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.

Sunday, April 7, 2019

And not only history-writing

Mortimer Chambers, in the Introduction to The Fall of Rome: Can It Be Explained?
History-writing is explanation. That alone distinguishes it from the mere collecting of facts, accurately dated and lucidly described, in the form of chronicles. The difference between a "historian" and a "chronicler" -- between, let us say, Thucydides and Livy in ancient historiography -- is commonly attributed to the historian's deeper inquiry into causation, into the progress and change of events, and into the question Why?
I like that. But in Making them up as I go I say: "Don't explain. Just tell a story." It seems a contradiction.

By "Don't explain" I mean "Don't get bogged down in explanation". I could go on...

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