Negativity vs Complaining vs Realism in non-fiction.

Recently I've been writing non-fiction articles about professional topics such as leadership, management, and career search/development. I've already published a few articles, however my queue is slanting towards articles with a negative tint (frustrations, difficulty in reality, what happens when existing advice doesn't work, addressing misconceptions, etc).

I always like ending a positive note, or at least having some way to not be complaining. However, for some ideas it feels like a stretch to end on that note. My goal is to be "real" in my advice and writing, and not regurgitate bland advice that doesn't connect to the audience I want to speak to the pain of my audience, but not linger there.

My main questions: Is it unprofessional for an article to have a negative tone or ending? When does realism veer into complaining? Should I try to end being prescriptive or descriptive.

Thank you, looking forward to hear from everyone.

Honestly, I feel that certain topics need some reason to be talked about, and complaining can be a powerful reason to start talking about something. (So, beginning an article with complaining.) That said, I agree with your instincts here. To linger on the complaining or negativity throughout your article will affect readability. I think the professional-ness ultimately depends on who your target audience is, but also your "frame" or "author characterization" so to speak.

So, if your target audience is teenagers and your "frame" is a sassy gay man, then focusing on the negative — essentially by throwing shade — makes sense for the majority of the article. But if your target audience is a general one of adult age people, then that author characterization probably won't fly, and that much negativity probably won't either. What I'm saying is that the professional writer would adapt to their target audience (and I can't really be more specific for your case without knowing what that audience is, though I'm guessing it's people in search of a new job or new career).

In regards to your second question... I'm not sure. What do you mean by "realism"? Do you just mean "pragmatic advice" or something like that? If so, I'd say it doesn't necessarily become complaining on its own. Once you start putting down other types of advice (i.e. not pragmatic advice) is certainly when you've entered the realm of complaining. But it doesn't seem like that's what you were asking about specifically.

For your third question — at the risk of sounding like a broken record — it depends on... well, what you're talking about. Is this a common misconception that you're explaining? If so, you probably ought to end on a prescriptive piece of advice, since the misconception would be a valid descriptive piece of advice (since that is what people do, erroneously or otherwise). But, if this is a "what to do if existing advice doesn't work" article, then you probably ought to end on a descriptive piece of advice, since other people's prescriptive advice isn't working (presumably).

edited 12th Apr '17 10:50:48 PM by WaterBlap

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty

~Water Blap. Thank you.

Glad my instinct resonated with you, it didn't sound right for me to end on a sour tone.

Interesting point about the "frame" and how my author characterization relates to my audience. I definitely agree with that. I try to speak to what the audience expects and wants to hear. Youre mostly right, for many of these articles the audience is recent graduates seeking a career. I try to keep in mind anyone who is searching for a new career, but recent graduates (and current students ready to graduate) are the main focus. I do have other articles geared towards a broader audience with topics like leadership development, personal development, etc.

What I mean by "realism" is I guess like you said "pragmatic advice." The advice I try to give is more applicable and connected to the issues the audience faces. Many other articles I see state the problem, but give generic optimistic advice. Optimism is great, but it doesn't necessarily relate to readers, especially to my audience who may be having frustrations. So yes, it's being pragmatic in the sense I'm not being falsely optimistic, thus disconnected from reality and my readers.

"Honestly, X is hard, ... so here is advice that fully understands X is hard". The tone at the end accepts and moved forward from the tone at the beginning, while not doing a 180 into optimism. Does that sound more like complaining or pragmatism?

Interesting idea about being descriptive/prescriptive. No, only some of my articles address misconceptions or existing beliefs. It more has to do with the "so what" of my article. I like to imagine why someone reads my article. What is the ultimate point, what does the reader gets out of it. Part of me feels like if I address a existing belief/difficulty/frustration, if I end just on a descriptive note it veers into complaining. I haven't answered the "so what". I know there are great descriptive works that don't give advice, but for me, ending on a descriptive note feels incomplete. It feels like complaining without a "so what are you going to do about it."

Is that being too restrictive on myself?

edited 13th Apr '17 9:38:29 PM by pokedude10

(No problem. )

That makes sense. Anyone could be looking for a new career, but you know more about recent graduates than you do about "anyone." I mean, if it's working then it's working, but specializing can help a lot when it comes to writing for young people. Just look at the Harry Potter series — those readers still eat up that content and new content from Rowling. (The trick, of course, would then be how to establish some kind of fanbase that recognizes your name... and that's a different question that I'm not sure I can answer.)

That's a good point about optimism. I cannot stress hard enough the importance of knowing your audience, especially here. Most recent graduates nowadays are millenials, so a question to ask yourself is "would millenials generally consider this to be complaining or pragmatism?" Millenials practically feed off of encouragement, and after nearly 18 years straight of education (K-12 + 5 years for a B.A.), many recent graduates may need something that — well — encourages them. This may be a source of a lot of this false optimism, but I don't know for sure.

This brings me directly to your question.

So, I would say that this ultimately depends on how you position your advice (i.e. the actual wording).

I think "complaining," for a recent graduate, would be any wording that doesn't add anything. It's phrasing that lacks meaning in regards of the advice itself. This also includes garnering pity from your audience in a weak attempt to engage them with sympathy (which itself could be useful in some writing scenarios, but not really advising).

An example of what I mean by complaining —

"Writing articles is hard, and it takes a long time to realize how easy it can really be. Some people take years to understand that you should start sentences with the subject and use sentence variety to spice up your writing."

Meanwhile, I think "pragmatism" for a recent graduate would be phrasing that gets straight to point and the heart of the problem. The sentences are packed with meaning, regardless of their lengths. The rhetoric might imply that the reader has ownership over what they do (more second-person pronouns, as though you really mean "I am speaking to you directly"). This can give a sense of encouragement and may even garner sympathy depending on what's being discussed, since you'd be admitting to having similar problems as your readers have.

An example of what I mean by pragmatism —

"Writing articles is hard, but you just need to remember to start your sentences with the subject. You can later revise (just hear me out) to spice up your writing by making sentence structures more varied. It can be a pain, but getting published — or winning that (monetary!) award — is worth the struggle."

If I understand you correctly, then my answer is no. Go with what makes the most sense to you since you're the writer. If a prescriptive piece of advice is what makes sense to you, then ultimately go with that. Generally, I'd think the question of "so what" is answered within the first paragraph with the hook, though. So I'm not sure if I understand what you mean.

Here's an example of a hook that could double-function as the "so what."

• "You want to get a job in publishing? Great. You've been given the wrong advice, and this article will tell you all about the real world of the publishing industry after Amazon screwed everyone over."
• This tells the reader (1) who this was written for (writers, editors, publishers), (2) the hook / why read this ("you have the wrong information"), and (3) what the advice is (correcting wrong information).

The "so what" could be either (2) or (3), really. Or both.

But then there's your other statement of...

I think my response for this ought to already be covered (in this comment, I mean) when I talked about pragmatism. I think that your advice ought to already cover this particular question, if your writing pragmatic advice. Or do I just misunderstand you?

edited 14th Apr '17 10:44:04 PM by WaterBlap

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty