As a writer- reflections on lazy writing

As a writer, you have to ask yourself, ‘What am I trying to say? And how can I put my ideas into sentences, following one after another, in a way that will take my reader’s hand and lead them to a conclusion- to a realization- that comes to them with a greater level of clarity than I myself experienced at the first blush of epiphany?’ Good writing is limpid, lucid, and as light as a sash in the wind. It does not settle on the floor of the reader’s mind and require muddling through, like an unwieldy mass of covers in the morning. It is not intellectualism, it is transparent transmission of ideas that floats from one mind to the other. It is written as accessible- as well, as clearly- as possible, so that it is nearly effortless. In looking over this blog so far, I have realized I have used a muddle of words. Initially, my self-justification was, ‘these are just the raw stuff of what comes out of my head, I can’t spend too much time editing it, that is what my manuscripts are for.’ But this is an excuse for lazy writing. Run-on sentences and unnecessarily long words are short-cuts many intellectuals, or would-be intellectuals (including myself) use to express themselves more swiftly. But they are also lazy, both as writing and as thinking. They sacrifice clarity, not for the sake of brevity, compression, or precision- not for the sake of making one’s thought accessible- but for the sake of thinking less. Which is another way of saying, editing less. Writing is thinking, and spending more time going over one can improve the other. That is, if you know how to edit! So, this shall be my test.