Clarity Now!

"'Bad' is not a style."

A friend of mine said this to me once a long time ago. Originally, it was about drawing, but I've since adopted it as the backbone of my writing philosophy: Prioritize clarity.

This simply means the most important aspect to good writing is to be clear. Yes, flowery prose (AKA: fancy writing) is nice, but it can be a challenge to do well without knowing the fundamentals.

Some writers think they can skip this step and start creating super-awesome works right away. They think their "unique style" will see them through, and that learning the fundamentals will only serve to compromise their vision.

But, as you probably guessed, it won't.

Think about Pablo Picasso, for example. He's most famous for his abstract works with cubism, but he made plenty of "regular" paintings before that.

Learning how to write clear sentences won't mitigate your methodology, but strengthen it. You have to learn the rules before you can break them, after all!