The 7 Deadly Sins of Lousy Writing

Writing can be intimidating and stressful – even for the most experienced and professional writer (I am sort of raising my hand right now).

It’s so easy to be critical of our own writing. To see nothing but flaws, lamenting that the work is off target, unfocussed – or worse.

But it’s never really quite that bad.

Most of us can make immediate improvements to our work, when you know what to look for. Following are some of the most common mistakes I encounter with clients, what I call the 7 Deadly Sins of lousy writing.

Most of these should feel familiar, but don’t feel guilty. You are in good company with writers at every level.

Fear

When you start writing – or even think about getting started – fear is a common companion. We fear we’ll be hit with writer’s block. Fear being wrong. Being criticized. And craziest of all we fear, if only subconsciously, being finished.

How’s that? If you never finish a piece, it will never be read so you can never be wrong. This is one of the reasons so many writers and creative people are notorious procrastinators. Work that’s never submitted can never be judged.

Push past the fear and get started. You’ll have to do so at some point anyway. Then you’ll submit your work. Yes, it will be judged. And the planet will keep on spinning, and you’ll be just fine.

Love

How can love be a sin when writing? When you’re in love with your own thoughts, you can’t edit or improve them. This is common when writers are too close to their subject – writing about your product, your company or yourself.

The solution? Get an objective point of view by allowing someone else to read your rough draft. At a minimum, read your work as if you know nothing about the subject. If it’s not clear and compelling, simplify your message with another round of edits.

Hubris

The concept of hubris is a gift from the ancient Greeks. It’s an exaggerated pride or self-confidence – the opposite of humility. The sin of hubris creeps into our writing when we forget the reader and become enamored with our own cleverness.

Instead, put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Why should they care about what you’ve written? What’s in it for them? If the answer isn’t obvious, revisit your work with the reader in mind.

Impatience

This is a sneaky one. Impatience when writing usually arrives disguised as frustration. Here’s how it works. You get started with the very preliminary work of research, organizing your work or even a rough draft. Instead of accepting this rough work for being what it is – rough work – we get impatient looking for a finished product. That’s misguided and a formula for failure and frustration.

Instead, recognize each stage of the writing progress for what it is – and what it is not. Or as I like to frame it, “know the mode.” Consider your writing process in three modes or stages: Idea mode, Draft mode and Finishing mode. Each has a distinct purpose.

In Idea mode you gather raw materials, a process which by definition is messy and all over the place. For Draft mode, you’re simply trying to put a very rough first pass together – sloppy and unrefined. Accept the limitations of these first two modes. Don’t look for perfection or anything close to a finished product. It’s only in Finishing mode where refinement takes place. Be patient and allow yourself the space to put together rough thoughts before you try to fine tune things.

Sloth

Sloth – laziness, an unwillingness to work or make an effort – is a word you’re more likely to see in a crossword puzzle than in print these days. It’s also an enemy of effective writing.

Many writing assignments loom over us like a great, dark shadow. So we procrastinate, willing to do anything except write. Of course, as we avoid getting started, the task is not going to get any easier an hour, a day or a week from now.

So, get started – with something, anything that puts words on paper. Write a letter to your audience, create a laundry list of details, write the end or the middle of the piece. Just get the first words down. They’re only a draft, a starting point, not a commitment (see Impatience above).

Self-Loathing

For anyone who’s ever written anything, this is probably familiar terrain. Most of us are overly critical of our own work.

The problem is not that we judge our own work, it’s that we judge it too soon. A rough draft is a work in progress. Something we can work with to shape and mold into a finished product.

Imagine the absurdity of a sculptor chipping a few pieces off a block of marble and then pronouncing the project as hopeless. Learn to see the potential in your early drafts, not just the shortcomings.

Envy

The more you care about your writing, the greater the likelihood that you’ll envy the work of someone else.

Part of the problem is inflated expectations. Comparing our work to highly skilled writers – novelists, journalists or simply talented storytellers we know. That’s a high bar to reach.

Don’t expect your work to be a Pulitzer Prize winner. You can’t sing like Adele, so don’t expect to write like Shakespeare, either. Clarity and effectiveness are your goals, not perfection.

A place to start

Are these the only “sins” of lousy writing? Probably not. But they’re a good starting point to free yourself from unreasonable expectations and unnecessary stress when writing.

Familiarize yourself with these common pitfalls and you’re on your way to improving your work, guilt-free.

Tom White is a business communications consultant, content writer and President & Creative Director at The White Agency, Inc. A copywriter by training, he assists clients in all aspects of creating a better message, from strategy to copy to speechwriting. "I say what you'd say, only better."