Today's Journal
HAPPY TALK
Steve Krug, author and writing consultant wrote concerning book and website content that he calls ‘Happy Talk.’“Oh, this over-explaining! It is the secret of all boredom. It is like this: You, the writer, go slowly and laboriously with many words, while the reader gropes through it, saying impatiently: “Yes, yes, hurry, hurry up! I see it—I get it! Go on to the next."
We all know happy talk when we see it: it’s the introductory text that’s supposed to welcome us to the site and tell us how great it is, or to tell us what we’re about to see in the section we just entered. If you’re not sure whether something is happy talk, there’s one sure-fire test: if you listen very closely while you’re reading it, you can actually hear a tiny voice in the back of your head saying “Blah blah blah blah blah…”
(From ‘Don’t Make Me Think’)
I’m not so sure I should have opened up these comments right here out in the open as you read the Red Mountain Journal. Someone might be hearing a tiny voice in the back of their head saying, Blah, blah, blah… I should be more careful what I release and get started.
I’m headed over to the other side of the Pond to have some Cuban Coffee and Apple Fritters and try to spot the Happy Talk words before they become talk or written copy. The little waves in the Pond sound like, Blah, blah, blah today for some reason.
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus