By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

While contemplating my next writing project, I took a critical look at myself, and I didn’t like what the mirror revealed. I had flabby arms. Some of you call these bat wings or fly-zones. I refer to them as dangling participles, nothing I want on me or in my writing. Now, I’m a small person, and I exercise and lift weights, but still the flabby arms persist. What was I doing wrong? Had my body become accustomed to the same exercises?

I refused to deal with the disgusting condition any longer. My commitment hit the no-turning-back level. I searched YouTube for videos guaranteed to make my arms firm and shapely. Thrills! By the New Year, my arms should look substantially better. I’m so very excited.

I sat at my computer and focused on my writing. I cringed. I stood and paced. The truth glared at me.

Flabby prose is like flabby arms. Not just an excess but lazy writing that shocked and angered me. After publishing for over 20 years, why did my craft sound amateurish? Had my mind grown accustomed to the same words and methods of stringing together sentences? Why wasn’t I applying what I’d learned and taught at writing conferences?

Transparency is supposed to be healing. Right now it hurts.

I refused to deal with my lack of professionalism any longer. My commitment hit the no-turning-back level. Just like my flabby arms were under a new conditioning program, so would be my flabby prose.

Here are 6 discoveries I made while toning my flabby prose:

1. The more I challenge my voice, the better writer I become. We writers can sometimes grow too comfortable in our word choices and body language.
2. The more I read my favorite authors’ books, the better writer I become. Characters strengthen into real and unique heroes, heroines, and villains.
3. The more quality movies I see, the better writer I become. Dialogue, setting, and body language show am amazing and credible story.
4. The more time I spend with others, the better writer I become. I learn from their lives what’s critical in today’s world and create my stories around those need.
5. The more passion I develop for my story and characters, the more my writing comes alive. When I can’t eat or sleep because my characters are in the midst of a problem, I  have a story that is real.
6. The more time I spend in prayer, the better writer I become. The story steps from the writer zone to the infinite possibilities of the great Creator.

Here’s my challenge to you. If your prose has grown lax, and flabbiness has inched its way into your writing, stop and examine you’re style. Bestselling writers gauge their writing habits so their stories reach into our hearts and never let us go. I want those qualities in every one of my stories.

My writing is getting tighter and tighter. What about yours?

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure.  Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Firewall, the first book in her Houston: FBI series, was listed by Library Journal as one of the best Christian Fiction books of 2014.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Suspense Sister, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and The Mountainside Marketing Conference with social media specialist Edie Melson. She teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.