3 ms·
The line of advice should've been "Nobody wants to read your shit if you're trying to sell them something". But a writer's always trying to sell the reader som
by theorique 14y ago
The line of advice should've been "Nobody wants to read your shit if you're trying to sell them something".
But a writer's always trying to sell the reader something, even if it's only the next line of text, and then the next. In the bigger picture, a writer's selling knowledge, or a point of view, or entertainment.
'Interesting' is a side effect of being considerate to your reader, which is exactly the point of the OP.
- SCdF 14y agoDepends on your definition of sell I suppose. By that logic all of our interactions with people are 'selling' to them. When my boss asks me how many hours I've got left I'm 'selling' the 12hrs I need. When I hold open a door for an old lady I'm 'selling' that I care about old people. When I notice my SO is down because of family issues and I make her a nice dinner, I'm 'selling' that I'm a nice guy. You can certainly frame life that way, but it doesn't feel very nice, to me anyway.
- theorique 14y agoYeah, it's one way to interpret things - not necessarily right or wrong. In a sense, we, ourselves, are the biggest targets of our selling efforts - for example, taking certain actions that are consistent with our self-image while avoiding actions that contradict it - in an effort to maintain a perception of our "self" as a consistent entity with consistent values over time.