Thread by @Meaningness

Everything you learned in school about how to write, and most of what you learned in most jobs, is WORSE THAN WRONG.

Here's why your writing sucks, and how you can fix that:

You learned that the function of language is to state facts. [*Cough* rationalism...] FALSE!

Language is the way we do relationships. Writing puts you in relationship with readers.

Relationships are shared caring. Do you care about your readers? Do they care about your text?

DO I CARE? is what the reader asks when reading your title. When reading your first sentence. When reading your first paragraph. Unless the answer is HELL YES, they'll close the tab.

There's another hundred open. And there's the stuff in Pocket, and a subreddit to check, and

Each sentence you write has to show the reader two things: (1) reading it is more valuable TO THEM than alternatives, and (2) getting that value isn't more unpleasant than it is worth.

"You are doing this thing WRONG that is important TO YOU" tells the reader where the value is.

Then you have to deliver: here's how to do it better.

We, your readers, DON'T TRUST YOU. We expect you to waste our time, and to make your text ugly, tedious, and confusing.

Right? Because we know most writing sucks.

You need to convince us yours is an exception.

Your writing needs to show that YOU CARE ABOUT US, your readers.

You know who we are.

You know what we care about and why.

You care about that too, which is why you care about us.

You are going to take care of us through the reading process.

Larry McEnerney, the guy in that video, gets paid "stupid amounts of money" to fly to "interesting cities" to save fancy executives, lawyers, and management consultants about to be fired because THEIR WRITING SUCKS.

Those jobs are 100% about relationships... They didn't say it.

McEnerney says: be entertaining. Not quite right, I think...

Effective writing is playful.

Play demonstrates you recognize you are in relationship with us, your readers, so we can trust you.

Tease us. That shows you know who we are and what we care about.

Writing is a 100x as painful as reading.

At least, that's what you'd think reading most of it...

If your writing is playful, we can see you enjoyed it —because you imagined us enjoying it too!

Showing your enjoyment is showing yourself, which shows you are in relationship.

"Entertainment" is one way of providing value to readers, and showing you understand and care about them.

Storytelling is entertaining, and can sometimes make effective explanations. It's overused in pop science writing, but underused in many other genres.

Most writing is boring. It lacks surprise.

In writing a long series of facts, find and highlight unexpected aspects, even if they are unimportant to the main point. It shows you care.

In the worst case, you could add a footnote about aardvark cucumbers.

https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/1337498215852085248?s=20

In relationship, in play, we gradually reveal our eccentricities.

Initially your readers care about your text because you are telling them what they are doing wrong and how to do better.

By the end, they should care because they care about you. Because they know who you are.