The tricks for writing readable text that were needed before 'good writing'

Hello, this is Toto.


It has been about three months since I started posting on note.
Honestly, I haven't achieved the results I hoped for yet.


But that is exactly why I have been thinking about this a lot lately.
Just as much as writing my own text, I think observing the writing of people who are being readis also important.



Today, I was wandering around reading posts from various people and suddenly thought about something.



What kind of rules are there for text that gets read?
To put it another way, if I thoroughly verbalized what it means to be "read", what would I see?



I am still in the middle of my research.
So, for now, I will organize my current realizations.
I would be honored if you could read this lightly as the impressions of one writer.



To start with the conclusion,



what I felt after reading various things this time is that
text that gets read is not so much "good writing" as it is text with many "tricks to reduce the reader's burden".



Before whether the content is deep or not,
it is first set up to be "easy to read further," "hard to drop off from," and "approachable."



Looking at it from that perspective, there were several common points.



1. Large margins between paragraphs

First, what was quite common was text that has solid line breaks every 2 to 3 sentences.



Crammed text drains the energy to read just by looking at it.
Conversely, having white space makes it feel a little easier to read just by itself.



This is likely a trick to reduce the reader's burden.



Of course, there is also the opinion that if you leave too much space, the amount of scrolling increases, making it harder to read.
So I don't think there is one single correct answer.



But what is important here is not the fine details of the correct answer, but rather
that I felt the text was designed based on the premise of "how the reader feels".



Realization

2. Things other than text are inserted along the way

The next thing I noticed is that there are many posts that don't just push through with text alone.



Images, article links, quotes, references.
By having such things inserted along the way, the impression of the screen becomes lighter, and information becomes easier to receive.



In this day and age, rather than making people follow only text,
a structure that allows for a visual breathermight be easier to read.



I have often thought, "I want to write good text" until now.
But I realized that note is not a battle of writing ability alone.



You should use everything you canto make it easier to convey.
I feel that thinking that way is more suitable for the place called note.



Realization

3. Bold text is used more than you would imagine

This was also impressive.



At first, I thought bold text was something to be used only for "the most important parts."
But when I look at posts that are actually read a lot, bold text is used much more actively than I thought.



Perhaps this is used not only to "indicate important parts" but also as a guide line to make it easier to follow with the eyes.
Readers don't necessarily read everything carefully from the beginning.



They are often looking for
places that catch their eyewhile skimming.When there is bold text at those times, it creates a place for the gaze to stop.
Of course, using it too much seems like it could have the



opposite effect.But including that, I think there is no choice but to build up my own sense while actually using it.




Realization

4. It's more blog-like than overly polished like a book

This was a huge blind spot for me personally.



I feel like at some point, when writing on note, I thought,
I have to write proper sentences and summarize things neatly.



But in reality, the things that are read the most
are not perfectly polished sentences like in a book, but ratherwarm, conversational writingthat feels like someone is talking to you.



While note is a place to publish work, it is also a social media platform.
So what readers are looking for might not be text that looks like a 'correct answer',
but text where you can see the person behind it.If you only want to learn, you can read books or professional articles.



I think the reason people still read note is because they want to feel the 'person,' not just the information.




Insight

5. Having a unique character

Finally, this is less about the writing itself and more about the account as a whole.



After all, for those who get read, I had the impression that before the writing,
“what kind of person is this?” was easy to see.

It’s not that they look completely anonymous,
but you can somehow get a sense of their personality from their profile, thumbnail, and the vibe of their posts.



As a result, rather than just a single post,
“I want to read this person's other posts too” becomes easier to think.



Thumbnail creation is the same; I felt that it doesn't just serve to look pretty, but also has the role of letting people visually recognize the person's character.




Insight

In summary

What I felt after looking at various people's posts this time is that
rather than readable writing having some special magic,
it is about being carefully considerate so that the reader can read it easily.Creating white space.



Using bold text.
Inserting images and links.
Not over-polishing, and leaving a bit of humanity.
Showing your character.
Each one is a small effort.



But the accumulation of those small efforts
might be the difference between
“it's somehow easy to read” and“it's somehow intriguing



”.
And another thing I thought was thatstudying readability and abandoning your own personality are two different things.



Rather, I think that being able to write enjoyably and continuing to write about what you like will, as a result, become your own personality and your strength.



My posting history is still short,
but by observing like this, I want to gradually create my own way of writing.



Thank you for reading until the end.
I would appreciate it if you could take a look at my other posts as well.