{"id":324,"date":"2011-10-02T20:13:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T07:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=324"},"modified":"2011-10-02T20:13:48","modified_gmt":"2011-10-02T07:13:48","slug":"more-time-writing-buys-more-time-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=324","title":{"rendered":"More time writing buys more time reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A few years ago, I worked with a chap who was an absolute wiz at speed reading.\u00a0 I reckon he took about three, maybe four, seconds to read a page of a typical hardback book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For David, reading a 200-page book was a 10 or 15-minute project \u2013 perhaps 20 minutes if he was also drinking a cup of coffee.\u00a0 In a month, David probably read twice as many books as I read in an entire year.\u00a0 Maybe more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

David was also a pretty fast writer.\u00a0 But was he a good writer?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course the answer to that question depends very much on your definition of a good writer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In my opinion, a good writer is one who, first and foremost, engages the reader.\u00a0 A good writer is a writer who writes something that the reader wants to read. \u00a0If people aren\u2019t going read what you write, there\u2019s little point in writing it.\u00a0 And, in my opinion, David\u2019s writing was generally not writing that you wanted to read.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was no question that David covered all the bases, included all the facts.\u00a0 But what he wrote was just not \u2018a good read\u2019.\u00a0 It was the sort of writing that you start to read \u2026 but then quietly abandon in favour of something more rewarding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a recent essay, Joseph Epstein observed that \u2018No good writer is a fast reader\u2019. \u00a0And I think he has a point.\u00a0 Good writers read \u2013 and write \u2013 one word at a time, one phrase at a time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether they are writing a brief briefing note or a major report, good writers do their best to ensure that their readers want to read every single word.\u00a0 And that usually means allocating a bit more time to your writing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do that, and there is a very good chance that your reader will allocate a bit more time to their reading. – Jack Scrivano<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, I worked with a chap who was an absolute wiz at speed reading.\u00a0 I reckon he took about three, maybe four, seconds to read a page of a typical hardback book.\u00a0 For David, reading a 200-page … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}