Making them up as I go (2)

1. Tell the truth.
2. Entice, or fail.
3. To emphasize, summarize.
4. If it ain't short, it don't work.
5. Be clear.


And so I don't forget:
Don't explain. Just tell a story.
Don't argue. Just say things that make sense.
Expect people to be bored by the writing, and shorten it.
Make the wording easy to take.

Remove Loose Ends -- the interesting one-liners that go nowhere.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The better word

I may have mentioned this already: My method of proofreading is to start at the beginning and read until I have to change something, then change it, then start at the beginning again.

It's a good method and I rely on it. But sometimes it gets to be days and days of proofreading and I'm still on page two.

(Yeah, this is one of those times. Counterfactuals and the Common Trend on my Econ blog, if it ever gets finished.)

It's hard work. But re-reading the sentence with the better word is always satisfying.

Oh hey, Happy New Year.