How To Write Succinctly

[MrHappyTinkles]

Succinct
Adjective

1. (especially of something written or spoken) briefly and clearly expressed.
   

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Words have power. They have meaning.

And when you put the right words together, they paint a vivid picture in the mind. Even simple words, simple sentences, and simple ideas look grand when easily understood and well written. Much like watching a video on Youtube… Well. You're not gonna enjoy watching 3 minutes of introductions for a short how-to-do video on, say, how to fix a Minecraft error code.

"So, when you painstakingly write eloquently long sentences with a rather large amount of superfluous and frankly extravagant fluff, it is quite easy to lose the fickle attention of your attending audience, especially when you are trying magnificently hard to write a piece of literature to appeal to the average layman reader."

Or.

"When you write too much tripe, you lose your audience."​

Mind, that the first example paragraph is one sentence. That is a run on sentence. What classifies as a run on sentence varies by the person. Some people think it's perfectly okay to write eight-line long sentences with multiple instances and topics. Others, like me, believe that you've done screwed up when your sentence hits four lines and tells me how many aunts you have.

See, writing long sentences helps to scare your audience. It's scary to see a wall of text. People skim, make assumptions, and call it a fine piece of writing because they're scared of it. This is a tactic best used on essays or job applications, where you're not necessarily invested in the well-being of the reader (i.e. Your examiner, your recruiter). It's also a great way to convey a state of mind; a messy, rapidly firing state of mind that portrays a less than mentally stable individual.

But, I offer you this rebuttal.

We are in a community where we need to relay information well. In between character applications, roleplay, or forum activity, we are required to write a lot. We should want to give our readers an easy time to process and understand the information we try to convey.

Now, compare.

>"Olly should, like many young and strapping men from the land of Nordskag, be a troubled and occupied individual who is caught between their questionable reliance and loyalty to the illustrious Empire of Regalia, and the cozy and familiar rustic and conservative lifestyle of a man of the brutal and unforgiving Northern culture. However, fate and stubbornness on his part decreed otherwise; he, in complete contradiction to his tradition, is a causeless rebel who's broken from that typical cliche mold from immaturity, pressure, and selfishness that has suddenly thrusted him into a fast-paced and greedy lifestyle of petty crime and frivolous debauchery which he tends to exhibit almost every hour of his waking day. Having been ejected from a respectable lifestyle of near high-born education and military training to become a Spydenhed warrior, he entered his adulthood with too many redeemable skills focused on irredeemable actions such as theft, non-committance, or outright belligerence."

Or.

>"Olly is a gutless bandit who hails from a good family and a respectable educated upbringing. Strangely enough for a man from Nordskag, he is a selfish, debauching, paranoid shrew who spends most of his waking hours indulging himself or preparing to do so. He has a metaphorical belt full of useful tools that he uses to further his own vices."

To me, the first example reeks of frivolous writing. Adjectives and overuse of commas plague the piece. I had to press myself to fill in as much fluff as I could, yet it seems sparse in comparison to some of the stuff I've seen out there.
Arguably, there's more information in the first example. This might be the merit of its over-specific focus on irrelevant pieces of Olly's personality. Such as it is.

But I like to think that the second example is more informative. It paints a better, clearer picture to me. Most words have meaning, and add more significance to the words beside it. It uses many nouns, and the commas don't look like a connect-the-dots puzzle. It's something I want to read.

So, what do I tell myself when I try to write well?

First off, identify the point you're trying to give. What sort of information do you want to convey? What's important, and what can be left out?

Start short and make it catchy. Use words well. And press to vary the lengths of my sentences and words. There's a rhythm to it, one without useless adjectives or irrelevant information that people don't need to know. When my reader gets far enough into my writing, I like to reward them with a nice large morsel of information that nails my point or story to the post.

That structure matters. The main point I want to tell is written at the start; you can read it and judge whether or not you're interested. Then, I can keep feeding the beast until you've gobbled up everything scrap of information they crave.

And cut down on how many times you use 'very', 'quite', 'rather', and other related words. When you look closely, they're hardly needed.

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"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important."


-Gary Provost

 

[MourningDoves]

I tend to write long walls of text so thank you for this.

 

[Mightor]

Nice and succinct tutorial. +1.

 

[DrFong]

A guy named Bill Shakesman once said, "Brevity is the soul of wit".

 

[InDogsWeTrust]

Guilty as charged when it comes to detail saturated pieces of garbage. It's second nature, to be frank, and it takes conscious effort to write as mellifluously as was demonstrated here.

TL;DR gg man

 

[Savantly]

After writing a page of notes. I re-read the entire post, stopping at

It's also a great way to convey a state of mind; a messy, rapidly firing state of mind that portrays a less than mentally stable individual.

Click to shrink...

You're saying my mind is a clusterfuck? Bruh.. You couldn't be more right. When I write, I go off and write my first 3 pages of thoughts. A headache later, I decide cross the entire thing out. Then repeat about five times over... Thanks for the Tutorial ^_^

 

[DrFong]

I generally speak in motivational poster tag-lines.

Writing is important. Editing is WAY more important.

 

[Gabauchi]

one other thing is the tone specific words carry. if you use certain adjectives in certain places, you can keep it short and sweet without losing the attention of the reader, while still sounding dignified and not like a textbook. and if you have a hard time keeping your writing crisp and to the point, remember that you can always engage the reader while still keeping sentence length the same by using entertaining diction. writing should always feel natural, and if you force it, people can tell.