Attention spans are short. Time is limited. People have better things to do. If you want to catch someone’s attention, especially in writing, you have to hook them immediately. If you don’t, they’ll move on, quickly.

A writer must choose between writing authentically, and therefore creating their best work, or writing what they think the audience wants to hear, which may not be as effective.

When writing, we often feel tempted to ‘fluff’ it up, adding unnecessary words and phrases that make it longer but not necessarily more meaningful. With the increase of electronic writing, the issue has worsened, as writers add more and more ‘frills’.