Everybody Writes, 2nd Edition

10Draft 3: Swap Places with Your Reader

The reader doesn't turn the page because of a hunger to applaud.

—Don Murray

Draft 3 is when you invite you reader in.

One reader. Not readers. Not an entire audience. Or list. Or all your fans or followers.

One person. Let's call her Petunia.*

Draft 3 is when you swap places with Petunia. Step into her shoes. Slip on her skin. See through her eyes. It's her point of view.

Thinking about Petunia in Draft 3 makes your writing more personable, less uptight.

You are putting a pillow over the face of anything with a whiff of “Dear Valued Customers.”

You're writing to one person at one time—not a stadium full of people turning their faces to a jumbotron, right? (I'm stating this “one person” stuff twice and in two different ways because it's THAT important.)

Does Petunia …

• Follow your logic? Are you making her work too hard to understand the main idea, supporting points?

  Don't fall prey to the curse of knowledge—a cognitive bias that assumes others have the same background and depth of familiarity we do. A gem from my journalism school days: “Assume the reader knows nothing but don't assume the reader is stupid.”

• What questions might she have? Are you answering them?
• Does she see herself reflected in the text? Did you deliver an It's-Me! minute? (We'll talk more about this in Chapter 12.)

Good writing serves the reader, not the writer. It isn't self-indulgent.

Swap places with your reader. Be a skeptic of your own work. Get out of your ...