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> Even a master of lean writing (Hemingway himself) knew when to bulk up, even for just a moment, to create a cadence that could surprise and intrigue us. Ther

> Even a master of lean writing (Hemingway himself) knew when to bulk up, even for just a moment, to create a cadence that could surprise and intrigue us. There are other considerations too beyond just sound. E.g. recently someone (helpfully) pointed out to me that I had used the word 'super' as a filler word 20+ times in one essay. Which is good to be aware of, and I got rid of some of them. But at the same time, in most of the cases the reason I had done it is because if you have two long and complicated words next to each other, just visually it's difficult to read them. In the same way that whitespace is necessary in between paragraphs in order to make text readable, you also need horizontal whitespace to prevent the words from running together and the meaning getting lost, and to give people time to digest complicated ideas.

wombatmobile 6y ago
> if you have two long and complicated words next to each other, just visually it's difficult to read them. So, you insert "super" between any two long and complicated words, and that fixes it? The meaning is no longer lost, and people have time to digest the complicated ideas? What's an example of that?
- Alex3917 6y ago
  > So, you insert "super" between any two long and complicated words, and that fixes it? In the case of "super" specifically, the issue is more that there's a short word that I want to emphasize that would normally get drowned out by longer words surrounding it. So the fix would be writing something like "super easy" instead of just "easy." It's hard to give a good example because it's dependent on the typography. I usually write my drafts in a different typeface than I publish them in, which then forces me to do a final round of editing once they're in the CMS.
  - nsomaru 6y ago
    What type of writing are you doing that using “super” in this manner is acceptable? It feels so tacky to me... It seems far more appropriate for conversational use (or dialog).

wombatmobile 6y ago

> if you have two long and complicated words next to each other, just visually it's difficult to read them. So, you insert "super" between any two long and complicated words, and that fixes it? The meaning is no longer lost, and people have time to digest the complicated ideas? What's an example of that?

Alex3917 6y ago
> So, you insert "super" between any two long and complicated words, and that fixes it? In the case of "super" specifically, the issue is more that there's a short word that I want to emphasize that would normally get drowned out by longer words surrounding it. So the fix would be writing something like "super easy" instead of just "easy." It's hard to give a good example because it's dependent on the typography. I usually write my drafts in a different typeface than I publish them in, which then forces me to do a final round of editing once they're in the CMS.
- nsomaru 6y ago
  What type of writing are you doing that using “super” in this manner is acceptable? It feels so tacky to me... It seems far more appropriate for conversational use (or dialog).