Please Stop Telling Readers What To Do
Try telling your story in the first-person-narrative; lead by example, not by instructing
I just almost read a story by David Gerken. Using Your Stubbornness to Grow seemed worth a read as while I have improved greatly, I can still at times display a stubborn streak. So, thinking that not reading the article would constitute a missed opportunity to see if I can continue to grow in this regard, I opened it and began to read:
Are you stubborn? Of course you are. Maybe not as much as a mule, but we all are to some degree.
So far so good.
That’s the bad news. The good news is we can use it to grow.
Uh oh, here we go…
I’ll show you how.
Get off your high horse and go fuck yourself and your insulting-to-readers’-intelligence stubborn mule!
Mr. Gerken clearly means well and does not deserve that from me nor anyone else for his story on self-improvement. I exaggerated to make a point. Readers, like students, are intelligent. Give them credit for such and allow them to relate to and identify with a story told as a story. As I said to a mentee recently:
“I urge you to start writing in the first person and…
