Politics don't interest me. Call it apathy or the preservation of my mental health, but I make a conscious effort to keep political content out of my media diet as much as I can.
So when a friend shared a YouTube video with a bright thumbnail that read, "Stop Sounding Like A Politician", my eyes (and mind) glazed over. Until I read the title of the video - "Why George Orwell Hates The Way You Speak".
Now authors do interest me. As does the broad subject of human communication, especially through the use of language. Enough to make me click through and watch the almost-23-minute video fully.
The video's subject is a 1946 essay by George Orwell in which he laments the quality of written English of the time, especially within political writing. Writing that he observed was vague, unclear and meaningless, rendering the language "ugly and inaccurate".
I'll admit I found the essay itself a bit wordy. But I also thought it made a strong point, and one that continues to be relevant, even outside the gamut of political content. In my experience, writing that is economical, clear and evocative all at the same time is rarer than I expected it to be. Especially given how democratic content publishing has become over the last few years.
What follows is an experiment in discovering more such writing, understanding the art a little better, and in the process, learning how to write more like that myself. My intention will be to bring into focus content, writers, resources, tools and practices that belong to or advance the body of work that I'm going to call "sincere writing", to borrow a cue from Orwell.
Along the way, I expect that I will also talk about a few things I have more than a passing interest in, such as personal productivity, heavy music, books, travel and dogs.
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