5 Simple Tricks to Start Writing Better Today

Every time I finish writing a blog post or newsletter, my brain hurts. (Maybe you can relate.)

There’s just so much that goes into the act of writing:

• Brainstorming a topic
• Creating an outline
• Staring into the abyss, waiting for inspiration to come while dealing with feelings of inadequacy and overwhelm
• Using Grammarly

I think we can all agree that writing is just plain hard.

Unfortunately, I can’t address all the reasons why writing is hard in one post—but see below!—but I can give you five tips you can start using right now to improve your writing skills. And I think that’s almost as good, don’t you?

Let’s dig in.

1. Use smaller words.

Fifty-four percent of American adults read at less than a sixth-grade level.

While that’s a sad commentary on the state of our society, it’s also an important statistic to understand as a writer. Most importantly, it means a large chunk of the population may not understand you if you tell them your service “obviates the need for ancillary support processes” in their business.

They will, however, be very confused, which—last I checked—is not a great sales strategy.

Fifty-four percent of American adults read at less than a sixth-grade level.

Instead of potentially confusing people, why not help people out? An easy way to do this is to develop the habit of using common, shorter words. Here are some examples of word swaps you can make:

• Commence —> start
• Elucidate —> explain
• Matriculate —> enroll
• Terminate —> end
• Utilize —> use

Now, this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule because your particular audience—nuclear engineers, for example—may generally be more educated than average, but it’s still a good rule of thumb.

And regardless of your readers’ education levels, smaller words are just faster and easier to read. So leave the big words for textbooks and academic works, and always remember the age-old saying, “Never use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice.”

2. Use shorter sentences.

I studied Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament, in college and seminary. One thing I learned in Greek class is that the Apostle Paul loves to use extremely long sentences in his letters. But you only find this out when you start reading them in their original language.

Modern English translations tend to break up Paul’s run-on thoughts into multiple sentences. The reason they do this is that it’s much easier to understand his writing with a few extra periods sprinkled in.

If every sentence in your first draft reads like it came from a Victorian novel, do your readers a favor and start breaking them up.

And the same goes for your writing too.

Of course, it’s not bad to have the occasional long sentence, as having sentences of differing lengths helps with flow. But if every sentence in your first draft reads like it came from a Victorian novel, do your readers a favor and start breaking them up.

This isn’t just because long sentences can get confusing. It’s also critical to remember that most people are reading what you write on a screen, not on a physical sheet of paper. And your eyes have a much tougher job reading when a screen is involved.

Shortening those lengthy sentences will help give your readers’ eyes a well-deserved break.

3. Question your assumptions.

When I moved to Seattle in 2012, one of the first things I saw confused me.

On just about every building hung a giant blue flag with a large “12” emblazoned in the middle.

It didn’t take me long to realize these are flags that fans fly to support our local NFL team, the Seahawks. But for the first few days I lived here, I was very confused.

You have to start finding and addressing your assumptions if you want your writing to be understood.

The problem is that no one told me what those flags were when I stepped off the plane. And why would they? After all, we all live in our heads 24/7. We see the world in a particular way based on an untold number of assumptions (including our environment). Even more, we often assume that everyone thinks just like us:

• “People know what SEO is these days; I don’t have to define or explain it.”
• “It’s obvious that Eternals is the worst movie of all time.” (Okay, this one’s objectively true, but still…)
• “No one will get offended if I drop an F-bomb in my LinkedIn newsletter. It’s 2025!”

And to make matters worse, a lot of these assumptions are unconscious. (When you’re surrounded by “12” flags, you just tend to believe that everyone knows what they are.)

But you have to start finding and addressing them if you want your writing to be understood. A simple way to do this is to ask yourself a few questions before you publish, such as:

• Did I use any acronyms, jargon, or slang that could confuse my readers?
• Does my writing make logical sense, or does it require unstated leaps?
• Could a reader in another city, state, or country understand what I wrote?

Of course, we can never eliminate all of our assumptions, but the more you can identify them, the better your writing will be.

4. Read more books.

Do you know how the Secret Service trains its agents (and you!) to spot fake currency?

By spending time studying real bank notes.

If you want to be a good writer, you have to know what good writing looks like. And that means reading…a lot.

Why do they take this approach? Because it’s not possible to learn all of the techniques bad actors use to print counterfeit money, much less all of the techniques they might use in the future.

However, if you know what a real $100 bill looks and feels like forward and backward, it doesn’t matter: you’ll spot a fake in an instant.

This illustrates an important truth: If you want to be a good writer, you have to know what good writing looks like. And that means reading…a lot.

This includes reading books from across the Dewey Decimal System (shout-out to my fellow 90s kids!), by the way: fiction, business, self-help, religious, literature, poetry, science. It doesn’t necessarily matter the exact genres—just that you’re reading a wide span of subjects, and that you’re reading books written by good authors.

Reading is important for a thousand reasons, but specifically for us, the more good writing you consume, the more you’ll be able to create good writing yourself.

5. Invest in your writing skill set.

One of the best ways to improve your writing—while making it less stressful and overwhelming at the same time—is to invest in quality training.

Imagine, for example, a course that showed you step-by-step how to write, edit, and publish a blog post that people want to read: 

• One that made the process straightforward.
• One that cut through the junk and just gave you what you needed to know to succeed.
• One that could even help you overcome the fear and overwhelm of writing.

Well, you don’t have to imagine, because I am creating that course right now.

One of the best ways to improve your writing—while making it less stressful and overwhelming at the same time—is to invest in quality training.

This course will help you if you want to start (or restart) writing blog posts but feel overwhelmed, lost, and unsure of what to do. It will be your blogging consultant who can break down the writing process into manageable chunks and tell you exactly what you need to do to succeed.