Monday, October 12th, 2026, 4:39 am
Telling Stories Effectively
Filed under: It matters a lot
his coming December I’ll turn 45. I’ve been writing a lot since I was a teenager and I still try to improve. It’s not about grammar, it’s about structuring one’s explanation/s, making the key points easy to identity and clear to everyone (even without any prior knowledge). I was recently receiving some constructive criticism of my latest series. I’ve tried to internalise it.
In my writings about Garrett, for instance, someone asked, “is his connection restricted boot briefly summarized there too?” As “leaving it out allows him to raise lynch mobs among the a-holes in ‘fediverse’ [and] there are many ways to do that, some more formal some less formal…”
Another remark was, “is his connection restricted boot briefly summarized there also?”
I’ve decided to remind people of the Big Picture. Days later I was told this was “nice” and “just, please, please, remember to add a sentence about restricted boot to each and every post which names him” (as it’s about his actions).
The reader said, “that is so *very* important for when that post happens to be the first Techrights post a visitor reads,” for we have had many first-time visitors lately (accordingly more people in IRC as well).
“It’s also *very* important to establish the connection between him and it, and to reinforce that the debate is about computing freedom and not a personal spat even though MULTIPLE sides seem to sometimes work to make it look like a personal spat [...] tldr; keep the eye on the ball…”
It can be tiring to add an intro or background of full context to every article or installment (in a series), but I recognise it’s necessary for effective communication.
