So, you know what’s holding your writing back. What will you do about it?
Personally, one of my biggest challenges is writing more concisely. (Why is it so hard? I have some theories.)
At work, writing more (and more) concisely has been a decade-long process.
I try to be mindful every time I open up a Word document or draft an email response. I observe how the office Masters of Clarity do it, and try to emulate their writing style. I enjoy this aspect of my job! The allure of accounting lies in the challenge of taking complex ideas and condensing them into meaningful, digestible information.
Plus, restriction fosters creativity.
I also love words, though, and I don’t often get a chance to play with writing at the office. So by the time I come here, I’m busting at the seams with ideas and words. This thwarts my efforts to write concisely on the blog, which has become more a form of expression than it is a vehicle for delivering clear, concise ideas. (Bad blogger, I know.)
I also have a hard time following the conventional wisdom to kill my darlings. (I’m getting better, though!)
Despite all that, and as I mentioned way back here, I have been trying to be a bit more succinct in an effort to accomplish a few goals, and to improve as a writer overall.
Here are 5 goals I’m keeping in mind this year to be a better writer:
1. Be useful
Possibly the best piece of advice I received when studying for the Chartered Accountants’ case-based Uniform Exams was to be useful. (A big thank-you to my mentor back then.)
Seems obvious, doesn’t it? But when you’re tackling an open-ended question, or if you’ve just got a lot of breadth and depth to cover, the advice to be useful can really help to focus your efforts and cut out extraneous information.
Writing is about self-expression, sure, but doing it in a public forum means there’s inevitably a reader out there to consider. My hope is that something on here will one day be useful to someone out there, so in order to achieve that, I ought to make these things useful.
2. Edit efficiently
It’s not easy keeping up with hobbies when you’ve got a 9-to-5 and young children at home, so if I’m going to try to do it all, I’m going to make it as efficient as possible.
Ironically, the longer you spend editing, the more concise your writing can be. Let me tell you, though, it is really hard to edit a huge piece of meandering writing into something cohesive!
If editing already takes a great deal of time and effort, why make it harder for myself?
The obvious solution is to start with an outline. I have begun implementing this, and it’s made the drafting and editing process much more smooth.
When I do meander, my first editing task is to restructure my written thoughts by identifying the point(s) I was trying to make, and then carving them off into separate posts. [2025 editor’s note: this post is ironically one of them.]
That takes a fair amount of work in and of itself, but once I’ve done that, I’ve now got three to five first drafts to work with!
This leads me to my next goal…
3. Eliminate half-baked posts
What’s wrong with a bunch of half-baked posts?
For me, unless I had made the conscious decision to sit on a draft for a rest period, it becomes a point of distraction and a source of frustration throughout the week. It stays in the back of my mind begging to be wrapped up, but it’s not often that I can muster up the time or energy to finish it until the weekend.
While having five ideas on the go is better than none, I’d still much prefer to start and finish just one within a week. Or better yet, a weekend!
Then I’m entering the work week feeling accomplished, and as a bonus, I’ve got the space available for that next idea to develop.
Perhaps more importantly, each post is a learning opportunity, and by completing one at a time, small improvements have a chance to compound. (Another lesson from the Uniform Exams.)
4. Maintain a posting frequency
Given the limited time I have available to write in, my goal was to post every other week. I set that goal for myself mostly so that I wouldn’t just let the blog fall away (because I’ve found it’s shockingly easy to let the rest of life overtake your free time). It served as motivation to maintain some sort of creative outlet outside of office hours.
By now, I think I’ve created a habit for myself, so I don’t feel the need to post on a schedule anymore (because if I’m not writing, I’m probably engaging in some other creative activity).
Still, I enjoy feeling productive and maintaining a certain momentum.
It’s hard to maintain the feeling of momentum when I’ve found myself with a massive amount of editing to do.
I’ve also found that a great way to learn quickly is to do more, quickly and imperfectly. In other words, practice.
More on this: “Learn by Doing” Works Best in the Absence of Perfectionism — and yes, this post needs a conciseness-refresh as of October 2025!
5. Practice
It really doesn’t matter what you’re writing: text messages, emails, articles, instruction manuals, research… Clear, concise writing is an immensely valuable, transferrable skill.
A hidden benefit to clear, concise writing is also clear thinking. Writing is the expression of thought. One could even argue that writing and thought are inextricably linked! If you can learn to write clearly and concisely, I suspect you can teach yourself to think this way as well.
Come to think of it, I’ve been told that I’m a naturally divergent thinker, which explains my approach to writing. I don’t think divergent thinking is a bad thing; if anything, it’s quite creative. It’s just hard to then express the resulting thoughts in a digestible manner.
I (ironically) digress.
Parting words
Thanks for reading! This was more of a personal reflection piece than practical advice; after all, I’m still learning. But I would love to hear what your creative goals are this year, and how you’re going to crush them.
Need a little nudge to stay connected with your practice? I write a monthly letter full of creative kindling and encouragement. Join in here!
