If your goal in pursuing writing advice is to increase your audience then my advice: View yourself as an editor not a writer. Your weakness as a writer (IMHO) is verbosity and generality (the two are often related).
Write your next post and when you feel it’s ready, then run a word count on it. Rewrite the post to reduce the count by 50%. Post both versions and see what happens.
Your weakness as a writer (IMHO) is verbosity and generality (the two are often related).
I’ve been thinking about this, and I think that is my biggest problem. It actually seems related to the way I talk as well—I often recall over-informing in person.
The most recent post is something of a different style, hopefully shorter and easier to read. I look forward to getting feedback.
On my first draft of something significant, I don’t even worry about style—I concentrate on getting my actual content down on paper in some kind of sensible form. I don’t worry about the style because I have more than enough problems getting the content right.
In this first draft, I think about structure. What ONE thing am I trying to say? What are the 2-5 sub-points of that one thing? Do these sub-points have any sub-points? Make a tree structure, and if you can’t identify the trunk, go away until you can.
Then I go back and fix it. Because the content is now in roughly the right place, the second run-through is much easier. But normally that helpful first draft is full of areas where the logical flow can be improved, and the English can be tightened up. I think you’re missing this stage out entirely as when looking at your post I can find plenty to do. Here’s what five minutes of such attention does to your first para.
“When I was 12 I started an email correspondence with a cousin, and we joked and talked about the things going on in our lives. This went on for years. One day, several years in, I read through the archives. It saturated my mind with the details of my life back then. I had the surreal feeling of having traveled back in time—almost becoming again the person I was years ago, with all my old feelings, hopes and concerns.”
Keep at it—there’s plenty enough there for the polishing to be worthwhile.
If your goal in pursuing writing advice is to increase your audience then my advice: View yourself as an editor not a writer. Your weakness as a writer (IMHO) is verbosity and generality (the two are often related).
Write your next post and when you feel it’s ready, then run a word count on it. Rewrite the post to reduce the count by 50%. Post both versions and see what happens.
I’ve been thinking about this, and I think that is my biggest problem. It actually seems related to the way I talk as well—I often recall over-informing in person.
The most recent post is something of a different style, hopefully shorter and easier to read. I look forward to getting feedback.
That is a vast improvement over some of your other posts. Good work.
Here’s what I tend to do.
On my first draft of something significant, I don’t even worry about style—I concentrate on getting my actual content down on paper in some kind of sensible form. I don’t worry about the style because I have more than enough problems getting the content right.
In this first draft, I think about structure. What ONE thing am I trying to say? What are the 2-5 sub-points of that one thing? Do these sub-points have any sub-points? Make a tree structure, and if you can’t identify the trunk, go away until you can.
Then I go back and fix it. Because the content is now in roughly the right place, the second run-through is much easier. But normally that helpful first draft is full of areas where the logical flow can be improved, and the English can be tightened up. I think you’re missing this stage out entirely as when looking at your post I can find plenty to do. Here’s what five minutes of such attention does to your first para.
“When I was 12 I started an email correspondence with a cousin, and we joked and talked about the things going on in our lives. This went on for years. One day, several years in, I read through the archives. It saturated my mind with the details of my life back then. I had the surreal feeling of having traveled back in time—almost becoming again the person I was years ago, with all my old feelings, hopes and concerns.”
Keep at it—there’s plenty enough there for the polishing to be worthwhile.