by Catherine L. Tully

Time and time again as writers we have to repackage the things that we see each and every day. Somehow we need to breathe life into evergreen ideas and commonplace concepts. We must make the reader care about what we have written. So how is this best done?

While every writer will surely have their own thoughts on this, I would like to offer a few of my own for you to contemplate. There are ways to communicate with the reader. To add interest and depth to a piece that would otherwise fall flat. The next time you are stumped for ideas, try one of these…

+ Use statistics. This is always a good way to get more into a piece. People love to look at facts and figures to help them get a feel for a subject. Just make sure you are using reliable source material.

+ Grab your thesaurus. Nothing like new words to freshen a piece up a bit. Pass on those tired cliches.

+ Put your reader in the scene. Don’t tell them about what it is like at the pier in this photo. Show them. Let them be you. They can see the photograph. Give them the rest of the story…

+ Don’t write sloppy. If you are tired or rushed, put the piece aside and go back to it when you can cultivate a sense of what you are trying to get through to the reader. Grow the piece, don’t churn it out.