"convey" vs. "say"

It's easier than it seems, but I don't convey it well.

My friend says that I should change that to read

It's easier than it seems, but I don't say it well.

However, this doesn't seem quite right to me. Is this grammatically correct? What is wrong with this sentence?

"Say" and "convey" aren't the same thing, right? Someone can say something, but still fail to convey an idea, correct?

Convey means 'transfer' or 'pass on' or 'make known'. In England, at least, the process of selling a house is conveyancing, for example. In general, conveying and saying are not the same thing - you can convey ideas without saying a thing (a shrug of the shoulders could convey that you don't know, without any verbal communication). So, maybe you'd write:

It's easier than it seems, but I haven't conveyed the ideas very well.

The "don't convey it well" tends to mean you've tried multiple times and are still trying and not doing a very good job of conveying the ideas to the people you talk with.

On the whole, though, I think another word, such as 'explain', is better:

It's easier than it seems, even though I haven't explained it very well.

Perhaps you don't "explain" it well.

"I don't express it well" would be my natural choice here.

To "convey" something has a strong sense of ferrying or carrying something, transporting it whether physically or metaphorically.

Nevertheless, to my ear, "convey" works better than "say" in the example sentence. That's because "I don't say it well" does not mean "I do not express the meaning properly," as much as it means "I have speech problems."

If I were allowed the luxury of a rewrite, I'd go for something like this:

It's easier than it sounds, if I could explain it better.

"I don't say it well" is perfectly correct, you could also have "I don't communicate it" well or "I don't put it over well".

Convey could mean that you communicate it other than by speaking but it's perfectly correct to have the "author said" when in fact the author wrote it