Writing Between the Lines

05/10/2005

I was just reviewing an article that a friend sent to me, when I realized he’d made a very common mistake. So common, in fact, that I though I’d share it with you.

He had some great ideas in the article, and a lot of pithy quotes and “sound bites”, but the best ideas were missing.

The best ideas were in-between the written lines.

That is, he hadn’t connected the dots. There were all these cool mentions of things, and bits and pieces, but no connection. Readers need to be lead through your arguments, need to be explicitly shown your line of thinking. Instead of just saying “Use the DRY Principle”, for instance, you need to explain what that is, why it’s important ~~- in this context especially -~~ and explicitly draw the conclusion you’re making.

I find that first drafts almost always suffer from this syndrome, especially if you’re working from a mental or written bullet list of topics you want to cover. You need to flesh in the bits in-between the bullets to make it flow.

I know I slip and do this on occasion, and when someone else reads my draft they rightfully cry out, “what are you talking about??” To which I verbally explain. Then they get it. Then I write down what it was I said :-)

Remember that writing is a conversation. Okay, it’s half-duplex at best, but it’s still a conversation. Explain it to me like I’m sitting right here with a confused look on my face. Odds are that I am.