● House Style

231 2026-07-28 note ♎ ♋

One clause per paragraph, not one topic per paragraph. Rhythm over density.

If the connection between two ideas isn't obvious from putting them next to each other, the fix is a better sentence, not a bridging clause like "the same instinct behind" or "which speaks to."

Cut aphorisms that sound written rather than said, related: On Writing Daily"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to… and John Darnielle on Revision"When you write, you are in some way correcting on your earlier attempts. I hope for myself that that is true. Because I don't want to do the same thing twice. If I'm doing something in the same vein, I… on process and revision as correction.

Wikilinks earn their place per-sentence, not per-note.

Fragments over hedges. Say the thing, stop.

Capitalize the first word after a colon when what follows is itself a full sentence or an instruction, lowercase when it's a continuation of the same clause.

George Orwell's rules: cut a word whenever possible, never use a long word for a short one, never use a metaphor you're used to seeing in print. Applied here less as commandments than as a filter for the second pass.