The New Transparency
Principles:
- As few words as possible, as many words as necessary.
- No passive voice.
- No bold keywords.
- No bullets unless completely necessary.
- Conditionals belong in present tense.
- Take your time, there's no rush.
- Use a period first.
- Consistency is king.
- Novelty is the enemy of clarity.
- Sentences, paragraphs.
- Stay in the fiction (keep the mechanical bits minimal and separate).
- Write to be read. Do not write to not be read.
- One can never be both clever and skilled at the same time.
- Don't worry about sales numbers. Bad books sell just fine. Have loftier goals.
- No ad copy inside the book.
- Never never explain yourself.
- Every rule can be broken. If your pants are tight enough, no one will mind.