David Foster Wallace: Slow yourself down

And remember: They can’t read your mind.

Author David Foster Wallace: Remember that someone who is not you will have to consume your work.

In my experience with students—talented students of writing — the most important thing for them to remember is that someone who is not them and cannot read their mind is going to have to read this. In order to write effectively, you don’t pretend it’s a letter to some individual you know, but you never forget that what you’re engaged in is a communication to another human being. The bromide associated with this is that the reader cannot read your mind. The reader cannot read your mind. That would be the biggest one.

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