Be honest
The best writing advice I ever heard:
Just be honest.
Forget perfect grammar, poetic phrasing, complex storytelling, or being persuasive. Just write honestly.
What does that mean? To write honestly.
According to one of my favourite modern writers, Ted Gioia, it means this:
To write the same way you speak in private conversation. To let your guard down, as if talking off the record, or with a close friend.
When considering this writing style, it's also essential to consider the opposite of honest writing: Dishonest writing. Here, again from Ted Gioia, are 21 reasons writers are dishonest:
Writers sometimes lie…
To make an article more sensational. To please an editor. To avoid upsetting advertisers. To return a favor. To punish an enemy. To surpass a rival. To get tenure or a promotion. To help a friend or ally. To tell readers what they want to hear. To fit in with a peer group. To increase clicks and views. To influence an election. To get access to informants. To support an ideology. To avoid controversy. To protect a source. To win a grant or some award. To curry favor with government officials. To look cool. To enhance their reputation with other writers. To get laid. You get the point.
Writers lie to get what they want. Rather than tell god's honest truth. No matter how brutal, embarrassing, painful, or likely to get one into trouble.
This is hard. I mean HARD hard.
The opposite, any one of those 21 reasons above, is easier.
So how do you write honestly?
Here's what I've been doing...
At the end of every day I write a journal in my email app (hey.com). These journals will never be seen by anyone but me. So I'm 100% honest in them. I don't try to write in a fancy way because nobody will ever see it. I just try to write with brutal honesty about what happened today. Then, by proxy, the writing I share with you here gets a little more honest too.
I hope it seems that way to you anyway.
Reply and let me know what you think.