diff --git a/charmcraft/application/commands/init.py b/charmcraft/application/commands/init.py
index a53ffd34a..3b1217d4d 100644
--- a/charmcraft/application/commands/init.py
+++ b/charmcraft/application/commands/init.py
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ def fill_parser(self, parser: argparse.ArgumentParser) -> None:
             "-f",
             "--force",
             action="store_true",
-            help="Initialize even if the directory is not empty (will not overwrite files)",
+            help="Initialize in a directory with conflicting files (existing template files are not overwritten)",
         )
         parser.add_argument(
             "-p",