Nicolas Cole argues nonfiction writers obsess over personal style when they should focus on answering the reader's question. Effective nonfiction works at two levels: the whole book consistently delivers on its promise, and each paragraph gives concrete, actionable guidance. Style matters far less than substance.
A lot of times people get stuck where they think like, "Oh, my writing isn't very good," or "What if people don't like the style of my writing?" And with nonfiction, those variables don't really matter. What matters is what's the question that the reader has and how effectively, how actionably, how tangibly, how objectively are you answering that question? And that's happening at the macro level with, are you answering that over the course of an entire book? And that's happening at the micro level within a single paragraph. It's like if you're going to give an example or you're going to give a tip or you're going to give a How actionable is that? How specific is that? How objective is that? How tangible is that?
What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
