Gavin F. Hurley, author of The Playbook of Persuasive Reasoning; Twitter @Gavin_F_Hurley

After sitting down at a restaurant, a smiling waiter greets you. Suddenly, he flies into the “specials of the day.” Sounding like an auctioneer, he rattles off specific dishes, appetizers, meats, vegetables, sauces, sides, soups.

You’re not sure why he’s talking so fast.

Maybe he’s nervous.

Maybe he’s bored from reciting the specials all day.

Maybe the food is disgusting, and he doesn’t want you to eat it.

Regardless of the reason, you are left in the wake of a whirlwind. You are left holding your hat, perspiring, and panicked. The information sped by so quickly that you didn’t have time to imagine — let alone understand — what was being said.

When the waiter finishes, you sit wide-eyed — and nod robotically. You feel too embarrassed to ask him to repeat himself. You kind of feel a little stressed out too.

This an example of impatient communication — and its inevitable awkwardness. But this sort of situation does not only relate to public speaking. It also relates to public writing. And it happens to the best of us.

When we speed through our ideas on the page, the reading experience suffer s— as does our readers’ impressions of us. But luckily, we can overcome these obstacles. We can bake the important virtue of patience into our writing.

Obstacle #1: Avoiding pain

Let’s be honest: sometimes we don’t want to write — but we know that we have to. We may not feel like hitting a deadline — but we know that we have to. Sometimes we just want the pain to end. We want to yank off the Band-Aid. As a result, we write quickly to move on to a more interesting project.

These moments demand prudence. Impatience can be blatant, but it can also be subtle. It can slowly sneak into our writing style. Readers can sense it. Readers can feel it. They can sense it in vague word choices, disorganized paragraphs, and comma-splices. They can feel it in compound sentence constructions. The result? Like encountering a fast-talking restaurant waiter, readers are left overwhelmed, exhausted, and probably disappointed.

Solution?

As Bethany McLain, the celebrated investigative journalist, tells us about writing: “writing is work.” We can infuse patience into the reading experience by first accepting that writing is a grind. And patient writing — and patient sounding writing — takes time and a whole lot of effort to craft. Since it takes time to be patient, we probably should start drafting long before a deadline. We should avoid procrastination — and give ourselves a significant amount of time to compose.

Obstacle #2: Assuming that the audience doesn’t care

Sometimes we craft whirlwind compositions because we anticipate audience disinterest. We may assume that readers won’t care about our content, so we condense our writing to relieve their boredom. This sentiment may be caring and empathic. However, it is also fueled by a fatalistic lack of confidence. It settles for the following futile conclusion: “I can never be persuasive with this content so why even try?” As a result, we may gloss over the material without any effort.

Solution?

Any content can be persuasive and compelling. Want to alleviate an audience’s boredom? Then become a more interesting writer. It is that simple. A vibrant style can transform any “boring” subject into a gripping reading experience. And a vibrant style is patiently crafted and thoughtfully engineered. It takes time to apply rhetorical artistry. But with proper time and motivation, we can all do it. We can vary sentence structures, offer more memorable phrasings, or ignite action with stronger verbs. Or add some more specific details. Or integrate some personal anecdotes. Or work in a metaphor — or two — or three.

Obstacle #3: Blinded by knowledge

Whereas sometimes our impatience may come from lack of faith in the content, it can also come from having too much faith in the content. A writer may overlook particular claims because they assume that audiences understand them. Since the information seems obvious, they may assume that the audience thinks that it’s obvious as well. But the audience may not. Actually, they may crave more fully developed details.

For example, a writer may share that Fargo, North Dakota is cold in January — and then quickly move on to something else. The writer lives in North Dakota, so they presume that “Fargo cold” is obvious. But, in fact, the reader has never visited Fargo. They have never read about Fargo. They have never seen the TV show on FX. They have never seen the 1996 Coen Brothers film. Or perhaps, the reader has indeed visited Fargo, but it was the middle of August back in 1974.

In short, these readers may be unfamiliar with the specific type of “cold.” They may wonder: is it cold like the inside of a refrigerator? Cold like the inside of a freezer? Or colder still? The writer may think that it is obvious that a Fargo January is colder than the inside of a freezer — but curious readers may crave more clarification.

Solution?

Sensitive to readers’ needs and desires, more patient writers slow down their ideas to accommodate their readers’ curiosity. When appropriate, they show how something is and do not only tell that something is.

In the Fargo example, the writer can quantify the winter temperatures. They can detail how the temperatures plummet below zero degrees. They could provide illustrations of the frigid weather too. How long does snow stay on the ground? What does the Fargo landscape look like? What do the roads look like? How does it feel to inhale such cold air? Answering these questions would shape the prose into a more informational, vivid, and patient read.

Overall — 

Undoubtedly, we live in a fast-paced world. Sure, speed can be important — especially when considering how we read online — but we should be careful not to mistakenly equate quickness with quality. Overly prioritizing the speed of writing and reading can cloud the clarity of the communication. Too much speed can undercut persuasive appeal.

To that end, we want to be careful not to write “just to get it done” since this can be a dangerous game. After all, our goal is not to drag readers through our prose against their will, but rather, warmly guide them through well-formulated ideas. As effective writers, we craft reading experiences. We build sustainable relationships. And to continue to do so, we should remember to slow down and breathe. And help our readers to slow down and breathe as well.