It’s ironic isn’t it? A blog about writing blogs on a blog post of a website that writes content that includes blogs with them. Blogs are weird. For starters, the first two lines of this starting paragraph is exactly how you don’t want your blogs to be- Complicated. Literature isn’t what you’re looking for. Moreover, simplicity and the reliance of communication is what you’re looking for.

To understand more about how you can improve your ability to write blogs and improve your writing as a whole, I shall use the work of the famous writer with the pen name George Orwell. In the words of George Orwell “If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them,”

Blog Writing and George Orwell

Even though most of Orwell’s work revolves around the mid 19s’ politics, writing was something that was in the forefront of all his work. One of his core beliefs on writing was that it was dying. The whole idea and fundament of what writing should be was- no more.

And it wasn’t due to the ‘hocus’ of not having enough literature or being original (even though parts of those were to blame equally), he believed that language was dying because of the lack of clarity.  

“All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery,” and it is the writer’s ability and duty to know what the mystery is. To be clear with what it’s trying to portray and without the clarity of language communication could be as good as dead.

However, Orwell wasn’t just an enigmatic hater that only knew words of cry. Orwell saw a problem, cried on it and at his time of living presented us with the ways we could not, let this form of communication die. Here’s how to write precise and clear acc. to Orwell;

Use of Bad Modern English in Blog Writing

In one of the essays (written in 1946) called Politics and the English Language Orwell talked about how the use of modern English is one of the reasons as to why language is dying. Orwell reasoned that there are two particular things that hinders a line from being clear which are- the staleness of the imagery and the lack of precision itself.

The staleness of imagery means the lack of the ability of a piece of writing that cannot let one imagine. The lack of precision, I think, explains itself. If you’re writing/blogging and you do not have that preciseness and lack the ability to make a reader imagine, perhaps that is exactly where you need to improve.

Dying Metaphors

Metaphors that have been overused ever so vastly, (like blue for sadness) aren’t metaphors at all. Orwell believed due to the time of its usage and due to it having so much significance in the pop culture of the people, the overusing of such metaphors have turned them into literal words of those exact meanings. For language not to die and for blogs not to suck, Orwell believed that creativity and nuance in the form of metaphors should be a thriving requirement for language.

Be creative with your writing. Make dumb & fun metaphors and connections that aren’t there. Make the reader somehow want to read more and enjoy their process of reading. And if the reader enjoys what you write, then that’s game over with the highest score. In other words- you’ve won.

Verbal Limbs & Pretentious Diction

Over complicating a simple line like “Have you had lunch yet?” to “Could you bestow me the honour of having the knowledge of the presence if thy being has had the excellent chance of devouring minerals of cultivation before this passing of time?” is exactly what Orwell wanted writers to avoid.

Without losing creativity in the way, Orwell wanted writers to find a way to mix simplicity with creativity. That too, done without the words either being overbearing to read and without them having any unnecessary pretence.

If you’d like to understand more about the points of Mr.Orwell you’ll have to read one of his essays or any of his work (on writing) but to summarise the point I’ve been trying to make- 

TLDR; If you want to improve your writing or your blog there are just a few things you need to take care of. One is- The blog needs to be simple and easy to read (Preciseness) and the other- The blog need not be dead meaning the blog needs to have a body of its own. That is interesting, new and something creative. Something that hooks the reader and leaves them with a time they’ve enjoyed.