JOHN HARRISON +
Atomic Copy
"The biggest difficulty with comics is to show exactly what is necessary and sufficient to understand the story; nothing more, nothing less.”
Hergé
Everything in the observable universe is made of matter, the smallest of which is the atom. You are made of atoms and I am made of atoms. This guide is only possible because of atoms.
Atoms are both the building blocks of all life, and the smallest, irreducible unit of matter. That’s how I think of good copy.
It should say everything you need to say, in a single irreducible unit.
All the meaning.
All the soul.
In the fewest words.
It should be atomic.
But let me be specific about meaning, soul, and the fewest words.
Meaning
“The final cause of speech is to get an idea, as exactly as possible, out of one mind into another. Its formal cause therefore, is such choice and disposition of words as will achieve this end most economically.”
G. M. Young
From the quote above, let’s consider the four words “as exactly as possible”.
The arrival at such a precise and exact message can only come from clarity. You might ask yourself:
- What’s the idea and is it clear?
- Who’s it for and is it clear?
- Why should they care and is it clear?
- Should they act and is it clear?
- Why should they act and is it clear?
It’s all about being clear, precise, and ultimately, understood.
But meaning alone can render copy dull, vapid, and robotic.
Good writing must have soul.
Soul
"Arguments are like eels. However logical, they may slip from the mind's weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style.”
Alain de Botton
From the quote above, let’s consider the four words “the mind’s weak grasp”.
Humans are selfish, lazy, vain, and busy, which means the copy with meaning alone, may not capture and keep them.
The arrival at such a captivating and resonating message can only come from emotion. You might ask yourself:
- Is it human?
- Is it vivid?
- Is it engaging?
- Is it memorable?
- Is it empathetic?
- Is it imaginable?
- Is it personable?
- Is it compelling?
- Is it interesting?
- Is it entertaining?
- Is it from the heart?
It’s all about capturing attention, stirring emotion, and leaving an impression.
The soul, however, should not obscure the meaning, it should only elevate it.
In the fewest words
"The biggest difficulty with comics is to show exactly what is necessary and sufficient to understand the story; nothing more, nothing less.”
Hergé
From the quote above, let’s consider the four words “nothing more, nothing less”. You can’t risk having anything less than what is necessary. And there is no need or time for anything more than what is necessary.
Only meaning and soul are necessary. That is sufficient. Anything else is suffocating. And so you must:
- Reduce
- Be brutal
- Condense
- Make it efficient
- Default to delete
- Kill your darlings
- Fit more into less
- Make it economical
- Question every word
- Be endlessly ruthless
- Wage war on the words
- Make words earn their place
It’s all about having rationale for what remains.
If the word can make an argument for clarifying the meaning or elevating the soul, it can stay. But you must have a finger hovering over the delete key while it makes its plea, and you must be comfortable with clicking the delete key more often than not.
And just as the soul should not obscure the meaning, brevity should not obscure the soul.
Strip out [Cut] any word that isn’t doing any meaningful work. If you’re able to [can] remove it and it still makes sense, you still like it, and it hasn't stripped you of your voice [your soul], you should then, remove it.
Economy
“The final cause of speech is to get an idea, as exactly as possible, out of one mind into another. Its formal cause therefore, is such choice and disposition of words as will achieve this end most economically.”
G. M. Young
I return to G. M. Young’s quote because it ends with the beginning. Our aim is to be economical with our word and idea choice, so as not to have redundant words or secondary ideas.
By writing economically, you reduce the cognitive load for your reader. Economy, or efficiency, is what all popular copywriting advice asks you to do. It asks you to make your copy easy to process.
Advice | Because |
|---|---|
Use short words | because they’re typically more familiar and easier to process |
Write short sentences | because brevity is easier to process |
Write like you speak | because every day words are easier to process |
Use simple words | because simplicity is easier to process |
Use active voice | because active sentences are easier to process |
Leave white space | because walls of text are harder to process |
Be clear not clever | because the wrong kind of clever is harder to process |
Be specific | because specificity leads to clarity which is easier to process |
Use customer language | because the words they already use are easier to process |
The advice is the advice because if you were to choose between clear and dull or opaque and soulful, you’d always choose the former.
But alone, the advice is simplistic and dangerous for two reasons:
- It ignores soul [attention, emotion, personality, humanity, impression etc]
- For each recommendation there’s an equally important, opposite argument.
Advice | But |
|---|---|
Use short words | but use longer words for precision and variation |
Write short sentences | but use medium and long sentences to prevent a robotic tone |
Write like you speak | but don’t be overly familiar |
Use simple words | but use vivid words for interest and engagement |
Use active voice | but use passive voice if it’s better for the UX |
Leave white space | but don’t leave a blank line between every line of text |
Be clear not clever | but be clever if you can, because clear and clever is memorable |
Be specific | but don’t overwhelm readers with the detail |
Use customer language | but make sure it’s used by the majority of customers |
The buts don’t make your writing less efficient. The buts make it more efficient. People won’t read robotic, overly chummy, vapid, condescending, obscure, plain, overwhelming detailed broetry.
Instead, they’ll choose Netflix and you’ll lose the attention war.
As well as showing us what makes good copy, the atom shows us what we need to become to write it.
To write Atomic Copy we must become the Atomic Author.