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One Key to Better Writing Is Hiding Right in Front of You
Self-taught writers often fumble a common part of speech and send readers away
Real writers don’t care about being seen. They care about being understood. That means each sentence should be impossible to misunderstand. If I understand you, I will share your ideas or shame them. If I can’t understand you, I will quit reading and find a snack.
The quickest path to being understood is through nouns and verbs.
The dog ran.
The man stood.
The bagel beckoned.
You know what each of these sentences means. Even though you know a bagel cannot actually beckon, the simple noun and verb help you understand that I am planning to reward myself with a scrumptious treat soon.
When sentences get more complex, though, the nouns give us fits. Imagine having to read nightmarish passages like this:
“The man stood by the man’s house in the rain. The dog ran past the man, and the man yelled at the dog. The man was mad because the dog had taken the bagel from the man.”
Those nouns make the sentence less clear, not more. Keep this up for long, and the reader will stop reading the writer’s words and walk away from the…
