Write Less but Say More

Why do so many of us suffer from the lack of clarity and the surplus of unneeded crap in passages, journals, and other informational texts that we read.  There are distractions everywhere to remove our attention or to mislead us, especially when in an online environment.  

Starting the book Writing Without Bullshit, I was immediately interested and intrigued in what the book was saying and how it was going to teach me how to write with purpose and without bullshit.  From just the first chapter, I agree with so much of what is being said already.  I am a firm believer of write less but say more, and I am trying to work on that skill myself, the skill of being concise with my writing and not writing as much fluff.  

I think there’s a large problem with the way that we learn to write.  We are constantly expected to and are told to “fill the page” or meet word or character requirements.  However, when we are stretched in our writing like this, we tend to do what we need to do to fill the word limit and pay less attention to what we are ACTUALLY writing and conveying in our written text.  I can think of so many examples of where  have had to write an elongated, multi-page response to a prompt when in reality, I could have answered the question in one paragraph and had gotten the same message across with the same quality and impact.  

We are transitioning to a more digital age and a faster paced one at that.  There is a lot of stress put on organizations and groups to put out information as quickly and as often as possible.  Meeting deadlines take on a new meaning as workers scramble to meet the basic level of diligence needed to fulfill the goals of whatever organization they are a part of. I think this working environment is partially responsible for the issues of so many people writing with extra crap in their words.