Smithing Better Writing

So it’s been a little bit since I posted any writing pieces to FourthEye (yes, yes I know you missed me). Jokes aside, although my goal is to publish at least one written blog post per week, I’ve been struggling with what to write about. I don’t know if I would describe my plight as writer’s block, but I think because I try to write about bedrock issues, it can sometimes be difficult to keep things coming down the creative pipeline. Funnily enough, what snapped me out of my temporary aversion to writing was the fact that I’ve been spending massive amounts of resources learning how to write better. I’ve been studying how to write an awesome resume/cover letter, how to write great copy, how to network and more, to the extent that the idea I had nothing interesting to write about was in reality more preposterous than I realized. Although I usually write simply as a means to communicate what I’m learning, I’ve been paying attention to the growth I’ve had as a writer and thinker since doing this blog and writing my books. Even though I see my common errors such as misplaced punctuation around quotations or misspelling the first word in a post (yes that apparently happened) I haven’t gone to fix these errors for the sake of not trying to pretend to be perfect. Plus, I think you get penalized for reposting which I only recently found out. In this piece, what I’d like to share are a number of things I plan to work on in my writing moving forward, that I think will be useful especially if you don’t consider yourself a “writer” in a more traditional sense.

1.) Consider the main takeaway or lesson first

This will seem fairly obvious, but I can confidently say that often when a podcast or essay doesn’t appear to be going anywhere it’s because we (me included) didn’t have a clear objective. I actually don’t write specific outlines when I write, but my clearest writing starts with a title that encapsulates what the point of the article is, which I brainstorm before writing the actual piece. Second, I give my best articles ample time in-between writing, editing and revising to have a fresh perspective for each phase. Of course this may not always be practical but as I’ve said before, doing important tasks while operating at a peak or high-level means fewer mistakes we have to debug later. An ounce of prevention is really worth a ton of cure much of the time.

2.) “Punctuation usually goes inside the quotes in American English”

Yes, grammar is legitimately important. This is a lesson I very much need to master myself, but the truth is no matter how interesting we think we are, if we misspell a concept we’re talking about, or place the period outside the quotes at the end of sentence, we lose readability, credibility, and visual flow. Of course being perfect when you don’t have a proofreader, or the desire to edit 14 times before publishing is impractical and small mistakes can be overlooked if we have great ideas, but still trying to keep the writing clean and clear goes a long way.

3.) Write confidently but with humility

This one can be a bit tough, and it’s something that I struggle with often when I cover more complex topics. Generally, I have a tendency to lean a bit too much towards hedging my language or assertions, which can leave me with a 14 word sentence that should’ve been 7. I think it’s very important to communicate margin for error in our writing, especially when trying to give tips and tricks, but keeping it balanced is super important in my opinion. The rule I’m trying to implement is checking whether some piece of content has “earned” its place in the piece. If some words or even a sentence or paragraph add little or no value to the reader, including entertainment, it gets saved for the blooper reel.

4.) Cut out the fluff but don’t lose your voice

This is very much tangential to the last tip, but while being wordy just means your points are less clear and take more energy to read (gee Orion maybe you should read this article) some catchphrases or language may just be part of your unique identity. Obviously, there is no magic bullet here, but if something showcases your sense of humor or how you speak and makes viewers (readers, listeners, what have you) engage more, that’s a win. The trick, which I need to master, is being less academic and robotic, and being slightly more casual and straightforward. You might not be able to tell but I don’t use (as many) big words in real life, it’s just that for some reason when I write I get all hyper intellectual and forget the point is clear communication. I know my reader base is composed of the world’s geniuses, but if I can say something interesting or poetic in 10 words rather than 35, I think I should opt for that more often. The biggest takeaway for me on this point is that my morning scribbles that I may think are gold, are usually not easily exportable to an audience. The ideas can stay, but writing to other people like less of a maniac is probably a plus.

5.) Write your passion

I know I say this in just about every article, but that’s because it’s damn important. If you love something it’s more likely to be MELF or, meaningful, easy, lucrative and fun. All good things when combined for the most part. This is also as good a time as any to use the PID rule, which provides even more assurance that you’re doing the right thing for you. Of course sometimes we will do stuff we aren’t 100% psyched about and that’s okay, but the more we like something, the better we are likely to do at it. As a bonus, if something doesn’t quite resonate with you but you think it’s important, I like to add other interests or hobbies I have to the mix, to brighten it up for myself. This has an added benefit of making you more unique and differentiating yourself from other content creators as you may be combining things not often put together.

As always, I could find more to say on this topic, but I think that’s a wrap for now. I hope you find some value in this piece, as I know I’ve certainly got to work on these things, and I hope you will be awesome.

Happy writing,

Orion Aeneas Webster,

FourthEye author