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Anton Zaides's avatar

Recently, I also started to ask myself: "Is your message strong enough? Did you add too many caveats?" It connects to the fifth one, "How do I want the reader to feel?". I often found that I'm afraid to take a stance, and the lukewarm effort at an opinion is not well received by readers.

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Irina Stanescu's avatar

When I first started writing, I had the same worry. With time, I learned that ultimately, people read our articles to see what our take is on a certain topic. They don't want generic advice, nor lectures. That's why I think it's important to find a sweet spot of taking a stance, but not imposing it on the reader.

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Anton Zaides's avatar

Yeah, that sweet spot is hard to find :)

I had the epiphany when one of my most loyal readers said he liked the last topic, but he felt that he couldn't understand what I actually thought... Now I need to take care not to swing too hard to the other side.

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Irina Stanescu's avatar

How awesome that your reader shared that feedback with you, what a gift!

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