Somewhere in the editing process, a sentence can lose its nerve. The slightly unusual word becomes a safer one. A specific detail makes way for a general claim. Someone suggests smoothing out the line that made everyone stop and think. None of those changes looks dramatic on its own. Together, they can leave you with writing that’s spotless and strangely hard to remember.
I’m not against making things simple. Quite the opposite. A reader shouldn’t have to work to understand what you’re offering. But clarity isn’t the same as sanding every edge smooth.
Think about a small bookshop. It could call itself a destination for curious readers, with a thoughtfully chosen range of titles. Fine. But I’d rather know that the staff leave handwritten notes beside their favourites, that two booksellers keep recommending completely different novels, or that there’s a shelf for books nobody can categorise. Suddenly I can picture the place. I might even want to go.
Not every detail is worth including, of course. What matters is finding the ones that reveal something true about a place, a product or the people behind it. That’s where simple writing starts to feel like it belongs to someone.
These details rarely arrive as neat bullet points in a brief. They appear when someone stops presenting their business and starts telling you about it. A founder explains the problem that bothered them for years. A designer mentions the decision everyone argued over. That’s when I reach for my notebook, because the most useful words often turn up before anyone is trying to write copy.
One test I use is to imagine the logo disappearing. Could the paragraph belong to a dozen different companies? If so, I look for the missing point of view. Sometimes the answer is a better example. Sometimes it’s letting a slightly unusual phrase stay unusual. And sometimes a plain sentence is exactly right.
Prices should be easy to find. Instructions should be easy to follow. But when the words are there to show people who you are, simple shouldn’t mean anonymous.
