No, I don’t mean exercise – though that’s always helpful to get your brain focused and increase your creativity! I’m talking about active writing.

Active writing starts with voice. Passive voice can kill your story. An example of a passive sentence is “The news was reported by Ted Jones.” See how boring that is? It’s removed from the action and emotionless. The active form, “Ted Jones reported the news” is a more interesting sentence that moves the plot along better.

Another way to keep your writing active is to choose the right details. Avoid cliches and over-generalizations and try to find the perfect description for each scene. Try sprinkling the action with little, vivid descriptions.

Keep the readers within the action. Don’t distance them by avoiding emotional scenes or by trying to impress them with your brilliant writing. Either of those choices will pull the reader out of the story instead of letting them experience the action.

You also need to use strong verbs – kill the adverbs! A strong verb is one that shows the action instead of telling it. “Sarah walked angrily down the stairs” is an example of a  weak verb. A stronger verb would be “Sarah stomped down the stairs” or “Sarah thudded down the stairs.”

Active writing means a better story all around.