I Have a Bad Case of Format Vomit
Thanks a lot, Zulie, for making it so painfully obvious.
I have to admit, I don’t often find myself reading a story from beginning to end without some loss of focus. Sometimes it’s a simple matter of turning my attention back to the piece. Other times I’ll skim through the key points before moving on.
To be clear it’s not you, it’s me (George Costanza, anyone?). My ADHD gets the best of me, and initial intrigue often morphs into a Kool-Aid Man-like thought busting its way into my consciousness.
Ohhh yeaahh!
More like, “oh no you didn’t!”
This is why I was so struck when reading Zulie Rane’s most recent story, “These 3 Boring Income Streams Earn Me $5k/Month From Writing.” It’s no secret that Zulie is a fantastic writer, everyone knows that, but I was caught off guard by how easy it was to read the entire story from beginning to end without distraction.
For starters, this isn’t necessarily a short piece, 6 minutes long to be exact. Anything over 3 minutes pushes the bounds of my focus. But it’s also what I would regard as a dense story, every paragraph makes the most of each word. I realized this when every line flowed from one to the next without my attention turning elsewhere.
But then another key element stood out; Zulie’s story isn’t littered with italics and bold text, nor does it use strategies like
rogue quote formatting
to add further emphasis to key points.
Zulie keeps her formatting very simple. Clean and well thought, but simple. She uses section headers, bulleted lists, and page breaks with precision to accentuate her words. That’s where the captivation lies, not in overzealous formatting, but by trusting her words to be the star of the show.
Which is precisely when it hit me.
I have a bad case of formatting vomit. When crafting my own stories, I have an innate desire to emphasize each key point with some level of goofy stylistic tactic. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:
From bold to italics, ALL CAPS to “this needs to be in quotes,” I’ve effectively over formatted the entire piece in an effort to emphasize my point. In doing so, three things happened:
- I made the story distracting to read.
- I poured more focus into looks than the words themselves.
- I accused the reader of being too dumb to figure out my message.
Some might call this a rookie mistake.
Even so, it’s a lesson learned and one I’m taking to heart. I realize the need to let my words do the talking, which means less worry about fancy formatting and more focus on crafting the most impactful story possible.
My challenge to other new writers.
If you read this and thought to yourself, “huh, he makes a good point,” I’d like you to join me in putting a renewed emphasis on words over the format for the month of February. This is an opportunity to focus on letting your words do the talking instead of leaning on the crutch that is formatting.
If you’re in, leave a comment down below. When you publish a story that you’re particularly proud of, come back here to share it with the group. That way we can encourage each other in the pursuit of excellence.
I hope that in doing so, February can yield your largest statistical results yet. With results comes heightened motivation, leading to a consistent writing practice and funneling back to even greater results.
With Zulie’s example and inspiration, together we can beat the format vomit bug, no vaccine debate required.
One of my new favorite writers, Jo Scheidt, happens to be strong in the formatting department. She also has an incredibly strong Christian faith and is someone I admire. Please give her most recent piece a read:
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