Don’t give the wrong impression, clarity is key.

This is advice I wish I’d known long before I started writing online. It would have saved me many headaches. However, this is an impossible goal. And trying to please everyone will only lead to more pain.

Even after understanding the idea of clarity in writing, I’ve gotten myself into plenty of trouble by writing something that lacked a certain context.

That’s the problem with writing. This is especially true considering my daily writing practice. It’s not that context is hard to convey — of course, that’s part of it — but when things are misunderstood, it’s tough to defend yourself without appearing to backpedal.

Sometimes it’s not even about context. Sometimes you need to let the reader assume certain things to avoid insulting their intelligence by inserting caveats about everything that just might be misconstrued.

If I’ve learned anything from my years of writing online, it’s that someone will always find fault in my words.

This problem typically arises when discussing sensitive topics such as religion or politics. Other times it’s situational, when writing about some event — someone involved is upset that, by not going into more detail, I might have skewed their intent.

Other times it’s simply a disagreement with something I’ve said. Often my figurative words are taken literally. That, or a vague concept I’ve touched on is expanded in the reader’s mind and they come to conclusions that I hadn’t intended.

I used to get defensive about this. It bothered me and I felt the need to defend my words. I would delete posts and rewrite them in hopes of better clarity.

Eventually, I moved on from this. Instead, I would add caveats throughout my writing to ensure clarity in what I was saying. And while it’s something that I still do on occasion, I try to limit these to critical moments.

I’ve been writing online for nearly a decade. And that isn’t considering the nonsense I’ve posted on social media long before that. I’ve learned many lessons in this year of daily writing, and accepting that there will always be critics who misinterprit my words is one of the best.

Clarity in writing in order to avoid confusion is incredibly important.

However, adding a caveat to every potential landmine of contention not only confuses the reader — it ruins the writing by creating overthink in the writer’s mind.

I might not always explain myself in the tone that I wish.

But that’s what I signed up for. It’s why this is called a practice.