---
title: "Notes From That Cranky Editorial Guy (Issue #4)"
description: Discover why being overly comprehensive in writing may do more harm than good. Learn how focusing on simplicity and the essentials can make a bigger impact on your readers.
---

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# Notes From That Cranky Editorial Guy (Issue #4)

- June 10, 2024

![Jeevan Sivasubramaniam](https://ideas.bkconnection.com/hubfs/Screen%20Shot%202017-06-21%20at%201.27.57%20PM.png)

[Jeevan Sivasubramaniam](https://ideas.bkconnection.com/author/jeevan-sivasubramaniam)

## Why I Don’t Want You to Be SO Comprehensive

Some Authors want to be so thoroughly comprehensive and detailed in their books that they don't realize they do more damage than good when employing this approach.

Let the small speak for the big. Realize that the most effective way to convey a truth is through simplicity and focusing on “the small.”

Norwegian poet Olav Hauge wrote a nice poem titled “Don’t Give me the Whole Truth,” and it goes like this:

![image-png-2](https://ideas.bkconnection.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-2.png?width=286&height=190&name=image-png-2.png)“Don’t give me the whole truth,  
don’t give me the sea for my thirst,  
don’t give me the sky when I ask for light,  
but give me a glint, a dewy wisp, a mote  
as the birds bear water-drops from their bathing  
and the wind a grain of salt.”

Recognize that your readers want just the essentials, the core idea, the heart. Readers are not asking for the whole world, nor you to reinvent theirs. Your role is to guide them generally, not spoon-feed them every morsel.

And if you do a good enough job with the small, readers will learn how to automatically apply that small to the big themselves.

![Jeevan Caricature ](https://ideas.bkconnection.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jeevan%20Caricature%20.png?width=136&height=136&name=Jeevan%20Caricature%20.png)

 

Crankily yours,

[Jeevan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeevansivasubramaniam/)

 Blog Post

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