Nicolas Cole argues that visual formatting beats prose quality for keeping readers engaged. Subheadings, bullet lists, and the one-three-one rhythm create visual cues that guide readers through text. Dense paragraphs, no matter how well-written, act as a wall that stops people from reading.
I always say it is so much easier to teach someone the formatting side of writing rather than the writing side of writing. It's the fastest upgrade you can make if you can make your writing visually appealing. As in, you're using subheads, you're using bulleted lists, you're using that one, three one writing rhythm technique we talk about in all of our writing programs. If you incorporate all of those things, it's going to be very easy for a reader to fall into your writing. But if you take the exact same text, and it's just one giant block of words, right? It's just a wall of text, it doesn't really matter how well written it is, no one's going to read it because not giving them any visual cues to anchor themselves to. The easiest thing you can do, the fastest upgrade you can make, is always to the formatting side of your writing.
What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
