Start Your Summer Right: 5 Creative Writing Tips | Jessica Strawser, WritersDigest.com

The headline for this article emphasizes creative writing, but Strawser's advice applies to all writing. And it's good advice for anytime, not just in the summer.

Here's a summary of each of her tips -- which include helpful examples:

1. Watch out for subtle wordiness. We've all been taught to eliminate redundancies in our writing, but it takes constant vigilance to catch the most elusive culprits—those that go beyond redundancy into pleonasm. ...

2. Don’t use a long (read: complicated) word where 1 short (read: simple) word will do. ...

3. Redefine how you think of writer’s block. ...

4. Write more by setting a smaller daily goal. ...

5. Don’t abandon your other passions to focus on writing. I find this tip especially helpful in the summertime, when the kid in me wants to play outside. ...

With four of the tips, Strawser lists a book that provides additional related advice.

For more advice on tips 1 and 2, check out Garbl's Concise Writing Guide. That free guide provides alternatives to overstated, pompous words; wordy, bureaucratic phrases; and verbose, sometimes amusing redundant phrases:

• Shorter, simpler words
• Wordy phrase replacements
• Redundant phrase replacements.