Editor’s Choice — Top 10:

Editor’s Choice — Top 10: How Thinking Two Steps Ahead of Your Reader Makes You a Good Writer

Let’s have a look at our top 10 stories today

Think. Think different. Think two steps ahead. Writing engaging stories is a lot like playing chess. Writing what your reader is not expecting is the only way to make them read more.

“Most people believe that great players strategize by thinking 10 or 15 moves ahead. That’s just not true,” says Bruce Pandolfini. He is a chess teacher. In his book, Ultimate Guide to Chess, he says he teaches his students how to think.

Don’t make your writing too difficult by thinking too far ahead. Thinking two steps ahead of your reader is enough to keep them engaged. Your story must remain easy to follow.

“You should never play the first good move that comes into your head. Put that move on your list, and then ask yourself if there is an even better move.” ~ Pandoflini

Don’t write the first good sentence that comes into your mind. Ask yourself, “Can I write a better one?” Every sentence must have clarity and purpose.

Writing another sentence is like making your next move in chess. “My goal,” Pandoflini says, “is to help my students develop what I consider to be two of the most important forms of intelligence:

1. the ability to read other people, and
2. the ability to understand oneself.

Those are the two kinds of intelligence that you need to succeed at chess — and in life.”

Writing depends on your ability to understand where your readers’ interests intersect yours. Since every one of your readers is a slightly changed clone of yourself, sharing what you think about your life is necessary to help your clones.

Sharing this human experience — because we are more similar to one another than most of us like to think — gives us a perspective on what others may love to read.

Most people start at the beginning and then move forward. But people like John Irving begin at the end. They know how things end, and then they develop the story to keep their readers interested till the end.

At the international gathering of the Academy of Achievement in 2005, John Irving presented his approach like this:

“I’ll begin where I always begin, which is at the end. I’ve never started to write a novel or a screenplay without knowing the ending first, and I don’t mean that I need only to know what happens at the end of a novel or a screenplay before I begin. I need to know the sentences themselves.”

When you are writing about something, read other people first. It’ll allow you to refine and relive your personal experience in your mind. You’ll see new angles to tackle the issues you are discussing.

If you have a deep insight to share with your readers, develop your story to that point. When you are structuring your piece, try to avoid stating the obvious. The moment your reader can guess your coming sentence, she’ll leave your story to read something else.

It is like in Chess. If your opponent knows your move, she’ll defeat you more easily.

Let your readers guess what is going to happen next.

Here is a list of our top 10 stories today — by writers who try to keep their readers engaged:

10. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, anyone?

Radhika Iyer is a writer, poet, and fan of Hawthorne, Fitzgerald, Marquez, Naipaul, Nin, and Proust.

She is a fine writer. Her writing style is engaging and full of literary examples. Read to know about a common human unmet need. We all yearn for it. Don’t miss this one.

There comes a time in one’s life that will prove to be a turning point, and such a time came in my life — a literary turning point while reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love In The Time Of Cholera.

A luxurious, expansive, ruminative slow-burn romance across centuries and continents, Gabo works his hardest and finest, at shaping, chiseling, and carving out a masterpiece of exquisite detail for us.

9. Is Virtual Therapy As Effective As In-Person?

Darlene Corbett is a speaker, writer, therapist/hypnotherapist, and aspires to inspire in her many roles.

She is a good writer. She is new to Medium. Her writing style is simple, informative, and engaging. Do check this one out.

I have been a therapist most of my adult life, becoming a private practice solopreneur in1989. Until the pandemic unleashed its weaponry, putting all of us in harm’s way, I never dreamed of providing behavioral therapy services but in the flesh. Well, all of that changed in March 2020. The way I worked would never be the same.

8. 3 Reasons Exercise Helps To Ease Anxiety

Nicole Linke is an ultra-runner, running coach, and poetry nerd.

She is an accomplished writer. Her writing style is engaging and informative. Don’t miss this well-researched piece. I agree 100% with what she says.

It has been well established that mental and physical health are closely linked together and significantly influence each other.

Around 2600 years ago, the Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher Gautama Buddha stated:

To keep the body in good health is a duty. Otherwise, we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.

7. How Jennifer Healed Her Brain Fog

Dr. Mehmet Yildiz is a technologist, Cognitive Scientist, Transhumanist trying to empower writers. He is the founder of ILLUMINATION.

He is an excellent writer. His style is informative, engaging, and educating. Do check his other work and don’t miss this one.

Six hundred million people worldwide suffer from cognitive dysfunction. Brain fog is one of the conditions related to cognitive dysfunction. Like many people, I also suffered from brain fog, ironically in my younger years when I was on high carbohydrate diets that caused inflammation, chronic stress, and autoimmune conditions. This is a friend’s story who experienced a similar condition caused by different issues and solved using other methods.

6. How the Word Pussy Came to Mean a Cat, Cowardly, and Female Genitalia

David Graham writes using voice dictation software due to an injury. He loves psychology, sciency things, movies, fiction, and self-improvement.

He is a fine writer. He is new to Medium but knows the spirit of writing a viral story. Don’t miss this one.

This is one of those random posts which came about in the most random of ways, I was speaking to a friend and for some reason or another, I have no clue what reason, the subject of the origins of the word pussy came up. Why does pussy mean a cat, female genitalia, and a coward/wimp?

5. Meaning in the Material Universe

Ronald Boothe is a Professor Emeritus, Emory University, Atlanta.

He is a superb writer. His style is informative and engaging. This story can tell you a lot about the meaningfulness of science and the material world. Bookmark it for rereading.

When a book club I participate in discussed Christopher Potter’s book (You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe, Harper, 2009), one of our members, a retired teacher, related an anecdote about a group of school children who went on a field trip. They encountered one of those maps with an arrow pointing to a spot labeled, “You Are Here”. One of the students asked the teacher, How do they know that?, a question with enough levels of profundity to fill a book, which is essentially what Potter has done here.

4. Eat Right For Your Body and Planet

David Spero Rn is a writer, fighter, lover, friend, and listener. He is based in San Fransisco and likes to write about health, economics, spirit, psychology, and politics.

He is a wonderful writer. His style is well-researched and thought-provoking. He keeps you engaged. Don’t miss this important message.

If we would like life on Earth to continue, what should we eat? On one level, this question looks silly: how can one person’s diet make a difference in climate change and mass extinction? On a deeper level, our food choices are crucial. They determine our relationship with Earth and with all living things.

3. My ex-husband gave me Covid.

Heather Lynne Sparks is a writer and bibliotherapist. She is focused and likes to keep things short.

She is a fine writer. Her short sentences are full of emotions. She knows how to engage her readers. It is a four-minute read but satisfies you like a full-length novel.

My oldest spends the afternoon of Christmas Day until the morning of New Years Eve with my first husband.

Who, you know, also happens to be his biological father.

He calls him Dad now, and that sometimes gets messy, as he also calls my second husband Dad.

2. I Didn’t Know I Was Black Until I Was 9

Rebecca Stevens A. write about racism. She wants to dismantle racism so she can write about other things.

She is an excellent writer. Her style keeps her readers engaged as she dissects her topic. Do read her other work. You may find her writing her own book about racism and all in the near future.

I lived in Sierra Leone, West Africa when I was a child. My days were filled with ordinary things: I went to school, did my homework, and played Barbie and Ken with my siblings. We were 5 kids — my grandmother, mother, and aunts raised us.

1. Do You Actually Understand the Most Common Joke in the English Language?

Melissa Balick is a fiction writer, nanny, reader of books, type 1 diabetic, and editor of Fascinating Fiction.

She is a good writer. She keeps her readers thinking about what is going to happen until the end.

I didn’t understand the first joke I ever learned.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Why?

“To get to the other side.”

Oh, my 4-year-old self said. This was supposed to be funny? I didn’t see anything funny in it.

This post is part of the Top 10 Series — you can meet 500+ top writers with these links:

1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16–17–18–19–20–21–22–Curated 23–24–25–26–27–28–29–30–31–32–33–34–35–36–37–38–39–40–41–42–43–44–45–46–47–48–49–50–51–52 –53–54–55–56–57–58–59–60–61–62–63–64–65–66–67–68–69–70–71–72–73– 74–75–76–77–78–79–80–81–82–83–84–85–86– 87–88 — 89–90–91

Final Thoughts

If your story was selected in the Top 10, please share another story with a brief introduction and a short convincing review — in the comments. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every story on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the great articles.

Please join our private Facebook group for Illumination writers to post your articles daily. Also, I invite you to become a writer for my publication — positive minds.

Iꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰɪɴᴅ ᴀɴʏ ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇ, ᴛʏᴘᴏ, ᴏʀ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴇʀʀᴏʀ, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ʟᴇᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴘʀɪᴠᴀᴛᴇ ɴᴏᴛᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴄᴏʀʀᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ. Tʜᴀɴᴋs.

To be included as a top 10 writer read these curation guidelines carefully.

You can read my curated stories here.