Geoff Nesnow
1 min readJan 21, 2019

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I believe in your intent and in the outcomes you’ve achieved. You’ve improved the world. So, please take my suggestions in that spirit. Your writing will have to survive the microscope (or carnival mirror) of bad faith and bad actors. It’s not fair, but probably true.

  • Outline what you want to say before you write it including the hierarchy of ideas
  • Don’t start paragraphs with words/phrases like “but, however, that being said, to reiterate ”— they make you sound defensive, not sympathetic
  • Focus on the emotional journey you want to take your readers on — the causal connections you want to make, the emotions you want your readers to feel — I wrote about it here https://medium.com/@DonotInnovate/great-stories-make-great-pitches-4fbf7d09e0b2
  • Keep in mind that most people won’t read the whole article, so get to the punch line quickly — ”I overreacted. I was too defensive. I didn’t appreciate the asymmetry of my voice. She had good intentions and didn’t deserve the wrath she experienced…”

I hope this is helpful.

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Geoff Nesnow
Geoff Nesnow

Written by Geoff Nesnow

Faculty @hultboston | Concerned about the future | Naturally curious | More at www.dontinnovate.com

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