#20. Writing style
#20. Writing style
also Fabio and Grooverider, Happy Valley 2, The Status Game, DrinkAware
Hello,
I’m writing this on Sunday night after a packed weekend. Which means it’ll go out on Monday and I’ll still be mostly-on-track with a weekly writing schedule. Yay.
One reason the weekend was packed is that we did another CastRooms test party on Friday night. It was fun, we learned loads, plenty to improve and change, and there’s more coming soon when I have more to share.
But actually one of the joys of doing these test parties is getting to spend time at When Spaceships Appear which is a new record shop / bottle shop / mini-arcade on Quernmore Road right by Harringay station. One of my best friends Matt is the proprietor and it’s just a beautiful, calming space to be in.
If you like records, or arcades, or interesting objects, you should get up there! Here’s a little shot of the kind of records you might expect…
Writing style
In the weird quiet of recent-Twitter I’ve been trying to discover more voices by spending time in the “For You” section. This is where the algorithm suggests tweets from people that I don’t already follow who it thinks I’ll like.
Occasionally I find interesting stuff. Most of the time it’s trash.
One reason it’s trash is that the algo loves tweets from People With Opinions. My tolerance for tweets that start with “Unpopular opinion” or “Handy reminder” is low and falling further by the day. It’s probably time for muting these phrases.
I’m increasingly tired of listening to People With Opinions shouting loud certainties into the void. Don’t tell me what to think! But it also got me thinking about my own writing style. Because I used to do this too.
Looking back it’s clear that I wanted to be part of the People With Opinions crowd when I was younger. My early writing often reads like I was trying to instruct readers about the one true way of how to do things - from how to work with clients to ways of thinking about success and even down to what words to use.
Stylistically, these posts are full of what “you” should do and what “you” should think. Reading them back they sound way too certain and even veer into feeling aggressive at times. Any valid or interesting points get a bit lost in this over-confidence.
I was imitating the confident style of blog writers and conference speakers that I looked up to as an early career designer. I hadn’t worked in enough places or environments to understand that good advice is contextual and the quest for a universal truth is often futile. Most embarrassing I can catch an echo of the schoolboy who is eager to get top marks by sounding ‘right’ about things. Ouch.
A change in style
Sometime around 2017 my writing style started to change. I clearly still had Opinions (not sure that’ll ever change!) but stylistically these posts are now peppered with what “I” had done and what that made “me” think about things. Much less “you”.
This change in writing style happened through three conscious shifts.
First, I started to position blog posts as accounts of my own experiences rather than wider truths. My most-shared posts ever - user research is a team sport and three ways to run better discoveries - are both explicitly framed as personal stories in the introductions. I have John Waterworth to thank for this. He told me to stop writing “the manual” and instead to share personal stories from the ways I’d been working.
Secondly, I started to provide more personal context about who I was, what I was interested in, and what career experiences I’d had. This came from Caroline Jarrett the night before my first big conference talk about research heresies. Her simple feedback was to stick in a slide about personal context. Her rationale was that this helped people figure out whether they should be taking advice from me or not!
Finally, I learned to be more vulnerable in my public writing. Amber said that she’d learned the most from me when I talked about the (many) things I’d got wrong. I wrote I’ve made mistakes in response. Re-reading it still makes me shiver about some of the things I owned up to. The response convinced to be a little more open than I was comfortable with being in my writing. I think 40 lessons showed this new openness.
Easier to write
After these changes I found it easier to write. Not easy, but easier. For a few reasons.
I’m no longer grasping for out-of-reach universals. My writing is just about my own specific experiences. It’s easier to write about specifics! I’ve found that being more specific makes my writing resonate more widely too. Not every reader will match my specifics but it’s surprising how many of them strike a related chord.
I’m not trying to be ‘right’ any more. I don’t worry about making my writing ‘right’ for all situations and instead I leave it up to readers to decide for themselves. It’s easier to write like this! I’ve found this stance has helped me with my life’s work of moving from competitive schoolboy to humbler adult too. That road is long.
I don’t mind it being focused on ‘me’. I used to feel self-indulgent using “I” and “me” but I’m over it. It’s easier to write from the first person for me! I realised that using “you” was also a hangover from my writing-for-the-web days when I wrote copy as the voice of the organisation. I am not an organisation.
I’ve had a LOT of accidental practice writing in this style. I’ve written morning pages since 2012. Mine are full of specifics (not universals), reflections on what’s gone wrong (not right), and peppered with “I” and “me”. Bashing out 750 words each day - 1.1 million words and counting - has made me fluent at this style of writing. I didn’t start morning pages to evolve a writing style but maybe that’s what has happened?
So I find it easier to write these days. Never easy - as my hiatus shows! - but easier.
One final thing. I said the trash tweets from People With Opinions got me thinking about my writing. That was a half-truth. What actually started me on this rabbit hole was a touching piece of feedback I got from a friend after I restarted this newsletter:
Every writer wants to find their voice. Me included. I’m sure my voice will change and shift over the years. But I’m closer to finding my voice than I once was. And that feels like something worthy of reflection and - perhaps just a tiny little bit - of celebration.
Listening
Last night we went to Royal Festival Hall to watch Fabio and Grooverider do a 30 year history of jungle and drum and bass with The Outlook Orchestra. The perfect evening with my raving crew Esther, Mitali, Tania, Emily and Sarah! And UK Apache leading the whole-crowd acapella of Original Nuttah was a spiritual experience.
Watching
We’re catching up on the second season of Happy Valley. I was late to the party on this series and loved it SO much. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a TV character quite as compelling as Sergeant Catherine Cawood. Magnificent writing and performing.
Reading
I’m about halfway through The Status Game by Will Storr. He’s one of my favourite authors because it feels uncannily like he’s in my brain thinking my thoughts. I’m trying not to rush it so that different bits have time to sink in as I read it - because I always feel like I rushed Selfie and didn’t retain important things.
Eating
I am trying to drink less because the stresses of moving house twice and running loads of test parties led to drinking too much in December. I'm using the DrinkAware app which is much improved as a feedback loop. One specific joy is that marking a drink-free day in one tap is surprisingly motivating. I've had 17 in the 22 days of January so far which is a big step into better habits for me.
Right, I’m done. As always I love a reply or a comment or any feedback. Doesn’t have to be as touching as the feedback about maybe finding my voice tho :)
I’ve also been thinking that it would be interesting to write answers to your questions. So if there’s anything you want to ask me, fire away? Let’s see how that goes.
Will