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SHAWN BUCKLES

10X
WRITING
10x Writing: Instantly Magnetic Shawn Buckles

Before we start

This guide

at a glance
Anyone can write if you focus on structure instead of
prose.

To improve your writing ten times, all you need to do is to


front-load the most important information at every level
of the text; within a phrase, within a sentence, paragraph,
section, and within the text itself.

Six structural
elements of Text
any text
Sections

Paragraphs

Sentences

Phrases

Words

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Quick checklist
For people with little time who want fast results.

1. Before writing anything down, think of what you


actually want to say about the subject
2. Don't say anything that isn't truthful
3. Take into account the reader's intent and satisfy it
4. First write down everything you want to say, worry
about wording and structure later
5. Split any text into three parts to create a simple
structure (even emails)
6. Invert the order: always front-load the most
important information
7. Appreciate your readers’ intelligence — don't talk
down to them
8. Read your own work back out loud to check the
sentence structure and flow

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Table of Contents

Introduction 06
Why does this guide exists, why'd you want to

read it, and why you should listen to me at all?

Focus on structure, not prose 09


The number one secret that no one is

talking about.

Never say something that isn't true 13


How to overcome imposter syndrome by

recognizing one simple, but deep

distinction.

Say what needs to be heard 15


Don't say what needs to be said and don't

say it like it is. Instead, confirm the

message is received.

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Table of Contents

Answer the right questions 21


Writing is the process of answering the right

questions — well.

Write it first, then write it well 26


How to distinguish your message's essence

from what is essentially unneccessary.

Front-load the most important information 28


How to keep people interested while

getting to the point.

Saying something well takes time 33


Upgrading your text takes just a couple of

minutes. Use this ancient Roman trick to

speed it up.

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Introduction

Why this

guide exists
By Shawn Buckles

Congratulations, by
start, how to set up a text,

downloading this guide


or how to improve it,

you have taken the first


writing gets painstakingly

step in improving your life


tedious quickly.
through your writing.
Most of us have been told

I wrote this guide because


that “your writing’s terrible”

many people are frustrated


at one point by a teacher,

with their writing (I was


boss, or colleague.

one of them). We don’t get


However, no one seems to

taught how to write, while


be able to tell how we

we continuously need it in
actually should write.
our everyday life. We are

asked to write reports,


As a consequence, we

emails, applications,
dread to write. It has

project documents, and so


ruined our relationship

on. with writing.

If you don’t know where to I, for one, couldn’t stand it,

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and was determined to


but I can give you the skills

figure out how to write


that have made me money.
well.
In my experience, most

Once I had figured out


people would want to know

some sort of method to


how to write, but simply

the madness, I found


don’t know where to start.
writing to be rather

enjoyable, and it quickly


We think we aren’t any

improved my life. good at it; that we have no

talent; that we are

As a result, I became
imposters.
much more succesful in

anything I did, because


Even some very succesful

the quality of people are simply winging


our thinking, decisions,
it; they are succesful

and communications, lie


despite their lack of writing

at the basis of every


skill — it is obvious to the

success. trained eye.

Knowing how to write well


As a writer and online

is the same as knowing


publisher, I have published

how to think well; it’s a


over 1,000,000 words, in the

secret weapon that will


form of articles, copy,

help you across your life in


(e)books, whitepapers, and

many ways. much more, on a variety of

topics.
That’s why I want to

improve the world’s


After training a dozen

thinking through
writers, I started to notice a

improving it’s writing. I


pattern. I found that I could

cannot give you money, improve almost anyone’s

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writing within a couple of


tactics, but rather

weeks. Not because I’m


fundamentals, which you’ll

such a great teacher, but


be able to apply to all of

because no one seemed to your writing immediately,

have taken the time to


and without any effort on

explain them how to write


your part. It will be as if

well in the first place. your writing had magically

improved overnight.
The truth is: it is very

simple to write well once

you know how. I hope it will prove

valuable to you.
After reading this guide,

your writing will instantly

improve ten times; simply


Kind regards,
knowing these fundamen-

tals will help you make

better writing decisions,


Shawn Buckles
improving the quality of

your writing, thinking, and

life.

This guide will show you

the seven things I've

learned that will help you

to immediately write and

think more clearly.

While there are many

writing techniques for

different situations, this

guide won’t go into mere

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Principle 1

Focus on structure,
not prose
The number one secret that no one is talking about, is
structure.

Anyone can write, as long as you get the structure right.


Prose comes second-place. The best prose in the world
can't fix a bad structure.

Most of the best writers are able to write mesmerizing


prose, yes; but what makes their writing outstanding is
the invisible ground work. More often than not, it is the
structure that really gets us. It is the structure that
communicates, clarifies, conveys.

There are three types of writers:


those that are good at picking words
those that are good at creating sentences
those that are good at creating structure

There are successful writers that are no good at prose.


However, no successful writer is bad at structure.

You could create intricate structures, but even a very


simple one would be most effective. The simplest three-

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part structure will communicate your message ten times


more effectively than no structure at all.

Whenever I don't know what to do, I simply split my


message into three parts. You can do this with essays,
stories, or even emails:

Example of a 3-part email structure


1. Request: I would like you to come to my birthday

party
2. Reason: I'm dying to catch up and I will share my

cake generously with you.


3. Logistics: It's at my place, next Saturday, 1pm.

Bring your swim suit!

The rule of threes works in theater, design, music and


architecture, and so it does in writing or speaking.

The critical part is to be determined to fit your text into a


structure of three. Then, simply analyze your information
and try to find the three overarching categories. In many
cases these would be:

1. defining the problem


2. exploring possible solutions
3. arguing for your proposed solution

Expert writers are able to apply structure to every level of


the text: within a phrase, sentence, paragraph, and the
text itself.

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Six structural levels to every text


There are six structural levels within every text:
1. words
2. phrases: structured words
3. sentences: structured phrases
4. paragraphs: structured sentences
5. sections: structured paragraphs
6. the text: structured sections

Structuring each level


To structure a phrase means to grammatically
organize words in a meaningful way.

To structure a sentence means to syntaxically


organize phrases.

To structure a paragraph means to hierarchically


organize sentences from the most important to the
least important one.

To structure a section means to hierarchically


organize its paragraphs from the most important to
the least important one.

To structure a text means to hierarchically organize its


sections from the most important to the least
important one.

The better you become, the more intuitively you will

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structure your writing at every level.

Structuring information will be the most critical skill to


master, and also the most widely applicable.

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Principle 2

Never say something

that isn't true


There's a difference between what is technically true and
what is actually true.

It's the difference between saying something that’s true


or being truthful.

You could say that ‘rockets fly to the moon daily’. This
would be untrue.

You could also say that ‘I've been told that rockets fly to
the moon daily’. In this case, you're not telling a lie (given
you've been actually told that). You're telling that
someone told you. Most people, however, will still hear
that 'rockets fly to the moon daily'.

Good politicians know this and use this knowledge


continuously. They deal in speaking half-truths: they
allow themselves the wiggle-room of technical truths
that aren't actually truthful.

Good writers also know it and use it in a different way.


They deal in speaking truthfully: they won't allow uttering
anything that isn't true on the deepest level.

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In our example, the writer would've said: I know that


people will misinterpret this phrase, so I should rephrase
it to: ”Someone told me that rockets fly to the moon
daily."

The differences between what is technically a lie,


technically true, and truthful, are very subtle. It is the
writer’s task to distinguish between the three — and to
choose the latter.

This means that the writer needs to understand truth on a


deeper level —a philosophical level even— and to hold
every statement to the light in order to determine
whether it is truthful or not.

Whenever I feel like an imposter, I start by closely


examining the veracity of my speech. Nine out of ten
times I’ve said something that I cannot know to be true:
I’ve made some assumptions, read someone’s mind, said
something brassily that I haven’t confirmed.

To speak untruthfully is to feel like an imposter, and to


feel like an imposter is to speak without authority.

There are no shortcuts to authoritativeness, but the path is


clear simple: examine your words, and don’t say anything
that is untruthful.

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Principle 3

Say what needs

to be heard
There's a difference between what you want to say and
what needs to be heard.

Not just substantially, — there will be a distinctive gap


between what your ego whispers you should proclaim to
the world, and what the world is actually willing to listen
to from you — but also in how you say something.

If you're saying what needs to be said, you can become


contrarian, egocentrical even, and your writing will feel to
the reader as such. Perhaps you don't even care if the
reader listens or not. We probably all know someone
that's just 'saying it as it is' — and I doubt that anyone
likes to listen to them very much.

If you're saying what needs to be heard, it implies you


actually care whether the message is being received. To
influence anyone, we need to ensure our message gets
heard first and foremost. It means that you have a stake
in how well you communicate. Because of this, you'll pay
attention to the reader's needs too.

Ninety percent of what people remember of what you

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say, consists of how it made them feel. Just ten percent


are the actual contents.

The trick is to make people want to listen. If you're first of


all someone they want to listen to, you’ll have more than
one chance to help them.

This means we have to leave our opinions at the door —


nobody is interested in them anyway. Everyone is
interested in their opinion instead.

If you can help people form their opinion instead of


forcing your own on them, they’ll want to listen to you.
You could even miraculously end up with the same
opinion. This is called influence. But you need to make
them want to listen first.

The secret to making people want to listen, is to not think


of what you want from the reader, or from writing the
text, but of why they would want to listen instead.

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Don't tell people what to do


The first part to making people want to listen to you, is to
never say what they should do, think, or feel.

Many people unknowingly tell others what to do


continuously. It is considered normal to tell others 'you
should buy this', or 'you should do that'. I've always found
this odd. I do not like it when people explicitly tell me
what to do, even when I know they don't mean it like that.
I quickly understood that people do this when they are
actually trying to suggest something to you.

There's an incredibly simple fix that will prevent you from


telling others what to do from now on. Explicitly suggest,
instead of ordering.

Example
Instead of saying: 'you should go on a shopping

spree', consider saying: 'you could consider going on

a shopping spree'.

Understand what they want


The second part to making people want to listen to you, is
to understand what their intention is.

I call this the "Reader's Intent". Understanding it is critical


to effective writing. You can figure out the Reader's Intent
by asking "why did the reader come to this text?".

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"What are they expecting to get out of it?"


"What question am I answering for them?"
And: "Why would they want to continue reading?"

You can negotiate: 'if I give them a clear table with well-
researched information, that directly answers their
question, would they want to continue reading?'

In much the same way: 'if I give them my opinion harshly


and swiftly, would they want to continue reading?'.

Or: 'if I start with telling them a long-winded anecdote


without a clear stated goal or end point, would they
want to continue reading?'.

This last one seems to be particularly prevalent on recipe


blogs for some unknown reason (it's actually to increase
the ad impressions).

Not many people are able to ask these questions seriously,


and grasp the Reader's Intent. However, if you are one of
the chosen few, or if you're able to train yourself, whatever
you write, people will want to read it. It makes your
writing magnetic.

I'm going to tell you what you think now, which is one of
the cardinal sins of communication; I need to do so to
make my point, so please indulge me while I go out on a
limb.

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Your Reader’s Intent


In this guide, I'm answering the question "What are the
principles anyone can use to write better immediately,
and that nobody is talking about?"

What you hope to get out of this text is to learn any


writing secrets that will drastically improve your results
from the next email onwards without any effort on your
part. Would you say that is in the ball park?

Knowing the Reader's Intent, I'm focused on telling you


the secret fundamentals the professionals use to upgrade
their writing.

I know a bunch of techniques, but I won't share them,


because they'll require practice and they will take quite
some effort to master; therefore, they are outside the
scope of the Reader's Intent. They wouldn't be half as
effective. It'd make me look very knowledgable, which
would surely flatter my ego. And so I have to restrain
myself, since less-effective-, haphazardly-shared tips
would depreciate the information that'll actually work for
your intent.

It would make me less succesful in satisfying your


Reader's Intent, which, after all, includes the phrase
'improve your writing 10x immediately & effortlessly'.

On the other hand, knowing how to think about writing in


general doesn't require much conscious effort on your
part. From now on, you'll find these principles randomly

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popping up while you're writing, and your writing will


automatically improve because of it.

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Principle 4

Answer the

right questions
Now that we know what the Reader's Intent is, we
should focus on their main question.

Writing is the process of answering a series of questions.


The questions should be specific, and the answers
concise.

If we find our answers aren’t concise, our questions are


probably unspecific.

How to ask the right questions


Asking the right question starts with formulating the
main question the text is trying to answer. You can find
the main question within the Reader’s Intent: what does
the reader need to know after reading this text?

Then, we need to keep asking follow-up questions untill


we cannot get more specific. The best way to formulate
subquestions is to think of the next thing the reader
would want to know — to anticipate their curiosity.

If we are writing a job report —let's say we work in con-

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struction— the main question would be:

Question
'How to complete this project succesfully?'

This is a pretty broad question, so we should formulate a


set of subquestions that are more specific.

Subquestions
What is the project?
what is the deliverable?
what are the logistics?
When do we consider the project completed?
what is the project result?
what is not the project result?
What is successful?
within what time should it be finished?
within what budget should it be finished?
what standards should it adhere to?

And so on. In this example, I can answer most questions


concisely already. However, one question stands out to
me as being unspecific: 'what are the logistics?'. In this
case, we can formulate a set of subquestions to this
question:

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Sub-subquestions
What is the project?
what are the logistics?
which people will be working on the

project?
what are their roles?
how do we get these people?
what equipment will be used on the

project?
how do we get this equipment?

And so on. As you can see, I simply drill down into the
question until I get something that can be answered
concisely and directly.

How to answer a question well


The best way to answer a question well is to put a heavy
word limit on ourselves. This will force us to be specific
and to the point. I find that nearly all questions can be
answered within the following (strict) framework:

Answer
A direct and concise answer consists of 2-3 sentences,
or roughly 50 words. This doesn't include elaboration,
explanations, examples, and so on. You should be
able to formulate a specific answer to any questions
in this way. If you’re unable to, it’s an indication your
question is too broad.

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This is a great example of how I would formulate a good


answer within this framework. The word count is 49
words and I have answered as comprehensively as
possible without going off-topic.

How to check the quality of your answer


Here are some questions to check the quality of your
answer:

Did I address all of the most important information?


Have I said what the answer is not?
Am I comprehensive? Do I make use of my entire
word limit?
Have I front-loaded the most important information?
(more on this later)
Did I stay on-topic?

Being on-point
In order to be concise, we should understand the
difference between what is on-topic and off-topic. In
other words, what are the topical boundaries, and what
subquestions are outside of those?

If left unchecked, we could infinitely associate on any


topic, and we could end up writing forever. We must
therefore understand the difference between relevant
content and related content.

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Relevant content consists of any information that is


critical to answering the main question directly.

Related content consists of any adjacent information


that is not critical to answering the main question
directly.

We can touch on related content near the end of a text,


but a good rule of thumb is to stay away from it
altogether. Related content is particularly distracting,
since it seems relevant, to both you and the reader — but
it actually isn’t. That’s why we want to focus our effort on
only relevant content instead.

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Principle 5

Write it first,
then write it well
Writing is the process of putting words down on paper.
Writing well is the process of then erasing most of them.

"J’ai fait celle-ci plus longue parce que je n’ai pas

eu le loisir de la faire plus courte."

“I apologize for the long letter, but I didn’t have time

to write a short one.”

— Blaise Pascal

A good writer knows which words to keep, and which to


throw out. The way to know which to throw out is to
know which are the least important to your message.

To know which are the least important, you must first


determine which are the most important.

Which words, lines, phrases, can I not remove without


maiming my message?

The way to find those, is to remove all words, one at a

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time, and see whether the message still stands.

The words that, once removed, alter the message, are the
most important.

You've found the essence of your message.

Now that you know which words are critical, delete


everything else.

Don't hestitate one moment. You've already tasted your


sentence without it: it still tastes good.

Deep down you will feel whether it's there for you, or for
the reader.

The more ruthless you are, the better your writing will be.

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Principle 6

Front-load the most

important information
Front-loading is the process of pulling forward what
matters most. The quickest way to get there is to simply
invert your writing to your thinking.

We naturally think towards a conclusion. We have a


question; then, in our mind, we start formulating
arguments, typically starting with the weakest, and while
we think longer about the subject, we formulate stronger
and clearer arguments, we pull up higher-quality
information, and eventually we get to our conclusion.

This is how most people structure their writing too: quite


literally. Most untrained writers first restate their question,
then drag you along through their thinking, until they
finally reach a point of clarity.

The wonderful thing about writing is that it allows us to


provide clarity from the start. This is much harder when
speaking. Writing allows us to rearrange our thoughts
into a structure that makes sense to the reader as well,
instead of just us.

While we may know what point we’re about to make,

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our reader does not. When structuring our text, we


should try to forget what we know and have said and
look at it with a beginner’s mind.

This doesn’t mean you immediately need to know how to


put things. Your writing process can very well be very
chaotic (admittedly, mine is pretty messy too). To suck in
your reader, you want to start with your best points, your
most convincing information — your clearest phrases. This
will give people the confidence to invest their precious
time in you.

This is what ‘getting to the point’ means.

If you immediately get into it, people will feel that you
won’t waste their time. If you immediately provide value,
people will have an interest in reading on. Planning a big
reveal at the end will have the opposite effect on people.

If you don’t give people a reason to read on, they won’t.


They will move onto the next piece of content that will
satisfy their intent.

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How to keep people interested


In order to keep people interested, they need to feel
you’re continuously providing value to them. Some writers
seem afraid that if they provide value upfront (to
immediately answer the question concisely), they would
lose their reader’s attention.

Instead, their prefered method to engage people is to


drag out the conclusion as long as humanly possible, and
‘to build up to it’.

They hold their strongest points in reserve, in order to


create a mic drop moment towards the end. However, no
one will read to the point where they’ll actually hear the
mic hitting the ground.

To me, it seems dishonest. In a way, it feels to me as if


you’re taking the reader’s attention hostage.

We want to captivate, not capture, the reader. The reader


must want to read on of their own volition.

If you need to take your reader hostage, it is due to bad


writing alone. It is your writing that needs to be
addressed, and the root of your problems is the fact that
you’re willing to capture your reader, instead of trying to
captivate them. Unfortunately, the common response to
this problem seems to double down on its root cause.

If you have shot all your bolts in the first paragraph, won’t
people stop listening to you the minute they have their
answer?

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The answer to that question is a counterintuitive, but


resounding ‘no’.

I’ve found that once you show people that you actually
have the answer to their question, — once you show that
you’re actually willing to share it with them — it gives the
assurance they need to spend their time with you. You
spend time because it is expensive, after all.

Nearly everyone will have follow-up questions once


you’ve answered their main question. There are many
points to discuss from this first point onwards.

Create an onion of value


The trick is to build a 'value-onion': layers of information
that you slowly unpack. The value-onion is a way of
presenting information in different resolutions, so that
people can peel back the layers to the resolution they are
interested in:

low resolution: you’re looking through binoculars at


the answer
normal resolution: you’re giving the detailed overview
high resolution: you’re getting into granular, specific
examples

Another way to conceptualize it is as follows:


your answer in one sentence
your answer in one paragraph

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your answer in one chapter

Low-resolution-information doesn’t mean low-value- or


low-quality-information by any means. Actually, it is

probably the hardest part to write, because we need to


condense as much information as we can into the least
amount of words possible. This is the well-formulated
answer we’ve already discussed.

Thinking of information in terms of these three


resolutions creates a layered onion of sorts, with the outer
layer the easiest to peel back, and the inner layers more
hard-to-digest.

Front-loading allows people to come away with a


cohesive answer to their question, regardless of where
they decide to stop reading. It allows them to read on to
the level of detail they’re interested in. It ensures that
once they stop reading, they’ll still have a cohesive
answer to their question, albeit in lower resolution.

Example
In this section, I’ve started by immediately giving you

a two-sentence-summary. I gave you a definition and

a method. This provided the hook for you to hang

everything else from. Then, I gave you an overview of

the method and why it matters. Now, I’m giving you a

specific example of how I applied this method in my

own work.

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Principle 7

Saying something well

takes time
We’ve treated most of the concepts I’ve developed over
the years to improve my own writing, but this last one is
just as important.

The most important advantage of the writer is that he


can endlessly revise.

The final word can be as good as the writer is capable of.

This comes with the downside of the perpetual draft;


there is a time to just finish the damn thing. But before
that time arrives, one can tinker and edit as long as one
can, and is willing to.

This enables the writer to sound eloquent, wise, and


concise in a way no speaker is able to.

Very few people, however, take advantage of this


undeniable benefit.

They write the same way they’d speak, not knowing


they’ve merely completed the first step. Then, when they
look over their text, they think: how come my writing is
so terrible?

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The truth is that the writing of any writer is just as terrible.


It is their editing that sets them apart. The expert writer
knows that the first draft is just the beginning of the
writing process.

We’ve discussed many editing fundamentals — most


importantly: how to structure a text. If you do nothing
else, this alone will improve your writing ten times.

However, there are some good rules of thumb, still to


discuss.

Proofread your own work out loud


The first one is to read back your own work out loud.
Reading sentences out loud will reveal their structural
inconcistencies, flow, rythm, cadance. Read out loud, then
edit, read out loud again. Repeat until you are satisfied.

Over time, you’ll internalize this reading voice; it will


become an inner voice, to the delight of your partner or
room mate.

Form should follow function


The second rule of thumb is to ensure you prioritize
content over form. Every piece of your text has a purpose.
If it hasn’t, it shouldn’t be there at all. Once you have all of
the puzzle’s pieces, assemble it appropriately. The text
should be structured according to the information’s
needs.

www.onepenshow.com BUCKLES

PUBLISHING
10x Writing: Instantly Magnetic Shawn Buckles

I call phrases that merely exist to fit the format, to fill in, to
prop up, —very eloquently— ‘fluff’’, and I want none of it in
my text.

Fluff doesn’t communicate anything; it doesn’t add


anything — and what doesn’t add, distracts.

Anything that’s just sitting there, being cute, needs to go.

The format needs to follow the function: the contents of


your message.

Don’t understimate your reader


The third, and most important rule is to never
underestimate your reader. Most people are actually quite
intelligent. If they are not, they are probably able to clarify
whatever you throw at them by Googling it. Who knows:
some might even use a dictionary.

I try to never repeat myself unintentionally. One of the


many benefits of the written word is that people can re-
read at their leisure. If something is exceedingly
important, I might restate it in multiple ways. In much the
same way, I rarely write conclusions, since they only serve
to restate all of the answers I’ve already given.

The writer’s greatest sin is to talk down to their reader.


The greatest joy of the written word is to provide to others
a friend, unbound by space or time — and we do not tend
to become friends with those who speak down to us.

www.onepenshow.com BUCKLES

PUBLISHING

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