As a first time writer, knowing the very golden rule in writing can be overwhelming. Your initial experience would be coming across lots of complex writing rules that involve its technical aspects. Before you dig in its complex parts, learning the basics or the fundamental rules of book writing will give you a better understanding of what writing should be like.
Don’t complicate your sentences
Simple sentences work best in engaging your readers in your story. The clearer your message, the more it attracts readers in flipping the next pages. Make it straightforward. Don’t keep them running around the bush. Readers can have a small attention gap and if they find out it takes forever to explain something that could’ve been shortened to one sentence, you’ll lose them.
You write to express, not to impress
Your quality of writing isn’t about the presence of difficult words your audience knows nothing about. Just cut right to what you want to explain. Avoid writing your first few lines with unnecessary adjectives or fancy terms.
Know your audience
Knowing your audience narrows down your goal, genre, tone, marketing strategy, and all other important aspects that lie in your story. Determine the demographic you’re writing for and their line of interest.
Use active voice
Writing in an active voice makes your thought more concise and understandable.
Passive: The yard was cleaned by Lana last week.
Active: Lana cleaned her yard last week.
Do the editing later
The danger in writing and editing all at once is losing the flow of your thoughts. Just put together everything you have as of the moment. Don’t break the momentum.
Read it aloud
This helps you point out any errors you missed, or simply catch any paragraphs that do not make sense.