interest in the activity. To engage reluctant writers , incorporating fun and creative writing prompts can spark interest.

Additionally, setting achievable goals and providing consistent positive feedback can motivate reluctant writers to persevere and discover the joy in writing.

Improving Handwriting and Letter Formation

Handwriting difficulties can diminish the enjoyment of writing, particularly for younger learners. Focusing on handwriting and letter formation through repetitive practice can drastically improve this skill.

Utilising tracing activities and emphasising the correct formation of letters are practical steps in this improvement. This educational resource offers worksheets and activities to help refine handwriting abilities.

By concentrating on the individual challenges a writer faces and offering supportive, growth-oriented tactics, one can transform the writing process into an engaging and pleasurable experience.

Enhancing Writing Through Practice

To make strides in one’s writing abilities, consistent practice paired with reflective refinement are crucial. Adopting a structured approach to daily exercises and attending diligently to the technical aspects of writing can elevate both enjoyment and proficiency.

Daily Writing Exercises

Engaging in daily writing exercises fosters discipline and sparks creativity. An individual might start with a simple goal of 150 words per day and gradually increase the target.

They could explore different genres or focus on a single topic to deepen their expertise. Whether it’s crafting short stories or experimenting with poetry , the key is to make this a regular routine that writers look forward to each day.

Weekday : Descriptive passages
Weekend : Creative storytelling

Incorporating Feedback and Reflection

An essential part of improving one’s writing is the ability to incorporate feedback and invest time in reflection . Writers should seek constructive criticism from peers or mentors and reflect on the insights provided.

By keeping a journal to note down reflections on their writing journey, they systematically enhance their skills.

Collect feedback from various sources.
Schedule time weekly to reflect on comments and identify areas for improvement.

The Role of Grammar and Spelling in Writing

Strong writing is underpinned by a solid grasp of grammar and spelling . Even the most imaginative stories can lose their lustre if they are riddled with errors.

Hence, one should always utilise tools and resources to check their writing, and consider revisiting the basics through reliable online platforms or comprehensive guides when necessary.

Grammar Resources:

Online grammar checkers
English grammar guides

Spelling Improvement :

Spelling apps
Daily spelling quizzes

Developing Skills in Young Writers

Cultivating a young writer’s ability requires a deliberate mix of theory and practice. Teachers can transform the process into an engaging and multifaceted educational journey with targeted writing lessons, dynamic writing activities, and a strong emphasis on reading.

Writing Lessons in the Classroom

The groundwork for effective writing begins with structured writing lessons in the classroom. Teachers should focus on age-appropriate literacy frameworks involving students in various writing styles, such as narratives and persuasive texts.

This equips them with a diverse skill set, vital for their development. For example, balancing group activities and solo tasks helps students appreciate different aspects of the writing process.

Fun Writing Activities for Students

Engaging in fun writing activities can significantly enhance a student’s writing experience. Activities like ‘Think-Write-Pass’, where students write spontaneously before passing their work on for peer input, inject a playful element into the learning environment.

Moreover, including tasks that reflect children’s interests and everyday life contexts can create a sense of relevance and increase their willingness to participate.

Encouraging Reading to Improve Writing

A robust relationship exists between reading and writing development. Encouraging students to read a wide range of genres enriches their vocabulary and exposes them to different writing styles.

This exposure is essential for them to be able to analyse and imitate quality writing, thereby enhancing their own writing competencies. Teachers might consider setting up a classroom library to provide easy access to a variety of books.

About The Author

I'm Dan Higgins, one of the faces behind The Teaching Couple. With 15 years in the education sector and a decade as a teacher, I've witnessed the highs and lows of school life. Over the years, my passion for supporting fellow teachers and making school more bearable has grown. The Teaching Couple is my platform to share strategies, tips, and insights from my journey. Together, we can shape a better school experience for all.

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Copywriting Articles

This Is What I Learned About “Engaging Content” After Writing 500+ Pieces of Content

What can you do to make a headline more compelling?

Start with an attention-grabbing headline (3 tips in this post!)
Tell a story that conveys 1) value and 2) your values
Write like the original you are – drop some knowledge on those readers!
Use images that tell a story and help readers relate
Let your goals determine content length

How to write engaging content - the five steps

It’s been building to this point for the last 5 years…

I saw it coming. I was powerless to stop it…

What is it?

Shock. Your audience is in shock. Content shock.

They’re overwhelmed with the content that lands in their inboxes and social media feeds every minute of every hour of every day. And you have to pay the price.

Because there’s a limit to the amount of content we can consume . More importantly, there’s a limit on the amount of content we’re willing to consume.

And we’ve become more discerning than ever.

Content that doesn’t engage your readers won’t do anything to enhance your brand, let alone increase your conversions, leads and sales. It gets glossed over. Lumped in with the masses. Ignored .

That accounts for around 75% of the content out there, according to the latest reports .

Content isn't engaging readers, and isn't getting shared

Engaging content, however, gets read and shared.

It ranks better in search results.

It moves the audience down the path to purchase. It establishes your credibility. It builds trust. In fact, you might say:

Engaging Content Is the Swiss Army Knife of Content Marketing. Yet Most Content Writers Don’t Even Know They Have It in Their Pocket.

So, what exactly is “engaging content”?

It’s less of a thing, for starters. It’s more of an outcome. And this is the outcome:

Engaging content changes your reader.

That change could mean opting in to your list. Buying your product or service. Making an inquiry. Or it might just mean changing their attitude from feeling indifferent to feeling emotionally connected. And that, my friend, is the most powerful change of all. You cannot pay for a change like that. You can’t buy it in bulk or download it or install it as a plugin on your blog. Changing a reader from indifferent to emotionally connected is perhaps the single goal of marketing. Which makes it intimidatingly difficult.

I’ve spent the last decade and a half writing content for clients in tech, professional services, marketing, financial services and energy. I’ve made a career out of studying content and learning what engages readers at various points in their buying journey. And what I know for sure is this: there is no formula for engaging content. What engages readers changes all the time. That said, there are better practices – there are essential qualities you can watch for and repeat…

Using Buzzsumo , Moz Content , and good, old-fashioned Google search, I took a closer look at what’s engaging readers today…

I looked at the content that’s getting the most shares, ranking highest in Google searches, and being talked about the most online.

( Learn how to do this yourself in Moz Content with this free guide. )

And what did I find? I found 5 specific elements that make the most popular content engaging. Naturally, I’m going to share those with you now because I’m a very nice person, and you certainly seem like a very nice person. By the time you’re done this post, you’ll be able to rewrite your ho-hum content until it is absolutely, undeniably and – yes – measurably engaging…

Engaging Content Element 1: Write an Attention-Grabbing Headline

Engagement starts with a great headline. For this post, I wrote these 15 headlines before I arrived at the one I used:

Write Engaging Content for Higher Conversions
How to Write Engaging Content
Engaging Your Reader is the Key to Converting Them
Secrets of the Most Engaging Content Online Today
How to Engage Your Audience – and Convert Them
Why Changing Your Reader Can Change Your Business
5 Secrets to Engaging Your Reader
5 Secrets to Changing Your Business by Changing Your Reader
5 Secrets of the Most Engaging Content Online Today
After Writing 500+ Pieces of Content, and Analyzing the Most Popular Content Today, Here Are the Secrets to “Engaging Content”
After Writing 500+ Posts, and Analyzing Content With Tools Like Buzzsumo, Here Are the Secrets to “Engaging Content”
After Writing 500+ Pieces of Content, and Analyzing the Most Popular Content Today, I Found the Secrets to “Engaging Content”
After 15+ Years of Writing Content for Businesses, Here’s What I’ve Learned About Engaging Your Reader
After 15+ Years of Writing Content for Businesses, Here’s What I Learned About Making Content Convert
What Makes Content Engaging? Here’s What I’ve Learned After 15+ Years of Writing Content and Studying What Works

A good headline captures a reader’s interest and invites them to read the rest of the content.

But a great headline does more heavy-lifting. It:

Guides the reader smoothly from headline to body content
Inspires trust
Uses keywords
Encourages sharing
Speaks to the reader’s state of mind – accounts for their stage of awareness and connects with the conversation happening in their head

Your headlines will work hard for you – but you have to work hard on them first!

About 80% of people will read headline copy, but only 20% of those people read the rest of the content.

Let’s look at some examples of engaging headlines.

This trending Forbes article titled The Rise of the Licensing Cartel is intriguing.

A fantastic headline in action: Rise of Licensing Cartel

It has a sense of urgency to it, with “the rise of.” And it equates licensing (a legitimate business practice) to a drug cartel. I had to know what it was about, so I clicked.

Let’s break down the next headline: AI Is Transforming Google Search. The Rest of the Web Is Next .

Intriguing headline - AI Is Transforming Google

First, it hits on new technology (artificial intelligence) that people are curious about.

Second, it mentions Google Search, something most businesses care about.

Third, and finally, it leaves you with an impending sense of personal impact when it talks about the rest of the Web being “next.” In total, it’s intriguing.

Now look closer at the keywords: “AI” and “Google search.” Those keywords tell Google what the article is about, sure. But they also speak to a particular audience. This audience is tech-savvy, or at least is interested in technology. They’re concerned about the state of Google search. And they’re invested in the fate of the Web, too, which means they probably own a website and/or proprietary Web-based software, or their customers do.

Next up: an article entitled How to Find Your Lens’ Sweet Spot: A Beginner’s Guide to Sharper Images .

Excellent and compelling headline - this time for a photography post

This headline tells the reader up-front that it’s for beginners. Readers can trust that they’ll understand the content, even if they’re new to photography.

Now look at how it transitions from headline to body copy. The first bit of body copy is one short sentence that’s easy to say “yes” to (the compliance principle in action) – then the post ties immediately to the headline in the second sentence by referring back to “your lens’s sweet spot.” It confirms for the reader that they were right to trust the writer because right away they begin to deliver on the promise.

Now that you know a great headline is when you read it, here are 3 tips to keep in mind the next time you want to write a headline that makes them click.

Headline Tip 1: Take your time. No really. TAKE. YOUR. TIME.

The headline is the first thing your audience reads, and it’s going to either keep them reading or make them click away – so you need to knock it out of the park.

Don’t skimp on this step!

In her book Headlines, Subheads & Value Propositions , Joanna Wiebe — the copywriter behind Copy Hackers (you know, the blog you’re reading right now) — suggests you spend 90% of your writing time on the headline.

Write several headlines, then narrow them down to a few of your best. Then put those top headlines through the 4 Cs test:

Is the headline clear ?
Is it concise ?
Will it compel the audience to read the content?
Is it credible ? (See number two below for more on this.)

When a headline checks off all four of those Cs, you’ve got a winner.

Check out more headline formulas here .

Headline Tip 2: Kill the clickbait!

She Gets a Cup of Coffee From Her Local Coffee Shop – and You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!

25 Toys From Your Childhood That Would Scare Your Kid Today

Who is this senator, and why is he so drunk?

This is clickbait, and I’m begging you – don’t do it.

What is clickbait? It’s an overly sensational, provocative or exaggerated headline that draws the audience to click – but then doesn’t deliver in the content. It might get your reader to click – but when they experience the bait and switch, they’ll never take your desired action, so the click was worthless.

That doesn’t mean that click-worthy headlines are always clickbait, though. If the content delivers, then it’s just a good headline. Period. The point: Don’t write a headline just to entice someone to click on it. Make sure it actually makes a promise you can deliver on .

I mean, how many times have you clicked on an article only to find out it has nuuuuuuthing to do with what the headline promised? Super frustrating! Don’t do that to your readers. It’s annoying – and worse, it breaks their trust. (Breaking one’s trust is basically irreparable. Not worth it for a few hundred clicks.)

I had to laugh at this Mashable article for this reason: Jeff Bezos, Washington Post owner, takes a stand against clickbait . The article has almost nothing to do with clickbait. The headline was clickbait about clickbait. How meta.

Headline Tip 3: Get Medieval on Their Asses

It’s said enough that it sounds like a cliché, but this is really quite helpful to answer when you’re writing blog post headlines:

What wakes my reader up at night? What makes it impossible for her to get back to sleep?

It’s your job to tap into the hierarchy of needs and get your reader to pay attention. Not in a sleezy and scuzzy way. (I hope that goes without saying.) But in a way that says, “I hear you, and I’ve got the answer to your problem.” Here are the basic needs we all have:

Consider needs when writing engaging content - Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Take this headline, for example: One Thing Is Killing Content Marketing and Everyone Is Ignoring It .

If you’re a content marketer, that headline might tap into esteem – you might get flustered that your profession is coming under fire.

Or it might tap into physiological needs – you might wonder if your career was on the line, which would affect your ability to provide for your family.

No matter what, that headline is going to make a content marketer sit up and pay attention.

Or how about this one: Data Destruction Software – Security Tool or Digital Spy in Your Computer? This is an obvious one – it speaks straight to safety .

I bet if you made a list of the last 10 headlines you clicked on, you’d be able to map each and every one of them to one of the basic needs on that list.

Okay, let’s move on to the second element required to make your content engaging.

Writing Engaging Content Element 2: Tell a Story

The odds were stacked against Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. They started their company, Hewlett Packard, and built their first product in a garage in Palo Alto, CA, with a budget of only $538. Today, that garage is not only the birthplace of one of the largest computer corporations in the world – it’s also known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.

This story describes HP’s humble beginnings, yes. But it also taps into the part of us that loves a story of personal triumph. You’ll find references to HP’s “garage story” throughout their websites and in a lot of their marketing content for this reason. (I worked for HP for years.)

The HP story helps to humanize their products, which otherwise might be as boring as dry toast. Let’s face it – laser printers and enterprise servers are not that romantic.

HP using a story to help humanize their products

Whether your goal is entertaining, informing, educating or inspiring, your audience will connect more with your content when there’s a narrative.

Storytelling is how we connect with each other. And content that draws the reader in and gets them to buy into what you’re doing – what you stand for – is going to engage them.

Take this recently trending Bloomberg article , for example.

Millennials are changing the Stock Market

It kicks off with a story about a guy who’s spending his money in a non-traditional way, then leads into how millennials are impacting the stock market. It makes that human connection before it dives into a potentially dry topic.

This is another good example of how engaging storytelling can be: 6 Storytelling Tips to Tell Your Business Story Like a TED Pro . It came up on the first page of TWO of my Google searches: “how to tell a story in your content” and “how to tell a story in marketing content.”

The writing isn’t the highest quality. And the formatting is terrible. But it made the first page of my Google search es, which means enough people are reading it, sharing it, and linking to it that Google thinks it’s an important article.

It tells a story.

It tells multiple stories, in fact.

Let me recant the opening for you, just in case you didn’t click that link:

I recently joined John Bates and some fellow Boston professionals in a modern, glass-enclosed room at JLabs in Cambridge to learn how to tell a story like a TED Pro…John Bates has an impressive background actively coaching CEO’s and executives at big name companies like Motorola and Johnson & Johnson, training 100’s of TEDx speakers and “is considered one of the best communication trainers working today.”

It makes you want to hear what the writer learned from this famous speaking coach.

It’s engaging.

This post is a great example of how a good story can overcome a lot of friction.

Stories can also help the audience relate to you . Telling great stories is one of the best ways to convey the value of your offering and your values as a company.

I love the Hewlett Packard garage story from the opening of this section for this reason.

Here are 3 ways to use stories in your content (make sure to click on the hyperlinked text to see real-life examples):

Use an anecdote in your introduction
Weave a narrative throughout your content
Use a story to clarify or drive home a point

Writing Engaging Content Element 3: You’re an Original. Stop Burying Your Awesome In Unoriginal Content…

There’s a lot of regurgitated content out there.

It’s not necessarily all bad. But if it’s the same old content they’ve already read on a thousand other sites, they’re going to click away.

And it certainly won’t leave a lasting impression.

Instead of quoting, paraphrasing or pulling from other sources, write something new .

Something that includes your thoughts. Your experience. Drop some knowledge on those readers!

Wayne O’Neill, CEO of RESET, is a great example of how original content can drive engagement. He regularly posts thought and opinion pieces to LinkedIn – not recaps of other content but out-of-the-box ideas – and his LinkedIn connections have grown dramatically as a result.

Wayne O'Neill LinkedIn post on the importance of failing fast

He’s gained well over 500 new connections in the last year alone, and he maintains an active presence on LinkedIn while continuing to publish original content for his followers to engage with.

Original content can gain media attention for your business, too.

One of my clients, Fluid IT Services , was recently contacted by a radio station. This radio station had done a lot of research on IT companies in the area, and chose to contact Fluid’s CEO, Wade Yeaman, specifically.

What made this small IT company stand out among all the others in this big metro area?

The radio station told Wade, “We were impressed by your website, and by the quality and frequency of your thought leadership content.”

Original content can actually gain media attention for your business

Original ideas. Thought leadership. Content backed by experience and research. This is what stands out today – this is what helps your readers overcome their content shock and actually get something out of your content.

Originality matters .

In their recent report, Buzzsumo found that these content formats do well in the B2B space today:

Research content
eBooks and guides
Updated reference content
Trending and hashtag/news-jacking content
“How to” and practical content
Provocative content
Curated and list content
Product launch content
Infographics
Case studies

Look at all those opportunities for original content!

But where are listicles? Where’s the curated content? Where are the Best Of posts???

To be sure, those do have their place. I won’t completely discount them. In fact, that same report found that list posts are still some of the most shared content on the Web. Which is great – if shares are what you’re going for.

But get this …

Contently analyzed their original content and social media updates and found something interesting: While their social media updates were retweeted or shared over 10,000 times in 2015 (which is a really good number!), their original content performed about 70 times better . Their content was shared 704,000 times .

Shares don’t always mean engagement, though . Shares can result from engagement – but people also share content they’re not engaged with. Keep that in mind when you’re setting your KPIs (key performance indicators).

Writing Engaging Content Element 4: Help a Reader Out! Use Visual Aids.

Lots and lots of text means lots and lots of possible points of friction.

Use visual elements to break up your content and illustrate your points.

No matter the topic of your content, it will be easier to read and more engaging with images, videos, diagrams and charts.

In fact, content that uses an image for every 75-100 words gets the most shares .

Be thoughtful about what visual elements you use, however. Make sure the images add value to the content. This Kissmetrics post recommends that you stay away from stock photography for this reason.

While I agree that some people default to stock photography too often, and it doesn’t add any value to the content, I do think that stock photography can improve engagement. When it’s added thoughtfully .

What makes a “thoughtful” visual element?

Visuals add authenticity to your content.

Images can tell a story and help readers relate to the content.

Original photos work best for adding authenticity to content, but a carefully chosen stock photo can sometimes do the trick, too.

The original photos in this article give life – and a human face – to the subject: This NYC custom headphone startup turned its office into retail space and a 3D-printing factory .

Visuals, used correctly, can add authenticity

A great visual clarifies or explains the content.

Visual elements can help make a concept clearer in the reader’s mind.

This article about wireless charging furniture (yep, furniture that charges your mobile devices) wouldn’t make nearly as much sense if it didn’t have amazing images to go along with it. According to Moz Content, this article has a reach score of 100 – which is the highest score for both link activity and social sharing.

Wireless furniture - yes it's a thing. And this image communicates more than any text possibly can.

Visuals illustrate an idea.

Writing about your company’s innovative new product is great. Including pictures or drawings of it is even better.

Look at this guide to mid-century modern interior design . It’s full of photos that bring the concepts to life.

One more reminder to be thoughtful about your visual aids, however. That Mashable article about Jeff Bezos taking a stand on clickbait breaks up the text with screenshots of tweets – after almost every sentence. This is going a little overboard, in my opinion. But you be the judge.

Now for the fifth and final element you MUST have for engaging content.

Writing Engaging Content Element 5: Go In-Depth. …More Than That. …No, Really, More Than That.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: content fatigue (or content shock) is real, and content writers need to overcome this in order to get readers to engage with their content.

Most content published (85%, according to Buzzsumo’s report ) is less than 1,000 words long – but content over 1,000 words consistently gets shared and linked to more often .

There are many theories about why this is.

You have more room to cover the subject thoroughly
There are more opportunities for backlinks
People stay on the page longer
It includes lots of sources for quotes
If the subject warrants lengthy content, it is likely very interesting, thus very shareable

Look at some of the most popular websites and blogs today. You’ll find that most of the content is over 1,000 words.

Crazy Egg’s blog, The Daily Egg
Quick Sprout
Copyhackers , too!

Many businesses create content using a “quantity over quality” methodology. This is usually spurred by reports from companies like HubSpot, who have for years spouted mantras of “more content equals more leads!”

But even HubSpot is changing their tune. A little bit, at least.

They did an experiment in conjunction with Moz last year, and while HubSpot still got the best results (in their case, the most leads) from high-volume, low-comprehensiveness content, they did find some other interesting things:

There was a threshold for the number of posts the audience could consume
Their email list received the highest number of unsubscribes when they were sending out low-comprehensiveness content in high volumes
Their “Deep Tactical” content, which averages over 1,500 words, generated some of the highest traffic

The takeaway: Consider your goals. ( Rob Marsh wrote about this here .)

If you’re trying to engage readers because you want to build your email list or drive traffic to your site – longer, more comprehensive content may be a better bet.

There are a million examples I could give you of engaging long-form content – but I want to share this one in particular: Growth Hacking Your SaaS Startup – a Guide .

Is longer, more comprehensive content the way to go? Growth Hacking SaaS guide

That registered with a reach score of 76 in the Moz Content Search tool . And if you run that URL through the Moz Open Site Explorer tool, you’ll find a higher-than-average number of inbound links to it.

It’s performing pretty well. But I’m sharing it with you because it’s awesome . It’s comprehensive. Easy to navigate. You can read it online or download it as a PDF. It has actionable advice. It includes Click-to-Tweets for easy sharing. It points you to more resources. That guide is gold .

It engaged me, so I spent time reading it, I bookmarked it for later and I’m sharing it with you here right now.

Now download your free guide to using Moz Content Search – and figure out quickly what your audience needs you to do to engage them…

A Quick Checklist for Making a Headline More Compelling?

Write at least 15 headlines for every piece of content. Tap into needs, and be careful about sounding clickbaity.
Tell a story. Open with an anecdote, write in the first person, weave a narrative throughout…
Write something new. It’s hard to engage with another roundup post or listicle.
Give the eye a break with some visuals. Scroll back up through this post to see how many I added.
Go deeper. As Janet Jackson once sang, “We go deep and we don’t get no sleep.” But that was pretty pervy, actually…

How to Make Your Writing More Engaging

26 Mar 2022

So, you have managed to create a brilliant hook and your readers anticipate superb content. Now you have to make the next step and convince them to continue reading and stay with you till the end. It sounds like a great plan, but you may face a lot of challenges as a writer.

It does not matter whether you are a blog writer, a researcher, or even a student working on your assignment, you are definitely eager to engage the audience and share your ideas, findings, or points of view with other people. You are not alone! There are a lot of other academics, bloggers, and writers of different kinds who struggle with the same endeavors. If you write a dull paper, your audience will not be willing to go any further than the first lines of your text. Spruce up your text and take a step away from the monotony!

Tricks that Make Your Writing Better

No more Shakespearean flowery style!

Sorry, but your long-winded sentences can bore to death. It is so complicated to digest the text with lengthy phrases. For sure, we do not recommend making your texts sound primitive, but there should be a limit to complex structures in your writing. Shorten the sentences which appear too wordy and include only relevant information in them. If the phrase is concise, it produces high impact and attracts more readers.

Estimate the number of words in the sentence and make sure that there are not more than twenty words in it.
Link ideas with transitional phrases not conjunctions.
Make a mix of simple sentences and long clauses.
Cover the most important content in short sentences as the readers pay attention to them.
No repetitions!

Your vocabulary determines the quality of impact your text can make. It can be diversified with various phrases and precise wording. Your readers will be tired of similar patterns and same words and you can help them keep focused.

Pay special attention to the organization of paragraphs to make sure that all similar topics are grouped accordingly.
Use effective synonyms.
Mix nouns and pronouns, but always double check the text you have composed for clarity.
Be creative with sentence structures

Learning how to make your writing more engaging, do not forget about the variety of patterns in grammar compositions. If one sentence follows the pattern “subject + verb + several objects,” then the next one should use inversion or some other technique to prevent tedious flow.

Complex and compound sentences should be mixed with simple sentences. Thus, the readers will get some break from time to time and feel more relaxed while perceiving your ideas.
Mind not only the grammar constructions, but also the number of words in a sentence. The length of the sentences should vary.
Read a lot!

Get exposed to different writing styles, expand your vocabulary, develop your skills of critical thinking, and study grammar in context via extensive reading. It is also a great way to get inspired!

Always do the editing! (see the next section!)

Tricks that Facilitate Effective Editing

If you feel that your writing needs some life to breathe in, make use of our powerful editing guidelines. Thus, you will be more efficient at capturing your readers’ attention and you will create engaging content that produce incredible impact.

Mind every word, starting from the introduction

A dry opening paragraph can ruin all the effect out of the following parts. Some intrigue and action from the very beginning can hook the audience and motivate them to read on. It is not easy to create attention grabbers; however, if you manage, it will be your contribution to success of your writing.

No stagnant sections

Check whether your text moves forward. Even in the informative posts for your blog, you may illustrate the points with interesting stories and bright examples.

Use verbs in the active voice

Most of the sentences should be in the active voice. Read through your text and make sure that only a few of all sentences are passive and that is done for a specific purpose, such as avoiding responsibility or concealing who has done a particular action.

Include only necessary words

There are words which have no actual functions. Eliminate them with no mercy as you should care about the quality, not quantity.

Prefer the language of action

Make the sentences gripping with powerful verbs and bright adjectives.

Change the pace of telling stories

Slow down after you have sped up. Creating suspense is a great technique for any type of writing as the readers get engaged in the story and cannot skip any aspect. You should sound straightforward and simple to strengthen the writing skills.

You do realize that one of your major concerns is choosing a brilliant topic and then engaging the audience. If your writing is not appealing enough, the readers will probably get distracted after the first 50 words. Writing on the topic, you get to a point when you feel that you have nothing more to tell about. In that case, it is much better to leave it as it is than to go on writing meaningless phrases just to add to the word count. Do not forget to remind your audience the reason why they have started reading your text. Send reminders of the subject either in the beginning or the end of every paragraph and do not let your readers get distracted.

No matter what your topic is, take your readers on your journey! If you are passionate about what you are writing about, they will feel that. And then you will take care of such aspects as proper structure, vocabulary, and grammar. If you make your audience feel included, they will be your loyal readers and fans of your writing talent. Wherever possible, make an emotional connection with them and use your impact at the emotional level along with using effective techniques. Your technical skills are as important as your ability to draw people. Wise choice of words and use of the storytelling techniques can bring you to a new level of mastery. Strive for making your style perfect! Never stop developing! Remember that the limit is the sky for a great writer!

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More From Forbes

15 best practices for producing quality, engaging content.

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The adage of "content is king" still holds true to this day, with the only caveat of making sure the content is engaging, informative and of real value to your target audience. Producing high-quality content, however, requires more than just picking a topic and writing on it. Scheduling, research, and even the target audience each play a role in how engaging that content is and how much traffic it attracts.

So what are some of the critical elements of creating high-quality content that attracts traffic and leads? Fifteen experts from Forbes Agency Council dive into this topic to help businesses figure out what constitutes best practice in content production, and how an organization can ensure it fulfills those qualities to drive leads.

Members offer some best practices to follow in your content creation efforts.

1. Don't Try To Craft Content For All Audiences

Understanding what content resonates with your specific audience is critical to success. You don't need everyone to read your content, just the audiences that matter to you. By precisely crafting content that speaks to these audiences, you better break through the noise and avoid costly promotion efforts that falsely inflate impressions and click-throughs. - Megan Humphreys , Convé Communications

2. Make It Memorable

Create content that has your stamp on it -- your specific tone, style, etc. Give the reader something memorable and, more importantly, something valuable. Some brands are even using “taboo language” or humorous interludes (or both), often to great effect. "Dictionary answer" content is informative but boring. Show your brand's personality, be bold and take calculated risks with your content. - Bernard May , National Positions

3. Be Helpful

Produce content that helps clients and prospects solve a problem, save time and be more efficient. Helpful content resonates with readers, builds good will and provides an opportunity to show how your particular product or service can be part of the solution you propose. - Donna Robinson , Nina Hale - Digital Marketing Agency

4. Provide Value

Users are bombarded with content at every moment. For yours to make a memorable impression, it has to provide value. Become an expert not only in your product or service, but in your industry, your niche in the industry, and what problems your target consumers are looking to solve. Aim to build a relationship with your target consumer and to be their source for expert advice. - Lon Otremba , Bidtellect

5. Stop Selling

Stop selling. No, not literally. However, sales are a natural byproduct when consumers trust your brand. Consumers continue to gravitate toward brands that put their needs before sales. Create content that is purposeful and useful by educating and addressing customer pain points. - Laura Cole , Vivial

6. Make Your Content Current

Try to make your content as timely and relevant as possible. Whether it ties into a trend that’s the focus of the current cultural zeitgeist, a story that’s dominating the news cycle or a hot business topic that’s on the minds of your customers, try to connect your content to something that is top of mind right now. It’s a surefire way to drive traffic and leads. - Tripp Donnelly , REQ

7. Offer Unique Insight, Data Or Research

There is so much "expert" content available today that it's not enough anymore to simply "frankenstein" together existing content from online into a new format with different verbiage and pretend that's useful to anyone. To create content of value, you must have something truly helpful to communicate that's unique or fresh -- a new idea, a fresh insight or proprietary research, etc. - April White , Trust Relations

8. Take Advantage Of Trends

Pay attention to what people are searching for. Stay atop of the latest trends and create content about those topics when possible. Try to offer a new perspective on the topic, and don’t forget to demonstrate how it connects to your business so customers can see why your services are relevant. - Hannah Trivette , NUVEW Web Solutions

9. Use High-Quality Visuals

The internet is completely saturated with information and advertising and we are programmed to skim content quickly. Using eye-catching, high resolution imagery is one way to get people to slow down and notice your content. People like pictures. - T. Maxwell , eMaximize

10. Write Catchy Titles

I think everyone agrees that producing valuable, interesting content is key to attracting traffic and leads. However, you can produce incredibly valuable content but still lack in readers. The key to really bringing in views is producing a one-of-a-kind title or H1. Spark the interest of readers with an eye-catching title, and they're more likely to read your content. - Charles Mazzini , Hyperlinks Media, LLC

11. Leverage Influencers

With 92% of consumers trusting influencer content over what they see in paid ads, tapping an influencer to produce content is the most effective way to drive real results. Influencers, by nature, create content for audiences with shared interests. So, the meal planner who produces content that offers advice on meal prepping using a certain product will resonate more than a bland ad of the product. - Maria Sipka , Linqia

12. Split-Test Your Way To Better Content

A/B testing works because it eliminates the guesswork and leaves you with hard facts regarding what works, what doesn’t and what yields higher conversion rates. Use split testing to improve your funnel, better your content and find out what maximizes your traffic conversion. - Ashar Jamil , Digitally Up

13. Adapt To Each Format And Channel

Most brands don't see the value of creating ephemeral content or underestimate the power of Instagram stories either because they are not users themselves or don't get the chance to view it. We've seen a phenomenal force of stories to drive traffic and sales when explicitly adapted for the format. Use multiple screens and the tap-forward way of consuming stories to tease, capture and convert. - Aurelie Sauthier , Made in

14. Perform A Content Gap Analysis

When producing content, most websites focus on bottom-of-the-funnel keywords, meaning keywords that customers search for right before they make a purchase. Performing a content gap analysis will help you find keywords and topics that your customers are searching for prior to their desire to purchase. A content gap tool will let you research competitors to find high-ranking content you are missing. - Michael Fox , Corberry Digital

15. Check Out The Competition

As much as you are watching your own schedule, it is important to watch the schedules of your competition. You want to see what is out there that is converting to sales. That means that you are going to know what to plan as well. There are many ways that you can share what has worked for your competition and bring in those strategies. - Jon James , Ignited Results

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10 Examples of Engaging and Well-Crafted Creative Writing Pieces for Inspiration

1. the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald, 2. to kill a mockingbird by harper lee, 3. pride and prejudice by jane austen, 4. catch-22 by joseph heller, 5. the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger, 6. 1984 by george orwell, 7. the adventures of huckleberry finn by mark twain, 8. the hobbit by j.r.r. tolkien, 9. the handmaid's tale by margaret atwood, 10. animal farm by george orwell.

Searching for creative writing examples can be overwhelming, but fear not! We've compiled a list of ten engaging and well-crafted creative writing pieces for you to gain inspiration from. These works will not only spark your imagination but also aid in developing your own unique writing style. So, let's dive into these fantastic examples of creative writing!

The Great Gatsby is a classic example of engaging and well-crafted creative writing that has stood the test of time. Set in the roaring 1920s, this novel offers a glimpse into the lives of the wealthy and the pursuit of the American Dream. Here's what makes this piece a great source of inspiration for creative writers:

Imagery: Fitzgerald masterfully uses vivid descriptions to bring the opulent world of Gatsby to life. From the extravagant parties to the lavish mansions, his words paint a picture that transports readers to another era.
Symbolism: Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald employs various symbols, such as the green light and the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, to convey deeper meanings and themes.
Character development: The complex and multifaceted characters in The Great Gatsby are what truly drive the story. As you read, you'll witness their motivations, desires, and flaws, making them feel like real people.
Themes: The Great Gatsby explores timeless themes such as love, wealth, and the pursuit of happiness, which continue to resonate with readers today.

As you explore this classic example of creative writing, take note of Fitzgerald's techniques and consider how you can incorporate them into your own work. Remember, the key to great creative writing is to read engaging and well-crafted pieces like The Great Gatsby and learn from the masters!

To Kill a Mockingbird is another remarkable example of creative writing that has captivated readers for generations. Set in the Deep South during the 1930s, the novel tackles themes of racial injustice and moral growth through the eyes of a young girl named Scout Finch. Here are some key aspects of this work that make it an excellent source of inspiration for aspiring creative writers:

Point of view: The story is narrated from Scout's perspective, giving readers a unique and innocent outlook on the events that unfold. This helps to create a powerful emotional connection between the reader and the characters.
Dialogue: Harper Lee skillfully crafts authentic and engaging dialogue that brings the characters to life. The conversations in the novel are a great example of how to create natural-sounding dialogue that advances the plot and reveals character traits.
Setting: The vivid descriptions of Maycomb, Alabama, provide a strong sense of place that is integral to the story. The well-drawn setting helps to immerse readers in the world of the novel and adds depth to the narrative.
Themes: To Kill a Mockingbird addresses important themes like racism, prejudice, and the loss of innocence, which remain relevant today. The novel serves as a reminder of the power of literature to shed light on social issues and challenge our perceptions.

As you read this creative writing masterpiece, observe how Harper Lee weaves these elements together to create a powerful and thought-provoking story. Keep in mind that learning from creative writing examples like To Kill a Mockingbird can help you develop your own engaging and well-crafted creative writing pieces.

Pride and Prejudice is a timeless example of creative writing that continues to be popular more than two centuries after its publication. It is a delightful romantic comedy that explores themes of love, marriage, and social class in 19th-century England. The novel is filled with memorable characters, witty dialogue, and humorous insights into human nature. Here are some key elements of Jane Austen's writing that you can learn from and apply to your own creative projects:

Characterization: Austen's characters are complex, relatable, and engaging. Each character has their own distinct personality, making them memorable and interesting to read about. Observe how Austen uses subtle details and dialogue to reveal her characters' traits, motivations, and flaws.
Humor and wit: Pride and Prejudice is known for its clever, witty dialogue and humorous observations about society and human nature. As you read, pay attention to how Austen uses irony, sarcasm, and wordplay to create humor and keep the reader entertained.
Structure and pacing: The novel is well-structured, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Notice how Austen masterfully builds tension, develops relationships, and resolves conflicts throughout the story, while maintaining a steady pace that keeps the reader engaged.
Themes: Pride and Prejudice explores themes such as love, marriage, social class, and individual growth that remain relevant today. Consider how Austen's exploration of these themes adds depth and meaning to the story, making it more than just a light-hearted comedy.

By studying creative writing examples like Pride and Prejudice , you can gain valuable insights into crafting engaging and well-crafted creative writing pieces. Let Jane Austen's brilliant storytelling inspire you to create your own unforgettable characters and captivating stories.

Catch-22 is a satirical novel by Joseph Heller that is set during World War II. It tells the story of Yossarian, a bombardier who is desperately trying to avoid flying more missions. The novel is renowned for its unique blend of humor, absurdity, and dark themes, making it an excellent creative writing example to study and learn from. Here are some key aspects of Heller's writing that can inspire and inform your own work:

Unique narrative style: Heller's writing style is distinct, with frequent use of repetition, non-linear storytelling, and absurd situations. Observe how this unusual narrative approach adds to the overall impact and message of the story, and consider how you can experiment with different storytelling techniques in your own writing.
Humor and satire: Catch-22 uses humor and satire to explore serious themes such as war, bureaucracy, and the human condition. Notice how Heller's use of comedy and absurdity not only entertains the reader but also serves to emphasize the novel's deeper messages.
Strong characterization: The novel features a large cast of colorful, memorable characters. Study how Heller brings each character to life through their distinct personalities, quirks, and actions, and consider how you can create equally vivid characters in your own writing.
Themes and symbolism: Catch-22 is filled with symbolism, as well as overarching themes like the power of bureaucracy and the paradoxes of war. As you read, take note of how these themes and symbols enhance the story's impact and resonate with the reader.

When looking for creative writing examples, Catch-22 is a great choice to study and learn from. Joseph Heller's unique storytelling approach and expert use of humor, satire, and symbolism can inspire you to take risks and explore new ideas in your own writing.

The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel by J.D. Salinger that follows the story of Holden Caulfield, a troubled teenager who has just been expelled from his prep school. The novel is known for its raw, honest portrayal of teenage angst and alienation, making it a valuable creative writing example to learn from. Here are some aspects of Salinger's writing that can inspire you and help improve your own work:

First-person narration: The novel is narrated by Holden Caulfield, giving the reader an intimate look into his thoughts and emotions. Pay attention to how Salinger uses first-person narration to create a strong connection between the reader and the protagonist, and consider how you might use this technique in your own writing.
Authentic voice: Holden's voice is distinctive and authentic, capturing the thoughts and feelings of a disillusioned teenager. Study how Salinger develops Holden's voice through his use of language, tone, and colloquial expressions, and think about how you can create a unique, authentic voice for your own characters.
Character development: Throughout the novel, Holden experiences growth and change, revealing new facets of his character. Analyze how Salinger develops Holden's character over the course of the story, and consider how you can create dynamic, evolving characters in your own writing.
Themes and motifs: The Catcher in the Rye explores themes such as alienation, the struggle for identity, and the loss of innocence. As you read, take note of how these themes are woven into the narrative, and think about how you can incorporate meaningful themes into your own writing.

As one of the most powerful creative writing examples, The Catcher in the Rye can inspire you to develop authentic voices for your characters, experiment with first-person narration, and explore meaningful themes in your work. J.D. Salinger's novel is a testament to the power of engaging and well-crafted creative writing pieces, and studying it can help you grow as a writer.

1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell that presents a chilling vision of a future society ruled by an oppressive government. As one of the most iconic creative writing examples, 1984 offers a wealth of inspiration for aspiring writers to learn from. Here are some key aspects of Orwell's writing that you can study and apply to your own work:

World-building: Orwell creates a vivid, immersive world in which the story takes place. Observe how he constructs the setting, incorporating elements like the oppressive government, the Thought Police, and the telescreens. Consider how you can create a rich, believable world for your own stories.
Characterization: The novel features memorable characters like Winston Smith and Julia, who struggle against the oppressive regime. Examine how Orwell brings these characters to life through their actions, emotions, and inner thoughts, and think about how you can create compelling, relatable characters in your own writing.
Symbolism: Orwell uses symbols like the omnipresent Big Brother, the telescreens, and the paperweight to convey deeper meanings and themes. Study how these symbols are woven into the narrative, and consider how you can use symbolism to enhance your own writing.
Exploration of themes: 1984 delves into themes such as totalitarianism, surveillance, and the power of language. Notice how these themes are developed throughout the story, and think about how you can explore important themes in your own work.

With its gripping story and thought-provoking themes, 1984 is a prime example of engaging and well-crafted creative writing. By studying George Orwell's novel, you can gain valuable insights into world-building, characterization, symbolism, and thematic exploration that will help you elevate your own writing.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic American novel written by Mark Twain that follows the adventures of a young boy named Huck Finn as he travels down the Mississippi River. This engaging and well-crafted creative writing piece is perfect for studying and drawing inspiration from. Here are some aspects of Twain's writing to focus on:

Distinctive voice: Twain writes in a unique, colloquial voice that brings the characters and story to life. Pay attention to the way he uses dialect and slang to create an authentic, engaging narrative. Think about how you can develop a distinctive voice in your own writing.
Memorable characters: In addition to the eponymous Huckleberry Finn, the novel is filled with memorable characters such as Tom Sawyer, Jim, and Pap. Study the way Twain crafts these characters and makes them feel real and relatable. Consider how you can create unforgettable characters in your own stories.
Humor and wit: Twain is known for his clever humor and sharp wit, which permeate the novel. Take note of how he uses humor to entertain the reader and to make serious points. Reflect on how you can incorporate humor and wit into your own writing to make it more engaging.
Exploration of social issues: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn addresses important social issues such as racism, classism, and moral values. Observe how Twain weaves these themes into the story without losing the narrative's sense of adventure. Think about how you can tackle significant issues in your own writing while maintaining an engaging plot.

By examining The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you can learn valuable lessons in crafting an engaging, well-written story. Studying Mark Twain's writing style, memorable characters, use of humor, and exploration of social issues will provide you with a wealth of inspiration for your own creative writing pieces.

The Hobbit is a beloved fantasy novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien that tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, a small and unassuming hobbit who embarks on an unexpected adventure. This captivating and well-crafted creative writing piece is an excellent source of inspiration for aspiring writers. Here are some of the standout elements in Tolkien's writing that you can learn from:

Imaginative world-building: Tolkien created an entire world called Middle-earth, complete with its own history, geography, and languages. This level of detail makes the story immersive and believable. Consider how you can develop a rich, vivid setting for your own stories that will draw readers in.
Engaging plot: The Hobbit follows a classic quest narrative, with Bilbo and his companions facing numerous challenges and obstacles along their journey. Study how Tolkien crafts a compelling plot that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Think about how you can create an exciting, well-paced plot in your own writing.
Memorable characters: From the lovable Bilbo Baggins to the wise wizard Gandalf, Tolkien's characters are unforgettable and well-developed. Analyze how he brings each character to life through their actions, dialogue, and relationships. Reflect on how you can create your own memorable, multidimensional characters.
Themes of courage and personal growth: The Hobbit explores themes of bravery, self-discovery, and the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone. Notice how Tolkien weaves these themes into the narrative without being heavy-handed. Think about how you can incorporate meaningful themes into your own stories that resonate with readers.

By studying The Hobbit and the way J.R.R. Tolkien crafted his engaging, well-written story, you will find a treasure trove of inspiration for your own creative writing pieces. Taking the time to analyze Tolkien's imaginative world-building, compelling plot, unforgettable characters, and thematic exploration will provide you with the tools you need to create your own captivating stories.

The Handmaid's Tale is a powerful and thought-provoking novel by Margaret Atwood that delves into the world of a totalitarian society where women's rights have been stripped away. This gripping and expertly crafted creative writing piece serves as a great source of inspiration for writers who want to explore complex themes and create compelling narratives. Here are some key elements of Atwood's writing that you can learn from:

Dystopian setting: Atwood creates a chilling, believable dystopia in the Republic of Gilead, where women's roles are strictly controlled. Consider how you can build your own unique and thought-provoking setting that challenges readers to think critically about societal issues.
Strong, complex characters: The protagonist, Offred, is a multidimensional character whose experiences and emotions are vividly portrayed. Examine how Atwood develops her characters, making them relatable and sympathetic even in a disturbing world. Reflect on how you can create complex, engaging characters in your own writing.
Addressing important themes: The Handmaid's Tale tackles themes such as gender inequality, power dynamics, and resistance. Notice how Atwood weaves these themes into the narrative without overwhelming the story. Think about how you can address important issues in your own writing, making your work both meaningful and engaging.
Powerful, evocative language: Atwood's writing is rich in imagery and symbolism, giving the story depth and emotional resonance. Study her use of language and how it adds layers to the narrative. Consider how you can use powerful, evocative language in your own creative writing pieces to bring your stories to life.

By analyzing The Handmaid's Tale and Margaret Atwood's skillful writing, you can gain valuable insights and inspiration for your own creative writing projects. Take note of her compelling dystopian setting, complex characters, exploration of important themes, and powerful language to help you craft engaging and well-crafted creative writing pieces that will captivate your readers.

Animal Farm is a brilliant and engaging creative writing piece by George Orwell that uses allegory and satire to critique the events and ideas surrounding the Russian Revolution. This classic novel serves as an excellent example for writers who want to use symbolism and humor to convey deeper meanings and comment on societal issues. Here are some key aspects of Orwell's writing that you can learn from and apply to your own writing:

Allegorical storytelling: Orwell uses the story of farm animals rebelling against their human owner as an allegory for the Russian Revolution and the rise of communism. Consider how you can use allegory in your own writing to explore complex concepts or historical events in an accessible and engaging way.
Well-developed characters: The animals in Animal Farm are more than just talking farm animals—they represent various historical figures and social classes. Study how Orwell develops these characters, giving them distinct personalities and motivations, while also using them to symbolize larger ideas. Think about how you can create rich, multi-layered characters in your own writing that serve a symbolic purpose.
Sharp satire: Orwell uses satire to criticize the hypocrisy and corruption of the Russian Revolution, making the story both entertaining and thought-provoking. Examine how he uses humor and irony to convey his message, and contemplate how you can incorporate satire into your own writing to comment on societal issues or human nature.
Clear, concise language: Orwell's writing is straightforward and easy to understand, making his message accessible to a wide range of readers. Pay attention to his use of simple vocabulary and sentence structures, and think about how you can employ clear, concise language in your own creative writing examples to ensure your message is effectively communicated.

By studying Animal Farm and George Orwell's clever writing techniques, you can gain valuable insights and inspiration for crafting your own engaging and well-crafted creative writing pieces. Utilize allegorical storytelling, well-developed characters, sharp satire, and clear language to create captivating stories that both entertain and provoke thought in your readers.

If you're looking to sharpen your writing skills and take your craft to new heights, don't miss the workshop ' Everything You Need To Be A Skilled Writer ' by Christina Wolfgram. This comprehensive workshop will provide you with valuable insights, tips, and techniques to become a skilled writer and excel in your creative endeavors.

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Improve Your Writing Skills: A Beginner's Guide

Article 26 Aug 2024 317 0

Writing is an essential skill, whether for academic, professional, or personal purposes. For beginners, the journey to mastering writing can feel overwhelming. However, with the right approach, anyone can improve their writing skills and develop the ability to communicate effectively and creatively. This guide will provide you with practical tips, writing exercises, and essential techniques to enhance your writing skills, ensuring that you build a strong foundation for your writing journey.

Understanding Writing Fundamentals

Before diving into the intricacies of writing, it's crucial to grasp the basics. Writing fundamentals are the building blocks of effective communication, and mastering them will make the rest of the writing process much easier.

Grammar and Sentence Structure

Grammar is the set of rules that govern how sentences are constructed. Understanding grammar helps you avoid common mistakes and ensures that your writing is clear and coherent. Focus on the following areas:

Subject-Verb Agreement: Ensure that the subject and verb in a sentence agree in number (singular or plural). For example, "The cat runs" is correct, while "The cat run" is not.
Tense Consistency: Stick to one tense within a sentence or paragraph to maintain clarity. If you start in the past tense, continue in the past tense unless there’s a reason to switch.
Sentence Structure: Use a mix of simple, compound, and complex sentences to make your writing more engaging. Avoid run-on sentences and fragments.

Punctuation

Punctuation marks, such as commas, periods, and question marks, are crucial for conveying the intended meaning of your sentences. Incorrect punctuation can lead to confusion or alter the meaning of your writing.

Commas: Use commas to separate items in a list, after introductory elements, or to set off non-essential information. For example, "Before leaving, she checked the weather."
Periods: Periods signal the end of a sentence. Use them to complete your thoughts and give your reader a natural pause.
Apostrophes: Apostrophes indicate possession or form contractions (e.g., "John's book" or "it's" for "it is").

Mastering these fundamentals is the first step toward becoming a proficient writer. Once you feel comfortable with the basics, you can move on to more advanced writing techniques.

Daily Writing Exercises for Beginners

Practice is the key to improvement in any skill, and writing is no exception. By engaging in daily writing exercises, you can gradually enhance your writing fluency, develop your unique style, and overcome common challenges.

Writing Prompts

Writing prompts are a great way to get started, especially when you're unsure of what to write about. Here are a few prompts to kickstart your practice:

Describe Your Morning Routine: Write a detailed account of how you start your day, focusing on sensory details like sounds, smells, and sights.
Create a Dialogue: Imagine a conversation between two characters in a coffee shop. Focus on how their personalities influence their speech patterns.
Write a Letter to Your Future Self: What advice would you give? What do you hope to achieve in the next five years?

Freewriting

Freewriting is a technique where you write continuously for a set period without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or even making sense. The goal is to let your thoughts flow freely, which can help you overcome writer's block and generate new ideas.

Set a Timer: Start with 10 minutes of non-stop writing. Don’t edit or correct yourself; just write whatever comes to mind.
Reflect: After your session, review what you’ve written. You may find ideas or phrases that you can develop further in your formal writing.

Revising and Editing

Writing is rewriting. The first draft is often rough and full of mistakes, but that's okay. The real magic happens during revision and editing.

Take a Break: After completing a draft, step away from it for a while. Returning with fresh eyes will help you spot errors and areas for improvement more easily.
Read Aloud: Reading your writing aloud helps you catch awkward phrases, unclear sentences, and punctuation errors that you might miss when reading silently.
Focus on Clarity: Ensure that each sentence clearly conveys your intended meaning. Cut out unnecessary words and simplify complex sentences.

Common Writing Mistakes to Avoid

As a beginner, it's normal to make mistakes. However, being aware of common pitfalls can help you avoid them and improve your writing more quickly.

Run-on Sentences

A run-on sentence occurs when two or more independent clauses are joined without proper punctuation or conjunction. This can make your writing difficult to follow. To fix run-ons, split the sentence into smaller sentences or use a conjunction like "and," "but," or "so."

Example of a Run-on Sentence: "I went to the store I bought some bread." Corrected Sentence: "I went to the store, and I bought some bread."

Passive Voice

The passive voice can make your writing seem weak or indirect. In passive voice, the subject receives the action rather than performing it. Whenever possible, use active voice to make your writing more engaging.

Passive Voice Example: "The ball was thrown by John." Active Voice Example: "John threw the ball."

Overuse of Adverbs and Adjectives

While adverbs and adjectives can add detail to your writing, overusing them can make your sentences cumbersome. Focus on using strong verbs and nouns that convey meaning without the need for excessive modifiers.

Example of Overuse: "She quickly and quietly opened the old, creaky door." Simplified Version: "She eased the door open."

Valuable Writing Resources

To continue improving your writing skills, it's helpful to have access to resources that can guide you along the way. Here are some tools, books, and courses that you might find useful.

Online Tools

Grammarly: This online tool checks your writing for grammar, punctuation, and style issues. It also offers suggestions for improving clarity and conciseness.
Hemingway Editor: This app highlights complex sentences and passive voice, helping you simplify your writing.
Thesaurus.com: Use this online thesaurus to find synonyms and expand your vocabulary.
"The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White: A classic guide to writing that covers the basics of grammar, style, and composition.
"On Writing Well" by William Zinsser: This book offers practical advice on writing nonfiction, with a focus on clarity, simplicity, and avoiding jargon.
"Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott: A motivational book that offers insights into the writing process and tips for overcoming writer’s block.
Coursera’s "Creative Writing Specialization": This series of courses covers the essentials of writing, including plot development, character creation, and style.
edX’s "English Grammar and Style": Offered by the University of Queensland, this course helps you improve your grammar and sentence structure.
Udemy’s "Writing with Confidence": This course teaches you how to write clear, concise, and compelling content for various purposes.

The Importance of Feedback

Feedback is one of the most valuable tools for improving your writing. Constructive criticism from others can help you identify areas where you need to improve and provide new perspectives on your work.

Seeking Feedback

Join a Writing Group: Writing groups offer a supportive environment where you can share your work and receive feedback from other writers.
Ask for Peer Reviews: Share your writing with friends, family, or colleagues who can provide honest feedback.
Hire an Editor: For more formal or professional writing, consider hiring an editor who can provide detailed feedback on your work.

Learning from Feedback

Stay Open-Minded: Feedback can be hard to hear, but it’s important to stay open-minded and view it as an opportunity to grow.
Ask Questions: If you don’t understand a piece of feedback, ask for clarification. This will help you learn more and improve your skills.
Apply the Feedback: Use the feedback you receive to make revisions and improve your writing. Over time, you’ll start to see noticeable improvements in your work.

Writing Consistency: The Key to Improvement

One of the most important aspects of developing strong writing skills is consistency. Writing regularly helps you build your skills, develop your voice, and gain confidence in your abilities.

Setting a Writing Schedule

Daily Writing: Aim to write for at least 15-30 minutes each day. Consistent practice is more effective than occasional, longer writing sessions.
Use Writing Prompts: If you’re struggling to find something to write about, use prompts to inspire you.
Keep a Journal: Journaling is a great way to practice writing daily. It doesn’t have to be formal or polished—just write whatever comes to mind.

Tracking Your Progress

Set Goals: Establish specific writing goals, such as completing a certain number of words each day or finishing a particular piece by a deadline.
Review Your Work: Periodically review your past writing to see how you’ve improved over time. This can be a great motivator to keep practicing.
Celebrate Milestones: Recognize and celebrate your progress, whether it’s completing your first essay or getting positive feedback from a reader.

Conclusion:

Improving your writing skills as a beginner may seem daunting, but with the right approach, it’s entirely achievable. By understanding the fundamentals, practicing regularly, and seeking feedback, you can develop your writing skills and become a more confident and effective communicator.

Remember, writing is a journey, and every writer starts somewhere. Whether you're writing for academic purposes, professional growth, or personal fulfillment, the tips and techniques outlined in this guide will help you on your path to becoming a better writer. So grab your pen, open your laptop, and start writing today—your future self will thank you.

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Teaching Commons Autumn Symposium 2024

Get ready for autumn quarter at the Teaching Commons Autumn Symposium. Friday, September 27.

Writing to Engage

Marvin Diogenes, Director of the Stanford Program in Writing and Rhetoric, explains how low-stakes writing assignments can help students engage with the course materials.

Reading as active meaning-making

We assign readings with the hope that students will find the readings as engaging as we do. We can work toward this outcome by putting active reading in the foreground, inviting students to think explicitly about reading as a creative, meaning-making activity central to their academic work.

Low-stakes, ungraded, and creative writing prompts and activities can improve students’ engagement with and understanding of course readings and other materials, such as videos or podcasts. Such assignments aim to make students more active, purposeful readers, encouraging them to draw on personal experience and past reading experience to engage with new texts (especially unfamiliar or challenging texts).

Writing activities focused on reading move students into a dynamic relationship with the text, helping them engage with texts over time and in relation to each other. Such activities highlight that readings aren’t simply content containers and readers aren’t empty vessels; students create meaning through their active engagement and conversations with others.

Readings aren’t simply content containers and readers aren’t empty vessels; students create meaning through their active engagement and conversations with others.

Start with a reading inventory

When assigning readings, you might begin by asking students about their past reading experiences and current reading strategies. You can also ask students how often their previous teachers asked them to use writing to engage with readings or other course materials.

Gathering reading inventories from your students provides insight into their past reading habits and strategies. A reading inventory activity gets students to consciously reflect on their reading as well and can help you design reading assignments and classroom activities.

You can then take what they share into account when providing specific strategies guiding how you want students to engage with the readings you assign. In particular, use what you learn about them as readers to design writing activities aimed at helping students engage with readings and, as a byproduct, think differently about how they read. Also, keep in mind your learning objectives as you design these activities.

Designing writing-to-engage prompts

Writing-to-engage (also called writing-to-learn) assignments and activities emphasize writing as a key means of learning rather than primarily as a way in which a writer demonstrates mastery of content or knowledge.

This kind of assignment or activity can serve as part of the process of completing a more formal assignment. Often they take the form of freewriting in response to readings, keeping a reading journal for the course, or responding to questions as part of preparing for class discussion of readings.

We can define such writing opportunities as low-stakes (generally not graded other than to note that the student completed the work), creative, and often informed by the writer’s life experience. Writing-to-learn activities move students into a dynamic relationship with course readings and other materials, often through the reading journal, which encourages students to engage with texts over time and in relation to each other. Below you can find examples of various kinds of prompts and activities that you can use or adapt for your classes.

Develop questions to support student engagement

Ask students to respond to questions you prepare to highlight key ideas, concepts, and contexts to guide their reading and help them prepare for class discussion. Develop questions that reflect what you find compelling or engaging about the text. Consider including questions that you don’t have answers for yet.

Ask students to prepare questions about the reading to ask in full class discussion, discuss with a peer or small group, or contribute to a Google document with the rest of the class, generating a list of questions from the full class. You can use the questions in various ways for class activities, such as small group work or clustering questions to highlight key concepts or challenging aspects of the reading.

Ask students to highlight sentences, paragraphs, and sections

Students approaching reading as a process of extraction generally put aside as irrelevant their experience of reading the text. The following prompts emphasize that reading is first of all a human experience (we don’t read as machines). Readers’ prior knowledge, interests, and personal experience shape their engagement with the text and can set the stage for more insightful analytical reading valued in academic settings.

Write about a favorite sentence or passage (“This for me was the heart of the reading”).
Write about a sentence or passage that illuminated a new concept, theory, or question (“This taught me something I didn’t know before”).
Write about a challenging sentence or passage (“Why did this have to be so complicated? Why did this have to be so boring? Why did this have to be so long?”).
Write about an opaque sentence or passage (“I didn’t understand this at all”).

Ask students to write back to the writer or add to or revise the reading

Students generally don’t think of the writer of their school texts as people trying to engage readers in a relationship through language; thus, they might not think about responding to the invitation of the text with questions or collaboration. The following prompts emphasize that reading provides an avenue to respond directly to the writer and become a collaborator in creating the text as an opportunity for learning.

Respond directly to the writer of the reading (“This is what I want to ask you/tell you/share with you about what you wrote”).
Add a sentence, paragraph, or section that the writer left out that you believe would make the text more accessible to readers.
Revise a sentence, paragraph, or section to make it better/clearer/friendlier/more accessible to readers.
Develop connections to other texts (“This made me think/think again about what we read earlier in the course”; “This made me think about this other thing I read”) to engage in conversation with the writer.
Find a personal way into the reading (“This made me think of this in relation to my own experience”) that might expand the writer’s sense of audience and perspective on the topic of the reading.

Ask students to create visualizations and translations

Students generally think of readings as words on a page or screen, perhaps with charts and graphs and works cited listing sources. Asking them to turn prose into visual texts can lead to deeper engagement. Having them create their own versions in visual form or another genre can foster dynamic interactions with readings.

The following prompts offer students opportunities to create visualizations and translate the text in playful, creative ways that might illuminate the meaning and heighten the student’s sense of agency.

Create a visualization or mapping of the reading. Students might create a map or constellation visualizing the reading in relation to other readings or to their personal experience. .
Write a review of the reading (this can be creative in terms of the venue for the review, e.g. writing a Yelp review of an academic article).
Revise the reading for another genre (what if this were the lyrics to a song, a short story, a poem, or a sermon?).

Hume Center for Writing and Speaking resources

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Class Workshops: Write to PWR Director Marvin Diogenes at [email protected] or Hume Director Zandra Jordan at [email protected]

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Active Learning

Trending Post : 12 Powerful Discussion Strategies to Engage Students

10 Simple Ways to Add Creativity to ELA Lessons

You’re on a mission to add creativity to your lesson plans in order to engage students in meaningful learning. Excellent! Your students will thank you.

When we think about making lesson plans creative, it’s important to maintain the integrity of challenging students in ways that are developmentally appropriate. Creativity doesn’t equal fluff. Likewise, it shouldn’t mean we are stressing ourselves out to reinvent the wheel.

This week, I’ve gathered a handful of my friends to create a list of practical ways we can add spice to a middle or high school English lesson plan. The goal? Cover standards and captivate students – practically.

Let’s take a look at some possibilities.

Read about 10 simple ways to add creativity to ELA lesson plans #middleschoolELA #highschoolELA #lessonplans

1. Differentiate the Learning

Breathe life and personalization into vocabulary instruction by changing up the way you ask students to think about their words. Doodling, associations, games, and challenges make vocabulary memorable. Brain-based, differentiated vocabulary lessons have deepened my students’ appreciation for words as well as brought movement to the classroom. Plus, it works! Students remember the words. Try a lesson for free here .

2. Use QR Codes

Lesson plans aren’t the only thing you can add creativity to in the classroom. My friend Amanda from Mud and Ink teaching wrote a whole post about how she uses QR codes to transform her classroom management. It’s brilliant, and it got me thinking. Adding QR codes to a simple lesson plan is just one more way we can engage students with technology. For instance, I use them with vocabulary !

3. Make it a Manipulative

Creativity does not mean diminished learning, especially with grammar. My friend Lauralee from Language Arts Classroom says we should let students hold their language – and manipulate it, like this . Students benefit from being able to arrange language. It helps them see how they, as writers, can use words to craft powerful sentences.

4. Spice up Discussions

Let’s face it. Some class discussions are boring. Students aren’t always interested enough to participate, and everyone walks away feeling less than inspired. Ashley from Building Book Love wrote a post detailing her favorite strategies to engage students during Socratic Seminars. Read about how you can use Flipgrid, socratic soccer balls, emoji stems, silent discussion opportunities, the 3-2-1 strategy, and BINGO to add creativity to your discussions here .

5. Pair Unusual Texts

Are students tired of nonfiction articles? Try blending high-interest informational texts with poetry by asking students to write creative and symbolic pieces that blur the lines between verse and prose, like this . Or, add short films to poetry to create a unique experience with analyzing paired texts. Here are some film and poem pairing suggestions.

6. Play Chef

Project-based learning is a creative way to engage students in meaningful learning. Any time we can add food into the mix, students get excited. Try this free culinary symbolism project from Ashley at Building Book Love next time you want students to analyze literature. Want to take it further? Treat your students to a snack as they hone their literary cooking and baking skills.

7. Stage a Mock Trial

Citing textual evidence is an essential ELA skill, but it doesn’t have to be boring. A mock trial is a creative, engaging, and authentic way to practice this skill and many others, including close reading, persuasion and argument, writing, and speaking and listening. Mock trials usually work for any text with a death, crime, or moral debate (so, just about all literature, right?!).

If you’d like more information on how to set up your own mock trial, check out this blog post by Abby from Write on with Miss G. And, if you want ready-to-go resources, rubrics, instructions, and absolutely everything you need to facilitate a mock trial, this is a bundle that works for ANY text.

8. Add some Color

Coloring in the classroom has brain benefits for older students. Since many students struggle with grammar, Lauralee from Language Arts Classroom created Color by Grammar . Coloring is relaxing, it helps students refocus, and it increases creative thought. Adding a splash of coloring to any type of lesson can be beneficial. Read more about the research behind this approach here .

9. Try an Escape Room

When we finish teaching a novel or play, traditionally, we roll right into the assessment. To add a little bit of creativity to the same old routine of ending a story, try creating an escape room . There are tons of resources online to help you get started, or, if you happen to be reading A Raisin in the Sun , Amanda from Mud and Ink Teaching has one made for you. Here’s how it works:

The Place: Chicago PD Headquarters.
The Scandal: Willy Harris has run off with Walter’s money.
The Task: Student detectives must use clues, close reading strategies and teamwork to track down Willy Harris before the bell rings.

10. Just Add Music

Music is my go-to when I need to add a little bit of pizzazz and creativity to an otherwise straight forward lesson plan. I use music with poetry, as a hook for a lesson plan on figurative language, as a paired text complement, and as an end-of-the-year reflection, among other things. Try asking students to make a playlist of their year or let them analyze song lyrics during your next poetry or analysis unit. Download this song activity for free!

Hopefully you’ve found some inspiration that will help you add creativity to your lesson plans. Keep your class fresh and engaging for older students by surprising them with something new – a brain-based learning approach, a lesson on symbolism, some QR codes, or an enticing discussion strategy. Playing with creativity can ward off boredom and burnout – for both teachers and students.

Looking for more creative teaching ideas? Check out these posts.

Creative Approaches for Teaching Vocabulary

Engaging lesson plans for any time of year, using the one pager as a creative response to reading, a creative music lesson plan for the end of the year, assessing comprehension without making students hate reading, get the latest in your inbox.

7 ways t o create more engaging content

Jan. 5, 2024 by Rutger Verhoeven

content tips, data analytics, engaging content

Content analytics can help you understand what your audience needs and therefore it can help your business grow. The first question is: how to write engaging content?

Creating content no-one is interested in is going to do absolutely zilch to help your business grow.

From all the data collection we’ve done, across the many brands and news organisations we work with, we know this to be true: engaging content will help you optimise your business goals. It will bring in more frequent visitors, who will better value your content, be more loyal to you, start sharing & engaging with your content and even convert to different things (subscribe to newsletters, join online conversations, sign up for webinars, leave email addresses in order to download info, or even buy stuff.)

So, in this edition of Tips & Tricks we’ll give you simple suggestions about how to create more engaging content.

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Check out this use case with Badische Zeitung for how they grew their subscriber base by focusing on creating engaging content.

1. Address something your audience cares about

At the risk of being Captain Obvious, take a moment to check your latest blogs, articles or posts and ask yourself: what are you actually trying to get across? Is your audience even interested?

In our experience, stories can almost always be improved, and they can be improved by refocusing on audience needs and expectations.

Why should they care about the topic?
Did you tell them what they are missing out on?
How will their business improve by what you’re offering?

You’d be surprised how often these simple questions yield massive results. And you’d be even more surprised to see how often we find these simple questions aren’t being asked, let alone answered.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Keep your audience and your brand at the centre of all your content planning and creation efforts.

2. Think about the user need you're going to fulfil

Here at smartocto, we were so full of admiration for the user needs model, originally created by the BBC, that we adopted (and adapted) it with one of its most vocal evangelists, Dmitry Shishkin. The original BBC model, created after much data research, yielded six user needs. In March 2023 we launched the 2.0 version of the model , adding two additional needs. Together, they give a focus and direction to your stories and are essential to your online business model. The universal needs are:

Keep me on trend
Give me perspective

There’s one really important point to make which is that in almost all newsrooms 'update me' stories dominate - even though they return some of the lowest levels of engagement. These are the basic, factual news stories (“Dog bites man” etc). If you are able to make that story inspirational (“Hero girl provides first aid to man bitten by dog”), there is a better chance engagement levels are going to start to look much more interesting.

The trick is to find a good balance in user needs that suit your brand. Smartocto can help you get the right insights and visualise them - for example in a quadrant . With our feature, Smartify , we’re able to send you notifications presenting the actions you should take to get the best results. You can even add Smartify to different data tools.

3. Make sure the headline indicates what you’re actually going to write about

If you want to grab the attention of your easily distracted audience, you need a headline that reveals precisely what they can expect from the content you’re serving them. A question in a headline is a good idea, but hinting where the answer will lead to is even better.

For example:

Will the Taliban keep their word in today’s Kabul?
What these 6 former Taliban actions tell us about the trustworthiness of their promises.

Trust in media has roots here: if a headline suggests to your audience that they’re getting one thing, but ends up somewhere different, your readers aren’t going to thank you for the time you’ve just wasted.

This use case explored how AI can help with headline A/B testing.

4. Get your timing right

Various studies have shown that people do different things at different moments of the day. If your audience consists of mainly young mums, trying to connect with them on your website in the morning by sharing tips about the best places to get cheap car insurance, is probably less effective than an article about the best food and drink to help alleviate a lack of sleep, or ideas for last minute costumes for your kid’s World Book Day event at school (whoops).

What are your audience’s rhythms?

5. Understand which format fits at what time

This tip is somewhat related to the previous tip, but it’s all about the format you choose to package your content in. A longread is asking a lot of effort from your audience, so when they’re in the middle of morning rush hour, trying to get the kids to school and weaving through traffic to avoid their boss yelling at them for being late 3 days in a row, that’s not the moment to try and feed them a 7 minute video on how to organise yourself better.

Many surveys have proven that in the morning people have little time for anything save caffeinated beverages. Until that kicks in, most just want updates, information in little ‘easy to understand’ bites so they’re able to get a quick overview - the day’s Cliff Notes. Just enough of the essentials to enable them to connect to colleagues or other parents in the schoolyard. This goes mainly for news, but is even more the case for content that’s related to brands, services or products. Don’t try to sell your product in the morning unless it’s coffee, train tickets, newspapers or gas (or anything else that will help your audience through the first hours of the despair of daily routine, though we’re curious to know the viewing figures and stats for purchases of dream vacations during these hours).

6. Use the input the audience is giving you

The best way of making sure your audience will engage with your content is to tell them directly what you want them to do. Create a clear call to action (CTA). Vote here for … please tell us about your experiences … share your pictures here etc.

And make it visible. People are lazy and tend to scan rather than read - and if it’s not clear what they need to do (and what they get in return) it will disappear in the mist of daily fuzz.

The biggest mistake you can make is neglecting the input the audience is giving you - and they are giving you input all the time: you just need to look for it.

You should never be absent in the online discussion if something of value is contributed.

Just answer questions, investigate things your audience is not clear about, and reply. People like to be in touch with people and social media (where 95% of all the engagement takes place) is built to connect. You’re not exempt from that just because you’re the publisher. Far from it (though many neglect post-publication communications). So, hop hop hop - start to be out there! Need any help to get a better overview of your social media performance? Smartify for media companies is your tool.

7. Be personal, authentic and real (if you can)!

The best way to engage with your audience is to share authentic and honest content. People engage more easily with personal stories. Especially when it explains or gives insights on how you (or your product or service) helped somebody make their life easier.

If it’s a story you can relate to it will help to open up yourself and start to engage. We all win.

Sure, it’s not always possible. Sometimes, news updates are just that: updates. But, as we’ve said before, this is just one part of the publishing puzzle - there’s plenty more opportunities to connect, and if everything you put out there is clearly stamped with your DNA, people can start to understand what you stand for and what they can expect. That, as Bogart might say, is the start of a beautiful friendship.

And last but not least, a total knock-out tip that will change everything you do online for ever .

The knockout tip!

Of course we wouldn’t leave you without something actionable. It’s what we’re known for and frankly we can’t help ourselves.

All the tips here will help to give you a better shot at creating engaging content and you should definitely work through this list immediately, right this second (ok, we’ll give you a chance to grab a coffee first. We’re not animals). That said, we have to be honest: audiences are fickle, and even if you do these things, it may not guarantee an engagement turbo charge.

This is where we use our in-house mantra: your gut is good, but smartocto is better. The best, most consistent way to make sure you are creating engaging content your audience actually cares about is to look at the data. And that’s where we come in. The trick we have up our collective sleeve has a name - heck, it even has an acronym.

Our Content Performance Indicator (CPI) is a really, really, really precise algorithm that calculates which content is the most engaging to your audience.

This clever little number will help you understand what’s really important for your audience and furthermore also signals when you should act on it. We mentioned a Client Case at the beginning of this (were you paying attention?) and we’ll mention it again now because in it we outline how Badische Zeitung managed to grow their online subscription base by acting on the CPI. It’s super insightful stuff and you can read all about it here .

If you’re wondering how this CPI or other solutions look, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’d love to hear about your challenges and show you our features and solutions in an online demo!

16 Free Title Generator Tools For Writing Better Headlines

Discover the power of engaging headlines with free title generator tools. Write catchy, concise, and SEO-friendly headlines to capture attention and increase clicks.

With audiences scrolling through content so quickly (on both search engines and social), an engaging headline is the first – and sometimes only – chance you have to capture their attention and get them to your webpage.

I’ll admit it: When it comes to consuming online content, I’m typically just scrolling and skimming rather than reading everything I see – and chances are that you are, too .

This habit has become commonplace, given the vast amount of information and content we encounter daily.

A strong headline can make the difference between a scroll-past and a click.

Luckily, there are an array of free tools designed to craft headlines that are not only succinct and engaging but also optimized for clicks and SEO .

In this guide, we’ll highlight the top free tools for generating effective titles and headlines, ensuring your content stands out and gets the attention it deserves.

Why Should You Use Free Headline Generator Tools?

You should never underestimate the power of a compelling headline.

The headlines you use for your blog posts and webpages are crucial in attracting clicks from search engine results pages (SERPs) and even social media platforms.

If your content marketing efforts are underperforming, weak headlines could be to blame.

Thankfully, title generator tools exist to help you craft engaging headlines – and many of them are free (like those listed in this article). These tools leverage algorithms to construct headlines that align with time-tested copywriting techniques and proven performance trends across various marketing channels.

While they’re not perfect, leveraging these tools to help you create stronger headlines can ensure your content stands out and drive more traffic to your owned properties.

But Are They Effective?

Absolutely, with some important caveats.

Generally, tools like these are great at generating compelling headlines, but they all have their constraints – some more than others.

Given that they’re free tools, they’re working with very limited information, and it’s worth keeping that in mind. You shouldn’t expect them to come up with headlines that satisfy the latest SEO trends, nor will they always nail your brand’s tone of voice and unique perspective.

Instead, you should use them as a jumping-off point while also maintaining a focus on your audience’s preferences and needs. Integrating your unique insights, along with your own keyword research and SEO findings, will help you get the most out of these tools.

16 Free Title Generator Tools To Help You Write Better Headlines

Without further ado, let’s explore the top free title generators for writing better headlines.

For consistency, I’ll be using the topics of “budget travel” and “budget travel tips and tricks” as my topic to generate examples across all of these tools.

Let’s dive in!

1. HubSpot: Blog Ideas Generator

The Blog Ideas Generator from HubSpot stands out as a top-tier resource for coming up with powerful blog post concepts and titles.

It can even generate a sample article based on your selected headline if you’re in the market for that – but for our purposes, we’ll focus on the title generation aspect.

All you need to do is tell the tool what your blog post is about, and it provides you with a list of five headline ideas to choose from.

HubSpot’s tool leverages Semrush search volume insights and the power of AI to create headlines that are attention-grabbing, strategic, and designed to garner traffic and engagement.

Under each headline, the tool will display the keywords it used to generate the title.

If you gravitate towards one specific keyword set, you can prompt the tool to generate an additional headline based on those keywords – up to 10 headlines with a free account.

Based on the prompt “budget travel tips and tricks,” this tool came up with the following headlines, showing that it’s capable of exploring different facets of a topic and associated keywords to come up with catchy headlines:

Budget Travel Itinerary Planning: How To Explore More On A Tight Budget.
Money-Saving Travel Hacks: Tips And Tricks To Make Your Budget Stretch Further.
Cheap Flight Booking Tips: How To Score The Best Deals On Airfare.
Affordable Travel Destinations 2023: Discover Budget-Friendly Places To Visit.
Budget Travel Packing List: Essential Items For A Cost-Effective Journey.

As we touched on above, you can even select a headline you like and have the tool generate a sample blog post within the HubSpot CMS.

A notable con of HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator is that you must sign up for a HubSpot account to access it. However, the tool is 100% free and incredibly easy to use.

2. The HOTH: Title Generator

The HOTH’s free Title Generator is a great tool for crafting SEO-focused headlines aimed at maximizing click-through rates.

The tool asks you to enter details on five different components that go into creating an effective title:

Relevant content keywords.
Desired outcome your audience might be searching for.
Common problems for your target audience or industry.
Your industry.
Your target audience .

It then uses the details you provide to come up with a list of 10 headline concepts. Here is what it provided me based on my inputs:

As you can see, some headlines are stronger than others, but it’s a great starting point for jogging your brain and getting creative juices flowing.

It seems to tend toward listicle ideas and more formulaic headlines, which could be a pro or a con depending on your audience and goals.

If you don’t like any of your headline suggestions, you can prompt it to generate more ideas – it’s always completely free.

3. SEOPressor: Blog Title Generator

The Blog Title Generator by SEOPressor takes a more specific approach to headline creation by having you outline what type of keyword you’re using.

So, you enter your target keyword and then use the provided dropdown to confirm whether it’s:

A generic term.
A brand/product.
An industry.
A location.
A person’s name.

Then, SEOPressor will suggest a list of related headlines for you.

While the tool is easy to use and takes SEO into consideration, the headlines can be a bit generic and straightforward. Some examples I received for the terms “budget travel” and “budget travel tips and tricks” included:

5 Secrets About Budget Travel That Has Never Been Revealed For The Past 50 Years.
7 Common Misconceptions About Budget Travel Tips And Tricks.
10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Budget Travel Tips And Tricks.
Master The Skills Of Budget Travel And Be Successful.

It’s clear that the tool just inputs the term into tried-and-true headline formulas for that particular keyword type rather than customizing them – so, depending on your topic, it might take a bit of extra time and legwork to perfect them.

While the tool is free, it will ask for your email address after three regenerations. Also, be aware that the site is heavier on the ads than many other tools here.

4. Portent: Content Idea Generator

Portent’s Content Idea Generator stands out as another popular choice for those seeking inspiration when it comes to headlines and ideas.

It provides a range of topics for use across various content formats, giving you multiple headline options to choose from.

You simply enter your subject and prompt the tool to generate a headline. It provides one title at a time, and for each, you have the option to save the idea, tweet it, see a new title, or change your subject altogether.

The interesting thing about Portent’s tool is that it allows you to click on different words or phrases from the suggested headline to learn more about why it was included and how it can help your content perform.

In that regard, it’s helpful to learn what makes a headline engaging and clickable.

However, its tone is particularly quirky, and the suggestions might not always align with those looking for more professional or serious content. Some of the headlines it suggested to me:

When Budget Travel Tips And Tricks Send You Running For Cover.
Why Budget Travel Is The Key To Winning The Presidential Election.
How To Build An Empire With Budget Travel.
How Budget Travel Could Help You Win The Game of Thrones.

Nobody can say they’re not entertaining!

5. Easy-Peasy.AI: Headline Generator

Easy-Peasy.AI (formerly Content Row) features an AI-powered Headline Generator that excels in producing a wide array of headline ideas across content types.

To use it, you just input your topic and your tone (optional) and click “Generate.”

The tool spits out 20 headlines in four different categories: guides & how-tos, questions, listicles, and others. That’s five headlines for each category.

I liked the variety the tool provided, which made the headlines more specific. The suggestions I received felt more thoughtful and valuable than some of the other tools. Some examples of headlines it generated for my topic:

How To Travel The World On A Shoestring Budget.
How Can I Travel On A Budget Without Sacrificing Comfort?
7 Must-Have Apps For Traveling On A Budget.
The Hidden Benefits Of Budget Travel – More Than Just Saving Money!

With five free rounds of generations a day and 40+ languages supported, this tool is a wonderful starting point for your headline ideation.

6. Tweak Your Biz: Title Generator

The Title Generator by Tweak Your Biz is yet another impressive free tool for generating headlines.

Input your topic, identify whether it’s a noun or a verb, and let the tool know whether you want the results in title or sentence case.

Click submit, and the tool will serve you a long list of headline concepts, separated by categories that include lists, best, how-to, questions, business, snark, motivation, and more.

The upside here is that you get a ton of different content title suggestions – and that also feels like the downside. While the array of choices is great, the sheer volume of titles can be time-consuming to sort through.

Also, the formulaic approach can lead to a lot of headlines that aren’t useful for your purposes. For example, I didn’t need a section on “celebrities” (believe it or not, I’m not in a rush to write “Genghis Khan’s Guide To Budget Travel Excellence”).

Other headlines it suggested for me included:

Master The Art Of Budget Travel With These 10 Tips.
Best 20 Tips For Budget Travel.
How To Earn $1,000,000 Using Budget Travel.
Shhhh… Listen! Do You Hear The Sound Of Budget Travel?
10 Ways Budget Travel Can Drive You Bankrupt – Fast!

If you’re starting with a blank slate and looking to come up with as many ideas as possible – or just get some inspiration – this is a great resource.

7. CoSchedule: Headline Analyzer

The Headline Analyzer from CoSchedule offers actionable insights about what makes a successful headline by analyzing your headlines and telling you what works (and what doesn’t).

The tool evaluates your headline based on factors like word balance, headline type, sentiment, clarity, skimmability, word count, character count, and more.

It gives your headline an overall score out of 100, as well as an SEO score based on details like keyword quality and density, search competition, average monthly searches, and more.

The two screenshots below show my headline score and SEO score, respectively, when using a headline suggested to me by HubSpot’s tool (earlier in this article):

While not a typical headline generator, CoSchedule’s tool provides valuable insights into headline effectiveness to help you ensure you’re optimizing your content for engagement and search rankings.

The only downsides are that you need to provide your own headline, and you’ll need to upgrade to a paid account for features like more monthly credits (you get 10 credits/searches each month with a free account) and to unlock additional features.

Overall, a powerful tool for testing your headlines.

8. SumoMe: Kickass Headline Generator

SumoMe’s Kickass Headline Generator helps you create headlines by having you input specific information based on the type of content you’re creating.

SumoMe has users choose from a list of predefined content categories to guide the headline creation process. It provides a few specific types of content to choose from:

Numbered Lists.
Explanatory/Why.
Strong/Controversial.
Fun/Playful.
DIY Headline Formulas.

You simply select the content type you want, and the tool will prompt you to enter specific details based on that selection.

For example, the Numbered Lists section asks for your topic, a desirable and undesirable outcome for your audience, and how many list items you want in the article.

The How To section, on the other hand, asks for things like a time frame, a descriptive power word, and a biggest frustration to devise headlines.

The tool then uses pre-existing headline templates to suggest a list of possible titles for your content based on your information.

While this tool requires a little more work on the user’s end, it’s useful for understanding how different types of headlines come together. You can easily see how your inputs impact the suggestions and make tweaks, edits, and customizations as you see fit to reach your goals.

The reliance on templates means the tool is limited, but it’s straightforward and practical and a good option for those who know what they’d like to achieve.

9. Impact: Blog About

The BlogAbout tool by Impact is a sleek blog title generator that enables you to create headlines easily with a simple, user-friendly interface.

With its fill-in-the-blank approach, this tool is useful for generating blog-specific titles that can help spark creativity and refine your content direction.

You start by entering your keyword and then using a dropdown to identify whether the keyword is a product or service, a brand/business name, an industry, or something else.

From there, the tool will generate five headlines, one for each of these categories: cost, problems, comparisons, reviews, and best-in-class. You can see in the screenshot below how this looks for the “industry” keyword type.

If you don’t like the headlines you receive, you can continue prompting the tool to generate more. You also have the option to save the titles you like and download them – though you’ll have to fill out a form to do the latter.

The great thing about the BlogAbout tool is the customization options, but the templated approach means it might not always work perfectly for you, depending on your keywords and topics.

10. Advanced Marketing Institute: Headline Analyzer

The Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer might sound complex, but it’s actually a straightforward and accessible tool that evaluates the emotional pull of your headlines.

This is another one where you need to come prepared with your own headline options for analysis rather than having the tool generate new content for you.

Once entered, the tool calculates the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) of the headline, reflecting its potential to resonate with readers emotionally .

According to the Advanced Marketing Institute, the headline is “analyzed and scored based on the total number of EMV words it has in relation to the total number of words it contains.”

On top of that, you’ll also find out which of these three emotions the headline impacts most: intellectual, empathetic, or spiritual.

For my headline here, I used one of the options that Easy-Peasy.AI’s tool suggested to me, and here is what I received:

The tool also conveyed to me that the predominant emotion classification was Spiritual:

This is certainly a unique tool in that it helps you understand the emotional impact of your headlines and can thus give you tips on creating headlines with a psychological edge.

It’s always free and lets you input as many headlines as you’d like!

11. FATJOE: Blog Post Title Headline Generator

Looking to generate a ton of titles fast? Facing a creative block when titling your latest article or post? The Blog Post Title Headline Generator by FATJOE could be a good option for you.

Start by inputting a topic or keyword, and you’ll immediately receive 10 headline suggestions. If that’s not enough, you can sign up for free with your email address to download 100 more.

The suggestions are largely numbers/list-based titles that leverage a formulaic approach across different tones and styles. However, the quality can vary pretty drastically, so some of the results will likely be far less relevant to you than others.

It’s great for a quick and easy dose of creative inspiration, but will take manual filtering to find the gems.

As the company itself specifies, these are intended to be clickbait titles, so you should be aware of that going into it.

12. Copywriting Course: Title Generator

The Copywriting Course’s Title Generator tool provides more than 100 headline suggestions for a variety of content types.

All you need to do is enter your topic into the tool, and you instantly get a long list of potential titles based on proven copywriting formulas. They’re designed to increase clicks and conversions for you.

The major drawback is that the list itself doesn’t change, so you’re getting the same ideas every time, just with a different keyword or topic switched in.

In that regard, the tool doesn’t have much personalization, so it is best as a creative inspiration tool rather than something that you’ll want to revisit over and over.

But if you do want to, it’s totally free forever with no restrictions.

13. Sharethrough: Headline Analyzer

Already have a headline, but want to know how engaging it is? It’s time you paid a visit to Sharethrough’s Headline Analyzer .

Simply input your headline, and the tool will analyze its effectiveness, providing insights into metrics like quality, engagement potential, and overall impression.

It will give you an overall Headline Quality Score, which “is based on a multivariate linguistic algorithm built on the principles of Behavior Model theory and Sharethrough’s neuroscience and advertising research.”

The company’s algorithm considers 300+ unique variables, including natural language processing , to help you create effective headlines.

Sharethrough’s tool will tell you your headline’s strengths, as well as provide a list of suggestions for how to improve upon its weaknesses.

Here’s what it told me when I entered a headline from Tweak Your Biz’s generator:

14. Title-Generator.com

Title-Generator.com is a free service for generating a multitude of headlines.

By simply inputting a primary keyword and hitting “Create Titles,” you’ll get a list of 700 – yes, you read that correctly – headline ideas.

They’re delivered in a simple text format. And while it’s impressive how many options the tool provides, the quality really runs the gamut. You will almost certainly need to do some manual trawling and editing to find what you’re looking for – but it’s a great starting point for content inspo.

The screenshot below shows examples of just some of the headlines it gave me based on my prompt:

The tool is free and easy to use, but beware that the site contains a fair amount of ads, which can detract from the user experience.

15. AnswerThePublic: Search Listening Tool

Another tool that’s slightly different from other options here, AnswerThePublic uses “search listening” to provide users with valuable insights for their content marketing strategies .

Unlike traditional headline generators, this tool delves into the queries and phrases people search for related to your keyword, offering a wealth of ideas that can then be transformed into compelling headlines.

To get started, enter your keyword, select your target country and language, and then hit the search button. You can choose to search Google, Bing, YouTube, or Amazon to find out what users are searching for.

Once you’ve hit search, AnswerThePublic will generate a bunch of data for you, including related questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical searches, and related searches for your topic. You can view this in several ways, including wheels, lists, and tables, and results are color-coded based on performance.

Beyond this, the tool also provides the search volume and cost per click (CPC) for the topic you’ve inputted.

Here’s a small snapshot of what I saw for “budget travel”:

It’s a powerful tool for discerning user intent and finding content gaps in the market, but it may be more helpful for general concepts rather than polished headlines or titles specifically. That said, I would recommend it as a tool to pressure test your ideas.

You get one free search with a public version, and then you need to register for an account for three free searches per day. To get more insights and searches, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

16. Ahrefs: Free AI Blog Title Generator

If you’re looking for SEO-friendly headline ideas, consider trying out Ahref’s Free AI Blog Title Generator.

According to Ahrefs, the tool “uses a language model that learns patterns, grammar, and vocabulary from large amounts of text data – then uses that knowledge to generate human-like text based on a given prompt or input.”

Start by entering what your article is about, then choose a writing tone from a list of many, including formal, friendly, casual, professional, persuasive, bold, academic, empathetic, and many more.

Then, click “Generate Titles” to get a list of up to 10 headline ideas. Below is a screenshot of my results when I entered “budget travel tips and tricks” and selected Persuasive for the tone.

I found this tool’s suggestions to be among some of the strongest I received from these tools, and would suggest trying the tool out if you’re looking for headline ideas.

If you want to save the ideas it generates, you can export the results in a text file with the click of a button. You can also have the tool serve you additional ideas – free of charge.

Leverage These Tools To Supercharge Your Headlines

Given the sheer amount of content that’s produced online every single day, effective headlines are more crucial than ever before.

And thanks to free title generator tools like those in this article, crafting powerful headlines is only getting easier.

While their output isn’t always perfect, they offer a foundation upon which you can build more nuanced and targeted content strategies.

By combining the capabilities of headline generators with your own strategic SEO and audience insights and analysis, as well as your content marketing expertise, you can ensure that your content is seen by – and resonates with – your target audience.

More resources:

12 Surprising Examples Of Clickbait Headlines That Work
How To Write A Headline: 10 Tips For Getting It Right
Content Marketing: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Featured Image: Cast Of Thousands/Shutterstock

Writer, digital marketer, and content strategist. Annabelle has 8+ years of experience in social marketing, copywriting, and storytelling for best-in-class ...

BrainPOP Science

The power of cer: strategies to engage middle school students in evidence-based writing.

August 26, 2024 by Mar y Sol Esparza

In the world of science, evidence-based writing isn’t just a skill; it’s a superpower! It’s the ability to make a claim, back it up with solid data, and explain the reasoning behind it. And the good news? You have the ability to unlock this superpower in your middle school students, helping them thrive not just in science but in all areas of their lives.

Where curiosity meets critical thinking

What is cer.

Scaffolding the CER Process: making it fun and engaging

1. Make real-world scenarios resonate:

Bonus points: make your guiding questions even more tangible, 2. provide a variety of resources and scaffolds, 3. examples of growth and success, unleash students’ inner science superheroes.

The Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) process is a dynamic approach to teaching evidence-based writing that benefits middle schoolers in several key ways:

It provides a clear structure that strengthens critical thinking and communication skills.
It promotes a deeper understanding of content by requiring students to connect evidence to their claims.
It equips students with essential skills for high school and professional success , preparing them for future challenges while giving them a glimpse into how scientists work.

The CER framework is a simple yet powerful structure for evidence-based writing. It helps students answer scientific questions by presenting a logical and convincing argument about how something works.

Claim : The statement that answers the question. It should be one sentence, and most importantly, backed by evidence (not a hunch!).
Evidence : The information (data or observations) that supports the claim. It should be objective and based on facts.
Reasoning : The explanation of how the evidence supports the claim. It should rely on accepted scientific theories and concepts.

Teach your students this process and encourage them to use it in various contexts. It’s a versatile tool they can use in everyday discussions, turning them into confident communicators.

Scaffolding the CER process: making it fun and engaging

Introducing the CER framework to middle schoolers is an exciting step toward fostering critical thinking and persuasive writing. However, it’s important to remember that mastering this process takes time and practice. Our brains are like muscles that need to build endurance—adults and middle schoolers alike—so when dealing with developing brains, let’s start small. Here are three strategies to spark curiosity and build confidence:

Bring evidence-based writing to life with real-world scenarios! Use relatable and accessible guiding questions. Remember, it’s important to incorporate a student’s real world in “real-world” science. For example, here are a few favorite Guiding Questions from Hannah B. and Charlie G., two members of BrainPOP Science’s learning design team (and former middle school science teachers):

To teach mutations: Can eating potato chips change your DNA? “Middle schoolers love potato chips! It’s instantly engaging to ask if eating a favorite snack could change their DNA. Despite their final answer to the Guiding Question, you’ve already gotten students to think about larger, system-level implications for things that seem simple and discrete.” – Hannah
To teach the water cycle: Are we drinking the same water that dinosaurs once drank? “Like looking at old photos, imagining the Earth millions of years ago is fascinating! A concrete example in the Guiding Question helps students consider the immense scale of the water cycle and the role of organisms within it.” – Charlie
To teach wave properties: How does sound move through walls? “This is one of those questions that makes us stop and think, ‘How does that happen?’ Sound moving through walls is something we experience every day, so to be able to explain the science behind it really excites a lot of students.” – Hannah.

You can also pair your guiding questions with intriguing and relevant phenomena, like:

Why are some food sources more sustainable than others?
Phenomenon: Image of grasshopper tacos

Hannah and Charlie’s expert tips:

Bring the Guiding Question to life as much as you can. Questions often feel easier to answer if we can hold part of them in our hands.

When posing a question about pollination and ecosystem services, you could pass around a vanilla bean. Where did it come from and how did it grow?
When asking questions about density, try bringing in a glass of iced tea. Without tasting it, how can you tell if it’s sweetened?

Anchor Guiding Questions with things that students already know. Support students further with photos of familiar places and things.

The effects of a recent storm, the sounds of a local firework display, or an invasive species that’s new to the area.
A photo of your school’s trash cans and recycling bins can give context to the broader concept of pollution.
An image of algae in a fish tank or a nearby pond can anchor a question about ecosystem interactions.

“Over time, engaging students with the local relevance of a phenomenon has the power to teach them that science happens where they are, within their communities. Often, this helps students see themselves as scientists.” – Charlie G.

To make evidence-based writing less daunting, provide a variety of resources and scaffolds. Here are a few strategies (and tips💡!)

🗒 Observation prompts: Provide a starting point for writing, whether it’s a question or tip for what to look for in the data. Helping students focus their attention on key data creates more opportunities for high-quality evidence.

💡 Sentence-starters can help frame expectations for students. You can offer a variety of these (e.g. “This graph shows that…” “The main idea of this text is…”), and students can choose which one to use. Or, if students need more support, provide one sentence starter per resource type.

🗒 Observation notebook: Collecting observations is the first step, but organizing those thoughts is even more important. An observation notebook allows students to come back to their ideas and make connections between observations and data for stronger evidence.

💡 A variation- observation index cards ! Students should write one observation per card. Then, when it’s time to select evidence, they can sort the cards into groups: ”Strong observations that support my claim,” “Observations I’m not sure about,” and “Observations I’ll leave behind.” Being able to physically separate and sort observations can make the process feel much more manageable.

🗒 Varied data collection: Give students the opportunity to collect data from multiple sources like phenomena, data manipulatives, simulations, readings, videos, and podcasts. This allows them to internalize concepts at a deeper level and gives them more opportunities to collect observations and data for their evidence.

💡 Incorporate a lab meeting . Scientists often present and discuss data in a collaborative space. Offer students the same opportunity to analyze data in small groups before drafting their CER. Small group protocols, like discussion diamonds, are a nice way to structure student collaboration. They also provide you with an artifact documenting what each student said and the consensus the group reached.

Understanding the theory and steps behind CER is essential, but witnessing its application can bring CER to life for students. Providing clarity, guidance, and opportunities for self-assessment empowers students to produce high-quality, evidence-based writing.

Provide a rubric : Even if students aren’t pros yet (and that’s okay!), CER is a process. Seeing growth across a rubric can be motivating when they have a clear understanding of the goal.
Share exemplars: This guidance helps students visualize what success looks like for each part of the CER process and provides a roadmap for their own writing.

Three tips what this can look like in your classroom:

💡 Distribute the rubric before students start writing . Having clear expectations can help students feel comfortable and confident as they write.

💡 Use the rubric on a sample CER written by another “student” (i.e., you). You can do this as a whole class, thinking aloud together about what scores to assign the response and why. You can also do this in small groups. Encourage students to draft a few sentences of additional feedback so the writer knows how to improve for next time.

💡 Have students peer review. Anonymize student work first. Then have students use the CER rubric to score other students’ work and leave a comment sharing what they did well and what could be improved. This gives students another chance to put that rubric into practice and internalize the concepts and process. While providing constructive feedback, helps them become better at evaluating their own work.

Remember, CER is more than just a writing strategy. By embracing CER, you’re not just teaching evidence-based writing skills—you’re igniting curiosity and empowering students to become confident, critical thinkers. With every CER they craft, your students are honing their scientific superpowers : the ability to analyze, reason, and communicate with the precision of a seasoned scientist. So, let’s unleash their inner superheroes and watch them soar to new heights of academic achievement and personal growth—the sky’s the limit.

Mar y Sol Esparza is a product marketing manager at BrainPOP, and a former teacher and curriculum writer. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University.

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# Typing Gamification: Fun Ways to Boost Your Skills

In the digital age, typing has become an essential skill for nearly everyone. Whether you're a student, professional, or casual computer user, the ability to type quickly and accurately can significantly impact your productivity and efficiency. But let's face it: practicing typing can sometimes feel like a chore. That's where typing gamification comes in! By incorporating game-like elements into your typing practice, you can make the process not only more enjoyable but also more effective. In this article, we'll explore various fun and engaging ways to gamify your typing experience and boost your skills to new heights.

# The Power of Gamification

Before we dive into specific strategies, let's briefly discuss why gamification works so well for improving typing skills. Gamification taps into our natural desire for competition, achievement, and reward. By adding game-like elements to typing practice, we create a more engaging and motivating experience. This, in turn, leads to increased practice time, better focus, and ultimately, improved typing speed and accuracy.

# Typing Games: More Than Just Fun

One of the most straightforward ways to gamify your typing experience is through dedicated typing games. These games come in various formats and styles, catering to different preferences and skill levels. Here are some popular types of typing games that can help boost your WPM (words per minute):

Racing Games : Race against the clock or other players by typing phrases or paragraphs as quickly and accurately as possible. These games often feature visually appealing interfaces with cars or characters that move based on your typing speed.

Word Attack Games : In these games, words or letters fall from the top of the screen, and you must type them before they reach the bottom. As you progress, the speed and difficulty increase, challenging your reflexes and typing skills.

Story-based Games : These games combine typing practice with interactive storytelling. As you type the dialogue or narrative, the story unfolds, making the experience more immersive and engaging.

Multiplayer Competitions : Many typing websites offer multiplayer modes where you can compete against friends or random opponents in real-time. This adds a social element to your practice and can be incredibly motivating.

# Leveling Up: Progression Systems in Typing Practice

Another effective gamification technique is implementing a progression system into your typing practice. This can take various forms:

Experience Points (XP) and Levels : Earn XP for each typing session or completed challenge, and watch as you level up over time. This provides a sense of progress and achievement.

Skill Trees : Unlock new typing challenges or game modes as you improve, creating a sense of progression and discovery.

Achievements and Badges : Set specific goals, such as reaching a certain WPM or maintaining a high accuracy rate, and earn badges or achievements when you meet these milestones.

Daily Streaks : Encourage consistent practice by implementing a streak system, where you're rewarded for typing on consecutive days.

# The Power of Data: Tracking and Visualizing Progress

For the data-driven typists out there, incorporating detailed statistics and visualizations can add another layer of gamification to your typing practice. Consider the following ideas:

Personal Bests : Keep track of your highest WPM, longest streak of accurate typing, or fastest time to complete a specific challenge. Trying to beat your personal bests can be highly motivating.

Progress Graphs : Visualize your typing speed and accuracy improvements over time with interactive graphs and charts. This can help you identify trends and areas for improvement.

Heat Maps : Generate keyboard heat maps that show which keys you type most efficiently and which ones need more practice. This can guide your focus during practice sessions.

Typing Analytics : Track detailed metrics such as error rate per key, average word length, and most frequently mistyped words. Use this data to create personalized practice sessions targeting your weak points.

# Rewards and Customization

Adding a reward system and customization options can further enhance the gamification experience:

Virtual Currency : Earn coins or points for completing typing challenges, which can be used to unlock customization options or additional game modes.

Character Customization : Allow users to create and customize their own typing avatar, adding a personal touch to the experience.

Theme Unlocks : Reward consistent practice or achievement of specific goals with new themes or visual styles for the typing interface.

Power-ups and Boosts : Implement temporary boosts or power-ups that can be earned and used during typing challenges, adding an element of strategy to the practice.

# Real-world Connections and Challenges

To make typing practice even more engaging and relevant, consider incorporating real-world elements:

Themed Typing Challenges : Create typing exercises based on current events, popular culture, or specific interests, making the content more engaging and relatable.

Typing Quests : Develop a series of themed typing challenges that tell a story or simulate real-world scenarios, such as "typing your way through history" or "saving the world one word at a time."

Collaborative Challenges : Implement team-based typing challenges where groups of users work together to achieve a common goal, fostering a sense of community and cooperation.

Seasonal Events : Organize special typing events or tournaments around holidays or seasons, with unique themes and rewards.

# The TypeTest.io Advantage

While there are many typing websites out there, TypeTest.io stands out as the best typing test platform for several reasons:

Comprehensive Gamification : TypeTest.io incorporates many of the gamification elements discussed in this article, providing a fun and engaging typing experience.

Accurate WPM Measurement : Our advanced algorithms ensure that your typing speed is measured accurately, giving you a true representation of your skills.

Customizable Practice : Tailor your typing practice to your specific needs and goals with our wide range of customization options.

Community Features : Connect with other typing enthusiasts, participate in multiplayer challenges, and share your progress with friends.

Regular Updates : We continuously add new features, challenges, and improvements to keep your typing practice fresh and exciting.

# Conclusion: Level Up Your Typing Skills

Gamification has the power to transform typing practice from a mundane task into an engaging and enjoyable experience. By incorporating elements such as typing games, progression systems, data tracking, rewards, and real-world connections, you can significantly boost your typing speed and accuracy while having fun in the process.

Remember, the key to improving your typing skills is consistent practice. With the gamification techniques discussed in this article, you'll find yourself looking forward to your typing sessions and making steady progress towards your goals. Whether you're aiming to increase your WPM, reduce errors, or simply become more efficient in your daily computer use, gamified typing practice can help you achieve your objectives.

So why not give it a try? Head over to TypeTest.io and experience the perfect blend of fun and functionality in typing practice. Your fingers (and your productivity) will thank you!

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Power BI August 2024 Feature Summary

Welcome to the August 2024 update.

Here are a few, select highlights of the many we have for Power BI. You can now ask Copilot questions against your semantic model. Updated Save and Upload to OneDrive Flow in Power BI and Narrative visual with Copilot is available in SaaS embed. There is much more to explore, please continue to read on!

European Fabric Community Conference

Join us at Europe’s first Fabric Community Conference , the ultimate Power BI, Fabric, SQL & AI learning event in Stockholm, Sweden from September 24 -27, 2024 .

With 120 sessions, daily keynotes, 10 pre-conference workshops, an expo hall with community lounge, and “ask the expert” area, the conference offers a rich learning experience you don’t want to miss. This is a unique opportunity to meet the Microsoft teams building these products, customers betting their business on them, and partners at the forefront of deployment and adoption.

Fabric Sticker Challenge Winners Announced!

The Fabric Community Sticker Challenge launched August 1-23 and winners are in! All Fabric Community members were invited to create unique stickers showcasing their enthusiasm and creativity under the following categories: Community Enthusiasm, Inspirational, “Inside Joke” for developers and data, and Super Users. To see winning designs, check out our Community News . Thank you all who participated in this challenge; it was great to see so much involvement!

Fabric Influencers Spotlight

Check out our latest initiative, the Fabric Influencers Spotlight . Each month, we’ll be highlighting some of the great blog, videos presentations and other contributions submitted by members of Microsoft MVP & Fabric Super User communities that cover the Fabric Platform, Data Engineering & Data Science in Fabric, Data Warehousing, Power BI, Real-Time Intelligence, Data Integration, Fabric Administration & Governance, Databases and Learning.

Attention Power BI users!

If you are accessing Power BI on a web browser version older than Chrome 94, Edge 94, Safari 16.4, Firefox 93, or equivalent, you need upgrade your web browser to a newer version by August 31, 2024 . Using an outdated browser version after this date, may prevent you from accessing features in Power BI.

Version number: v: 2.132.908.0
Date published: 8/19/24
Ask Copilot questions against your semantic model (preview)

Visual level format strings (preview)

Dynamic per recipient subscriptions (Generally Available)

Deliver subscriptions to OneDrive and SharePoint (Generally Available)

Updated Save and Upload to OneDrive Flow in Power BI
Visuals, shapes and line enhancements
DAX query view in the web
Narrative visual with Copilot available in SaaS embed

Editor’s pick of the quarter

New visuals in appsource, filter by powerviz, pie of pie by jta, drill down pie pro by zoomcharts, hierarchical bar chart, deneb: declarative visualization in power bi.

Paginated Reports: Sharing of reports connecting to Get Data data sources made easy

Copilot and AI

Ask copilot questions against your semantic model (preview).

We are pleased to announce that you can now ask Copilot for data from your entire semantic model in Desktop ! Just tell Copilot what you’re looking for, and Copilot will query your model to answer your question with a visual.

To use this new capability, you need to have the Preview feature for “ Copilot chat pane in report view” turned on. If you already have done this there is nothing else that you to need to utilize this new capability.

To find out more about how this feature works and the types of questions that are supported check out our previous blog post and documentation page .

Visual level format strings are here, providing you with more options to configure formatting. Originally built for visual calculations, the core ability that visual-level format strings provide is the ability to format visual calculations. Since visual calculations are not in the model, you could not format them, unless you were using them in data labels or in specific parts of the new card and new slicer visuals. With visual level format strings, you can!

The visual calculations edit mode showing the DiffPreviousPercent calculation that returns a percentage which is formatted as a percentage using the data format options in the format pane.

Visual level format strings, however, are useful even without using visual calculations.

With the introduction of visual-level format strings, Power BI now has three levels for format strings:

Model. You can set a format string for columns and measures in the model. Anywhere you use that column or measure the format string will be applied, unless it’s overridden by a visual or element level format string.
Visual. This is what we’re introducing today. You can set format strings on any column, measure or visual calculation that is on your visual, even if they already had a format string. In that case the model level format string will be overridden, and the visual level format string is used.
Element. You can set a format string for data labels and for specific elements of the new card and the new slicer visuals. This level will be expanded to include much more in the future. Any format string you set here will override the format string set on the visual and model level.

These levels are hierarchical, with the model level being the lowest level and the element level the highest. A format string defined on a column, measure or visual calculation on a higher-level override what was defined on a lower level.

Since visual calculations are not in the model, they cannot have a format string set on the model level but can on the visual or element level. Measures and columns can have format strings on all three levels:

Level	Impacts	Available for
Level	Impacts
ELEMENT	Selected element of the selected visual	X	X
Visual	Selected visual	X	X
Model	All visuals, all pages, all reports on the same model	X

The image below summarizes this and shows that higher level format strings override lower-level format strings:

A diagram of a model and a element Description automatically generated

Let’s look at an example using a measure.

I have a Profit measure in my model, which is set to a decimal number format. To do this, you might have set the formatting for this measure using the ribbon:

the formatting options in the ribbon allow you formatting for measures and fields.

Alternatively, you could have made the same selections in the properties pane for the measure in the model view or entered the following custom formatting code:

Formatting options in the properties pane showing #,#.## to format the Total measure as a decimal number in the model.

If you put this measure on a visual it now returns a decimal number, as expected:

A table visual showing the Total measure formatted as a decimal number.

However, on a particular visual you want that measure to be formatted as a whole number. You can now do that by setting the format code on the visual level by opening the format pane for that visual and the Data format options found there under General:

You can set a visual level format string by selecting the visual and opening the format pane. There, go General / Properties and then Data Format. Finally, open Format Options and enter the format string.

Now that same measure shows as a whole number, but just on that visual:

A table visual showing the Total measure formatted as a whole number.

On top of that, you might want to use a scientific notation for that measure but only in the data label on a particular visual. No problem, you set the format code on the data label for that measure:

You can set an element level format string by leveraging the settings in the format pane. For example, set the display units for Data label values to Custom and enter a format code.

So now the total shows in scientific notation, but only in the data label and not in other places (such as the tooltip as shown below). Notice how the element level format is used in the data label but the visual or model level format string is still used for the other elements in the same visual.

A bar chart showing the Total measure by class. It also shows that the Total measure was formatted in scientific notation in the data labels, but not in the tooltip (in which it's formatted as a decimal number).

For visual calculations the same principle applies but of course without the model level. For example, if you have a visual calculation that returns a percentage, you can now format it as such using the Data Format options in the General on the visual in the format pane:

The ability to set visual level format strings makes it much easier to get the exact formatting you need for your visualizations. However, this is only the first iteration of the visual level format strings. We are planning to add the settings you’re used to for the model level format strings to the visual level soon.

Since visual level format strings are introduced as part of the visual calculations preview, you will need to turn on the visual calculations preview to use them. To do that, go to Options and Settings > Options > Preview features . Select Visual calculations and select OK . Visual calculations and visual level format strings are enabled after Power BI Desktop is restarted.

Please refer to our docs to read more about format strings or visual calculations .

Dynamic per recipient subscriptions (Generally Available)

We are excited to announce the general availability of Dynamic per recipient subscriptions for Power BI and paginated reports. Dynamic per recipient subscriptions is designed to simplify distributing a personalized copy of a report to each recipient of an email subscription. You define which view of the report an individual receives by specifying which filters are applied to their version of the report. The feature is now available in Sov. Clouds as well.

Connect to data that has recipient email, names or report parameters.

Then, select and filter data that you want in your subscription. You probably only want to send emails conditionally. To do that, you can filter the data in the “Filter” pane.

You can select the recipient email addresses and the email subject from the dataset that you connected to by selecting “Get Data”.

You can then map your data to the subscription.

Then schedule the subscription and save it.

The subscriptions will be triggered based on the schedule that you have set up. Personalized reports can be sent to up to a thousand recipients! Learn more about Dynamic per recipient subscriptions for Power BI reports, and paginated reports .

Do you have reports that are too large to be delivered by email? Do you have reports that are eating into your email in just a few weeks, or do you need you to move it to a different location? You can now deliver Power BI and paginated report subscriptions to OneDrive or SharePoint. With this capability, you can schedule and send full report attachments to a OneDrive or SharePoint location. Learn more about how to deliver report subscriptions to OneDrive or SharePoint .

Updated Save and Upload to OneDrive Flow in Power BI

Beginning the first week of August, desktop users should see a preview switch starting in SU8 to turn on the updated Save and Upload to OneDrive experience in Power BI. To enable this, navigate to the Preview features section of Options in Power BI. Users will then need to select “Saving to OneDrive and SharePoint uploads the file in the background”.

With these updates, we’ve improved the experience of uploading new Power BI files to OneDrive, and easily upload new changes in the background.

Select options, then Preview features, then select Saving to OneDrive and SharePoint uploads the file in the background.

For uploading new files, after navigating to the correct location in the OneDrive file picker and saving, a dialog box appears while the file is being uploaded. The option to cancel the upload is there if needed. This dialog will only show up the first time a new file is uploaded to OneDrive.

Dialog for saving a new file to OneDrive.

When new changes are saved to a file uploaded to OneDrive, the top of the toolbar indicates that the new changes are also being uploaded to OneDrive.

Additional changes being uploaded in the background to the existing file.

If you click on the title bar flyout in the toolbar, you can also now access more information about the file. Clicking “View your file in OneDrive” will provide a direct link to where the file is stored in OneDrive.

Drop down including the link to the file in OneDrive.

We are introducing the data limit capability to help you manage performance issues. This feature allows you to set the maximum data load for a single session per visual displaying only the rows of data in an ascending order by default.

To use this feature:

Go to the ‘Filters on this visual’ menu in the filter pane.

Set your desired data limit value.

The filter card features include:

Removing, locking, or clearing filters.
Hiding or showing filters.
Expanding or collapsing filter cards.
Applying filters.
Renaming and reordering filters.

Report consumers can see any data limits applied to a visual in the filter visual header, even if the filter pane is hidden.

Visuals, shapes and line enhancements

Over the past few months, we have been fine-tuning the visual elements of your reports, including columns, bars, ribbons, and lines. We have given you the ability to craft these Cartesians with precision. However, we noticed that the legends and tooltips were not quite accurate .

With the latest update, the legend and tooltip icons will now automatically and accurately reflect per-series formatting settings, such as border colors, shapes, and line styles. This makes it easier to match series to their visual representations. Additionally, we have added consistency to how per-series formatting is applied to line charts, column/bar charts, scatter charts, and other Cartesian formatting options for common items like error bars and anomalies.

Check out the Reporting demos here:

DAX query view in the web

Write DAX queries on your published semantic models with DAX query view in the web. DAX query view, already available in Power BI Desktop, is now also available when you are in the workspace.

Look for Write DAX queries on your published semantic model.

Right-click on the semantic model and choose Write DAX queries .
Click on the semantic model to open the details page, then click Write DAX queries at the top of the page.

This will launch DAX query view in the web, where you can write DAX queries, use quick queries to have DAX queries written for you on tables, columns, or measures, or use Fabric Copilot to not only write DAX queries but explain DAX queries, functions, or topics. DAX queries work on semantic models in import, DirectQuery, and Direct Lake storage mode.

Write permission, that is permission to make changes to the semantic model, is currently needed to write DAX queries in the web. And, the workspace setting, User can edit data models in the Power BI service (preview) , needs to be enabled.

DAX query view in the web includes DAX query view’s way to author measures. Define measures with references, edit any of them, and try out changes across multiple measures by running the DAX query, then update the model with all the changes in a single click of a button. DAX query view in web brings this functionality for the first time to semantic models in Direct Lake mode!

If you do not have write permission, you can still live connect to the semantic model in Power BI Desktop and run DAX queries there.

Try out DAX query view in web today and learn more about how DAX queries can help you in Power BI and Fabric.

Deep dive into DAX query view in web
DAX queries
Work with DAX query view
Deep dive into DAX query view and writing DAX queries
Write DAX queries with Copilot
Deep dive into DAX query view with Copilot
Overview of Copilot for Power BI
Direct Lake

Check out a Modeling demo here:

Embedded Analytics

Narrative visual with copilot available in saas embed.

We are excited to announce that the Narrative visual with Copilot is available for user owns data scenarios (SaaS) and secure embed. This means when a user embeds a report containing the narrative visual in a solution where users must sign in – they will now be able to the visual refresh with their data. The first step on our Copilot embed journey!

When you embed a Power BI report in an application in the “embed for your organization” scenario, it allows organizations to integrate rich, interactive data visualizations seamlessly into their internal tools and workflows. Now this solution supports the Copilot visual. A sales team might want to embed a Power BI report in their internal CRM application to streamline their workflow. By integrating sales performance dashboards directly into the CRM, team members can easily monitor key metrics like monthly sales targets, pipeline status, and individual performance, without switching between different tools. This integration enables quicker access to actionable insights, helping the team make informed decisions, identify trends, and react swiftly to market changes, all within the secure environment of their organization’s data infrastructure.

Supported Scenarios:

Embed a report in a secure portal or website Power BI.
User owns data : A user embeds a report containing the narrative visual in a solution where users must sign in. They need a license to do so. This action is also known as embed for your organization . It includes when users want to embed visuals in solutions like PowerPoint as well.

Unsupported Scenario:

App owns data: A customer embeds a narrative visual on a website where users visit, and don’t need to sign in. Also known as embed for your customer’s application .

To get this set up, there are a few steps to follow – so make sure to check out the documentation . Embed a Power BI report with a Copilot narrative visual – Power BI | Microsoft Learn

You will need to Edit your Microsoft Entra app permissions to enable the embedded scenario to work.

Screenshot showing Select add permission.

From here you’ll need to add the MLModel.Execute.All permission.

A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated

Check out the documentation for additional details.

Check out an Embedded Analytics demo here:

Visualizations

Icon Map Pro hi-chart Reporting Studio Water Cup Performance Flow – xViz Sunburst by Powerviz Zebra BI Tables 7.0 Enlighten Storyteller Inforiver Writeback Matrix Drill Down Pie PRO (Filter) by ZoomCharts (microsoft.com) Spiral Plot By Office Solution Polar Scatter Plot By Office Solution Hanging Rootogram Chart for Power BI Bar Chart Run Time Convertible Scatter Plot Circular Dendrogram Chart for Power BI Barley Trellis Plot By Office Solution Connected Scatter Plot Chart For Power BI Dot Plot Chart by Office Solution Voronoi Diagram By Office Solution Fish Bone Chart for Power BI Icon Array Chart for Power BI

Image Skyline StackedTrends Visual Bubble Diagram Chord Diagram Non-Ribbon Chord Diagram

Powerviz Filter is an advanced Power BI slicer (Free Visual) that applies a page-level filter to the data. It stands out for its user-friendly design and customization flexibility, with developer-friendly wizard.

Key Features:

Hierarchy Control : Support multiple hierarchies with expand/collapse and by-level formatting
Ragged Hierarchy Support: Hide BLANK category/values, or both, and display child as parent.
Keep selected items at Top : enable this to show your selected items at top.
Display Mode : Seamlessly switch between pop-up/canvas modes.
Default Selection: Select default categories/values that automatically get filtered on refresh.
Selection Mode: Single-select, multiple-select, or select-all with only single-selection.
Image: Add images alongside the filter. HTML Links/Base-64 URLs Support.
Title-Bar Options: Search Bar, Clear Icon, Ranking, Filter, Sorting, Expand/Collapse.
Conditional Formatting: Highlight font and row background color based on specific rules.
Template: Choose from professionally created light/dark templates, and easily customize them using the Global styling option.

Other features included are Import/Export Themes, Interactivity, Filter Style, and more.

Business Use-Cases:

Sales Analysis, Marketing Performance tracking, Financial Monitoring

🔗 Try Filter Visual for FREE from AppSource

📊 Check out all features of the visual: Demo_file

📃 Step-by-step instructions: Documentation

💡 YouTube Video: Video_Link

📍 Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/

✅ Follow Powerviz : https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U

Slice to Spice: Transform your Pie Chart by Clicking! Dive deeper with a click, creating a new pie!

Pie of Pie by JTA – a Data Scientist’s Visualization Tool

Slice, Click, Reveal: Explore Deeper Insights with Our Interactive Pie Chart Visual for Power BI!

A Power BI custom visual that enables the creation of a hierarchical representation within a Pie Chart. With a simple click, you can effortlessly delve into detailed categories, offering a seamless and visually intuitive way to unveil multi-level insights in a single view.

Experience the convenience of interactive data analysis, where each slice of the initial pie chart acts as a gateway to deeper layers of information. Whether you’re dissecting population demographics, dissecting sales performance, or analysing product distribution, Pie of Pie offers a seamless and visually intuitive solution.

Interactive hierarchical representation within a Pie Chart: Dive into detailed categories with ease, exploring multi-level insights seamlessly.
Effortlessly explore multi-level insights with a single click: Click on a slice to reveal deeper layers of information, enhancing your data analysis experience.
Customizable colours, labels, and legend: Tailor the visual to match your branding or personal preferences, ensuring clarity and consistency in your reports.
Choose where to display always both pies and just show the second upon click: Optimize your visual presentation by selecting the most suitable display mode for your data storytelling needs.
Animate the visual: Bring your data to life with smooth animations, captivating your audience and enhancing engagement with your insights.
Personalize the spacing: Fine-tune the spacing between elements to achieve the perfect balance of aesthetics and readability in your visualizations.

Download Pie of Pie by JTA for free: AppSource

Try Pie of Pie by JTA: Demo

Youtube video: Youtube

Learn more about us: JTA The Data Scientists

A diagram of a pie chart Description automatically generated

Everyone knows what a pie chart is – for centuries, it has been the most popular way to visualize data. But what makes Drill Down Pie PRO special is the incredible amount of flexibility it offers to creators. Enjoy a wide range of customization features (colors, fonts, legends, labels, and more), create up to nine levels of drill down hierarchy, and declutter the chart with an interactive ‘Others’ slice that users can expand with just a click.

What’s more, this visual can be more than just a pie chart – it can be an interactive navigation tool for the entire report. When the user selects a slice or drills down, it will cross-filter other visuals on the report, instantly revealing focused insights. Create faster, more intuitive, and more insightful reports with ZoomCharts!

Main Features:

On-chart drill down
Cross-chart filtering
Up to 9 levels of hierarchy
Adjustable ‘Others’ slice
Color, label, and legend customization
Custom tooltip fields
Touch support

🌐 Get Drill Down Pie PRO on AppSource

Product Page | Documentation | Follow ZoomCharts on LinkedIn

Hierarchical bar chart displays hierarchical data (different fields having parent/child relationship) in the form a bar/column chart with +/- signs to view/hide details or child elements.

A new feature was added to the visual in Jun 24 whereby the users can display CAGR between the 2 values by clicking the bars one after another (after turning on “CAGR” from format pane).

This visual has the following key features.

1) Expand/ Collapse bars using (+/-) buttons

2) Show variance between bars

3) Show CAGR between bars

4) Drag the bars for custom sorting

5) Click on legends to drill down/up to any level

6) Show targets

Watch a demo of these features in short video below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOcs5RNY-Zs

Download this visual from APPSOURCE

Download demo file from APPSOURCE

For more information visit https://www.excelnaccess.com/hierarchical-barchart/

or contact [email protected]

Deneb is a free and open-source certified custom visual that allows developers to create their own highly bespoke data visualizations directly inside Power BI using the declarative JSON syntax of the Vega or Vega-Lite languages.

This is like the approaches used for creating R and Python visuals in Power BI, with the following additional benefits:

Everything in-visual —no additional dependencies on local libraries or gateways for your end-users when publishing reports.
Microsoft certified runtime —any visual you create receives the same benefits of a certified custom visual, meaning your design will work anywhere Power BI works, including Publish to Web, mobile, PowerPoint, and PDF exports.
Performance —your designs are rendered directly inside Power BI rather than being delegated to another location, keeping data inside your workbook and typically resulting in faster render times for end-users.
Interactivity —You can integrate Power BI’s interactivity features (tooltips, Drillthrough, cross-filtering, and cross-highlighting with some additional setup.

📢Our latest version brings many of our top requested new features to the development experience, including:

Dark mode —toggle between the traditional light theme and dark theme to reduce eye strain.

Commenting —you can now add comments to your JSON for documentation and debugging purposes.

Auto-completion improvements —suggestions will now be recommended based on the details in the Vega and Vega-Lite schemas.
Inline language documentation (for Vega-Lite)—the documentation the Vega team makes available for Vega-Lite in its language schema is now available when you hover your mouse over an appropriate location in your JSON. This will help you discover more language features within Deneb itself, and any hyperlinks will navigate you to the correct location on the Vega-Lite documentation site for further reading.
Auto unit formatting —a new format type that applies the same logic as Power BI format numbers in K, M, Bn, etc., with less effort than the existing Power BI value formatter.
Advanced cross-filtering (for Vega)—new expression functions to help generate cross-filtering of report items based on a filter against the original dataset sent to Deneb before any transformations may have been applied.

We have many other enhancements in this release, and you can find out more about how these can help you and your readers by:

Visting the Change Log on Deneb’s website
Checking out our YouTube spotlight videos on key new features
Downloading Deneb from AppSource
Getting inspired by examples from our community or the sample workbook
Following Deneb

Paginated Reports: Sharing of reports connecting to Get Data data sources made easy

We announced the ability to create paginated reports from Power BI Report Builder by connecting to over 100 data sources with the Get Data experience. You can learn more about Connect paginated reports to data sources using Power Query (Preview) – Power BI | Microsoft Learn. You no longer need to share the shareable cloud connection. You only need to share the report and ensure that those consuming the report have access to view the report. This update will be rolling out in the coming weeks.

That is all for this month!

We hope that you enjoy the update! If you installed Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store, please leave us a review .

As always, keep voting on Ideas to help us determine what to build next. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

embedded analytics
Microsoft Fabric
paginated reports
semantic model

IMAGES

20 Effective Ways to Write Engaging Content
3 Tips for How to Make Your Writing More Engaging
5 Ways To Make Your Writing More Engaging
5 Ways to Make Your Writing More Engaging
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Bring collaborative writing into your classroom with these 5 engaging

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5 Tips For Creative Writing
One Simple Trick to Make Your Writing More Engaging
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A creative writer strives to tell unique stories in a distinctive voice. Yet with all the fiction writing already out there in the world, it can be hard to feel that your work is legitimately creative compared to the competition. You could be a first-time writer completing in a high school creative writing course, a hobbyist working on your ...
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Write "The wind blows" or "The wind blew" instead of "the wind is blowing" or "the wind had blown.". 2. Empty Words. For example, eliminate "There are", "There is", "There was", "It is", "It was". I shared more about empty words in my article here. 3. Beginning of an action.
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Now let's look at a some ways to pump up this prose to make it more engaging. 1. Add Detail. Adding detail is one of the most straightforward ways to engage you reader. In basic play-by-play writing, you are telling the reader what is happening. But you aren't telling them much more about the world.
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7. Repetition: Reinforce a Point or Create Emphasis by Repeating Words or Phrases. Repetition is a powerful tool in creative writing that can reinforce a point or create emphasis. Repeating words or phrases can help to drive home a message, create a sense of rhythm, and make your writing more memorable.
7 Techniques to Make Your Writing More Engaging
How to Make Your Writing More Engaging. The following is a list of narrative and literary techniques that can spruce up a piece of writing, make it more interesting, and (just like a whodunnit) keep the reader engaged until the end. 1. Metaphors and Similes. Writers often struggle to find a way to compare two (possibly disparate) things.
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Improve Your Creative Storytelling Skills For More Engaging Writing - Episode Transcript. This transcript was created with the help of automation software. I've tried to go in and add text where the software missed words and information, so some sections may not be 100% word-for-word what was said in the video interview.
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Rewriting a sentence with Outwrite. 3. Appeal to the senses - hearing, smell, taste. One of the most effective techniques to make your sentences more engaging—particularly in creative writing—is to appeal to all five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch). This makes your writing more real, effectively bypassing the higher brain ...
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6. Use the input the audience is giving you. The best way of making sure your audience will engage with your content is to tell them directly what you want them to do. Create a clear call to action (CTA). Vote here for … please tell us about your experiences … share your pictures here etc. And make it visible.
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Welcome to the August 2024 update. Here are a few, select highlights of the many we have for Power BI.  You can now ask Copilot questions against your semantic model. Updated Save and Upload to OneDrive Flow in Power BI and Narrative visual with Copilot is available in SaaS embed. There is much more to explore, please continue to read on!

1. Be interested in what you’re writing about

2. Include fascinating details

3. Emulate the style of writers you find interesting

4. Write in the active voice

5. Borrow some creative writing techniques

6. Think about your own opinion

7. Cut the waffle

8. Using a thesaurus isn’t always a good thing

9. Avoid repetitive phrasing

10. Use some figurative language

11. Avoid clichés

12. Employ rhetorical questions

13. Proofread

7 Editing Tips That Will Make Your Writing More Engaging

1. Get Moving in Your Introduction

2. Push Scenes Forward with Continuous Motion

3. Use the Language of Action

4. Write in the Active Voice

5. Eliminate Unnecessary Words

6. Use Time Markers and Straight Chronology

7. Speed up, then Slow Down

The Takeaway

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How to Make Your Writing More Interesting & Engaging

1. Shorten Those 19th Century-Length Sentences

2. Avoid Repetitive Phrasing

3. Diversify Sentence Structures Within a Paragraph

4. Vary Consecutive Paragraph Structures and Lengths

Business Editing Services ( Document Editing , Report Editing , Blog Editing )

24 Essential Writing Tips to Create Compelling Content

1. Understand Your Audience

2. Find Your Unique Voice

3. Use Engaging Headlines

4. Use Powerful Imagery

5. Cure Writer’s Block With AI

6. Start Your Own Blog

7. Use Active Voice

8. Write With Clarity

9. Get Feedback and Learn From It

10. Don’t Be Afraid to Take Breaks

11. Write Something Every Day

12. Start With an Outline

13. Set Writing Goals

14. Read, Read, Read!

15. Schedule Time to Write

16. Be Consistent With Tone and Voice

17. Eliminate Distractions

18. Research Fascinating Topics

19. Keep a Journal

20. Review and Edit Your Work

21. Read Your Writing Out Loud

22. Take a Writer’s Course

23. Experiment and Have Fun!

24. Explore Literary Devices

FAQs About Writing Tips

5 Ways to Make Your Writing More Engaging

How to Elevate Writing Beyond Simple Play-by-Play

1. Add Detail

2. Use Varied Sentence Structure

3. Bypass Unnecessary Steps

4. Filter the Text Through Your Character

5. Include Internal Action

Elevate Your Writing

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Creative Writing Techniques: 39 Tips for Crafting Compelling Stories (Fully Explained)

Key Takeaways

1. Metaphors: Compare a Characteristic of Something Unknown to Something Known

2. Similes: Make Comparisons Using ‘Like’ or ‘As’

3. Analogies: Draw Parallels Between Two Seemingly Unrelated Things

4. Imagery: Use Vivid and Descriptive Language to Create Mental Pictures for Readers

5. Personification: Assign Human Qualities to Non-Human Entities

6. Show, Don’t Tell: Describe Actions, Thoughts, and Feelings Rather Than Simply Stating Them