Simple and cogent writing doesn’t happen on the first pass. Getting to the essence can take time. It’s no mere addition by subtraction—it’s exponential. Reducing until all that’s left is provocative and engaging takes time. Regardless of how many times my pen passes over the paper, the first draft will need work. Even the most experienced writers need a good editor.
That’s the beauty and challenge of writing: the right word in the right place to confront, inform, or inspire. In a novel yet intuitive way.
This does not happen by accident. It also doesn’t happen every time. Yesterday, I enjoyed what I wrote. I felt its weight and force even as the words flew off the pen. If I’m waiting for that sentiment every day, I won’t persist.
And it’s only in the constant application that refinement in craft can be realized. I don’t have to top yesterday. I just need to write today. Today may be an unmitigated disaster. So be it. Write on.
As Zinsser states: “clear thinking becomes clear writing”¹. I won’t posit that I am the most critical or confident of thinkers. I find myself too often in a denser state with caffeine as the preferred means of improving fluidity. But in any form, I just have to keep at it.
I may not feel inspired today. I may not have much to say today. But it’s not merely the words that need to be said. It’s the disciplined act of writing that deserves the attention.
Let the chaff fall away. It’s not going to sustain me or anyone else. Get the grain. Find the essence. But it won’t happen on the first try. Nor likely on the second or third. Just keep winnowing away, and eventually I’ll get there—right on.
1William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, 30th anniversary ed. (New York: Harper Perennial, 2006), 8.