You follow the rules everyone repeats: vary your length, never go passive, dumb it down, outline first, express yourself.
But after a decade teaching them, William admits some made writers worse: they all point at the surface or the writer, not the reader.
Look closely and each flips: length follows content, structure should emerge, and the goal is to change the reader, not express you.
So which trusted rules are worth unlearning?
The ones that manage the surface or serve the writer.
Let length follow content, use the passive to control who is named, treat jargon as a membership card for the right reader, and draft as an artist before structuring as an architect.
Above all, stop asking whether you expressed yourself clearly; ask whether the sentence moves the reader from where they are to where you want them.