Celia Wagar's CritPoints

A lot of what I’ve ended up critiquing video essayists and other games writers about is the clarity of their writing. I feel like many people are trying to create “Good Writing” rather than communicate effectively. Many video essays are written more like political speeches than they are trying to be direct and informative. It feels like they are informed by what makes good fictional writing more than good technical writing, and try to carry a vibe to the detriment of their message.

Here are the principles I follow to make my writing direct and effective:

1. Every essay is an argument.
   • An essay is trying to convince someone of something. It’s not a ramble, it’s not a reference document. You have something you think is true, and you want other people to agree with you.
   • An essay that tries to convince someone of something must inherently be constructed around your reader and their perception of your writing.
2. Have a clear thesis statement for your argument and for each point in your argument.
   • The thesis is the thing you are trying to convince people of. Your theses guide every part of what you write. I know this is what your grade school teacher probably taught you about essays and you wrote a bunch of limp formulaic stuff, but it actually works. You just need to write like how you speak.
   • If you ever think that your essay is confused, vague, muddled, or lacks a clear voice, always return to the thesis statement. What is the thing your essay, or that part of your essay, is trying to prove?
3. Present evidence supporting your thesis statement.
   • Once you’ve established your thesis, you can back it up with evidence. If you present evidence first, then it’s confusing what point you’re trying to make.
4. Avoid gushing about the thing you love or being blinded by the thing you hate.
   • Your gushing or vitriol is an emotional substitute for the thing you actually want to say. You are gushing or whinging because you can’t say something concrete about the thing itself. Sometimes the thing that is good about your subject is ineffable, you don’t have the words for it.
   • I challenge you to drill down and find the words instead of gushing. You can absolutely be emotional in your writing, just don’t substitute saying concrete things about the thing itself for ranting about how you feel about it.
5. Flowery language and big words are an indulgence at the cost of clarity and precision.
   • Whenever I read a 4 syllable word for a concept that could be explained with four 1 syllable words, I retch. Use big or obscure words only when absolutely necessary. You’re not impressing anyone with your vocabulary, you’re just making yourself harder to understand. Flowery language is wasted if you have nothing of substance to say, so focus on that first. (I know I’m guilty of using big words all the time. I try to use smaller ones where I can)
   • Avoid buzzwords like “juice” that substitute a precise meaning for a feeling. If you use a piece of jargon, make sure it has a clear definition, and that your audience knows that definition.
6. Use as few words as possible, with as low a syllable count as possible. Focus on information density with simple communication.
   • Flesch-Kincaid is a score that evaluates the readability of a piece (what grade level can be expected to read your writing and comprehend it). It’s basically how many words per-sentence, and how many syllables per word on average. The fewer words per sentence, and the fewer syllables per word, the easier your article is to read. Use small words and short sentences.
   • Seriously. Lower your word count. Use simpler words. Express your ideas more plainly. Don’t include filler sentences and paragraphs and words that don’t actually convey any information. Don’t repeat yourself. Avoid 3-syllable words and greater.
7. Keep your sentence construction simple.
   • Try to keep each sentence to as few clauses as possible. If each sentence only has one clause, that’s great! Avoid complex-compound sentences if at all possible.
   • Try to order clauses so that they follow each other in a straight-forward and logical order. Avoid dependent clauses where possible. Try to avoid putting dependent clauses at the start of sentences.
   • Try to avoid qualifying remarks in the middle of other sentences, or save them for the end of the sentence. These complicate sentence structure. They’re good for being careful and avoiding confusion. Try to state them as their own sentences if you can.
8. Avoid Weasel Words whenever possible.
   • Be precise about which groups you’re referring to. Don’t use passive voice. Don’t use any terms with an unclear definition. Make sure your audience knows exactly what you mean by every term in every sentence you write.
   • If you’re writing an opinion piece, weasel words can be okay sometimes. Sometimes, you are talking about a certain group of opinion-havers. Sometimes things are uncertain and of indistinct quantity. You want to avoid using Weasel Words automatically, and instead use them deliberately when it makes sense.
9. Be mindful of how much knowledge you’re assuming your reader has.
   • You have probably thought a lot about the topic, and have a lot of baseline knowledge and thought processes that your reader doesn’t necessarily have. Build that up with your reader from scratch instead of assuming they’ve thought through that already.
   • If you’re covering an advanced topic, sometimes you can assume certain knowledge, but be aware of what, and whether that’s a reasonable assumption.
10. Work with your reader/listener. You’re trying to show them something really cool. You’re not trying to fight them.
    • Assume the reader is on your side and not hostile towards you. Just because every essay is an argument, that doesn’t mean that you have to be angry or hostile towards them.
11. Consider alternative interpretations. Consider if the opposite is true. Avoid tautology.
    • It’s easy to write things that are misunderstood, or which have unintended consequences. It’s also easy to write things that seem like a truism, but are not actually true, or are actually unfalsifiable or don’t say anything at all.
12. Remember your goal.
    • *What* is this writing trying to accomplish? Is it trying to convince someone? Is it trying to inform someone? How well is it actually doing that?

If you’re writing something purely informative, or a how-to guide, then it’s no longer an argument, so some of these tips won’t apply. If you’re not sure where to start on an informative topic, start with what’s simplest, what can be explained in the least amount of time, that is most helpful to someone lacking familiarity. Find the most elementary building block that will give someone the biggest return.

I arrived at my writing style after many years of writing. In my early years of games writing, I kept struggling to say the thing I actually wanted to say. I knew there was this ineffable beauty to games, but I couldn’t put it into words, so I would substitute that lack of clarity with basically going, “Isn’t this so cool!?” And now that I’m a more accomplished writer, I see other people repeating a lot of the things I struggled with originally. It took work to get to where I am, but I hope that this helps you get a leg up early on.