Essay

Write Like You Talk

Paul Graham · paulgraham.com Free Beginner

This is the short, canonical essay that names the exact trap: people switch into a stiff, impressive-sounding written voice that is harder to read and easier to fake. Graham's test fixes it in one pass, so run your launch post through it before you publish. It is four minutes long and worth more than most copywriting courses.

  • Read each sentence and ask: is this how I would say it to a friend? If not, rewrite it in your own spoken words.
  • Fancy writing does not just hide ideas, it can hide the absence of them; writing plainly keeps you honest.
  • Reading a draft out loud and fixing anything that does not sound like conversation puts you ahead of most writers.
Open on paulgraham.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. What should my very first cold email subject line actually say?
  2. How do I write the actual launch post so it doesn't read like a press release nobody asked for?

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