Better Business Writing

By Stefan Auvache

Sometimes, a writer can change your life. Scott Adams changed mine.

Adams is the mastermind behind the Dilbert comic strip . He also has a blog. One of the articles on that blog is about becoming a better writer.

Adam's says, in a nutshell:

• Keep it simple
• Get rid of extra words
• The first sentence should grab the reader
• Avoid multiple thoughts in a single sentence

Basically, writing should be as easy to understand as possible. Make your work entertaining, but not at the expense of simplicity. Scott Adams' 263-word post gave me the confidence to start writing daily (you're the man Scott).

The last line of the article says:

"That's it. You just learned 80% of the rules of good writing. You're welcome."

I first assumed that the remaining 20% would include granular, complex stuff like, "know your target audience" or "have an editor run through your work."

Then I read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Pressfield's writing embodies many of the principles from Adams' post. His sentences are concise. His "chapters" are often a single paragraph. The War of Art itself barely breaks 150 pages. Anyone would be hard pressed to cut a phrase from that book without making it worse. If books were people, The War of Art would have 3% body fat.

But the thing that makes Steven Pressfield a great writer isn't the leanness of his writing. Every portion of The War of Art is meaningful. His singular focus on what he calls Resistance captivates and inspires the reader.

The main characteristic of great writing is something great to write about.

If I could append a sentence to Scott Adams' nigh perfect blog post, it would be this:

"That's it. You just learned 80% or the rules of good writing. Now find something worth writing about."

Write simply. Keep it lean. Convey ideas to your audience as clearly as possible. And, for the love of Scott and Steven, write about something meaningful.

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