Three Authors Who Can Enhance Your Writings

After spending a not-so-productive time in 2019, I decided to enhance my writing skills and do something productive on online platforms in the upcoming year. The first half of 2020 was filled with all-time legendary authors, and in the later half, comparatively new authors found their space on my bookshelf.

So, after 12 months of intensive and casual reading involving fiction, non-fiction, personal growth, financial literacy, etc., I am here with a list of different authors and how their writing styles can improve your writing skill. 

Timothy Ferriss - Idiom Master

After reading "The 4-hour Workweek," I was literally amazed that the author has used idioms in almost every paragraph of the book. Apart from being an amazing book for financial literacy, it provides an excellent treasure of "key phrases" and idioms that can enhance your text's quality. I had enmity with idioms because I thought they decrease the text's clarity, but that is not the case if you use them properly. 

Excessive usage of idioms always creates problems, but a balance and synchronized use can greatly impact the reader. Timothy Ferriss helps you to understand where you can squeeze in your magical idioms without decreasing clarity. For Example : 

I told this cautionary tale and six out of 17 finished the challenge in less than 48 hours. Was the second class better? No. In fact, there were more capable students in the first class, but they did nothing. Firepower up the wazoo and no trigger finger.

Not only idioms but also key phrases : 

Realistic goals, restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel.

The books of Mr. Ferriss are filled with these amazing examples, I instantly underline them and make a note of them. Start working on it instantly, force these idioms at least in one of your writing DAILY because If I give you a week to complete the same task, it's six days of making a mountain out of a molehill.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Inventory of Words

When I read "The Complete Novels of Sherlock Holmes," I was in a dilemma - either I had a weak vocabulary or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had an excellent inventory of words in his mind, and I realized both were true. So, it was a challenge for me to complete this book. I started making the list of all the words that I saw the first time in life, and so should you, to keep your vocabulary rich. I ended up listing more than 300 words, including verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc., even though I stopped marking them after 3/5th of the book. 

You can observe how he squeezes in words with so ease, and his paragraphs involved very fewer truncations in sentences, which is also wonderful. The complete series of Sherlock Holmes is quite amazing, so you can enhance your vocabulary with great fun.

Apart from an extensive vocabulary, you can also learn the talent of KEEPING YOUR READERS ENGAGED with the article. Sherlock Holmes's legends are undoubtedly very mystical and interesting but not all of them, but still Sir Arthur Conan Doyle keeps you involved with his suspenseful writing style. So, if you're trying to write a crime thriller story or a mysterious case study grab a Sherlock book. I tried implementing the things I learned from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in three of my article.

Lee Child - Consistent, Suspenseful, Engaging and Simple

"61 Hours" was the book that made me realize how a simple text without extensive vocabulary or idioms can be made interesting. I started reading the book at around 10 P.M. and kept the book down only after reading 100 pages without any distraction. No extravagant vocabulary and key phrases, just a simple discourse of truncated sentences kept me on the pages. 

The writing style of Lee Child is simple yet difficult to implement in your writing, but the benefit here is that the "Jack Reacher" series of Lee Child has more than 14 books, so you have plenty of material to see and observe. 

To fill a small bag means selecting,and choosing, and evaluating. There's no logicial end to that process. Pretty soon I would have a big bag, and then two or three. A month later I'd be like the rest of you.

Observe the writing style - 

• Short sentences (More truncation)
• Rhythmic pattern in delivery
• Simple choices of words 

After reading two books by Lee Child, you'll completely understand the art of ENGAGEMENT. I would suggest keeping your eyes on the earliest releases. I attempted the qualities I learned from Lee Child's work in one of my articles. Check it out!

These authors have really helped me out in enhancing my writing skills. I was a person who used present and past tense concurrently in one sentence. I improved just by reading these books. I made notes of all the important things and implemented them in my article. So, go now and grab these books!