Writing a fluent piece of work is something that all writers, freelance or otherwise, aspire to achieve with every piece they undertake. Fluency engages the reader, draws them in, and encourages them to read through the entire thing. Perhaps, in the long-term, a good writing style, captivating prose and a well-planned layout can earn new readers, expanding your capabilities as a writer, be it in finding work or growing a fan-base.

This article will teach you the do’s and don’ts of writing a fluid piece that will improve freelancing prospects.

Plan Ahead

Planning is a vital part of writing. Usually, when undertaking freelance work, you might need to do a little research. This may be in the form of conducting actual research around the topic, or this may be researching the client and looking into their past work to get a feel for the work you should be producing. Researching and taking notes will later become important in developing a writing style.

Once you have an idea of what you want to produce, write out a brief plan of exactly how you want the article to go. What will the title be? What will you include in the post? Should you break the article up with sub-headings or write a solid piece? If the piece does include subheadings, what will these be? And what content will go under each heading?

Choose Your Style

This relates back to the research step: you should gain an idea of what style to use whilst doing your research, particularly if you have seen examples of what the client wants.

A style is extremely important, because without it your piece may look disconnected and it certainly won’t flow. Depending on the type of article, the style will differ slightly, and for this reason you should know your audience fairly well and know how to write targeting them. For example, writing a viral article will require more use of colloquial language and shorter sentences to maintain the attention of a variety of younger readers. On the other hand, a professional article might be more complex. Either way, the style must be consistent to avoid confusing or boring the reader.

Switch it Up

Although a style is essential, it is also a good idea to vary your language. Using sentences that are consistently the same length makes the article seem disjointed; persistently small sentences contain too many full stops, and if you read the piece aloud you will notice how broken up it sounds, but persistently long sentences are too complex and cause the reader to lose focus. In addition, you can also change the sentence function occasionally – in this article I have written statements, questions, and orders.

The same goes for language. Always using the same adjectives and vocabulary becomes tiresome, and will make the article seem less professional or well-written, which is likely to deter the reader.

Writing with Rhetoric

Not all articles require rhetorical features such as alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhetorical questions to make them memorable. However, sometimes these literary techniques can add rhythm to the piece and make them easier and more fun to read.

Triadic structure, for example, can quickly become your new best friend. Writing in list format with three words or three examples is incredibly rhythmic and it also reinforces the idea you are trying to put across.

Conjunctions

Additionally, you should always make good use of conjunctions to start or join your clauses or phrases. Adverbs at the beginning of a sentence help to guide your reader through the piece. “Firstly,” signifies the first of many ideas to come, while “however” implies that you are about to contradict a prior statement. These words provide a very helpful map for your readers to navigate through the piece, and overall add a much better flow.

Practice Makes Perfect!

Finally, the best thing you can do as practice. The more you write, the easier it will be to develop and adapt your style. Find your writing voice and use it to put all your points across clearly. By following these tips and putting your all into writing, you are certain to produce a piece that makes the words fall elegantly right off the page.