weeklynj

For this blog post I will be focusing on the second chapter of the book “On Writing Well”, titled simplicity.

I have never really been a writer. Most of what I am good at revolves around a camera and video. Cluttering has always been something that I struggle with.

My attention span isn’t really the best, so why should I assume most readers wouldn’t be the same? The book describes clutter as a weakness every writer suffers through. The best way to get rid of this is to make things simple.

Cliche, I know, but there’s really no way around it. Trying to keep things simple, is something that has always eluded me in my writing. There would be times when I would write a story and just immediately lose the plot. Figuring out what the reader wanted to hear was something I just didn’t really understand. I feel like I still need to work on it but after reading this chapter I feel as though I have a much better idea of what to do.

The biggest takeaway was: “what am I trying to say?” But I also have to make sure that everybody can understand what I am trying to say. Once you have that then you can draw in any reader.

The chapter goes even further by showing the process in writing this chapter. Showing how much proofreading was done. Showing that even the author will suffer from cluttering. For me it is not often I read something where the author shows their own mistakes.

I think it’s to show how important proofreading should be. Every piece of writing can be looked over and improved. I hope to take this lesson and improve on my ability as a writer.