6 ms·
My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post.
by apo 7y ago
My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post.
I know why this happens. When you sit down to write, you don't know what exactly you're going to say. You may even be anxious about it. Then, an idea sparks your imagination and you start writing stuff. The warmup that comes out initially gets you on track. Nothing wrong with that.
The harm is keeping that crap in the post. Delete it! If I don't understand what I'm about to read in the first paragraph, I'm probably done.
Something else I don't like: writers who use too many words. The telltale sign of a first draft is the vast quantity of words (and even entire sentences) that don't need to be there.
A single edit with the goal of ruthlessly eliminating every unnecessary word works wonders for any first draft.
Edit: On the topic of fiction, the author gives a beautiful example from the Wizard of Oz:
> When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothin but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else. [continues]
I haven't read the book but this passage alone makes me want to.
- ghaff 7y agoWhen I was an industry analyst, my boss called it "throat clearing." Sometimes I do construct something that IMO serves as a nice intro even if some people here would prefer it to be "Just the facts, maam." But, yeah, I not infrequently just end up deleting a few paragraphs.
- nn3 7y agoIt is even worse in internet recipes. The authors tend to go on and on about their feelings, family and personal stories before finally getting to the point how to actually cook the dish. I usually have to skip several paragraphs.
- kaycebasques 7y agoI always assumed that this is an SEO practice?
- scolby33 7y agoI think it’s because the recipe itself cannot be copyrighted but the blog post around it can. I know I read this somewhere, but can’t find the reference now. So, take this with a grain of salt or a starting point for your own research :)
- aetherson 7y agoMore people read those blog posts as entertainment than use the recipe.
- dspillett 7y agoI'm not sure how a section of information that is often largely irrelevant to the recipe (despite mentioning a few key terms) is going to be a valuable SEO practise. I assume people are trying to be the next online cooking personality who gets to publish a book. I've seen a couple in shops with pictures of YouTube recipe demonstration people on the cover. Also, more text is more "content" to mix adverts into.
- zimpenfish 7y ago> I assume people are trying to be the next online cooking personality who gets to publish a book. I just assume that they associate recipes and foods with times and places and people (generally happily) and it's akin to "do you remember that time mother cooked weasel?" kind of conversations you'd have with people, except on a blog.
- dspillett 7y agoThat it probably the case for those that are put together more as a blog for friends and family to peruse. But a lot of the sites I've seen don't feel that way. They feel like they are desperately trying to feel that way though (the old "sincerity is key: once you can fake it you win" skit).
- ddxxdd 7y agoOn many of my favorite Youtube videos, that "excrutiating" warm-up is part of the appeal. It feels more like a mysterious build-up towards an exciting payoff, when done right. That can be generalized towards writing or any other media.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoIf you do that, the payoff had better be there. But even then, you probably should be very selective when you do it. If the point is to entertain, it may be OK. (The Avengers Endgame is just over three hours. I bet there's some buildup in that.) But don't do it if the point is to communicate. I read somewhere that someone said (either about physics or CS): "There's 50 times as much going on as I can keep up with, and I only operate at 2% efficiency. So there's this factor of 2500 working against me, and every day I fall seven years further behind." In that kind of of environment, if I read your stuff, you'd better not waste my time.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- tannerc 7y agoThis can be a highly effective form of writing when done well. A strong setup can certainly pull readers in. The problem is often most inexperienced writers use such a setup to clear away their "mind fog" and get to the point. And once the words are on the page it's hard to remove them (nobody wants wasted effort). My guidance to new writers is always this: start with two bulleted items. First is a question or priming sentence. Second is the conclusion the reader will takeaway after reading what you've written. Once you have those two bullet points you make them part of your first paragraph AND use them to structure the entirety of the piece (just add more bullet items between the first and second points).
- Wowfunhappy 7y agoJust to add onto this, I often write the sort of lead in paragraphs the GP describes last or nearly last. So it’s absolutely not the case that I used them as a way to clear my mind—the primary point was already there, I just wanted to introduce it a different way.
- rimliu 7y agoIt may be a highly effective form of writing for story telling. It is extremely annoying for technical blog posts. It's kind of a youtubezation of the writing.
- kazinator 7y ago> I know why this happens. I don't think you've nailed it. It's all calculated, just like that exquisite art piece someone crafted just for that article. It's designed to string you along to keep you on that page, and to bloat the content so more ads can be inserted. Also, don't forget that every word is also potentially a search-engine stuffer. Some verbiage is machine-generated for this purpose.
- billfruit 7y agoNot just in blogs, rambling, long winded style common at The Atlantic and New Yorker are excruciating too. Also referring to personal anecdotes of random persons to further a point. I also find the use of statistics/citing numbers from studies to prove a point, a most boring way to argue a point in writing.
- EForEndeavour 7y ago> I also find the use of statistics/citing numbers from studies to prove a point, a most boring way to argue a point in writing. This definitely depends on the point being argued, and the rigour expected by the audience. For any vaguely technical subject, it's quite possible to cite statistics to great effect, though it may not always be necessary. Actually, your comment made me think about how I respond to statistics in non-technical writing, say, in a news article or forum post. My gut reaction seems to be: "how is the author going to spin this fact, and what other evidence did they conveniently ignore because it contradicts their argument?"
- asdff 7y agoIt's like there are two tiers of writing at The Atlantic/New Yorker: A nice well written piece on a major topic that leaves you with something to think about during the day, or 8+ paragraphs on something like the emotional impact of a specific spring time NYC odor, or the perils of hiring a dog walker in Brooklyn.
- zimpenfish 7y ago> A single edit with the goal of ruthlessly eliminating every unnecessary word works wonders for any first draft. "A single edit, eliminating unnecessary words, works wonders for any first draft." It's a cheap shot (that I learned from Language Log) but if you're going to live by the sword...
- sutterbomb 7y agoEliminating unnecessary words works wonders.
- zimpenfish 7y agoNeccesary words? Wonderful!
- stordoff 7y agoI don't agree that those are unnecessary - you lose the idea of an idea, and coming back to a work later can help you identify what is unnecessary.
- EForEndeavour 7y agoWhy use many word when few word do trick?
- EdwardCoffin 7y ago> A single edit with the goal of ruthlessly eliminating every unnecessary word This phrasing makes it clear that the goal of that edit is to eliminate every unnecessary words. > A single edit, eliminating unnecessary words This phrasing implies that just one edit is needed, no particular focus, and is satisfied by eliminating some unnecessary words.
- zimpenfish 7y ago> This phrasing makes it clear that the goal of that edit is to eliminate every unnecessary words. By your own interpretation, we can get rid of "ruthlessly", no? > This phrasing implies that just one edit is needed I don't think it does, even when disconnected from the rest of the sentence. It's fairly clear to me that it's talking about an edit where you "eliminat[e] unnecessary words" which may or may not be part of a greater editing process.
- kristianc 7y ago> My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post. Pet peeve of mine - If we could eliminate the "I appear to be talking about something happening today, but am actually talking about something that happened in 1840" article setup entirely, that would make me very happy. It was clever at first, but you can now usually see the setup coming a mile off.