Ten Things You Can Start Doing Now

To Improve Your Writing

1. Strike at least one adjective and one adverb from one of your own scripts before it goes on the air.
2. Read one book, either non-fiction or fiction, every other week. Focus not only on what the author says, but on how the author says it.
3. Write one personal letter a week. It should be at least two pages long, and it should describe something – a situation, a person, an incident, or a spectacle.
4. Rewrite one of your own scripts at least once a week – preferably at a low-stress time of the day. Concentrate on the changes you decide to make, and figure out the reasons the rewrite reads better than the original.
5. Pick out one piece of good writing in your station’s newscast. Compliment the person who wrote it.
6. Look up one word a day in the dictionary – something you heard someone say, something you read and didn’t fully understand.
7. Find a word of several syllables in one of your scripts. Replace it with a shorter word.
8. A passive voice sentence should be located. Make it active before the sentence goes on the air!
9. Insert at least one “poetic device” – alliteration, assonance, metaphor, or simile – into a story. Make it an original device, and not one “on loan” from someone else.
10. Find one thing deserving of praise – a story, a sentence, a phrase, or even a good effort – in your own work every day. Compliment yourself for it.