How to Avoid “Cringe” in Your Writing

Dear Supporters of The Typewriter,

In this blog post, we’ll be covering a topic we feel hits closest to home for our audience, young writers: cringey writing. As teenagers and adolescents, the “cringe” is something of a hard beast to shake. And this author knows she is certainly not free from it. All the angst we feel has to go somewhere, after all! But detailed below are some of our favorite tips to avoid cringe, while continuing to express ourselves.

1. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

Log out of your device, take a few minutes to decompress, then open it back up with fresh, discerning, cold-hearted eyes. Do you feel your shoulders tightening up? Your skin prickling? That may signify you’ve crossed over the boundary from powerful creative confession to full-on spine-tickling “cringe.” Anything that feels too impossible, implausible, or grandiose is probably, at least slightly, cringe, not to mention untrue to your character.

2. Focus more on your characters, less on your writing

What kind of people are your characters? Are they witty? Are they kind? Are they mean? Now think about what kind of person you are. Are you writing a character, or writing yourself? The story is not about you, the writer, as hard as that may be to hear. You are telling someone else’s story, not trying to impress your audience with your witty jokes, extensive knowledge, or superb vocabulary. You’re trying to convey a message, not sell yourself.

3. Show, Don’t Tell

This rule is one of the most important us writers have. You will hear it again and again, and helping to thwart cringe is only one of its many superpowers. When you show your audience something, get them to read between the lines, you are both establishing yourself as a credible author, and enriching your plot. If you tell your audience that your main character is a kleptomaniac, or hates her daughter, you are giving them the answer. Imagine if your math teacher assigned you a challenging, but engaging problem, then just told you the answer. For us right-brainers, that may not seem like the worst thing in the world, but it’s unsatisfying, and, most importantly, it doesn’t keep the reader (or student) coming back for more. Make them work for it, and the reward will be infinitely more gratifying.

We hope you enjoyed this short segment on the at-times incurable disease of “cringe.” Rest assured, though, young writer, you are not alone, and help is available. We may turn this into a series, so keep checking the website for more anti-cringe material. Remember, revision is your friend. Sometimes, a little cringe is okay, if you can use it to further your plot and eventually clean it up into a polished, mature piece. With any and all questions, we remind you to reach out to our editor, at ursulak@thetypewriterstudentmag.com.

Again, we believe in you, and hope to read some of your work soon. Additionally, The Typewriter is modifying! We now offer feedback on your piece, directly on a PDF version of it. If you submit to our lit mag, no matter our response, you may request our critiques or notes on your piece, and we will send back a marked-up PDF of your work. If this sounds interesting, don’t wait, submit now! We can’t wait to read what you dream up.

Yours,

The Typewriter