Write As You Would Talk...To Your Audience

"Vizzini: He didn't fall?! Inconceivable! | Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - The Princess Bride

The advice to "write how you talk" is everywhere: journalism, advertising, public speaking, and beyond. And it mostly makes sense. Your message in writing should feel as natural as a conversation.

But there's a catch. What if you talk like an aristocrat? A scientist? A scholar?

You might be speaking the same language as your audience. They'd make out every word. But would they actually follow the meaning? Or would it still feel complicated?

The instruction isn't simply to write as you talk. It's to write in a conversational tone using language tuned to your audience. That's what delivers the message clearly. Not just mirroring your personal speech pattern.

There's another layer: simplicity enables forwarding. If your message is clear enough to understand, it's clear enough to repeat. Your audience can pass it along in exactly the same terms because it's already concise and explainable without effort. That's how messages travel.

So when you're sitting in front of a blank page, keep reading your draft out loud. Not just to check the writing. To check whether it sounds like something a real person would say directly to your specific audience. Read it as if you're explaining it to them. Then ask whether that same person would actually get it.

Don't just write as you talk. Write how you'd talk to them.