Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

20Approach Writing Like Teaching

Good, pathologically empathic writing strives to explain, to make things a little bit clearer, to make sense of our world—even if it's just a straightforward product description.

“A writer always tries…to be part of the solution, to understand a little about life and to pass this on,” says the writer Anne Lamott.¹

It's easy to embrace the teaching mind-set when you're writing a how-to or other bit of instruction. But the notion is broader than that: strive to explain your point of view to your reader with supporting evidence and context.

Don't just tell your readers that you feel something; tell them why you feel it. Don't just say what works; tell them why it works and what led you to this moment.

Be as specific as possible:

• Don't say solution—tell me what your product does.
• Don't say a lot—tell me how many.

Keep it simple—but not simplistic (see Rule 21).

Note

1. Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird (Anchor Books, 1995).