How to be a Good Writer (Part 1)

Right from the start, I acknowledge that the title of this blog post is quite cliché. Nevertheless, here's the positive aspect: our title was designed to attract your attention, leading you to this moment. But there's a valid reason for it. Therefore, please stay a bit longer as you might discover information that surpasses your initial expectations.

Chances are you didn't find this blog accidentally. Google search indexes relevant web pages to match search queries. You're here for a reason, and you're in the right place, whether you're new to writing or a seasoned professional. This new blog series is tailored for you!

This article aims to guide you on the core principles that differentiate an outstanding writer from a good one. Our focus will be on the concept of "first principles" in thinking and writing. According to Oxford Languages, "first principles" refer to the fundamental concepts or assumptions that form the basis of a theory, system, or method. To incorporate first principles in your writing, you must deconstruct your ideas, themes, and stories into manageable parts to understand their foundational essence. How do you break down such abstract ideas? It's simple: before you start writing, deeply contemplate your current challenge.

Let’s say, for instance, that you want to write an article about good writing practices. The central issue confronting you would be the classic rhetoric of ‘Where do I even begin?’. In applying the concept of first principles to your thinking and writing, you would first need to identify your central problem. As a reminder: our ‘example’ problem at present pertains to good writing practices. Second, you would need to break the problem down into manageable parts (its basic form and constituent parts).

An easy way to do this can be illustrated as follows:

1. CONCEPTUALISATION

Pose your abstract thought as a single question

This first stage involves identifying the core problem, your central subject matter, in the form of a single question. The possible questions at this stage are almost infinite, so aim to significantly simplify your MAIN struggle point (or problem) in as few words as possible. In this context, an example of a single question would be ‘What is the purpose of writing?’.

2. RESEARCH

Answer the posed question – Define the purpose of writing

Conduct extensive authoritative research on your posed question. Research the purpose of writing. Find as many authoritative sources as is reasonably possible. Sift through the various sources that you have collated and extract (without plagiarising) the most important and relevant source data that directly answers your posed question. In simple terms, the research reveals that the purpose of writing is essentially to convey an abstract thought in comprehensible written form.

3. FINDINGS

Discovery – The qualities of good writing

If done correctly, having only extracted and ordered the most important and relevant source data you need, you will start to observe many dots and begin to recognise a few pre-emptive connections between them. An example of a simple pre-emptive connection is the following: from a decent understanding of the purpose of writing, you will learn the various qualities of good writing. The early connections point you in the general direction of solving your problem in a more precise manner. These early connections indicate that certain qualities (or characteristics) serve to help a person write well. Simply put, these qualities of good writing can be summarised as a single point – to create a clear message that adequately conveys the full depth and breadth of your topic coupled with the methods to achieve such an objective.

4. APPLICATION

Write a LONG–form version of your abstract thought

It’s at this stage that your thought ceases to be abstract and becomes specifiable. As a starting point, you would first need to adequately identify your target audience. Your target audience is the collective of readers to whom your message is directed.

Questions to ask yourself are:

(1) Who makes up my target audience?

(2) What are the interests and shortfalls in the knowledge of my target audience?

(3) Does my target audience consist of industry professionals, sector specialists, students, or members of the general public? And lastly,

(4) Is my message educational, informational, or thought-provoking?

Having discovered what kind of people your audience is comprised of, you would then know what kind of register (formal, semi-formal, or informal) to use when addressing them and conveying your message.

5. ITERATION

Rewrite your LONG–form specifiable thought continuously until simplified

During this stage, the realisation will occur to you that your writing is (a) unnecessarily too long, (b) poorly structured, and (c) akin to information dumping. Based on the aforementioned reasons, you would need to rewrite, restructure, and possibly reformulate your message to make it seamless, and straightforward, and to ensure that it remains relevant to your central topic.

The key takeaway here is to simplify your specifiable thought as much as possible without losing the core substance of your central message. It has been said numerous times by an exceptional writer, David Perell, that your first draft is almost always your worst draft. Therefore, iteration is key!

6. IMPROVEMENT

Produce a SHORT–form version of your simplified specifiable thought

At this point, it is assumed that the long-form version of your specifiable thought (your message) is structured, flows coherently, and includes all the relevant information that your central topic requires. That said, you are NOT done yet! Under certain circumstances, your message will be justifiably lengthy. This will be the case when you are writing a research report, an essay, an article on writing exceptionally, some form of a memorandum, and other such technical documents. However, in most other circumstances, and more often than not, this golden rule should be applied: ‘Keep it simple and interesting’. Most people are busy these days, they have a lot on their minds as well as on their plates. To prevent boredom and reading fatigue, it is always best to write simple sentences with bite-sized paragraphs. In this manner, you not only capture your reader’s attention but most importantly, you hold their attention by sustaining their interest! Simply put, extensively summarise your long-form specifiable thought (your message) as far as is reasonably possible without losing the substance of your central topic.

7. RESULT

Consolidation of your central topic – In this case: Good writing practices

Having undergone a full-circle experience, you would now know the basics of good writing practices and you would have your first official article draft written in clear and concise words. However, this draft for most people is still arguably not your best work. Accordingly, endeavour to revise the structure, word choice, sentence flow, and other nuanced details if and where necessary. Thereafter, thoroughly scrutinise your spelling and grammar with the eyes of an eagle.

A final word regarding your tirelessly achieved result can be summarised in the form of a paradox by a truly exceptional writer. David Perell (via Twitter), wrote the following: “The paradox of writing: Great writing looks effortless. But because the ideas are so clear, casual readers don't appreciate how much time it took to refine them.”

On your writing journey, you will find this paradox to be true 10/10 times.

This brings us to the third central point of our MAIN discussion. As a general rule: unstructured thought should almost always precede structured thought. What is meant by this? Well, have you ever been in a situation where you had severe brain fog or as it’s colloquially known, ‘writer’s block’? In such situations, it tends to be tremendously difficult to think up inspiration or to find a solution to your present problem. Well, the purpose of applying first principles to your thinking and writing allow you to dissect your abstract thought to remove all of the unnecessary information, the so-called ‘fluff’! The fluff comprises all the unnecessary thoughts, ideas, and abstract themes that detract from your central topic.

By removing the fluff from your abstract thought, you can clearly define the most focused path of least resistance to further the development of your central topic. Now, to achieve this, you would need to first write down all of your unstructured thoughts (message with the fluff) in order to get to the point where you have structured thoughts (message without the fluff). At first glance, this may come across as counterintuitive. But it’s not it’s the very opposite. It’s only through writing out your unstructured thoughts (abstract) that you will begin to make sense of them and thus develop structured thoughts (specifiable).

In simple words: write down everything on your mind, even if certain things seem entirely counterproductive to solving your current problem. Throughout balancing unstructured and structured thoughts, be sure to apply the above-illustrated 7-Step approach to first principles thinking and writing.

At Professional Typist Services™, first principles thinking and writing is one of the various writing ideologies that our exceptional writing staff subscribe to. As mentioned in Step 5 (above), we use a term known to coders and programmers the world over: "iterate". According to Oxford Languages (as per Google), "iterate" (verb) means to “perform or utter repeatedly”. We iterate until we get it right, and when we get it right, we iterate some more. The result that our esteemed clients get: is polished masterpieces. True works of art that live, breathe and speak through each reader that encounters them.

In summation, to write better and thus become an exceptional writer, you should go back to walking, and then jogging before you even attempt running (as far as first principles thinking and writing is concerned). A brief recap follows. Identify your core problem and formulate a question. Conduct authoritative research on your core problem/question. Evaluate your findings. Apply your newly found insight. Iterate aggressively. Improve, improve, and improve some more! And lastly, consolidate your central topic into a clear and concise message. Following this approach, you’re well on your way to becoming an exceptional writer.

* * *

Congratulations, you made it to the end!

_________________________________

Dear Writer,

Thank you for reading our Blog!

We greatly appreciate your support.

Honestly, your interest in improving your writing impassions us to continue creating empowering, thought-provoking content like this. We look forward to our future interactions with you via our Blog or our Professional Business Services.

Can’t get enough of our content? Sign up to receive our Newsletter!

To be notified about the publication of subsequent Parts to this article and the publication of our future articles, kindly subscribe to our Newsletter. You can subscribe by entering your Name, Surname, and Email Address into our Subscription Form, or you can become a Member of our Website Community where you'll receive regular updates.

Happy writing,

Professional Typist Services™

_________________________________