Summary of "Counter-Intuitive Advice on What Makes Writing Good"

Main ideas / lessons

Most advice that tries to “make prose vivid” can actually make writing worse by pushing writers toward over-description and “over-showing.”
Good writing shouldn’t be about forcing readers to visualize everything. Readers will naturally picture scenes; the real risk is over-engineering the visual experience, which makes reading feel like work instead of enjoyment.
Good writing becomes compelling when it adds “subjective writing”—the narrator’s inner life (thoughts, interpretation, point of view, feelings).

Objective writing: what a camera could capture (sights, sounds, observable actions, dialogue).
Subjective writing: what a camera cannot capture (internal thoughts, emotional reactions, interpretation, POV).

Aiming for balance (often around 50/50) between objective and subjective writing can turn writing from “fakey” or flat into something emotionally immersive.

The speaker contrasts:
- A “show don’t tell”/sensory-heavy style (described as typical of many writing-instruction approaches and romance-like prose in the example).
- Versus a memoir excerpt that blends vivid observation with internal POV—argued to create stronger emotional resonance.
“27-beer” elephant paragraph analogy: The speaker explains how adding excessive visual detail (“27 beers”) to a simple image (“an elephant runs across the grasslands”) can overload the reader’s brain and reduce enjoyment.

Treat your existing prose as a framework
- Assume you already have mostly objective writing (what happens).
- Use that as the “framework.”
Reduce objective description
- If your draft is purely objective, remove about half to make space for subjective writing.
For every objective detail, add interpretation
- “Go in and interpret every objective sentence.”
- Relationship:
  - Objective sentence = observable event
  - Subjective sentence = narrator’s inner reaction to that event
Use a camera test to label writing
- Ask: Would a video camera pick this up?
  - If yes → objective
  - If no → subjective (thoughts, POV, internal meaning)
Rewrite with “framework + POV”
- Keep a smaller set of observable actions (the framework).
- Insert the narrator’s thoughts/feelings to explain how the scene feels.
Ensure emotional direction
- Emotion doesn’t automatically land just because events are described.
- Use subjective writing to tell readers what to feel.

The speaker rewrites the elephant example by:

Trimming observation
Adding internal thoughts such as:
- spotting the elephant → immediate first thought (“run”)
- interpreting danger based on prior knowledge (guidebook warning)
- imagining lack of cover (no trees/rocks)
- mirroring others’ reaction (crocodiles stop stirring → narrator freezes)

Good writing is less about manufactured visualization and more about emotional immersion through POV.

The reader should be “transported” so they forget they are reading—achieved primarily through subjective writing.

Wendy (speaker)
- Memoir writing coach
- Described as a Penguin Random House author and TV screenwriter
- References coaching via her organization/team
Paul Fe (Hollywood director)
- Quoted as calling Wendy “an extremely talented writer”

Give Me a Reason (romance novel) — used as the “more objective/visual, less emotional” example
Drinking a Love Story (critically acclaimed memoir) — used as the “objective + strong subjective/POV” example