5 Rules of Writing That Have Blasted My Prose into the Cosmos

As many of you know, being an insurance claims adjuster has been a great background to springboard my writing and propel me into a career in online journalism and earning a 3-figure income.

But at the beginning, I needed to put into action a few well known writing techniques to take my writing from the mundane, to the masterful.

1. Write What You Know

Last year’s best-selling book, It Ends With Us, by Colleen Hoover, was a fast-paced romance about two attractive, successful people falling in love.

I don’t know anything about that. What I do know is the slower paced world of Insurance Claims regulation. As with John Grisham in legal thrillers, and Michael Crichton in medical crisis page turners, my domain knowledge in insurance brings a spark of authenticity into my books, one which make readers crave for more.

Let’s begin this lesson with an excerpt from my original draft of “Diaries of an Insurance Claims Adjuster”.

“In Akron Ohio, amidst the tribulations of my first divorce, I spent my days gleefully rejecting insurance claim forms at the offices of Lumina Health Insurance. Woe be the insured patient who underwent a surgical procedure without a proper referral!”

Slightly dull right? Let's improve that paragraph using the other guidelines.

2. Eliminate adverbs and unnecessary clauses.

Stephen King hated adverbs and said using words such as “gleefully” would pave a road to hell for an undefined character, and then cover their lawn with dandelions. His words, not mine.

Like adverbs, unnecessary clauses can also distract the reader from the forward momentum of the action in your story.

Revision #1:

“In Akron Ohio, I spent my days rejecting insurance claim forms at the offices of Lumina Health Insurance. Woe be the insured patient who underwent a surgical procedure without a proper referral!”

3. Avoid Exclamation Marks

The writing should convey the emotion, not the punctuation marks.

Revision #2:

“In Akron Ohio, I spent my days rejecting insurance claim forms at the offices of Lumina Health Insurance. Unfortunate was the insured patient who underwent a surgical procedure without a proper referral.”

4. Use Short Sentences and Simple Words

Don’t sell the power of brevity, and good word order, short.

My hero, a modern-day Shakespeare of imaginative prose usage, Elon Musk, became the world’s richest man by using short sentences.

Today, he tweeted:

Look at the brilliant alliteration created by his use of redundant -ing verbs!

Using the principle of short sentences, and everyday simple words, rewriting my paragraph makes it more emotional impactful.

Revision #3:

“I was working in Akron Ohio at the offices of Lumina Health Insurance. I spent my days rejecting insurance claim forms. Unfortunate was any insured patient who underwent a surgical procedure without a proper referral.”

5. Be specific

Specificity is the cinnamon spice of reading. The glimmering jewel of the Cinnabon in the otherwise mundane CAK airport.

Writers should make every noun and verb in their writing as specific as possible to heighten the sense of realism for the reader.

“In Hinckley Township, 23 miles north of Akron Ohio, I worked at the back-office branch of Lumina Health Insurance. I spent my mornings and afternoons rejecting FB-304 claim forms. Unfortune was the HMO insured patient who underwent anterior hip laparoscopy without the properly signed GP-20B referral forms from an in-network provider.”

If you enjoyed reading this paragraph, imagine how these tips improved my full length memoir!

Bonus Tip: Use Active Voice, Avoid the Passive Voice.

Which sentence feels more powerful in the following dialogue?

“Was my claim rejected by Lumina Insurance?”

“No," I said firmly. "I rejected your claim.”

You clearly want to be the last speaker in this conversation.

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Thanks for taking the time to read my article!

My new book “Diaries of an Insurance Claims Adjuster — Volume #1“ is coming soon from Simon & Schuster (just kidding, it’s self-published.)

The story of how I began writing, “At Age 64, They Told Me to Keep Writing” is on Medium.com.

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Note: I’m posting this on behalf of Howard Bubski, who claims that some characters and events portrayed are fictitious, even though it mostly rings true to me. All photos from Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons.