How to re-edit a ribbonfarm style essay for normies
1. Get rid of 80% of concepts that only do 20% of work
2. Unwind the 4 intertwined subplots and eliminate 3
3. Triple the number of examples
4. Invent a conclusion
5. Prune bunnytrails that don’t merge back into conclusion
Conversation
This is not a joke. This is literally what I do when I edit my drafts for other outlets. Does lead to 10x more readable work.
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I think my mistake to date has been treating all my writing that way.
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I’m not sure I have one. I have a strong, almost moral, belief that responsibility for failures to communicate rest with the speaker. I only take that belief ha-ha-only-seriously as a push to clarify my own thoughts.
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Why not do both? Perfectly reasonable for eg to write the more thinky version for Ribbonfarm and condensed version for Wired.
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