8 Tips for Avoiding Bland Writing

• Use active voice
Verbs give sentences and books vibrancy. When too many of them in a story are passive or weak, the writing sounds drab.

• Show don’t tell
Want to slow your story to a glacial grind and get readers to quit reading your story? Then load it with lots of exposition. Problems arising with exposition often (and rightfully) elicit cries of “Show, don’t tell!” from editors.

• Avoid weak verbs
Even when using active verbs, sentences still may sound flat. More than likely, those active verbs are also overused.

• Cull out cliches
A quick way to strengthen your writing is to replace (or just avoid altogether) overused expressions and phrases. Such expressions and phrases are known as clichés. 

• Cut repetition
One of the quickest ways to ruin a story’s texture is to repeat the same word between sentences and paragraphs. 

• Say “no” to self-indulgent digressions
Authors sometimes are tempted to get on their soapbox rather than allow the message to unfold with the story. When a diatribe or rant is inserted in the story, the author is guilty of a self-indulgent digression.

• Delete nulls
Sometimes the only purpose of a story’s sentence is to say that nothing happened. Such sentences are called “nulls.”

• Nix polysyllabism
Ever read a sentence in a story and wonder why the author couldn’t just use plain English? The author is guilty of polysyllabism, or using a long word for effect even though a shorter word is better.