The marvelous Hollywood of the notorious Flakes as awarded me a ROAR Award for good writing. The rules for being A Roar for Powerful Words recipient are that I share three writing tips and pass the award on to three more bloggers worthy of recognition and esteem. Hollywood gave me this little tidbit a while back, but since my world was so recently rocked by things out of my control, I haven’t gotten around to acknowledging her kindness.

The funny thing is, I don’t have any rules for writing- I just do it. Writing is organic; the things I need to say often roll around in my head like loose marbles, until they coalesce into something say-able. Or not. That said, I probably have learned a thing or two in the 700+ posts I’ve written. Fortunately, going back and reading my archives is nowhere near as embarrassing as reading my diaries from when I was a young woman so years ago.

Without further ado:

1. Edit. Please please please, edit yourself. This is not the same thing as censoring yourself, of which I am not a fan. Editing means re-reading what you’ve put down, paring your words, checking your punctuation and being merciless about extra words. If you can say it in 10 words, why take 17. See?

2. Know the difference between they’re, their and there.

3. Use paragraphs. Nothing is harder or less appealing to read than a long, unbroken string of words. Break your writing up. Put spaces between your paragraphs- your readers will thank you.

4. Vary the length of your sentences. It’s like adding texture to a room, or splashes of color to a painting- short, succinct sentences interspersed with longer, more melodious ones makes your writing richer, warmer and more vivid.

5. Use spell-check. Really, it’s hard to focus on your tale when I get hung up on your misspellings. Many of us spell poorly- but the mind grabs onto what it will, and misspellings take away from the mood and break the spell (ha!) you are casting with your words. You have the button, it’s in your power- use it.

That about does it. By no means am I an expert, and I don’t even pretend to be one in real life. Oh, if you knew me, you would see how comical it is that I give advice to anyone. (oh, one more thing; use capitals, you are not e.e. cummings, and the pronoun I is capitalized.)(oh, two more things: please DON’T YELL WHEN YOU WRITE and be very, very judicious in your use of the exclamation point!!!) I tag HSF at Organized Chaos, Cheryl at Happy Meets Crazy, and Michelle at Scribbit.