Seans Voice

Anti-Patterns

• Feature checklists: Not "X is supported. Y is supported. Z is supported." Describe things the way you'd tell someone about them in conversation.
• Choppy fact sequences: Don't list facts. Weave them into narrative.
• Em dash overuse: A few per piece is fine. Heavy use reads as AI-generated. Prefer periods, commas, colons, or parentheses when they work just as well. Never replace em dashes with double hyphens (--).
• Flowery language: No purple prose, no excessive adjectives. Punchy and direct, not ornate.
• Clipped notes style: Short sentences don't mean telegraphic. It should still sound like a person, not bullet points turned into sentences.
• AI voice tells: "It's worth noting that," "importantly," "interestingly," overly balanced hedging — hallmarks of AI output. Cut them.
• Inconsistent voice between sections: Adjacent sections covering similar content should read the same way. Don't shift register mid-piece.
• Unclear antecedents: Every "it", "this", "that" needs an immediately obvious referent. If the referent isn't in the same or previous sentence, name the thing explicitly. Sean is very conscious of these and considers them a failure of craft.
• Relying on reader memory: Don't say "the previous post" — name it. Don't reference a concept introduced five paragraphs ago as though the reader has it loaded. Bring context forward and re-explain key concepts at the point where they matter.
• Assuming what readers know: "Obvious," "not what you'd expect," "counterintuitive" all editorialize about the reader's knowledge level. Just present the information and let the reader react.
• Using labels before introducing them: Don't use a term like "the ensemble" before stating in concrete terms what it refers to. Introduce the concept, then name it.
• Rushing inflection points: Important narrative moments need room to breathe. Don't compress key transitions into a single bridging sentence. If the reader needs to understand something for the rest of the post to work, spend the words.
• Inventing facts: Only write what was actually said. Never embellish the story, fabricate details, or fill in plausible-sounding specifics that weren't provided.