Have you ever written a piece that sounded clear but kind of dry?
Or maybe you’ve punched up a piece with creative storytelling, but your message got lost.
If so, you’ve discovered the challenge of balancing and blending clarity and creativity—and both are needed.
You want your reader to understand clearly the insights you’re sharing. But you also want your writing to connect, to creatively engage your reader.
Often, it feels that you have to choose, or that your writing leans to one side or the other, depending on the topic. But you can find a way to blend clarity and creativity in every piece you write, to the benefit of your reader.
Balancing clarity and creativity takes time. Much of that balance will come not from writing but from editing. It’s a blending you bring as you review your piece and make tweaks. It’s also a balance that will come more easily the more often you write.
Let’s look together at the ins and outs of balancing and blending clarity and creativity in writing.
The Challenge of Writing with Clarity and Creativity
As a writer, you want to connect with your reader. You write because you have something to say, something to share, a unique perspective that your reader will find helpful. Whether you’re writing a business proposal, memoir, web content for your organization, or an essay on life, you want to share information with your reader. It’s important that your reader can follow your points and understand your message.
At the same time, you want to connect with and engage your reader. You hope they will be interested enough to continue reading. You want your writing to be relatable. To create stories and examples that will speak to your reader’s needs, hopes, and curiosity.
How do you find the balance? Write too clearly, and the piece might sound boring or oversimplified. Write creatively, and your reader might be entertained but confused.
What you’re looking for is content that is easy to follow but also enjoyable to read. Information that sticks with the reader because you’ve made a connection. How do you get there?
Clarity Is Creative
It’s helpful to recognize how clarity and creativity go hand in hand. When you present clear information creatively, you help your reader connect and follow along—as long as you stay focused on what the reader needs, and you don’t let creativity stray from the message. Your goal is to improve clarity through creativity.
Let’s say you’re writing an article for a pet parent audience about how to keep their dog safe in summer. You might weave in a cute, creative story about Fluffy’s first trip to the beach. But you’d use that story to share your points about summer safety for dogs. You wouldn’t stray into describing what Fluffy should wear to a summer wedding on the beach. That’s a different article.
Here are some examples of how creative writing brings clarity. See if one of these can help shape your next piece of writing:
- Stories — People love stories. Their mood shifts as they get ready to take in a story, and this shift brings deeper connection. Can you share a story that helps your reader understand and relate to your message?
- Examples — It’s often easier to understand and relate to information with an example. When you share a concept with your reader, can you give an example specific to their needs? For example, if you’re explaining how a new bookkeeping app works, can you give an example of how it helps with a common struggle your reader often faces?
- Word pictures — When a reader can picture what you’re saying, they will be engaged on a deeper level. Can you use words to bring a scene to life, where the reader will feel like they’ve stepped into the scene? Just enough to make an impact without overdoing it?
- Analogies — If you’re writing about a complex or heady topic, an analogy can bring the concept into everyday language. While you don’t want to depend on cliches, you can compare a complex process to how a person does a simple daily activity, or to something seen in nature. Can you think of a creative analogy that would help your reader understand a complex topic?
- Humor — A little humor goes a long way. Too much humor, and your reader will lose sight of the point. But keep a light humor in the background and let it be visible at an appropriate place. Even with traumatic topics, a well-placed moment of humor can help your reader breathe and connect even more deeply. Is there a place for a humorous approach in something you’re writing?
- Structure — Even the way you structure your written piece can improve clarity. Structure is a creative way to help the reader connect with your words. Finding the best structure can be fun and helps you see places where you can add stories or examples. What paragraphs can you move or break up to help the reader connect?
- Headings — Breaking up the sections of your writing with headings is a creative way to help your reader move step by step. Creative headings also engage your reader. Have you tried using headings with your writing? How can you make those headings more engaging but still useful? Hint: Ask a few trusted reader friends to give you their feedback and suggestions.
It Takes Connection, Writing, and Editing to Blend and Balance
As a writer, you have many tools to help you balance and blend clarity and creativity to engage your reader. Start by focusing on the reader. Before you write a word, try to understand what your reader is looking for:
- What would make them read your piece?
- What kind of experience are they expecting?
- What insights or feelings do they hope to come away with?
When you’ve made that initial connection with your reader, you’re better able to stay with them through your writing, taking them along the journey with you, making sure they have what they need at each step, as if you’re their trail guide through your written piece.
Your connection with your reader will help you sense when to clarify, anticipate questions and confusion, know which examples will make the experience more vivid and engaging. Keep that reader connection all the way through your writing.
Then comes the time for editing, and you’ll have more opportunities to shape your words, structure, and presentation. Editing has multiple layers. You can do several rounds of editing, looking at a different aspect each time:
Checking for Clarity
- Tweaking structure.
- Simplifying words and concepts.
- Trimming excess words or thoughts.
Checking for Creativity
- Adding an example, analogy, story.
- Infusing tones like humor or warmth.
- Setting the scene through a word picture.
- Tweaking the rhythm and flow of sentences.
Much of your balance between clarity and creativity will come through the editing process. Take full advantage of that opportunity and take your time. Edit in layers, working on a different aspect of the piece in each layer.
I like to think of writing and editing as similar to making pottery. Think of all the steps that happen with pottery from the wheel to the shelf. Writing is putting the clay on the wheel; every step that follows is editing.
Clarity and Creativity Are a Beautiful, Balanced Blend
As you blend and balance clarity and creativity, your reader will benefit, stay engaged, and come back for more.
Balance doesn’t happen instantly. If only it would! It’s a process and takes time and effort through connecting with your reader, writing, and editing. Because it’s a process, you don’t have to get it all right the first time. If something is out of balance, you can tweak it.
Depending on the topic and your experience, some pieces might be easier to write with clarity, and others with creativity. Your own writing style might lean more easily to one side or the other. That’s okay. Where one is stronger, you can bring balance by blending in the other.
Start with what you’ve got, and then shape it into balance. Be careful not to force an artificial balance, but rather blend the elements till you have something that will be clear and engaging for your reader.
Ask yourself:
- Can my reader follow this clearly, all the way through, in parts and as a whole?
- Will my reader feel connected and engaged from beginning to end?
- If my reader is busy and only has time to skim, will they still get value from this piece? Hint: That’s where headings and bullet points make a difference.
If you’re not sure about those answers, ask a few trusted readers to help you out. Any places where the writing needs more clarity? Any places they’d like to see an example or word picture? A story? A different tone?
Clarity and creativity are always available to you. You can add, take away, tweak. The more you write, the more natural this balance will become. The more you focus on your reader, the easier it will be to guide them along the path of your writing.
Janet Eriksson 