Originally published on Medium

A manifesto for writing

(by Jane Palash on Unsplash)

Writing isn’t about more, it’s about less. Can you get your point across with the least amount of fluff?

Can you ignite emotions without wasting words?

If what you write makes sense, if you can create the flow from one word to the next, from one line to the next, you don’t need paragraphs of parables on top.

Judge your writing by the emotion it builds up in you. For in the first place, are you writing for anyone but you?

The number of words, the number of pages is the worst metric to judge your writing by.

You don’t have to be correct, but you do need to get the emotion across. Unless, of course you’re writing a scientific paper.

Like in the above line, I can think of metrics worse than the number of words but writing things exactly as they are makes you lose sight of how they ought to be.

Like in the above line, writing about writing in a scientific paper wasn’t necessary.

Lastly, don’t stretch looking for the perfect ending. As soon as one shows itself, embrace it.