Good Writing

Writing has many different purposes. Sometimes it’s to be entertaining. Sometimes it’s to be informative. Sometimes it’s to converse with a friend. But there’s another type of writing that I have in mind. It’s writing to make a point. Writing to say something that needs to be said.

An essay is probably the closest thing to what I’m thinking of, but it still isn’t a perfect match. Wikipedia describes an essay as an “original piece of writing of moderate length in which the author makes a case in support of an opinion”. I see three key parts to that description:

Original
Reasoned claim(s)
Moderate length

Note that essays don’t have to be about english literature! All you do in school is write essays about english literature[1], but essays could — and should — be about anything you have to say.

So… what makes a good essay? I think it comes down to two simple things:

Having something good to say
Saying it well

What do I mean by “having something good to say”?

First off, it has to be correct (“correct” does exist). This may make more sense in the negative: it shouldn’t be incorrect.
It should probably be something that’s new, unrealized, or ignored. Something that’s useful. It shouldn’t be something that everyone already thinks. Where’s the value in that?
It should be important. Something that people care about. Something that has an impact. Something that matters. This may seem obvious, but I think people give too much credit to writing that is “well executed” when that writing isn’t actually saying anything that’s important. And I think that people don’t give enough credit to writing that is saying something important, but that isn’t “well executed”.
So… correct + useful + important = good.

What do I mean by “saying it well”?

To start, it should be clear and concise. Clear means making it as easy to understand as possible. Concise means cutting out the fluff and keeping what’s important. Fluff distracts you from the flow of the writing and from the central point.
When I say “saying it well” I mostly mean being clear and concise, but there are still some other elements to saying it well. Making it enjoyable is one of these elements. If you’re saying something good that is clear and concise, I think that does a lot to make it enjoyable, but anything additional that makes it more enjoyable adds to the quality of the writing. Humor, personal anecdotes, historical context, etc.
Being inspirational/emotionally convincing is also important, and adds to the essay. It’s not that you shouldn’t use rational arguments… it’s just that there’s value in “pushing peoples’ buttons” properly to help them understand the points that you’ve rationally argued for.

I’m not too big a fan of most of the things I read. Sometimes it’s because I think the author is wrong about the point he’s making. Very often it’s because there is way too much fluff, and it takes the author 20 pages to say something he should have said in 2. But the main reason that I’m not a fan of most things I read is because people usually don’t have anything good to say. People don’t write about things that are useful and important. And ultimately, these are the things that matter.

(This isn’t to say that no one writes anything good. There’s been a lot of great things I’ve read that have had large impacts on my life. It’s just that there’s so much noise out there compared to the good stuff.)

So, I’ve talked about what good writing is. The next question is how to become a good writer. Here are my thoughts, starting with the quicker ones:

Writing is basically thought, on paper. To be a good writer, you have to be a good thinker (probably the most important thing). Read Less Wrong.
Play devils advocate with yourself. How would you beat yourself in an argument?
Read good writing. Some people I like… David Heinemeier Hansson, Paul Graham, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Tim Urban.
Take a blank piece of paper, and outline your main arguments before you start writing. It’s easy to get lost and venture away, but this helps you keep your thinking and writing organized.
Focus on DH6.
Rewrite. A lot. “The best writing is rewriting” — E.B. White.
If your brain gets fried, take some time between rewrites. Don’t struggle for hours if you’re not getting anywhere. I bet that what you’re struggling with will take you 10 minutes in the morning.
Rewrite things that you wrote weeks/months ago. I find that stepping away from something for weeks/months somehow brings me a significant and newfound clarity when I return to it.
Give yourself sufficiently big chunks of uninterrupted time to write. See Downloading the Task.
Talk about personal things. People like hearing about personal things. It’s captivating. And it’s often a good source for examples.
Write when you’re inspired/in the mood. It’s easier that way. The thoughts just flow.
A lot of the value of writing is that it allows you to explore and develop your thoughts. Write to develop your thoughts, and then do it again to clarify them.
When you have writers block, just write whatever you’re thinking. Seriously. Just do it. No matter how awful it is, just do it. The point isn’t really to write something good, the point is just to get you going. So even if you wrote something awful, at least it got you going.
If you really can’t get going, tell a friend what you plan to write about, and then write about what you just told him.
Consider that there are many ways of saying the same thing. Think about how you word things, and choose the way that is clearest. Hint: shorter is usually better. Short sentences are much easier to comprehend.
Analogies are often good ways of explaining things and making points.
It’s important to be selective with what you choose to explain and elaborate on. Doing so plays a big role in making your writing clear. If you were writing for a perfect philosopher, he’d probably find a lot of claims that are either unsupported, or incompletely supported. To make him happy, you’d have to explain and elaborate on everything. However, I don’t think you should do that. Doing so is like fluff. It adds a lot of tangents and makes it harder to keep track of the main points and the flow of the essay. It may be more logically complete and consistent, but it’s still harder to understand.[2] This is because a lot of the time people know what you mean. Still, there’s a trade-off: sometimes you may think that people know what you mean, when they really don’t. Part of being a good writer is understanding this trade-off (distractions vs. clarity). Doing so is probably more of an art than a science, and probably comes with practice.
Think about what writing is. It’s communication. If there’s a medium other than the written word that allows you to better get your point across… then use it! (Pictures, diagrams, videos, animations, GIFs, physical models, sound…)

Notes

From what I understand, the reason that essays in school are all about english literature is as follows: university professors need to do research. You can’t really do research on writing. You can do research on literature, so literature professors taught writing. Literature professors used literature to teach writing, because it’s what they know. Finally, high schools imitated universities. See http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html for more information. I think it also has a lot to do with convenience for teachers. Having kids write essays about the books they read is an easy way to make sure they read them and understood what you taught them about literature. And it’s harder to grade kids on essays when they write about what they want. What does your english teacher know about how small market teams can compete with the Yankees under the soft cap? Still, having kids only write about literature makes them not enjoy writing, and doesn’t teach them what writing is really about.
This is something I didn’t realize a few years ago. The fact that I realize it now has made me a notably better writer. One thing that I’ve realized is that it’s hard to keep track of your main points when you elaborate on so many sort-of-tangents. Losing track of the main points and flow harms your thinking as well as your writing. In a perfect world though, you’d be able to keep track of the main points while making your thinking/writing more consistent and complete.