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The world is full of simple sentences, such as …

• The loan shark was the most affable of men.
• Don’t eat before the potatoes are cooked.

But sentences are not always simple. We often wedge extra words or phrases in, making them more complicated. When parenthetical expressions, clauses, etc. are wedge into otherwise simple sentences, we call on the workhorse of the English language – the comma – to keep things understandable.

Let’s take the previous two sentences and wedge a phrase or word into each without using commas:

• The loan shark paid on time each month was the most affable of men.
• Don’t eat Marilyn before the potatoes are cooked.

You see the problem? The first sentence could mean that the loan shark paid on time each month and was a nice guy. Or it could mean that he was a nice guy if he was paid on time each month. The second sentence could mean that we aren’t supposed to eat Marilyn (this would make a juicy story) until the potatoes are cooked. Or it could be someone addressing Marilyn and telling her not to eat before the potatoes are cooked.

Here are the two sentences with commas in place:

• The loan shark, paid on time each month, was the most affable of men.
• Don’t eat, Marilyn, before the potatoes are cooked.

How did people ever get along without commas before Shakespeare invented them?

The great filmmaker, Frederico Fellini, was quoted as having said, “… they will tell you there are a lot of rules. Of course these rules are important, but in reality the way to tell a story is the way you would tell it to your friends in a café. And if you have a talent as a narrator, you will tell this story well. Otherwise all the technique in the world will never help you.”

If you’re like everyone else on the planet, you regularly become frustrated when you try to turn what you want or need to say into written words. This frustration can come upon you in your office, at your home – wherever you put your fingertips on a keyboard or take up a pen. It can happen to you regardless of what you’re writing, whether it’s a personal letter, a sales brochure or a full-blown book.

So what do you do when you can’t make your words make sense – when what you are writing isn’t really what you want to say?

Take a cue from Fellini. First, take a few deep breaths. Relax. Imagine yourself sitting in a café with friends. Now tell them what you’re trying to write. Don’t use “write talk.” Just tell them. Remember, you’re among friends. Don’t worry about whether you’re using exactly the right words or whether your high school English teacher would approve of the structure of your sentences. Just spit it out.

Write down what you’ve just said. Finally, clean it up a bit. That’s okay. In fact, it’s important. Just don’t go at it with a wire brush and start changing it to the point that you’re back where you were before the exercise.

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Ernest Hemingway had this advice for writers: “When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling.”

No matter what you write, your ability to really see will help you be a better writer. I once read that Hemingway could go to a dinner party and know everyone inside and out by the time he left. He was a master of observation and he used that skill to really know people – who they were behind the veneer and what made them tick. And that, of course, made him an insightful writer.

You don’t need to be a novelist to put the power of observation to work for you. Even if you’re writing in the business arena, keen observation will enable you to focus in on what to write and how to best present it to a particular person or audience.

Start a personal habit. When you talk with people, do what Hemingway suggested: really listen. And look. Look them in the eyes and try to understand what they are trying to communicate to you. Use every word that comes out of their mouths to help you gain a better understanding of who they really are.

You’ll be surprised what a simple practice like this can do, not only in your writing, but in your life in general.