How to write a beautiful essay? Start with the worst essay
I used to get jealous when I saw a beautiful piece of writing. I feel no shame in admitting that, as a writer, I didn’t feel good when I encountered an absolute masterpiece of an essay, knowing that I could write something just as beautiful but hadn’t yet.
You often read about ideas expressed with such clarity that you feel you could have done it, but you haven’t. You had all those ideas inside your head but thought they weren’t good enough.
When you read it from someone else, the nagging feeling of missing out hurts you. You didn’t write because you wanted to sound intelligent. That’s why you never went with the simple explanation.
This was my normal routine of reading anything on the internet until I picked up a pen and started writing my thoughts. It dawned on me that what I thought was knowledge was mere borrowed thinking. I didn’t distill the thought enough to make it mine.
As a new writer, you need to go through this process of making any idea your own. Only then can you write with clarity and authority. You need clarity to connect with the audience, and you need authority to make any idea your own.
Clarity
Clarity comes after disintegrating any idea into its bare bones. Imagine a car; now dismantle it to the point where it can no longer be dismantled. What do you get? Now piece it all together. What ideas can you generate about the car? What nuances can you discover in the process?
This is clarity. You haven’t done anything new, but by the sheer act of breaking down the one grand idea into many logical fragments, you have discovered the true function of that idea.
Authority
If you have to explain the dismantling and assembling of a car after you have gone through the process many times, what would be your approach? You will have immense clarity about every step. You would try to simplify the process while ensuring optimum function and efficiency. You would be able to teach someone the whys and whats using a simple explanation.
You have stripped down the process of any complexities and made it simple to follow. Through repetition, you have refined this process. That’s how you gain authority.
Clarity comes from going through the process. Authority comes from owning the process.
As a writer, you need to achieve clarity in your thoughts and authority in your writing to be worth reading. That’s the only way you can provide value to your readers. And readers are smart—never make the mistake of underestimating them. They can sense bullshit from a mile away.
Pick one thought, one idea, one process, and break it down into fragments to gain clarity. You create an internal argument by dismantling the original idea and assembling it again. You might generate a new perspective, a new outlook, and therefore, authority.
The most important thing for a writer is to own his work and own the reader’s heart.