4 Goals For Good Writing

If you start writing without having a definition of what good writing is, then there isn’t much difference between writing in your diary and writing to serve others. You might be able to intuit your way to something decent, but it would serve both you and your reader if you knew what you were trying to do with your writing.

Whenever I write, I try to keep four goals in mind. I don’t consider something ready to publish until it has, more or less, accomplished all four goals. I wrote down these goals before I started writing my book and returned to them throughout the writing and editing process. It was important to me that I could read through the book and know that my writing was doing specifically what I wanted it to do. It also gave me a rubric for editing. If something didn’t accomplish these goals, I needed to fix it.

So what are the four goals? It might be best to frame them as questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Is it clear?
3. Is it helpful?
4. Is it beautiful?

Is It True?

Nothing else matters if it isn’t true. In all of our writing, we must tell the truth. If we fudge facts, mischaracterize people and events, spin stories to serve our narrative, and blow small things out of proportion, then we lose credibility as a trustworthy voice. You invalidate your message by losing people’s trust. 

As Christians, we’re obligated to the truth. If you have something worth saying, then it deserves to be said with integrity. It deserves to be heard without the noise of lies. If you have to lie your way to an audience, your message isn’t worth listening to. This is the first and most basic point of writing: write what is true.

Is It Clear?

Once you’ve done the bare minimum of writing something that is true, the next most important goal is to make it clear. It’s tempting to use fancy words, rhetorical flourishes, and elaborate illustrations. These things make us feel like good writers. We think they make us sound smart, give us credibility, or sound impressive, but really, they tend to just confuse the reader and leave them wondering what you were trying to say in the first place.

As Brené Brown wrote, “Clear is kind.” It’s okay to use normal words and write simple sentences. It’s okay to keep your illustrations short and punchy. It doesn’t hurt your credibility or make you sound any less intelligent. When you communicate your message in a way the reader can hear, it helps them understand what you are trying to say. Anytime someone muddies the waters of your writing, ask yourself if there is a simpler, clearer way to get your point across. Read it from the perspective of someone who has no idea what you’re talking about—Would they get it?

Try writing in a voice that isn’t too different from what you would say if you were sitting across the table from someone over coffee. You are serving both your reader and your message by making your writing as clear as you possibly can. Which flows perfectly into the next goal.

Is It Helpful?

The goal of writing is not to make you look smart or to boost your own ego or platform; it’s to serve others. You want your writing to actually help someone. It doesn’t have to change anyone’s life, but if it can solve their problem or improve their life by just 1 percent, it’s helpful. Keep your reader and their problem in mind while you’re writing.

One of the best ways to do this is to clearly state near the beginning the problem you are trying to address. Think about the problem your reader might be having and call it out. Connect with them over the issue. Make a promise to them—“If you keep reading, I will help you”—and then deliver on the promise. 

You might be helping by clarifying something confusing, providing insight into something complicated, or offering tips and tricks for a particular need. But whatever it is, your reader came to you with a question in their mind, and they’re looking to you for an answer. Help them out by giving it to them.

Is It Beautiful?

Finally, once something is true, clear, and helpful, it’s time to make it beautiful. This might sound like the opposite of the advice I gave to make it clear. But once you have written as clearly as you possibly can, you can find ways to make your writing beautiful. 

Beauty is what raises something from being merely helpful to being memorable. While clarity might convince us, beauty will compel us. In most cases, you don’t want your readers to feel like they’re walking into a sterile surgical procedure; they should feel like they’re walking into a beautiful garden. Gardens are not wild fields with beautiful flowers growing wherever they so happen to grow; they are ordered, structured, coherent beauty. The flowers were put where they were on purpose. Beauty in our writing should be the same way.

One of my favorite examples of this is in Michael Reeves’ book Delighting in the Trinity. It’s an introductory book to trinitarian theology—not exactly light reading. In chapter 1, Reeves spends several pages being true, clear, and helpful. Addressing the need for the doctrine of the Trinity, being clear about what it is, and speaking truthfully about it. But then he includes this line:

“The shape of the Father-Son relationship . . . begins a gracious cascade, like a waterfall of love, as the Father is the lover and the head of the Son, so the Son goes out to be the lover and the head of the church.”

Of the dozens of people I know who have read Delighting in the Trinity, every single one of them remembers this line. After several pages of technical writing, Reeves didn’t have to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son as “a gracious cascade, like a waterfall of love,” but he did. He wrote one extra sentence to punctuate his point with a simple but beautiful word picture of God’s love. I may not remember every technicality on the previous pages, but I’ll never forget the gracious cascade, like a waterfall of love. Clarity convinces the mind, but beauty moves the heart.

Write for Love

Good writing is an act of love. Even if it solves a simple, everyday problem, good writing serves the reader by meeting their needs and improving their lives. Instead of making writing all about ourselves, we should serve our readers by writing what’s true, writing clearly, being helpful, and making it beautiful.