One Step Toward Clarity in Your Writing . . .

Have the courage to keep it simple.

That's right, I said "simple." There's absolutely no reason whatsoever to try to somehow impress readers with a glowing vocabulary and "big" words. More often than not, such attempts fall flat on their kissers. Because either the writer ends up using the wrong "big" word, or readers are simply lost because they don't understand what you're trying to say.

Which brings me to another of my writer mantras: Write so people understand what you mean. Then stop.

Pretty simple stuff. And logical. Why on earth would you want to write what people don't understand? Makes no sense.

You have one ultimate goal in all your non-fiction writing: to be understood. And the clearer your writing is, the better your writing will be understood. That's called communication, uncomplicated. Doesn't that make sense? Of course it does.

So, in this post, I'm not going to get into specific steps for keeping things simple. That'll come shortly. All I want to emphasize for now is that you should adopt an *attitude* about writing. An attitude that embraces the idea of keeping things simple.

Resist the big words. Resist the long, drawn-out sentences. Resist the stuffy language that sounds like a machine wrote it, instead of a human being. Have the courage to keep it simple.

When you muster that courage and then write in a direct, simple and clear manner, you'll see how well-received your writing will be. You'll become better at writing. And you may actually come to enjoy writing.

Wouldn't that be something!