# How to write well

Modern society requires writing.

- Most technological channels are limited and require writing more than talking:

- Writing emails and text messages
- Giving summaries and reports
- Social media
- Most remote feedback and commentary

People read at about 200 words per minute but only talk at about 110-150, so writing permits more information with less time and space.

Since [you'll lose the idea](mind-creativity-how.md) if you don't finish what you start, publish with a deadline.

## How is writing different from speaking?

Writing has more weight than speaking:

- Writers can research and take their time, so everyone expects more intelligent writing than speaking.
- Text doesn't have articulation or cadence, so implications are more pronounced.
- Speech uses more [perception](awareness.md) and [feeling](mind-feelings.md) through the ears and mouth, text uses [imagination](imagination.md) and [logic](logic.md) through the eyes and hands.
- By writing what you understand, it forces you to more clearly indicate information than simply speaking it.

One of the key benefits of writing is that readers can both reread to understand ideas better or skip text entirely:

- [Listeners](language-speaking.md), on the other hand, must chronologically focus on body language and hearing, and can't easily skip content.

Compared to speaking, writing converts and transmits more easily across a medium and across languages.

## Write passionately

Writing requires understanding the basics of language (vocabulary, grammar, elements of style), then learning ways to express your [feelings](mind-feelings.md) and [observations](understanding.md):

- Read great writing to learn what to do, then suffer through bad writing to learn what to *not* do.
- To build great writing skills, [write frequently](success-5_persevering.md) and [develop a creative mindset](mind-creativity-how.md).

Writing captures feelings simply, so your word choice shows your passion for the subject:

- If you feel strongly about something, you'll have a *lot* to say.
  - When motivated, we focus on getting the words out instead of analyzing our intentions.
  - If you're out of ideas, find a topic that makes you furious.
- Once you've learned to write clearly, your speaking and writing style will harmonize, which will make your thoughts come more clearly as well.

Writing is communicating information to someone where they forget they're [imagining](imagination.md) something simply from a collection of words.

When writing, you gain a more thorough [understanding](understanding.md) of what you're trying to communicate.

- In general, the [information](information.md) contained in writing should be focused on conveying wisdom.
- This wisdom frequently uses fewer words to convey more information at once.
- Without deep, profound [understanding](understanding.md) of something, we can't write well.

Your best writing is the best version of *your* [creative](mind-creativity-how.md) style, not how well you imitate another writer.

Sometimes, though, you might have to write about something that doesn't interest you:

- If possible, try to change the topic to something that *does* interest or provoke your opinion.
- If you can't find anything, find a reliable source and use *their* references for your creative work.

Avoid writer's block by fostering [healthy creative habits](mind-creativity-how.md).

## Have your audience in mind

Before writing, ask the following questions:

- Who's the audience?
- What are they looking for?
- How much detail and background information will they want or need?
- How will the information I write help them to make [decisions](decisions.md)?
- Will anyone be hostile toward what I might say?
- Are they familiar with industry-specific jargon?
- What kinds of examples and analogies will be most helpful to them?

Write about things other people *want* to read:

- If people aren't interested in what you're writing about, they'll get bored.
  - You may think your writing carries authority, but the reader has more authority because they can stop reading whenever they want.
  - Ask who you are to the audience, not who the audience is.
- *Anything* can be interesting with a sufficiently motivated and talented writer, so your ability to [influence](power-influence.md) and [entertain](humor.md) is critical.
- If you don't understand your audience, you'll add too much detail and useless information.

Writing should both entertain and [educate](understanding.md):

- The reader must learn something, or they will feel the story was a waste of time.
- The reader must be amused or will find the information boring.
- In [modern society](information.md), the quantity of your information isn't as valuable as *how* you convey it.

Write to please yourself, firstly:

- You'll never be [happy](mind-feelings-happiness.md) with the results if you're not writing to your standards.
  - Somehow, readers can tell when you're writing and not enjoying it.
- You [know yourself](awareness.md) more than anyone else, and there are thousands of people who have your taste in writing style.
- You may be anxious and uneasy, but your desire to [create](mind-creativity-how.md) the best possible form of an idea will chip away useless information.

Write for one person you know personally:

- If you aim for everyone, nobody will like it, but you can often add [humor](humor.md) into your style when it's someone you know.
- That person, when reading your text, should feel like you're treating them as an equal.

Pay close attention to the reader's perception throughout the work:

- Readers are only reading for information or experience.
  - For information, focus only on the information they want to learn.
  - For an experience, focus only on what they'll find most interesting.
- Find the healthy middle ground between giving the bare minimum information and burying them in endless specifics.
  1. Focus on all the necessary details that imply many other details.
  2. Add just enough details to give [emotional emphasis](mind-feelings.md).
  3. If you've forgotten to continue with your content, stop and remove some details.
- Don't jump ahead presuming they already know something.
  - The easiest approach is to move through the experience chronologically or systematically.
  - You'll have a harder time moving slowly through the information, proportionally to your intelligence or knowledge.
  - Give extra attention to things people frequently overlook and presume they [understand](understanding.md).
- Rearrange giant chunks to conform to the chronological order that's easiest for them to understand.

After you've written out a first draft, keep that audience in mind while [editing](language-writing-editing.md) the second time around.

### All writing sends a message

The entire work paints a portrait of ideas:

- Everything you're writing is [solving a problem](purpose.md).
- The first sentence, paragraph, word, and title will define the reader's expectations throughout the work.
- Each sentence is adding information to the message, and the end will leave the reader with a lingering concept.
- Without a message, a writer is just trying to draw attention to themselves.
- One misplaced word can ruin the entire flow of the story, so build a story from back to front to maintain consistency.
- In effect, aim to [write a story](stories-how.md) with every body of text you write.

All great messages contain a WHAT and a WHY:

- WHAT communicates the information and events you want to share.
  - Event details, date, time, location
  - Educational information, data, facts
- WHY communicates the benefits from knowing the information or the cause for the WHAT.
  - It gives the [reason](purpose.md) you're writing at all.
  - It answers the "call to action" the reader must take.
- The rest spins off from these two:
  - WHO is the character (or reader) that does WHAT.
  - WHERE is the setting for WHAT.
  - WHEN is the chronology of WHAT.
  - HOW is the detailed set of processes to explain the WHAT and WHY.

Get to the point or start as close to the end as possible:

- Give as much information as soon as possible.
- Use non-knowing, not vagueness, to bring suspense.
- Only give possibilities the reader was expecting and details the reader can identify with.

All writing is either explaining or exploring:

- Explanations are transmitting information and ideas: making things [clearly known](understanding.md).
- Explorations are developing hard-to-grasp concepts: making [the unknown](unknown.md) partially known.

Focus on the positive form of the idea:

- Say "do" instead of "don't".
- What something "isn't" is less informative than what something "is".

When using examples and anecdotes, carefully consider your quantity:

- 1 demonstrates raw power.
- 2 is useful to compare or contrast.
- 3 gives a sense of completeness, fullness, or wholeness.
- 4 or more can list, inventory, compile, and expand.
- In reality, 3 gives a stronger sense of completeness than 4.

Understate the topic when it's the most serious, and overstate when it's not.

End the work with the most powerful sentence you can make:

- It should allude to the first sentence, and will linger when they leave your work.
- Emphasize with 2-3-1: the most important emphasis at the end, the second-most at the beginning, and the rest in the middle.

If you're writing a long body of work, write the introduction *last*:

- To articulate it, you should fully understand what you're introducing.
- If you're writing a robust work (e.g., large book, technical/scientific paper), a lengthy introduction can help give more context to what you're writing:
  - The history of the subject.
  - Giving credit to everyone who helped with it.
  - Outlining the content of the document and why you wrote it.
- While you may want to express your most intimate feelings, don't get too carried away, and omit anything that might be boring.

Don't neglect the title:

- The title of your work is the first exposure to what you're building, so use it to draw attention from the people you expect to read it.
- In some ways, the title is telling them there's more information without providing any details.

## Writing is an art

Like any [art](art.md), writing has rules, exceptions to rules, specific cases for everything, and requires constant criticism.

As the situation demands, you can (and will) break most writing rules, so don't obsess about honoring all of them:

- The purpose of writing is to communicate a clear concept, so violating rules may be useful to prove a point or entertain.

You may strive for originality, but [it's never completely possible](mind-creativity.md).

If you keep improving, you'll likely find years later that you'll hate your old writing style.

You'll always need at least a few drafts:

- Most professional content goes through at least a dozen drafts.
- The first draft will push the raw ideas out, likely with only spell-checking.
- The second draft onward will work on grammar and tone, with many removals and rearranging.
- The third draft onward is almost exclusively removing, splicing, and rearranging ideas.

You'll only see major themes in your work forming *after* you're reviewing your first draft:

- Themes portray your beliefs about human nature, and are reflected in how characters and elements interact with one another.
- The connected nature of your theme determines the power of what you're trying to advance.
- Themes tend to address 2 major questions:
  1. What does it mean to be human?
  2. How do humans react to circumstances beyond their control?
- Your theme will dictate what the readers think about after they've stopped reading.
  - While nonfiction is easier because you're stating it explicitly, themes only work in stories from how characters change.
- To make the heaviest impact, leave them with 1 theme, and no more.

Whether it's a [website](language-writing-web.md) or a [text message](language-writing-messages.md), your most meaningful feedback comes from others' review of your work:

- Writing itself is solitary, but your easiest success in editing comes from other people.
  - If you must self-edit, read your final draft after enough time has passed that the text is no longer familiar.
- Find people willing to openly criticize your writing and nitpick your style.
- Your [friends](people-friends.md), family, and [spouse](relationships-marriage.md) are great for reviewing, but don't ask them to review your content more than they want.