Writers of the Lost Art:
How to be a more creative, persuasive, and soulful writer
By: Aaron Carlino
Writing is a lost art.
Why don't we write beautifully anymore?
Then....
Now.
You have an opportunity.
Merit of the idea
Execution of the idea
How interesting is your idea/story
Your writing ability
Your opportunity
Fundamentals
FUNDAMENTAL:
Vocabulary
REASON #1:
The bottleneck
A refined vocabulary is the hallmark of an intelligent person.
REASON #2:
What does a good vocabulary signal?
- Curiosity
- Long-term memory
- Well-read
- Attention to detail
Being perceived as intelligent matters.
REASON #3:
Flavour
supercillious
claque
swath
dote
evince
effete
obsequious
engender
lucid
banal
sinister
benevolent
baleful
Why do we need words that mean the same as other words?
Vocabulary Caveats
CAVEAT:
The Steve Vai Complex
A good vocabulary is like alcohol...
Used in excess, no one wants to listen to you ramble.
Used in just the right amount, you can convince anyone of anything.
CAVEAT:
Exposure
CAVEAT:
"Sketch" words
CAVEAT:
Know your audience.
FUNDAMENTAL:
Get organised.
FUNDAMENTAL:
Trim the fat.
Clichés
Hustle and bustle
At the end of the day
Think outside the box
Time will tell
The writing on the wall
Read between the lines
Filler
Really
Just
basically
The fact that
Virtually
He/she is someone who
That
Verbosity
We now use Zenhub to conduct peer reviews of our code.
We use Zenhub for peer reviewing our code.
It is considered essential that code is linted before committing to the repository.
Code must be linted before commiting.
In order for the bug to be fixed, you'll need to run another build.
To fix the bug, run a build.
FUNDAMENTAL:
Grammar
(This is short. I promise.)
Your bag of tricks.
TRICK #1:
Show, don't tell.
Think like a detective.
In reverse.
A group of young developers walked into the room and started coding.
With sticker-smeared Apple notebooks clenched beneath their half-zipped hoodies, the team scattered into swivel chairs and opened their text editors of choice.
They were anxious to get started.
Their workstations were flanked by short paper cups of lukewarm coffee and half-eaten café treats.
It was a cold, wintery day.
One by one, they clamped noise-cancelling headphones over their knitted hats to kill the din of the heat pump.
TRICK #2:
Personification
Power cables were wrapped around the table legs.
Power cables wrapped themselves around the table legs.
There weren't enough power points available.
Their three-pronged ends vied for a seats in the crowded powerboards.
After login, you'll see the dashboard.
The dashboard greets you after login.
TRICK #3:
Alliteration
"Our passenger rail system, once the envy of the world, has been rusting in the rain for decades."
TRICK #4:
Simile/Metaphor
They each selected tickets from the bug list and began working on them.
They filled their plates from the all-you-can-eat buffet of bug reports.
Greylog is installed to watch over the activity on your site.
Greylog is the sentinel of your stack, ready at a moment's notice to apprise you of any problems.
They were uninterrupted by the call for lunch.
The call for lunch dispatched a chorus of notifications to their handheld devices, but like surgeons in a theatre, their laser focus was unbroken.
TRICK #5:
Pacing.
With sticker-smeared Apple notebooks clenched beneath their half-zipped hoodies, the team scattered into swivel chairs and opened their text editors of choice. This was hackday.
Empowered by bulletproof deployment tools, backed by state-of-the art security,
supervised by the omniscience of Greylog, SilverStripe Platform translates deep technical complexity into seamless usability, affording you the control you deserve. It's your turn. Try it. Love it.
Your on you're way to becoming more better at writing.
Thank you.
