Five questions to ask before you publish

Before you hit send on the thing you’ve been writing, run it through five small filters. Most ideas survive four. The good ones survive all five.

1. Is it true? Not technically defensible. True. The way you’d say it to a friend.
2. Is it useful? If a reader nods and closes the tab, did anything change? If not, why send it?
3. Is it short? If you can cut a paragraph, cut it. If you can cut a sentence, definitely cut it.
4. Does it sound like you? Read it out loud. If it doesn’t sound like the person who wrote it, something is off.
5. Would you read it? If a stranger sent this to you, would you finish it?

Most of what people publish fails on three or four of these. The fix is almost always to delete more.

The first draft is for you. The second draft is for the reader. There is rarely a need for a third.

Ship the thing.