Here’s one of those posts where I ask you to stay with me through the explanation. Being who I am, I’m always organised with my work. But, in the past 24 hours, I’ve learnt two valuable lessons. Stay with me as I explain!
LESSON 1: There are often better ways to do something.
Since I started producing the WFSIW transcriptions in March 2022, I’ve always placed some emphasis on the time and date of the writing. On this new website, launched in January 2024, the WFSIW sessions are chronological. But from this day onward, that is about to change.
Let me explain why. The largest part of this ongoing project is importing all of my previously written content from other redundant platforms. During this tedious work, I’m having to reread every session and the original accompanying notes I made at that time. Most need to be updated or grammar checked. (My writing has improved over time).
Producing these publications in chronological order suggests to the reader that older sessions are less important than newer sessions. The reader knows that, because of my original emphasis on the transcription date. Readers are, therefore, expecting new sessions every time they visit the website.
Before writing this post, I had just completed a WFSIW update from 16 April 2022. The speaker’s message is timeless and powerful and one we should always remember. I couldn’t believe I’d transcribed this over 2 years ago. It felt fresh and relevant.
That is when I realised that my filing approach was wrong. This message bears no association with the time it was written. My habit of constantly sticking to rigid rules, such as keeping everything in chronological order to fixed schedules, is wrong.
As a matter of passing interest only, every WFSIW session will continue to show the time and date it was transcribed. But the reader’s focus should be directed to the message. Nothing else matters.
LESSON 2: Shorter sentences keeps reader’s interest.
Last night I was reading an email newsletter. I read the newsletter top to bottom, not missing a single word. The subject matter wasn’t my thing. But for some reason, I kept reading. At the end of the read, I stopped and thought about it. Not about the subject the writer had covered. But why this style of writing had me hooked. And then it dawned on me.
The writer kept every sentence short. Very short. Unlike me, he didn’t pad out the sentences. He just wrote what was important. He kept to the message. Even when the actual subject wasn’t enlightening, reading it was a pleasure.
This was a Eureka moment for me. This was a habit I wanted to adapt. Short sentences, clear messages. I’ve been doing it throughout this post. There are a couple of long sentences, I’ll admit. However, most sentences are shorter. Most are concise and to the point. Can you tell the difference?
As I’ve always said, every day is a good day for learning! Who doesn’t want to be a student!