The keys to being a better writer

Much has been said about the arduous art of writing. Truth is, it is all a lie. There is no “key” to being a better writer. There are, however, facts about the human brain that you can use to make your writing clear, succinct, and readable.

The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple transcends genius. Avoid saying, “The most important thing is” when you can say, “The important thing is.” Because when things are simple, they are more clear to the human brain.

Grab the reader with the first sentence (or the title if you are writing for a digital audience). I rewrote this title several times. It makes you wonder. That’s the point. Know your intention as well as your rhetoric.

Try to keep things short. Shear the extra wool of your sentences and remove all unnecessary words. I don’t know about you, but that is all my year-9 English teacher used to say, “Prune your sentences, Abir.” Turns out she was not that wrong after all.

Finally, active is better than passive - at least for the human brain (here’s looking at you, Area-51 alien). “I drew that picture” will always be better than “That picture was drawn by me.” That’s just how the human brain works, I guess.

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And that’s it — Voila! Four concisely written paragraphs exploring the art of writing. Unsurprisingly inspired by one of my favourite writers on the World Wide Web, Shane Parrish. Here’s his tweet, an exemplary of how a modicum of characters can entail a cornucopia of ideas. And here is another piece of text exploring something similar.