How to say it
Two pages, two guides on communication.
Exhibit A. Mark Liberman points to an Elmore Leonard piece on his ten rules for writing a novel. These include “Never open a book with weather” and “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip”.
Exhibit B. Tom Robinson lists nine of Steve Wright’s rules for DJing a radio programme, including “Know the equipment inside out and never mention it” and
Never refer to anything that is personally visual only to you; they don’t care if the sun is shining outside, or there are a dozen people in the control room with you.
Both insights into things which look easy but certainly aren’t. And both with one unifying theme: think of it from their point of view.
