Being boring – in spoken conversation or in writing (which is also a part of a conversation) – is something familiar to us. We’ve all felt trapped by a boring conversationalist at an event, and have all been bored by a particular article or book. If we’re honest, we’ve probably also managed to be boring ourselves, sometimes, on a bad day What does it mean to be a boring speaker or – for this podcast – writer? Usually, being boring means carrying on conversing after the other person has stopped listening or concentrating. It therefore isn’t the topic or the person being boring, on their own: it is a result of the relationship between the two people in the conversation. This is why we need to listen, as writers. Listen to our (hoped-for) readers, listen to what questions readers might come up with: we need to see our writing as part of a conversation, and one in which we show as much interest in our readers as we do in the topic and in how much we know.
","author_name":"Julian Stern"}