Do You Know When to Shut Up?

There are writers. And then there are writers.

But I was a cartoonist.

Let me take you way back to the year 1988 for a lesson in shutting up.

I was drawing cartoon strips for a very popular newspaper called ‘Mid-Day’. And every day, I’d draw a new strip, and submit it to the newspaper. And since it was back in the days before the Internet, I often had to get on a train, travel 20 miles, and walk for 15 minutes to get to the newspaper office before the 7:30 am deadline.

One day I ran into the editor. And he commended me on my cartoons.

“But there’s one thing you can do to make them better,” he said.

You need to respect the intelligence of the reader

“You need to write the joke so that the reader almost gets it,” he said. “That way the reader anticipates the humor and has twice the laugh. If you go into too much detail and explain the joke in your comic strip, you lose out on the punch. The reader feels cheated. And it’s all because you haven’t respected their intelligence.”

As a writer you need to respect the intelligence of the reader as well.

In your writing, you’ll often find that the story you’re telling is coming to an obvious end. And so, you simply leave out the obvious end. You simply let the reader make up the story in their own mind.

So how do you know when to shut up? Let’s look at an example.

Here’s an example from an article I recently wrote:

My friend Karen has no problem exercising. Rain, cold, even boiling hot weather doesn’t stop her from putting on those sneakers and bounding out the door.

I have no such luck. I hate exercise. Every cell in my body rises up in mutiny at the thought of doing any repetitive movement.

The flip side is that I love food. And as you probably know, I’m fussy about cooking a variety of great food.

This is why I had to invent the ‘chocolate motivator.’

You now know I love food. And hate exercise. What happens next?

You as a reader already know the answer, so I have to respect your intelligence. Which is why instead of belaboring how many pounds I put on, I simply move ahead in a swift, nimble way. Your brain fills in the blanks. And whether you consciously think about it or not, you realize I’m respecting your intelligence.

Respecting the intelligence of the reader also allows for drama in your writing.

As you noticed, having spared you the details of the whole weight issue, I went on to talk about the chocolate motivator. Now I’ve got you even more interested, because you want to know more about the chocolate motivator.

You can now use something really unusual to let the customer slide through your article, or you can even use something the reader isn’t expecting at all.

Let’s have a look at another example:

My friend Karen has no problem exercising. Rain, cold, even boiling hot weather doesn’t stop her from putting on those sneakers and bounding out the door.

I have no such luck. I hate exercise. Every cell in my body rises up in mutiny at the thought of doing any repetitive movement.

The flip side is that I love food. And as you probably know, I’m fussy about cooking a variety of great food.

And despite this perfect storm, I lost six pounds in less than two weeks.

And it’s all due to the invention of the ‘chocolate motivator.’

See what happened above?

In your writing, you can respect the reader, and yet still bring in something so disconnected that the reader is yanked out of their mid-afternoon snooze. Suddenly they’re paying close attention. And then having that attention, you lead them merrily through the article using drama and flow.

Writing with drama and flow is a learned skill

You need to know when to tell your story.

And when to shut up.

But mostly you need to respect the intelligence of your reader. It’s only then that you get the reader’s respect back.

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Check out his blog, too.