Is there anything more annoying than having a great idea for a post, writing a few sentences, and then becoming disillusioned with what you've written and not going any further? I'm sure this has happened to so many of us, and not only with Steemit posts, but also with things like work projects and college essays. If you've got at least one file on your computer named asdf.doc (or a variation thereof), I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
For me, probably the main reason why I become disenchanted with what I've written is because it just doesn't look like good writing, even if the idea I had for my topic is good. It looks and sounds clunky and awkward to me, as if it had been drafted by a computer instead. Imagine the results when you take a sentence in English, put it through Google Translate, and then put that foreign language sentence back into English. It just doesn't sound right. That’s how I feel.
Of course, I'm sure I'm being too harsh on myself, expecting perfect copy to step out from nowhere on the first draft. That's probably not going to happen. I simply need to keep working on the post until I'm happy with how it sounds. Good writing isn't a fluke - it needs good editing too.
But I think there's an extremely important tip when writing. Perhaps it’s the most important tip of all.
Write like you speak.
Seriously, it’s that simple.
Take a look at some first drafts you’ve written, or cast your mind back to the times when you’ve scrubbed out one awkward sentence after another, without so much as a paragraph to show for your efforts. What do you see?
I’ve noticed that almost all of the times I’ve had to get rid of a sentence, a paragraph, or even a whole blog post, it’s because I was trying to be too clever for my own good. I’ve swamped the reader’s mind with too many words, or snapped at them with a sentence that used too few. I’ve tried to explain a concept but I’ve got too technical – often so technical that I sound abstract or even vague. I’ve used words which sound fine when spoken out loud (although elevated in style, perhaps), but I’ve paired them with other words or put them in a sequence that sounds clumsy and unnatural.
Why does it sound unnatural? Because that’s not how I communicate verbally. It’s bad writing because it quite literally sounds wrong.
Write like you speak. You can’t afford not to. You’ll never find satisfaction writing in a voice that isn’t your own.
