Writing questions
16 Dec 2021
These are some of the questions I ask myself when writing pieces to unpack tech news, explain ideas, persuade a reader, present an idea or a plan, make it more interesting.
- Who are the readers, and why should they care?
- What do we want readers to DO after they finish reading?
- What’s the 1 thing? (or: the 3 things?)
- Have I done the “what” and then the “so what”?
- What are the obvious and the less obvious questions?
- Who or what is invisible in this story?
- Who doesn’t this scenario work for?
- How to show the edges?
- What if this story went wrong?
- Does the thing I’m writing about look like something else? (And is this news old news?)
- Is it the opposite of something else?
- How can I reverse it?
- Can I make it absurd?
- What if I make it mundane?
- Add or remove something to make it 10% better?
- Write another draft?
- Who is speaking?
- Who disagrees?
- Can I add some variation?
- Should context or consistency win here? (usually: context)
- Is there a journey inside this?
- Should this go against the wisdom and be “Tell not Show”?
- What if this was fiction instead?