Check out these "Rules for Writers" by George Orwell George Orwell has earned the right to be called one of the finer writers in the English language through such novels as 1984, Animal Farm, and Down and Out in Paris and London , and essays like " Shooting an Elephant ." 1. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 2. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 3. Never use the passive where you can use the active. 4. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. 5. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. (From Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language.")
I share some of my travels and writing here.