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January 28, 2009 | Monika | Comments 4

How To Simplify Your Writing

Good writing starts when the bull stops. Simplified writing is about getting rid of word clutter and introducing the simple words back into your stories.

If you are anything like me, you probably thought at one stage that in order to write well you had to use fancy words and complicated technical terms; basically, the harder it was to decipher for your readers, the better your writing was.

But you were wrong! And so was I!

Good writing is simple. Simple means that you prefer to use words that are easy to comprehend and understand. Therefore this is why kids books are so popular and successful. Just look at the famous Harry Potter books by J.K.Rowling. The text is easy to read while it provides enough excitement to want to keep reading on.

This is exactly what every writer needs to do. If you are using Microsoft Word, then you are in luck as there is a great free tool called Fight the Bull that tells you when you start rambling.

Fight the Bull is ideal for writers who tend to complicate their words with hard to understand terms and analogies.

Another way to simplify your writing is to just relax. Try too hard and you will get stuck, guaranteed. Good writing comes with practice and application. It also comes with your acceptance to keep learning.

I see the process from being a beginner to a good writer as follows:

When you first start out you are like the apprentice chef who never held a knife in his hands. He is nervous because he is afraid to cut himself. But his boss is adamant that he keeps chopping and cutting vegetables until he goes green in order to further his abilities….

…. as time goes on, the young apprentice grows into a capable chef who learns to sharpen his knife to keep it maintained. Meanwhile he gets better at cutting and is soon allowed to cut meats and fish (the more expensive stuff)…

…after a few months/years of applied learning, the young apprentice grows finally into a knife handling master; capable of doing all work in the kitchen – by now he is very good at using knifes and no longer cuts his fingers or hand while doing so.

Like the young apprentice chef, a writer grows from a fledgling into something more grown up and as he does, the choice of his words and his ability to play with them will become much better.

This is when simplified writing is at its best.

Monika

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Entry Information

Filed Under: Featured

Tags: good writing • how to simplify your writing • how to write well • Simplified Writing • Writing • writing well • writing well without the bull

About the Author: I'm a passionate freelance writer and problogger. To further build my business I'm also in the process of building my own niche empire which pays me residual income.

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  1. Jen | Jan 28, 2009 | Reply

    Good writing also blossoms once you start to find your own writing style and are more comfortable putting your thoughts on paper.

    It is very frustrating to read something that you are trying to learn a concept from and instead you are just trying to understand the words themselves.

  2. Lis Sowerbutts | Jan 28, 2009 | Reply

    I got a freelancing gig about horse racing – the feedback on the previous writer from the client was – no Greek gods or horses are readers are punter not history students LOL. Its not hard to write well if you think about where your audience is coming from, even if you next to nothing about racing!

  3. Brett Legree | Jan 29, 2009 | Reply

    My Grade 9 English teacher used to say to us, “bullshit baffles brains” – he literally said that to us in class.

    I think some people were a bit horrified, but I got exactly what he meant.

    When I write, I start with a skeleton – point form. Simple words, simple ideas. Build around them – and usually in a plain text program like Q10 or the like.

    Something new I discovered was a neat tool in Google Docs. If you import your text into Google Docs or write in it, when you do a Word Count, it gives you a Flesch-Kincaid readability index and grade level.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch-Kincaid_Readability_Test

    I guess it is best to have it at a lower level if you’re trying to reach a wider audience. I tested it on some of my writing and it seems that most of what I write can be understood by a Grade 7 to Grade 8, without my trying to simplify.

    I always figured if you can’t explains something to a young person, you’re trying to hide something :) so I was happy to see I wasn’t full of crap!

  4. Davina | Jan 29, 2009 | Reply

    Hi Monika. I couldn’t agree more! Twitter has been a useful tool to keep words and sentences short — getting rid of word clutter. This is one of my favourite parts of writing. I love combing through my posts and thinning them out.

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