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Found this on Jay Cross’s website. These are fairly simple tips, but that’s the point. Simplicity leads to a universal understanding and meaning. That’s the goal; to bring as many people into your story by being as clear as possible and allow them to leave with an understanding and a new way of viewing the world. As George Orwell is one of my favorite authors, I thought I would share this with you:

George Orwell’s rules for writing well:

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Here’s some more writing advice from Orwell:

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
–George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”, 1946

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.
–George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”, 1946

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
–George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”, 1946

Keep this writing advice in mind when you’re working on your next project and always remember your audience.

Writing tip provided by Ann Douglas

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