Greg Learns To Write

I’ve analyzed enough eyetracking data (analyzing what people look at and read) to be able to say this:

When you write, you have no capacity to hook the reader. You cannot get them to read, make them, or even facilitate them reading.

You have no control as the writer.

You only have the capacity to walk beside the reader, and only for as long as they wish to walk beside you.

With 15 years of eyetracking experience, I’ve seen a trend in how people read the initial several phrases or sentences and use those to determine how they will process the rest of the page. Unfortunately, typically those initial sentences establish that the writer is going to waste the reader’s time and so the reader starts to skim. But, sometimes those first two sentences are good and valuable. And so the reader engages more. Feels a bit more trust.

So, how do we get someone to read walk beside someone with writing?

Well, readers build images in their minds as they read.

You are building an image as you read.

So, for starters, writing that walks with the reader does not suddenly thrash the image built up in readers’ minds by saying, “You should forgive fully your parents because they’re just human.”(Huh?)

Unless you’re being funny.

An example: have you ever had a friend say, in the middle of a great movie, “Let’s leave!” Your response might be: “But, I’m in the middle of a great movie!?!”

Writing needs to not be that friend.

I’m always tempted to illustrate examples of bad writing — sentences that causes 10-20% of readers to abandon a piece. But doing so is dangerous — most likely the reader will abandon the writing before I’m able to say “Wait! That was just an example!” But then, doesn’t this idea intrigue you? Could you create horrible writing and yet keep people entranced? Like a horror show that revolts readers but from which they cannot turn away? That would be fun. And challenging! And a bit weird.

Some walks are a bit more strange than others, but still fun.

Actually, this walk as walked away from what I was initially intending, and lasted for well over an hour. So, I’m going to stop this walk. Though, you are of course free to keep going… leave some feedback when you get there.

Best wishes. Maybe we can resume this particular walk together later.

Deleted Scenes

Below is the stuff that was cut (the ‘bloopers reel’ of writing, if you will)

You can think of it this way: no one likes walking beside someone who keeps switching topics, or is non-informative, or long winded. Unless you are funny. That’s a different matter. But you’d better be very funny then.

And either the next sentence read extends that image in an informative or valuable way, or it doesn’t. That sentence would have caused 10-20% of readers to stop because it hints at being informative, but it was wasn’t — readers mental image already encompassed this information. However, this paragraph now suffers from a different problem, which is that it’s too abstract too quickly. It’s jarring. Let’s retry things with a new paragraph (though, at this point, readers’ mental model will have turbulence created — this is not a smooth experience anymore, and it is less comfortable than a well-written piece). Reseting…

I’m always tempted to illustrate examples of bad writing — sentences that causes 10-20% of readers to abandon a piece — but that is dangerous because most likely the reader will abandon the

but that is dangerous because most likely the reader will abandon the writing because they will feel that it is poor and has violated their mental image and trust.

But, back to the main point.

so that the reader can experience and thereby notice their own feelings of revulsion. Have you ever been in a movie that dragged on? That the reason you stayed is because you just spent $9 on a ticket. Writing needs to not be that either.

Also, telling your reader “Hey, it’s just a movie!” isn’t such a great idea either. I’d guess that